"He's from good stock,...that one!"
"The apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree."
"Nothing good ever came from that family"
"Who do you think you are?"
Sayings we have heard most of our lives...
Sayings that 'seek' to put a curse or a blessing over us...
Well meaning people have said as much about us,
and sometimes even 'to us'.
Words spoken in haste...
or possibly repeated with such venom,
we knew they must somehow be true.
Very few of us come from the stuff of story books.
Many hail from a life marred with indecision and uncertainty. Alcoholism, arguments and an ache in your gut are sad but familiar pangs of your childhood.
Abuse and neglect sometimes are a hallmark of a life filled with regret.
You wonder....if you could ever begin fresh.
You ask yourself, "Can I just start over?", "Please!"
Will I ever be rescued from my own mess??
Inside, you hope beyond hope, that when you fell...
from your family tree..
that somehow you managed to roll far, far away from your roots.
Does the name 'Josiah' ring a familiar bell?
Possibly, but even if not...
Just like you, he was still a very real person with a story to tell.
2 Kings 22:1
"Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem...
Talk about roots, this young boy, was born knee deep into a muddled mess.
You see Josiah was from one of those families,
filled with a rich heritage of shame, horrible decision making, and deceit that resulted in murder, chaos and innocence lost.
How easy it would have been for him to have fallen to this familiar family way that had been patterned for him..
In fact, this deviant lifestyle was the only way Josiah could remember.
He was well aware that his father and grandfather were young as well when they inherited the throne.
He remembered how they ruled with an iron fist, raging with fierceness, smashing anyone and obliterating everything in their way.
Surely, this was the tree from which little Josiah fell.
Josiah, with wisdom beyond his years...made the decision to dig deeper.
Just like you and I, he had but one life to give to his country and to his God.
With every decision, his rescue became imminent.
He determined to make his life count. He looked deeply into his past and chose instead to model himself after a man of God's own heart.
A good king...a King named David.
Because Josiah chose wisely, the second verse...paints a very different story of a young man,
than the words and lives,
that well could have led and held him in bondage to a terribly broken past.
V.2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
He was a determined young man...
He dug deep into his family history,
all the way back to his father David.
Josiah decided then and there to follow hard after footprints that were worthy to be followed.
What about you...
Who do you think you are?
Who do you wish you could be?
Whose footprints are you chasing?
Do you sometimes wonder, if it's too late.
Have you bought into the excuses in the 'blame game'?
When you feel as though you have nothing left to give,
or if there is no one you can find in a sin ridden past to look to.
Then, just like Josiah, maybe it's time to dig deeper.
Lay down your old ways of doing things
and instead pick up the Bible...
Learn from the past...
Look beyond your earthly father or mother
and watch your heavenly Father recreate your future.
In God's Word you will find your true heritage.
Go ahead, dig deeper!
You are HIS son.
You are HIS daughter.
Your past has already been redeemed, by His blood.
This is just one verse that will bring life to your soul.
Galatians 3:26
"For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God, through faith"
You are from good stock!!.....
You are in fact, the precious apple
that didn't fall far from His tree, after all.
In the words of Max Lucado,
"The past does not have to be your prison,You have a voice in your destiny. You have a say in your life. You have a choice in the path you take."
Isn't it time, that who we think we are,
finally begins to reflect on Whose we are.
He will not leave you to wander aimlessly,
if you will but cry out to Him, in abandoned honesty.
With one fell swoop He will rescue you from a scarred past and an uncertain future.
Application: Determine today, to do things differently,
Need boundaries, set them.
Need goals, make them.
Need dreams, dream them.
Set, make and dream them
with Christ at the helm.
Remember: Deep within your very own history
lives your true heritage...
HE IS the only One, who can be trusted, to tell you who you are.
Get to know Him.
And your rescue too, will be imminent.....
Psalm 118:8 “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.”
"The apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree."
"Nothing good ever came from that family"
"Who do you think you are?"
Sayings we have heard most of our lives...
Sayings that 'seek' to put a curse or a blessing over us...
Well meaning people have said as much about us,
and sometimes even 'to us'.
Words spoken in haste...
or possibly repeated with such venom,
we knew they must somehow be true.
Very few of us come from the stuff of story books.
Many hail from a life marred with indecision and uncertainty. Alcoholism, arguments and an ache in your gut are sad but familiar pangs of your childhood.
Abuse and neglect sometimes are a hallmark of a life filled with regret.
You wonder....if you could ever begin fresh.
You ask yourself, "Can I just start over?", "Please!"
Will I ever be rescued from my own mess??
Inside, you hope beyond hope, that when you fell...
from your family tree..
that somehow you managed to roll far, far away from your roots.
Does the name 'Josiah' ring a familiar bell?
Possibly, but even if not...
Just like you, he was still a very real person with a story to tell.
2 Kings 22:1
"Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem...
Talk about roots, this young boy, was born knee deep into a muddled mess.
You see Josiah was from one of those families,
filled with a rich heritage of shame, horrible decision making, and deceit that resulted in murder, chaos and innocence lost.
How easy it would have been for him to have fallen to this familiar family way that had been patterned for him..
In fact, this deviant lifestyle was the only way Josiah could remember.
He was well aware that his father and grandfather were young as well when they inherited the throne.
He remembered how they ruled with an iron fist, raging with fierceness, smashing anyone and obliterating everything in their way.
Surely, this was the tree from which little Josiah fell.
Josiah, with wisdom beyond his years...made the decision to dig deeper.
Just like you and I, he had but one life to give to his country and to his God.
With every decision, his rescue became imminent.
He determined to make his life count. He looked deeply into his past and chose instead to model himself after a man of God's own heart.
A good king...a King named David.
Because Josiah chose wisely, the second verse...paints a very different story of a young man,
than the words and lives,
that well could have led and held him in bondage to a terribly broken past.
V.2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
He was a determined young man...
He dug deep into his family history,
all the way back to his father David.
Josiah decided then and there to follow hard after footprints that were worthy to be followed.
What about you...
Who do you think you are?
Who do you wish you could be?
Whose footprints are you chasing?
Do you sometimes wonder, if it's too late.
Have you bought into the excuses in the 'blame game'?
When you feel as though you have nothing left to give,
or if there is no one you can find in a sin ridden past to look to.
Then, just like Josiah, maybe it's time to dig deeper.
Lay down your old ways of doing things
and instead pick up the Bible...
Learn from the past...
Look beyond your earthly father or mother
and watch your heavenly Father recreate your future.
In God's Word you will find your true heritage.
Go ahead, dig deeper!
You are HIS son.
You are HIS daughter.
Your past has already been redeemed, by His blood.
This is just one verse that will bring life to your soul.
Galatians 3:26
"For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God, through faith"
You are from good stock!!.....
You are in fact, the precious apple
that didn't fall far from His tree, after all.
In the words of Max Lucado,
"The past does not have to be your prison,You have a voice in your destiny. You have a say in your life. You have a choice in the path you take."
Isn't it time, that who we think we are,
finally begins to reflect on Whose we are.
He will not leave you to wander aimlessly,
if you will but cry out to Him, in abandoned honesty.
With one fell swoop He will rescue you from a scarred past and an uncertain future.
Application: Determine today, to do things differently,
Need boundaries, set them.
Need goals, make them.
Need dreams, dream them.
Set, make and dream them
with Christ at the helm.
Remember: Deep within your very own history
lives your true heritage...
HE IS the only One, who can be trusted, to tell you who you are.
Get to know Him.
And your rescue too, will be imminent.....
Psalm 118:8 “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.”
