DAY 1, WHERE ARE YOUR ROOTS

This is a devotional broadcast that focuses on building up faith and connecting with Jesus. The scripture text is from Matthew 1:1, talking about the ancestors of Jesus. The meditation theme is about knowing our roots and tracing our spiritual journey. The devotional series will journey through the Gospel of Matthew and encourage discipleship. The birth of Jesus fulfills the promise of a new kingdom, and the names Abraham and David are significant in Jesus' lineage. Despite humble beginnings, reconnecting with Jesus is what matters. The gospel story is about our eternal King, Jesus Christ. As we start a new month, discipleship and following Jesus should be our focus. The prayer is for God's guidance in these uncertain times. The devotional ends with a song about the gospel road and how Jesus walked with his disciples. Welcome to Hope for Today's Devotional. I am so glad that we can get back online in this broadcast, building up ourselves on our most holy faith. Please join me in praying for grace for each new episode. Father, we dedicate this first day and this broadcast. Father, may you breathe life upon it and connect my heart with my listeners and hearers. I pray, O God, that these devotionals will build faith, hope, and give life every new day. Thank you, in Jesus' name, Amen. Our scripture text today is Matthew 1 verse 1. There we read these words. This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham. Our theme of meditation is, Where are your roots? Some years ago, as I did my undergraduate studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, I had to write a tent paper in my social science course. Among the variety of topics, I decided to write about the history of my hometown, Bisongabang, in Manu Division, the southwest region of Cameroon. When I got back to make interviews with some elders from each of them, there were some names that were continually recurring. Today, the families of those people could be traced even to the fourth and fifth generations. Our meditation on this first day of September leads us to the biblical account of the life of Jesus. In fact, it takes us well beyond five generations, incidentally, and incredibly awesome to the twentieth generation. Unbelievable but very true. Do you know your life roots? Can you trace to the fifth generation? How did you come to Jesus and how are you following Jesus? Can you tell your life story? This morning, I am so glad we can restart our hope for today devotionals after several months of being offline. We shall thus begin a devotional journey series through the gospel of Saint Matthew. And from this very beginning, I would like to encourage us to be patient as we progress. Disciples of Jesus have no other record or model of their master and king who says, come follow me, than it is found in the four gospel accounts. In these accounts, we see his life, his teachings, and the way he related and modeled his disciples. If you want to become a disciple of Jesus and grow to become a channel he would use to make other disciples that make others, then follow me as we enroll in the school with Jesus as we embark on this journey in his footsteps. There is no reason for the choice of the gospel of Matthew to begin with today. We simply wanted to start with it as one of the gospel writers and a Jew for that matter. The Jews had been promised another king to sit on the throne of David, Israel's foremost king. The account of the birth of Jesus as recorded by Matthew ushered in the long-awaited age of a new kingdom on earth known as the kingdom of God. The gospel in its true sense is thus about the story of a kingdom whose king is Jesus Christ. The tracing of the life of Jesus from this New Testament account to the Old Testament and linking it to two prominent Old Testament characters clearly shows that his coming was a fulfillment of the promised king and the kingdom from the Old Testament. Our beginning verse of the book of Matthew leads us to think deeper on one question, where are your roots? Roots are everything. They show our origins. They tell us where we all started and are starting, where we are presently and where we are going. Permit me to ask you these simple questions. Where did you begin your spiritual journey? Where are you right now? Do you know exactly where you are going? What kind of gospel did you hear? One of those crazy gospels of improvement, advancement or enrichment, the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, whose king is Jesus, the anointed king? The answer to this crucial question makes you understand the essence of your spiritual roots and the reason for your life or for you being alive and the mission God has for you on earth. The names Abraham and David are very important in the history of the Jews and the people of God and the story of Jesus. Well the presence of Abraham in this genealogy reminds us about his simple human but animistic background while the name David spells out simplicity, a young or a youth who was almost forgotten by his own family but he came from that low peasant family to royalty. Despite these two humble beginnings, both Abraham and David soon become true friends of God. Later in the holy rite, we read God calls Abraham my friend and he calls David a man after my heart. From the life of these two ordinary men, the greatest king that ever lived, Jesus, the anointed, the reference is made. These are Jesus' earthly roots. Dear friend, brother and sister, there is a hidden link you have with Jesus. It does not really matter how poor, despised, forgotten or insignificant your roots may have been or are today. The essential thing is for you to reconnect with Jesus, the King of Kings. While Abraham became the father of the faithful, among whom Jesus will become the firstborn, among many brethren, Jesus became the greatest son of David who would later sit on his throne forever. The one whose kingdom shall have no end. The gospel story is thus about our eternal King Jesus Christ. On this first day of the month of September, as pupils and students throughout our nation return to school for a new academic year or still new semester as it is in some nations, let us together embark on the journey of life with our master, Jesus Christ, the King. Discipleship and disciple-making must become our heartbeat like that of God and our lifestyle. Our attitudes and our actions must daily and continually be shaped as we follow Him, listening, learning and applying the instruction of our master and King along the gospel trail. Welcome again to the month of September, welcome to hope for today devotionals. Let us pray. Our Lord and King, as global events are tensing and tuning up for the climax, help us not to lose perspective of our King whose kingdom has no end. Thank you that daily we can remind ourselves, we can instruct ourselves through your word. Thank you for my radio friend or my media friend. Thank you because he's taking out time to hear you and take heed to your instruction. Bless him, bless her. Thank you for a new month in Jesus' name. Two weary travelers from Jerusalem walking with a stranger down a dusty highway. Two weary travelers from Jerusalem walking with a stranger down a dusty road. And they walked another hour to Emmaus town and shared their supper till the sun went down when he broke the bread and the word spread around that Christ was on that gospel road. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John told about Jesus on that dusty highway. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John told about Jesus on that dusty road. How his pillows were the stones where they laid his head. How the hungry five thousand on the hill were fed. How they sent him to the cross but he came back instead. To walk upon that gospel road. Paul and Silas in the midnight jail were talking about Jesus on that dusty highway. Paul and Silas in the midnight jail were talking about Jesus on that dusty road. And they sang out rejoicing and the jail split wide. The doors busted open and they walked outside. But they went back to preaching through the countryside and walking down that gospel road. So two by two and three by three they walked in his footsteps on that dusty highway. Two by two and three by three they walked in his footsteps on that dusty road. And they died in shipwrecks and in lion's tents and they died on crosses and the spears of men. But when one fell back two more would start again to walk upon that gospel road. Two weary travelers from Jerusalem walking to Emmaus on that gospel highway. Two weary pilgrims from Jerusalem walking to Emmaus on that gospel road. On the highway to Galilee is Emmaus town. It was here I witnesses saw him walking down. When the grief broke the bread then the word spread around that Christ was on that gospel road. Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John told about Jesus on that dusty highway. Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John told about Jesus on that dusty road. How his pillows were the stones where he laid his head. How the hungry five thousand on the hill were fed. How they sent him to the cross but he came back instead. To walk upon that gospel road. Talking about Jesus on that gospel highway. Talking about Jesus on that gospel highway.