When I came to the Carleton area, I needed to find my primary care physician. Lisa and I researched a lot to find where to go. Finally, we find a doctor's office in Ann Arbor. When I visited the doctor’s office for an annual checkup, they gave me checkup lists of my medical history. At the same time, they also asked about my family's medical history.
When I saw the doctor in the examination room, he asked me again about my parents' medical history because my family and I share the same genes. He said knowing my parents' medical history was a very important and major resource for examining my health. It is because knowing the family history can reveal the pattern of certain diseases inherited in the family.
What's more interesting is this. Family members inherit the same lifestyle patterns from their parents’ in terms of exercise, eating habits, and lifestyle. A family history includes all of these factors that can provide clues about what may be affecting your health.
Biblical lesson
Today's passages talked about Abrahams's family’s spiritual history. Abraham was a man of faith. He inherited the Land of promise and God’s blessings to his decedents. However, at the same time, he passed his moral weakness on to his decedents. He had one wrong behavior before God. That was a habit of lying. The habit of lying was a dark side of his family that was inherited by Abraham’s father, Terah.
Genesis 12:12 talked about Abraham’s lying. When a famine hit the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while. When he entered the Egypt, He lied to the Egyptian that his wife Sarah was his sister because he was afraid to be killed. If there was no divine intervention between Abraham and the king of Egypt, Abraham might lose his wife Sarah. Unfortunately, Abraham's habit of lying became part of his spiritual DNA, and it was passed on to his children.
Story of Isaac
In today’s passages, God told Isaac not to go to Egypt because it was the place where Abraham lied to the king. God’s intention was clear in these passages. God did not want Isaac to make the same mistake that Abraham did in the territory of the King of Egypt. Lying was a moral weakness of patriarchs when they interacted with people of other religions and cultures.
In verse 7 When the men of that place asked Isaac about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” Isaac made the same mistake as his father, Abraham, made. Isaac's lie suddenly came out of his unconscious when he was driven to a dead end.
Story of Jacob
Family Spiritual History Genesis 26:1-7 01-01-23
What about Jacob was a person of lying. Jacob was the worst one. He had lied by claiming, to his blind, elderly father, Isaac. Jacob was not the older son, but he deliberately deceives his father in order to obtain his birthright.(Genesis 27:1–5).
What about Jacob’s ten sons? They tied their younger brother Joseph and sold him to merchants, and they lied to Jacob “saying, some ferocious animal has devoured him.” The habit of lying was a curse passed down through generations of Abraham's family.
Story of Joseph
Joseph was the one who cut off the spiritual and moral weakness of the family that had been handed down from generation to generation by staying right in the face of moral temptation.
In Genesis 39:8-9, When Joseph was a servant of Pharaoh’s officials, he was tempted by his master’s wife. At that time, Joseph said, “How could I do such an evil thing and sin against God?” and He refused her wrong request in order to keep his integrity before God and people.
After that, he paid the price in prison. After that, Joseph and his family then experienced the fullness of God's promised blessings.
Spiritual lesson
The same spiritual and moral issues are still at work in the members of our Church and their families. that many of us experience even now. So, we need someone like Joseph to stop the spiritual dark side running through you and your family. It is called a shadow work in psychology. If you do not stand strong against temptation, the same spiritual and moral problems will be passed on to your children’s generation. They will suffer from it.
Just as Jesus Christ came to us and ultimately paid for the sins of all humanity and broke the chains of death, God wants Christians to break ungodly spiritual habits for our family. Ungodly habits could be an agnostic Christian view, all kinds of addiction, excessive anxiety and worry, anger issues, and life without hope and joy. That kills divine peace and joy.
Practical applications
There are two biblical and practical applications in the Bible to be chain breaker.
The first one is to listen to the encouragement of Jesus. Jesus Christ said he gave you a key to stop it. Jesus said in Matthew 16:19, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The authority has been given by Jesus Christ to cut the spiritual dark side of you and for your family.
Family Spiritual History Genesis 26:1-7 01-01-23
The second is to take the immediate reaction you need to change the direction of your life. In Mark 1:16- 18 “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once, they left their nets and followed him.” The main point is to have an appropriate response that will change your life and lead you to a higher Christian life.
The problem is not our lack of knowledge regarding the word of God; it is our unwillingness to respond to the knowledge we have regarding the present.
Kurk Lewin’s Theory
Psychologist Kurk Lewin talked about three stages in the changing process. I will use it as an illustration
of Christians' spiritual lives. If you have a cube shape of ice but want to change it to a cone shape. There
are three steps in the conversion process. First, you should unfreeze it and make it amenable to change.
Then you should put the water into the cone-shaped container. After that, you should refreeze it as a new
shape of ice. The changing process requires these appropriate responses.
Conclusion
I will conclude today’s passage with these spiritual truths.
- A family's dark history is passed on to the next generation.
- Your unsolved spiritual problems are passed down to children and remain in the unconscious like the flu virus. It appears when they are experiencing spiritual difficulties and their spiritual strength is weakened.
- Jesus gave us authority to cut the spiritual problem if you have it. Christians are called to cut them off.
In 2023, Carleton Church will stand firm, speak the truth, and present the right direction to help you receive God's blessings. Carleton United Methodist Church will continue to ask these three questions this year to help you become the person who will change the spiritual destiny of you and your family.
- Make sure your hearts are right.
- Your motives are pure.
- Your ambitions point to the will of God.
01.01.2023 Pastor Cloud Poy
@ Photo on Unsplash
