Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Not a Jew

Romans 9:24
Acts 11:11-18
Photo Credit
A very distant relative compiled a record of our family tree about 30-40 years ago. The copy I saw was incredibly interesting but there's a fuzzy line in it between historical fact and wishful thinking. It's not entirely clear where the two meet; probably the accounts of ancestors arriving in the New World as early colonists are accurate. But as the record continues backward to Charlemagne and from him to Joseph of Arimathea, I rather doubt the relative's ability to separate what he knew from what he wanted to know. I have no idea how he gained access to historical records to trace our roots back to the colonists and perhaps a little while beyond, but I seriously doubt his ability to trace them any further back. While I may be descended from Israel according to that particular record (how does he know that Joseph of Arimathea was a descendant of King David?), and may in fact be a descendant through an ancestor lost in the darkness of unrecorded history, the reality is that I am truly and completely a Gentile.
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I am very grateful that salvation has been opened up to everyone, not confined to those descended from Abraham by blood. I am very grateful to be baptized by water and by Holy Spirit, not left out in the darkness because I was created in the wrong womb. I am very grateful to be one of the people of God along with descendants of Abraham.

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