God is giving us a gift in the 21st century.  An opportunity to become a country, a church, a family that we never could have if it weren’t for this gift.  This gift he has blessed us with is suffering.

We have begun to reap what we have sown and the effects are altering history.  We thought that we could live the comfortable life with everything evolving around us.  And everything did for a while.  But now we’re reminded almost daily that life isn’t going according to our plans and dreams. 

Yet Scripture continually tells us that God does his greatest work only after we have come to the end of ourselves. 

So really the question is, “Have you?”  Have you sown enough seeds of self?  Have you learned that all your best laid plans always make sense on the front end but always end with a hollow thud?

God’s ways can always be trusted, especially during suffering!  Yet without fail each generation comes along and tries to build their own Babel.  We try to build our life without the help of the Giver of life.  Man’s ways always fail, always!

Our heart as a ministry is to come alongside today’s family and equip them with courage and counsel to return to the Mountain of God’s Ways, instead of seeking to find themselves in the Meadow of Man’s Ways. 

Though we see a lot of good intentions in the 21st century church, we see many leaders reaping a harvest of malnourished disciples.  Congregations who are perpetually infants in the faith.  Why?  Because muscles are not being challenged.  People have opted for the culturally comfortable path, instead of the climb of holy suffering.

But that’s where the good news comes in.  Whereas before the family and even the church may have successfully evaded suffering, it is nearly impossible now. 

Our children are rebelling.  Our economy is collapsing.  The government is growing.  The culture is filling with lust and materialism.  When the Lord allows suffering, Hebrews 12:7 tell us that he is disciplining us in love.  He also says later in v.10-11 that if we are willing to submit to his discipline we will then begin to share in his holiness and produce a harvest of righteousness.

Do you desire this harvest to happen in your home?  If so, then you must be willing to submit to God’s discipline instead of running from it.  At Equipping the Family we want to equip the family to “strengthen their feeble arms and weak knees” (Heb. 12:12).  Not because we have strong arms and knees in our family or church.  But because our God has given us answers and direction in His Word.  Answers that the church has sadly grown a distaste for and families threw out generations ago. 

Now in the 21st century we have the chance to learn from the sins of our progressive selfishness and climb a different path.  This path is one of relationship.  Real relationship.  And this very word is the very thing our world has sought to throw out and run from.  Why?  Because real relationships bring real suffering.  And we want nothing to do with that.  Yet when we run from relationship, we run from the very riches and rewards that our God has for us.  Take a look at how we have run so far away from relationship that we no longer know what we are missing, or really even care.

The rise of birth control and abortion- We run from even having children.  Why?  Because these little critters will require us to get real instead of get rich.
The rise of fatherless families- There are more children in single parent families than with 2 parents.  Those fathers that still are still there are now rarely there since the Industrial Revolution told men their role was to simply make money.
The rise of the working mom- This is seen as the standard today rather than the exception.  Especially now with the economy collapsing, our President’s solution is to get more moms to leave their children and join the work force
The rise of mega churches instead of mega families- Big buildings attract crowds, not real relationships.  And that’s exactly what our culture wants.  Anonymity instead of authenticity.  Give me entertainment, but don’t expect me to commit to real relationships.  Churches with this motto will be the largest churches in town.
The peer-driven family vs. the parent-driven family.  Our kids want to have fun.  We want to have a break.  So instead of being parents who enter into real relationships with our children, we send them into a life of superficial peer experiences at church and school so we can do the same.

In short the world as we know it today is full of people who want to Facebook and Twitter without ever engaging in the very thing their heart is starving for-real relationship.

Relationship isn’t real until you have suffered together.  And that’s where the family stands today.  We can either engage in suffering in God’s way of real relationship, or continue to swing the bat of superficiality and continue to strike out.

We’d like to equip you to climb heights of relationship.  God doesn’t promise an easy climb, but an extremely dangerous one.  Yet the suffering steps will yield joy unspeakable in our hearts, home, church, and world.  So are you ready to climb?