Another small group I will be leading in the coming months is a Family History Workshop for those who are interested in finding out about their forefathers and what the history was of previous generations. There is a spiritual reason for finding out about the heroes and scoundrels of our past. It has to do with finding out where we came from and what curses there are that need to be broken so that we can enjoy God’s full blessings.

God made a very clear statement about Himself in the Old Testament when it was recorded: “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Numbers 14:18). This same statement is found two other times in the Mosaic Law. That sounds serious to me.

So, a family historian is not just looking for good things our ancestors did with their lives (things that give us pride), but we’re also looking for the skeletons in the closet that the next generation tried to erase and not talk about (like mental illness, suicide, slave ownership, KKK membership, illegitimate children. greed, etc). We want to uncover things that need to be renounced and confessed so Jesus can forgive that curse in our own lives that passes to the third and fourth generation (us). Jesus paid for it, but these spiritual curses can hold on unless laid at the cross.

Its a ‘workshop’ because I expect you to do the research, but I’ll be the coach on where to look.