Don't tell anyone. The government will find a way to tax it. >:I
Posted on 01/16/2018 6:03:27 PM PST by metmom
"In [Christ] also we have obtained an inheritance" (Eph. 1:10-11).
As a member of God’s family, you have obtained a future inheritance that has many present benefits.
An inheritance is something received by an heir as a result of a will or legal process. It's a legacy one receives from family connections.
As a member of God's family, you are an heir of God and fellow heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17). As such you have obtained an inheritance that Peter called "imperishable and undefiled . . . reserved in heaven for you" (1 Pet. 1:4). It cannot perish, fade away, or be defiled because heaven is timeless and sinless. It is a secure inheritance.
In Ephesians 1:11 Paul refers to it in the past tense ("have obtained"). That's significant because the fullness of your inheritance won't be revealed until you are glorified in God's presence (1 John 3:2). But your inheritance is so sure, Paul refers to it as if it was already in hand.
Although its fullness is yet future, your inheritance has present benefits as well. In addition to inheriting Christ and the Holy Spirit, you also inherit peace, love, grace, wisdom, joy, victory, strength, guidance, mercy, forgiveness, righteousness, discernment, and every other spiritual benefit. Paul sums it all up in 1 Corinthians 3:22-23: "All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God."
Nowadays many Christians are so preoccupied with acquiring material goods that they miss many of the present benefits of their spiritual inheritance and the joy of anticipating its future fulfillment. Don't fall into that trap!
Looking forward to your eternal inheritance will help you maintain a proper perspective on temporal things and motivate you to praise and adore God.
Suggestions for Prayer
Praise the Lord for the incredible inheritance that awaits you in heaven. Thank Him for the present benefits of your inheritance, which are yours to enjoy daily.
For Further Study
One precious aspect of your eternal inheritance is God's mercy. Psalm 136 reflects on the mercy God demonstrated toward Israel. Read that psalm, noting the manifestations of mercy that relate to your life.
Studying God’s Word ping
Another timely and pertinent message.
Another timely and pertinent message.
Don't tell anyone. The government will find a way to tax it. >:I
I’m sure they wish they could.
Perfect reminder. Thank you.
Doesn’t this speak to the sin of presumption?
https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-the-sin-of-presumption
This is how the old Catholic Encyclopedia defines the sin of presumption:
It may be defined as the condition of a soul that, because of a badly regulated reliance on God’s mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or for pardon of his sins without repenting of them.
But the good way is this. I have nothing to offer God but my need and his gifts, present and promised. But because I am, as Paul and John say repeatedly, “in Christ,” I can offer his gifts. A pipe, patent and open to the source, offers nothing of its own, yet passes good water to others and is itself moistened and cooled by the water which runs through it.
So, relying on Christ, who has the living water, I can make commitments to remain, open to him at one end, and to those I serve at the other. I can live and serve not on my gifts but on his promise, which even now, as a trickle from the right side of the temple — that is: his pierced side — is so small it can be stepped over. But down stream, why, there the saints swim!
And what can you do to 'deserve' it?
Not talking about unrepentant sins here. The wages of sin is death. How do you do something to deserve salvation if Christ's death isn't enough?
That's a Catholic fabrication.
Being confident of God's promises to us, the God who cannot lie or change, is trust and faith, not presumption.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
We can't do anything to *deserve* salvation*.
Romans 3:20-30 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
We cannot know how God or Christ will judge us.
If we think we do — then we are presuming to be equal to them. That is the sin of presumption.
John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Why don't you believe these words of Jesus?
And John tells us this.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I John 5:10-15 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Dosent this speak to the sin of presumption?
..............................................
You might be right
Mathew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
I believe we need to think of presumption as an attitude, not an act then what Jesus said in Mathew 5:3 makes sense.
Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Some people will boast that they are saved regardless of the
rascals they are while others will mourn in their
hearts because they do not deserve anything but hell.
That all makes sense so the
only question is do I really
believe?.
1samual 15:23
For rebellion is like the sin of divination and
presumption is like the evil of idolatry.
That's an interesting verse. It is typically (always?) identified with Moses' lifting up the serpent on the pole for healing. Not that it is an invalid comparison, but there is another place where Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, and it is directly connected to belief:
Exodus 4
1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up
By the tail. Generally that's a dangerous thing to do, like catching a tiger by the tail, because then what.
And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand That they may believe...
Fascinating verb. There's a lot of overlap in how we metaphorically use the English "grip" and "grasp", to have grip on something (or of something having a grip on us), to grasp a meaning, and so forth.
apprehend:
1 : arrest, seize ·apprehend a thief
2
a : to become aware of : perceive ·She immediately apprehended the problem.
b : to anticipate especially with anxiety, dread, or fear
3 : to grasp with the understanding : recognize the meaning of
Apprehending a thief. It's the simple meaning.
Matthew 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
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