Reclaiming Our Forgotten HeritageSample

God chose Abraham to be the first Jew because He knew Abraham would be a good father. God knew Abraham would create a family that would live differently from those around them, one that would live for God and according to His ways. Abraham created a heritage of following God for his family that would outlast

• four hundred years of slavery in Egypt;

• the destruction of Jerusalem and being taken captive in Babylon;

• centuries of Roman occupation;

• being scattered over the earth (the Diaspora); and

• being exiled from their homeland for more than eighteen hundred years. . . .

I believe it is time for the church of Jesus Christ to return to that heritage, to rebuild her spiritual walls according to God’s plan for restoration, with the power and dominion promised in God’s covenant with His bride, the church. This recovery process starts with us as believers walking in a victorious identity as covenant daughters and sons and as spiritual kings and priests (Revelation 5:9–10). God does not want to leave even one of us begging at the gate, defeated and powerless. He has another plan, but He can’t get it to us if we refuse to walk in our born-again birthright as the vine grafted into both testaments of the Book.

Many of us have been reading the Word of God through a typical Hellenized filter and applying it to our lives as such, but there is so much more to discover when we begin to dig into our spiritual heritage as it is rooted in Judaism. Reading the Word with an understanding of the culture that shaped it, of both the men who wrote it and the men and women who heard it, and from the perspective of covenant as the one new family in Christ and seeing Jesus as our chief Rabbi as well as chief Priest truly enriches our faith. This will help us discover our own identity, purpose, and power in the midst of the cultural confusion plaguing our times.

There is much to discover and uncover in the lost roots and the forgotten heritage of our faith. Let’s get back to the Jesus of the Bible and the heritage He meant for us to have.