A Radically Different Family

Yesterday I was home with coughing, sniffling, sneezing--thankfully, no wheezing!--children. For our Sunday service at home, I looked up some Paul Washer sermons. You can find a bunch of them here. These are very good, and I recommend them to everyone.

In the sermon we listened to yesterday morning, Bro. Washer said that we cannot influence our culture by being like the culture in dress, music, speech, etc., but by being radically different. How do you be radically different?

This morning I decided to start reading through Luke. The very first family mentioned was the ideal Christian family. Read Luke chapter one. You will find three verses that say that so-and-so was "filled with the Holy Ghost." Their names are Zacharias, Elisabeth and John. And they were radically different from even their seemingly righteous Jewish culture in at least three instances. And these three instances were "little" things.

1. Zacharias and Elisabeth insisted on naming their son John, when there were no other Johns in the family. This just wasn't done in those days. But God said to name him John, so they named him John.

2. John wore clothes made out of camel's hair, held in place with a belt made of leather. Quite different from the fine priestly robes he could have worn as part of the family of Aaron. But John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and even dressed like him (see 2 Kings 1:8).

3. John ate locusts and wild honey. He could have feasted on the best that the land had to offer of the part of the sacrificial foods that were set aside for the priests and their families.

Food, clothes and baby names. Not what the average Christian today generally prays about, submitting their choices to the Lord for approval. Actually they didn't even do that. God didn't look over their choices and say, "Oh, that's a good choice; yeah, do that." No. They didn't offer their choices to Him. They just listened to what He said, and obeyed. In the little things. In everything.

They were not the average family. They were radically different.

They were Spirit-filled.