Shaking your family Tree - 1 Chronicles 7-10

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Chronicles%207-10&version=NIV

And the genealogies continue. Friday we had the genealogy of the Levi. Today we learn in Ch. 9:22-34 about the special service or ‘office’ of the Levites. Matthew Henry’s commentary says about that “The priests and Levites were more concerned than any other Israelites, to preserve their descent clear, and to be able to prove it; because all the honors and privileges of their office depended upon their descent. Now, the Spirit of God calls ministers to their work, without any limit as to the families they came from; and then, as now, though believers and ministers may be very useful to the church, none but our great High Priest can make atonement for sin, nor can any be accepted but through his atonement.”

Tune into the truth in the phrase “now, the Spirit of God calls ministers to their work, without any limit as to the families they come from”. I love the fact that who you are, who your family is, or what your past is does not affect whether you can be called into ministry or used in service to God and the church.

If you have a past or your family is less than ideal, if you shake your family tree and ‘interesting’ people fall out, if you believe God could or would never use you, considering your family history, you may need to reconsider….

Consider Ergun Caner was raised as a devout Sunni Muslim converted to Christianity in high school. His adoption into God’s family led to being disowned by his own. After his conversion, he lead his brother’s and mother to Christ and had the opportunity to baptize his own grandmother when she was 90 years old. He is now president of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. His brother Emir is the president of Truett-McConnell College – a Baptist college in Georgia. A man far from the Levite family tree, called and used by God in mighty ways- to train other’s for ministry.

Consider Jim Daly was abandoned by his alcoholic father at age 5. He lost his mother to cancer four years later and his grieving stepfather emptied the family home and took off with almost everything while Daly, the youngest of five children, and his siblings were at their mother's funeral. Several tough years in foster care followed, before Daly became a Christian in high school and found meaning, purpose and a sense of belonging. He is now the President of “Focus on the Family”, the ministry founded by Dr. James Dobson that fights to protect marriage and the family. Daly says that "I am living proof that no matter how torn up the road has already been, or how pothole-infested it may look ahead, nothing – nothing – is impossible for God."

Consider a sweet friend of mine who is by her own proclamation ‘trailer park trash’. She never met her real father who died in prison. He mother moved from place to place and man to man – consequently she grew up in trailer parks and truck stops. At age 19 she found herself pregnant and alone. She says that she bought the twisted lie that the only way she could save her baby from going through the same life she did was to kill it – and so she aborted the baby. Today she is moving towards a calling to ministry with a heart of orphans in Africa. She feels God’s calling to ‘bring church to the world’. Got uses her time and time again to speak into the lives of other women and to care for those who are without families.

Those are just three of thousands of stories. God calls you a chosen person – a royal priesthood. Will you step into his family and the service to which you are called? It is your inheritance.

“How great is the love the Father lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” – 1 John 3:1

Today's post was submitted by Carol Bartels