Inside this issue:

Spring Retreat Just Around

The Corner Page 1

A Skeleton In The Family

Closet Page 2

Love Covers Page 3

CFM Board Makes Plans For

The Future Page 4

Special points of interest:

♦Even the skeletons in the

family closet may yield ex-

traordinary lessons for

the next generation.

♦To overlook faults and

failures in those you love is a

precious gift.

April, 2007 Volume 6, Issue 1

Our Heritage of Faith Spring Retreat is set for May 18-20, 2007. This year’s theme is Ordinary People, Extraordinary Families.

The teaching comes from the Sermon on the Mount. In his only recorded sermon, Christ Jesus gives divine principles that help ordinary people become extraordinary families. This is a great opportunity for husbands and wives, moms, dads and kids to reconnect with each other and with what really matters in life.

The retreat begins with the Friday evening

meal and concludes with lunch on Sunday. Here’s your opportunity for an outstanding time of refreshment and renewal.

Spring Retreat Just Around The Corner

A Skeleton In The Family Closet — By Ruth Baer

“What a lesson for me to see God’s grace living itself out in this act of

selfless love.”

Page 2

GENERATIONS

Ruth’s Grandparents at the wedding of their Granddaughter in 1972

A young man whose wife of just a couple of years had an affair. She became pregnant, and it wasn’t certain who the father of the child was. When I first heard this story, God reminded me of my Grandpa.

What a generous, gentle person my Grandpa was! He always had a kind word and would help anybody who needed it. That was his lifestyle.

I guess I was about 16 when I heard the story. As a young girl in her late teens, Grandma had an affair with a married man in her small Kentucky town. She became pregnant, and of course, the man would have nothing to do with her. He apparently acted as if nothing had happened – he took no responsibility for my Grandma or the little baby.

Now Grandpa loved Grandma from afar. He fiddled, and he had seen her come to the “dances” when he played. He began to date Grandma, found out about her circumstances, and rescued her. He married her, and there, on the child’s birth certificate – is Grandpa’s name as the father. No one ever knew the difference. They all believed it was Grandpa who had gotten Grandma pregnant. And that was okay with him, because he loved her.

What a wonderful gift God gave to me. You see, that little baby was my father! What a wonderful display of God’s grace, and what a lesson for me to see God’s grace living itself out in this act of selfless love.

Do you have stories in your family tree, like this? Ones

that have been hidden so that the family image is not “tarnished”? Truth be told, we all have shameful stories from the past. Christ invites us to give him that shame so that we may be free to worship Him with our whole being.

God delights in giving us forgiveness, in showing us mercy – that’s why Jesus came to redeem us. Our families need to understand in very practical ways the depth of God’s love for us. So, share your stories. It will be a source of blessing for the generations to come.

I praise God for my loving, gentle, gracious Grandpa.

Page 3

William Kelly, an Irish pastor of the nineteenth century, remarked, “...love is entitled to bury things out of sight.” The Apostle Peter said much the same thing in 1 Peter 4:8, (NIV), “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Peter was apparently quoting from a proverb penned by Solomon centuries before, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs” Proverbs 10:12, (NIV). This Proverb is quoted by other New Testament writers as well as Peter. It is a deep and important concept in our Christian heritage.

For the believer, love is somehow able to overlook faults and failures in others. Love, literally “hides” these shortcomings, even a multitude of

them! Calvin tells us that this amounts to “burying innumerable sins...and nothing is more necessary than to cherish mutual love.” Peter instructs us that we need this love “above all.” It is most important. In the Christian family this is how real love works.

There is a story in the Old Testament that vividly illustrates this kind of “covering.” In Genesis 9:18-27, Noah has faithfully discharged his duties as a preacher of righteousness and boat builder extraordinaire. Now, this side of the flood, he has become a success as a grape grower and winemaker. One day, he over indulges in the fruits of his labor and becomes intoxicated. Drunk, he is seen naked by one of his sons, (and perhaps a grandson as well). The son tells the rest of the family and apparently jests about Noah’s sin. By contrast, the other two sons walk backwards into their father’s tent carrying a blanket and hiding their faces. They, quite literally, cover the nakedness, and sin, of their father.

Doctrinally, it is easy to understand why this kind of “covering love” should be prized. We are, all of us, fallen creatures who sin daily in thought, word and deed. Each of us is in true need of friends and family members who daily bury our faults and failures. It is precious when family members treat each other in this fashion.

But it is not easy. Rather, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught how easy it is to see the faults of others while minimizing our own. With pinpoint wit, Jesus spoke of the need, instead, to see our own sins

Volume 6, Issue 1Love Covers — Rev. David Baer, CFM President &CEO

with greater perception than we do the sins of others. “Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” Matthew 7: 1-5, (NIV).

In the same sermon, Christ warned his followers about keeping every jot and little pen stroke of the law. It is something that none of us, try as we should, can do. Why, then, would the Savior encourage us to obey in such a way? I believe he shared this to help us understand that only he, himself, could keep the law so scrupulously. He fulfilled the law on our behalf and then this sinless One suffered, bled and died that we might be forgiven. Scripture teaches that Christ Jesus took our sins upon himself and became sin for us that our sin might be covered. David foretold these tender mercies of God when he wrote, “... as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” Psalm 103:12, (NIV).

Finally, in the same Sermon on the Mount, the Lord taught us to pray, “Forgive us as we forgive others who have sinned against us” Matthew 6:12, (NIV). In the same vein, in 1 Peter 4, some even suggest that what Peter had in mind about the covering of a multitude of sins is that those who love deeply will themselves find grace in the day of judgment! Whatever the case, it is clear that forgiven men and women are to be forgivers, themselves. Luther said, “As God with his love covers my sins if I believe, so must I cover the sins of my neighbor.” In the Family of God, and in each of our families, let us be quick to bury things out of sight.

“For the believer, love is somehow able

to overlook faults and failures in others.”

What do the Rocky Mountains, blinding October snow, and T-shirts have in common? Just another average day in

Colorado most natives would say, but there’s more to this story. Despite an early October snow that delayed some

of our Board members’ travel, we still sported our “Ordinary people, Extraordinary Families” T-shirts and gathered

together as ministry families and board families at Horn Creek, our Rocky Mountain retreat partner. It was a fun

weekend of remembering where we’ve come from, analyzing where we are now, and some vision-casting of where we’re

going in the future. Perhaps the biggest news was the progress on the Words of Grace family devotional materials. The first

part is ready for the publisher! Other exciting things for the future may include a new ministry model where trained

counselors around the nation lead seminars and share videos about passing the heritage of faith to the next generation.

Last, but not least, we renewed a commitment of prayer for the ministry and are looking for ways to increase the

ministry involvement of board members’ spouses.

Phone: 720–851–5381

E–mails: Ruth & Dave Baer

dwbaer–cfm@comcast.net

rlbaer–cfm@comcast.net

Brian & Becky Shultz

bbshultz@comcast.net

Josh & JoAnna King

jjaneeking@comcast.net

Covenant Family Ministries refreshes, renews and restores families through

literature and teaching that provide a Biblical view of family relationships. At

present we are looking for property to establish a conference center and

campground that will focus on the needs of Christian families.

CFM Board Makes Plans For The Future

His mercy extends to

those who fear him, from

generation to genera-

tion.

Covenant Family Ministries, Inc.

PO Box 3288

Parker, CO 80134

Look for us on the Web

at covenantfamiLyminis-

tries.com!

NON-PROFITORGUS POSTAGE PAIDAURORA COPERMIT NO. 57

Just two of the great board members we’ve been blessed with: from the left, Dave & Sue DeBruler and Tom & Marjy Larson