Who Do You Think You Are??

Taught by Annie H. 9/28/10
Notes by Linda G.

Today Annie taught on Ezra, chapter 2. This portion of scripture is a genealogy of those Israelites who returned to Jerusalem from the captivity in Babylon.There was a general consensus of those present that genealogies are a challenge to study. Annie posed some rhetorical questions to the class: Why is this list included in the Word? What does God want us to learn from this? She began by pointing out that God has a purpose for everything found in the bible. It is important to Him, so it should be important to us.

She listed three reasons why God could have wanted the genealogy of the returning Babylonian captives listed in His Word. They are as follows: 1) It would legitimize land rights – that those who would be re-claiming the land were actually Israelites, 2) It would prove that those returning were truly in the family line of Abraham, and 3) It was a list of the remnant that God prophesied would return. This is proof that God’s plan will come to pass despite the obstacles along the way.

Next Annie focused on the following statement:

God is faithful to His chosen people to discipline them for their sins and to restore them in His time.

She spoke for a while of the relevancy of genealogies in our lives today. As an example she recounted a personal situation in her life where she had studied the genealogies of her own family, making the point that this was a family line connection of her own heritage and roots. She then spoke of her daughter who had been adopted into her own family. There was then a discussion of what adoption means in the natural world. This idea was then brought around to what adoption means in the spiritual realm. The question being: how do we fit in as we are adopted into God’s family? What does this mean?

In the New Testament the following verse speaks of this idea: Luke 3:8 "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham". The point of this is that God can even raise up stones as His children – not just from the physical blood of Abraham, as the Jewish people believed.

Annie taught that the following verses show what it takes for us to be adopted in to the line of Abraham. It is a spiritual conversion that is based on our faith through the work of the Spirit. John 3:5 "Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit", and John 3:15 "that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life".

An addition verse is in Romans 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. Annie pointed out that we are not ‘like’ His own children but we ‘are’ His children. We are daughters of the King. Jesus died on the cross so we could take our place in His ancestry. We now have a heritage of faith. We are now written in the Lamb’s book of life. This point is made in the following verse, Gal 3:29 "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise". We can walk in confidence, not shame. We are His chosen!!

The next point Annie touched on was God’s discipline. See the following two verses:

Heb 12:8 "If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons."

Heb 12:10 "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness."

Going back to our lesson on holiness, He wants us to live holy lives. As we had discussed, to live a holy life is to live a life ‘set apart’. This makes Christ recognizable to those around us.

The next point Annie made was that God will restore us in His time. He wants us to be able to come back to Him with soft hearts. She taught that when we return to Him, He will not only restore but in double or triple. We will have to deal with the consequences of our sins. God wants us to work with Him on this. He will not do all the work. We should rebuild…He will restore.

The final point Annie made was ‘Our response to His faithfulness is to life faithfully to His covenant.’

God is a God of order, structure and covenant. We have personally been brought back from captivity…we leave Babylon when we are saved.

How do we live faithfully to His covenant? 1) Community – the culture in which we life is highly competitive and individualistic. We need to live differently, 2) Commitment - It is not going to be easy, we have to be willing to do whatever it takes. Sometimes that means doing the right thing even when we don’t feel like it, and 3) Consistency – Passing on a legacy of faith.

Annie left us with three questions to ponder: 1) Am I one of His chosen ones? Is my life truly in the trust of the Lord? Does my life reflect this? 2) Am I submitting to His discipline? And 3) Am I living by His covenant of community, commitment, and consistency?