Tag: inheritance

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Colossians Devotionals

That you might be first

Surrender to God

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. (Colossians 1:15-18)

Lord Jesus, I was created by you. I was created through you. I was created for you. Have first place in my life. You are worthy to be first in my life.

Fill me with the knowledge of your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that I may walk worthy of you, fully pleasing to you, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in my knowledge of you.

Strengthen me with all power so that I may have great endurance and patience, filled with joy and thanksgiving.

Your grace to me is incredible. You have given me an inheritance with your people. You rescued me from the domain of darkness and brought me into your kingdom.

By your death on the cross, you present me before the Father holy, faultless, and blameless.

By your grace, let me remain grounded and steadfast in faith, never shifted from the hope I have through your gospel.

In your name I pray, amen.

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Hebrews

Because we have this inheritance

Hebrews

We’ve talked the last couple of days about the inheritance God offers us in Christ and the dangers of refusing this inheritance.

But if as Christians we have now received this inheritance, how then shall we live? The writer of Hebrews tells us,

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. (Hebrews 12:28)

What does that mean practically? Basically chapter 13 tells us what true worship is. And it’s not just singing songs.

It’s loving those around you, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ. (Hebrews 13:1)

It’s showing hospitality, even to those you don’t know. (13:2)

It’s showing mercy to those around you. (13:3)

It’s honoring your wife and husband and keeping your marriage bed pure. (13:4)

It’s loving and trusting God more than money. (13:5-6)

It’s following the example of the spiritual leaders God has put in your lives. (13:7)

It’s living a life based on the grace of God, not on legalistic rituals and rules. (13:9-10)

It’s being willing to suffer for Christ, and holding to the eternal, not the temporal. (13:11-14)

It’s worshiping God with a sacrifice of praise. (13:15)

It’s doing good and being generous with those around you. (13:16)

It’s being subject to the leaders in your church, building them up and not tearing them down, bringing strife and division into the church. (13:17)

It’s praying for those around you, especially those involved with ministry. (13:18)

How about you?

Have you received the inheritance of the children of God? And out of the thankfulness of your heart, are you offering daily sacrifices of worship to God?

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Hebrews

If we turn our backs on God

Hebrews

There are two sides to every coin.

And we see that in this passage. On one hand, there is the inheritance that God offers to us if we will become his children and heirs.

On the other hand, there’s judgment if we refuse.

Considering the awesomeness of the inheritance that could be ours, and the great love Christ showed by paying the price for it on the cross, how can we refuse?

Yet many do. They trade the temporal for the eternal. And instead of living for God, they live for themselves.

This despite the fact that in doing so, they end up hurting God, others, and even themselves. And because of this, when they die, they will be judged.

As long as we have breath, we have the chance to turn and repent.

But once we die, there is no turning back, no repentance, and no chance of blessing. As with Esau, many will seek God’s blessing with tears, but will not be able to gain it.

As the writer of Hebrews said earlier,

Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

And so now he warns,

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.

If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven…for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:25, 29)

Often times, the picture of God as a consuming fire is a picture of his holiness and judgment.

You see it on Mount Sinai when he gave his law to Moses. You see it when he judged Aaron’s sons and the enemies of Israel. And you see it here.

If you refuse him and his offer of life, only judgment remains.

Nobody likes to hear that. They like to hear only of God’s love.

But God must judge rebellion and sin. Either you let Jesus pay the price for you, or you pay it yourself. There are no other options.

What will you choose?

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Hebrews

The inheritance we have

Hebrews

We saw yesterday that the writer of Hebrews warned us not to be like Esau who tossed aside his inheritance because of his ungodliness and was unable to regain it though he begged for his father’s blessing with tears.

And we said that many people are like that today. God has offered them the right to become his children and heirs, but because of their love for sin and the things of this world, they reject the inheritance that could be theirs.

Why is that so bad? Because of just how awesome and precious that inheritance is, and the price that was paid so that we might take hold of it.

It’s hard to see the connection between verses 17-18 in the NIV, but there is one. Just add the word “for” at the start of verse 18. (It’s there in the Greek. For some reason, the NIV omits it).

The writer of Hebrews says,

[For] You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”

The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” (Hebrews 12:18-21)

When God revealed himself to the Israelites on Sinai and gave them the first covenant that included the promise of an earthly inheritance, it was an awesome thing. There was a fire, darkness, gloom and storm, and a fearful voice.

And the people were commanded, “Don’t approach the mountain. If even an animal touches it, it must be killed.”

Even Moses was frightened to approach God on this holy mountain.

But all that said, it was a physical mountain. It was of this world. And the inheritance they received based on this covenant was only a temporal one.

Now though, we approach a completely different mountain, with a new covenant, and an eternal inheritance. The writer of Hebrews tells us,

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (22-24)

Note the differences here. We’re not going to an earthly mountain to approach God, but a heavenly one.

And we don’t come before God cowering with fear, but with rejoicing. Why?

Because while we come to a God who will judge all people, Jesus is our mediator, and he put the new covenant into effect with his own blood.

And while the blood of Abel cried out for justice and vengeance, the blood of Jesus rings out with a cry of forgiveness and mercy.

So we won’t be standing before God trembling in fear. Rather we will stand in wonder at his grace.

More, although this earth will one day be shaken and all old things removed, we will receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken and will stand forever. (28)

All this awaits us.

How then, can we be like Esau, and reject such an awesome inheritance paid for at such a great cost?

How about you? God offers you life. Will you accept it?

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Ephesians

If we could only see

Ephesians

I wonder sometimes if we really see how much we are truly blessed in Christ.

My guess is no.

Oh sure, many of us know the truths of God’s grace and love in our lives. But do we truly understand them?

As I’ve been meditating on this chapter, I’m starting to feel almost like I’ve only been wading in the shallow pools of these truths, though I have been a Christian for over 30 years.

Perhaps that’s why Paul felt it important to pray for the Ephesians in this way.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:17-19a)

Paul prays here that God would give the Spirit to the Ephesians that they may know him better.

Not that they didn’t already have the Spirit, but that the Spirit within them would give them the wisdom and understanding needed to know God better.

The truth is, without the Spirit, we would quickly run into a wall as to how much we can truly know God.

But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2,

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?

In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (10-11)

In other words, through the Spirit we can come to know God. I’m not talking about merely knowing just facts about God. Rather, we come to truly know him.

This is not to say that we will ever know God fully. The depths of God are such that it will take all eternity to fully know him, and even then, will there ever be a day when we don’t discover something new about him?

But through the Spirit living in us and revealing the Father to us, we can come to know him more day by day.

The Spirit doesn’t stop at just teaching us who God is, though. Paul tells us,

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:12)

What has God given us?

Paul tells us in his prayer for the Ephesians.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19)

Do we know the hope that he has given us? Hope that this world, dark as it is, is not all there is? And hope that the day is coming when Christ reigns over all?

On that day, he won’t merely reign over the spiritual realm where he conquered Satan at the cross. He will also reign in the physical realm, with every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that he is Lord.

And when he does so, death, the final enemy, will itself be conquered as well.

In addition to having this hope, do we also know the love God showers on us?

Do we know that he calls us the riches of his glorious inheritance? That he looks forward to the day when we are fully redeemed in our resurrection bodies that are free from sin, sickness, and death?

Do we know his power that is available to us? Do we know that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that keeps us as his children, that sanctifies us day by day, and that one day will glorify us in our new bodies?

Do we know that that same power is available to us to overcome all the struggles that we go through now?

And finally, do we know who we now are in Christ? That we are now part of Christ’s body, called to go out in to all the world and spread his presence everywhere, filling each place with his love and grace?

Do you see? If we could see, how different would our lives be?

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Ezekiel

A new inheritance

Ezekiel

We wrap up Ezekiel today, and as we do, God outlines the new inheritance that will be received by the Israelites—or shall we say a renewed inheritance.

God promised to bring his people back to the land he had promised their ancestors, but when he does, there will be some significant changes, namely in the division of the land.

Under the old division of the land under Joshua, the land was not equally divided. It was divided on the basis of population. (Numbers 26:52–54)

Issachar and Zebulun, therefore, received very small inheritances, while Manasseh and Judah had large ones.

But under the new division of the land, each inheritance will be equal. (Ezekiel 47:14)

Further, while God had allowed the tribes of Dan, Manasseh, and Gad to live across the Jordan away from the land God had promised them, under the new division, all the tribes will dwell in the land that God promised.

Finally, God told the people that any foreigners who had settled among them will also be allotted an inheritance among them.

I think we learn several things from this.

First, in God’s kingdom, we all receive an equal inheritance that is not dependent on who we are or what we’ve done, but an inheritance of salvation that is based solely on his grace.

And it is an inheritance that is open to all, whether Jew or Gentile.

As Paul wrote,

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Colossians 3:11)

Second, it’s an inheritance that does not include what’s second best.

The tribes of Dan, Manasseh, and Gad had accepted what was second best as their inheritance, but God doesn’t desire what’s second best for us. He desires what is best.

Third, more than anything else, it is God who is our inheritance.

In the new division of the land, God’s portion was right in the middle of everyone else’s. And God said that the new Jerusalem would be named “Yahweh-Shammah,” meaning “The Lord is there.”

The greatest thing about being a Christian is that God himself is with us, and inside of us. As David wrote,

Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. (Psalm 16:5, NLT)

Lord, I thank you that you’re my inheritance. That by your grace, you have given me the gift of salvation.

Not only that, you have come to dwell within me and are always with me.

I thank you that you desire to give me what is best, not second best.

Walk with me every day. Be my God. In Jesus’ name, amen.