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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Teach Each Generation About Their Ancestors


Verses: Psalms 78: 1 - 72

Song inspired by the chapter:  Song has been uploaded from YouTube.com and is not my original.




My thoughts about the verses:

One of the saddest things that happen is when people lose their information about their ancestors.  In olden days people knew the stories of their family.  They learned about the good and bad things that happened.  The fact is knowing about your family history was just as important as other things you could learn.

My family always talked about being Native Americans.  We knew some information from different ancestors.  Yet, there was a break in the family link.  The family had been separated by less than 100 miles their whole life.  Yet, those hundred miles meant that the family would be divided for over three generations. 

When I started attending college I had an opportunity to get money to help with my degree if I could prove my Native American Status.  The first step was to find where my great-grandfather came from.  In a matter, of a few weeks my grandfather met his first cousins.  It was amazing to find out that we had a whole family history we didn’t know about.

Through that process I found out information that took my family back all the way to the 1500’s.  Not only did I prove our Native American Heritage we also discovered that part of the family was from Prussia.  It still amazes me how many of my great great…grandfathers served as ministers or other church leaders in Prussia.   We learned that my family had fought during the American Revolution War.  It was amazing to see how much we had done as a family.

A history that has now been regained and is being passed down to new generations.  I am lucky that I was able to reconnect.  So many others cannot reconnect what has been lost.  For those there are multiple reasons that they do not know their history.  Yet, it is never too late to share what you do know to the ones to come. 

You never know what will happen.  You might even find out that someone that you have given fish to for fifty years is your first cousin.  That is what happened to my grandfather.  He had been visiting another cousin on his Moms side of his family.  He would always give the nice lady across the way the catfish he caught.  At 75 years old he learned that she was his first cousin. 

Isn’t this what is happening in these scriptures.  The Jewish ancestry is being passed from one generation to the next.  The fact is that they didn’t hide the fact that there were some bad things that happened.  They actually taught that to help future generations not make the same mistake.

They also taught about the things that God had done for them.  How they had been victorious over enemies.  How they survived exile from one promise land to the next.  They learned that the life wasn’t always a bed of roses.  Yet, if you trust God you will be able to overcome. 

Learning your ancestry helps you appreciate all of the things that have happened and how people have survived.  For us this Psalm shows us how we as Christians made it to today.  If the Jewish culture had died during one of the exiles would we ever have our Messiah?  So we need to thank God for helping the people then and now.

Prayer:

We praise you God for all you have done.  We thank you for teaching us about our past so we can learn how to act in the future.  Help us to always keep you in the center of our life.  Help us praise you for all the things that you have and will do in our life.  In the name of the Almighty we pray.  Amen

Questions:


Do you know your family history?  Do you see how you can learn things from the past?  Do you understand the connection from the Jewish community and the Christian Community of today?  Are you willing to thank God for all the things that have and will happen in your life?  Are you ready to share the past with the future so that they can learn not to make the same mistakes?  Are you ready to share the victories so that future generations will accept the favor that God has shown for your family and community?

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