Thursday, September 17, 2015

"Personalized" - 09/17/15 - Ezra 1-3

"They had thoroughly searched for their family records but couldn't find them. And so they were barred from priestly work as ritually unclean.  The governor ruled that they could not eat from the holy food until a priest could determine their status with the Urim and Thummim."(3:62-63)  



My love for genealogy comes from my G'ma Dorothy.  Before she passed, she had researched and written down names, dates, little notes in small brown books, giving each of her three children one.   I have the one she gave to my parents, kept in a fireproof box.   There is a site I have used and searched records, going back to even earlier generations.  It has also been fun looking into Curt's family tree as well.  My G'ma Dorothy was an excellent storyteller, sharing the memories of persons past, many of which I still remember and have told our sons.  I had given her a book to fill out and received it back when she was gone, it was still as I had given it to her - not an ink mark on any page.  Recording her never worked out either, but how thankful I am for still being able to recall the sound of her voice.  As I become older, I find each day missing her even more. 

G'ma Dorothy was a little woman with a huge heart.  I loved seeing her under 5ft frame enveloped in a hug with my over 6ft sons.  We always kidded that they stole their height from her.  She gave me many "gifts" throughout my life that I am still using.   Not material items, but items from her heart.  She gave me a gift of roots and through her recollections, the persons I am from, came alive.  Without her, I wouldn't know the incidents, there wouldn't be any "personalization" of the persons, just names and dates. 

This "personalization" is one of the reasons I am so in love with His Word.  He has given me recollections of my ancestors, persons I have come from and they are now part of my life, my heart.  No longer are they just names in a book, but my great, great, greats, grandparent, aunt, uncle.  They are part of my lineage.  My lineage to my ABBA. His Bible records it all.

How much satan wants us to believe we can not be a part of this lineage.  he wants us to believe the lies that we don't belong, therefore we can not be saved.  It is one of his biggest lies which he throws out so we begin to doubt.  And when we begin to doubt, we begin to take our focus off of our ABBA and onto ourselves.  We begin to doubt we are able to be who and what ABBA designed us to be.  We begin to believe we are "unclean" and must be "barred from priestly work".   We begin to doubt our lineage. 

From the moment we accept Christ as our Savior, we become locked into His Family.  Christ is our High Priest, The Bridge Builder, to our ABBA.  It is through Him we then become a priest to carry out the duty of bringing others to Him.  To His Family.   Our Family.

"The governor ruled that they could not eat from the holy food until a priest could determine their status with the Urim and Thummim." 

How thankful I am it isn't just "a" priest, but "The Priest" who has searched out and determined my status.  He "bought" me into His Family. 
How blessed I am to eat The Holy Food for eternity. 

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