What Will You Inherit?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.
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The first time it happened with me it sure didn’t happen like in the movies. In my early teens I had imagined some day in the future when several family members would all convene in some lawyer’s office waiting for the reading of a will, just like on television. “What will I inherit?” I would think. Land, a car, furniture, money?

I was around 13 the first time I remember ever receiving something from a family member’s estate. It happened nothing like in the movies. I received a suitcase that my grandfather’s brother had owned. I barely knew this relative but my grandfather thought that I could make use of the suitcase and so it became mine. It was a good one and I used it for many years. But eventually it had to be discarded.

Since then other relatives have passed on, but I no longer have those initial thoughts of inheritance. No longer do I worry or think about this item or that item. Sure, some things would be nice to have for sentimental reasons. But after all, it is all just stuff. It all fades away eventually. Much more important is the treasured memories of that person.

Peter speaks of our eternal inheritance in 1 Peter 1:3-9. In this passage he brings several key points for us to consider.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls.

Let’s pull out a few of the points here. First of all, our inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled and does not fade away. Unlike that old suitcase or a piece of furniture, our eternal inheritance can not be diminished in its value. It will not be tainted or stolen.

Secondly, this inheritance is reserved in heaven for us. In John 14:2 Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us. We can be assured that our spiritual inheritance awaits us in heaven. It is being held, in reserve, for the faithful.

Third, there are some valleys and trials to endure in this world before we receive that inheritance. Paul stated in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But whatever valleys we encounter in this life, the promise of that eternal inheritance will make it all worth while.

Fourth, the trials we face will make us better. Like gold that is more valuable after having been tried in the fire, we also will be stronger and better able to praise, honor and glorify Jesus Christ in our faithful living.

Fifth, even though we have not seen Jesus, we still have faith in Him. Why do we trust Him so? Because we believe that He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) and to willingly lay down His life (John 10:17-18) as a payment for our sins (Rom. 5:8; John 3:16.)

Sixth, this love that we have for Jesus is full of inexpressible joy and full of glory. How can we adequately express our love and joy for someone who died in our place? We can’t find the words or actions that completely express this on our behalf. But we do have a means by which we give glory to God and to Jesus for the salvation they offer. We obey them in all that they ask. We follow them everywhere they lead. We trust them with all of our loyalty. We share them with all those we meet.

What will we inherit when this life is over? If faithful as Christians, we can look forward to an inheritance unlike anything we could ever imagine.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we take the time today to more fully appreciate one another as friends, family and co-workers. May we burn with the desire to share the news of our great inheritance with them in hopes that they will also claim it for eternity.

Our thought for the day: “My great concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God’s side.” Abraham Lincoln

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

I Shall Go To Him

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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David had made a huge mistake. Not just one, but several, in fact. And on top of that, he had tried to go on as if he really wasn’t going to get caught. But he did get caught.

David had been very blessed. He already had great wealth, several wives and was a king. But that didn’t seem to be enough. Within a few months he had seduced a married woman, impregnated her and arranged for her husband to be murdered. With her husband dead, David took Bathsheba to be one of his many wives. With the birth of a son, everything seemed to be working out.

And then Nathan appeared. In a very enlightening exchange, Nathan leads David into a trap of sorts and causes him to realize the sin that he has committed. David repents, but this sin will have a consequence. The son that was born out of this union will die.

David, a man after God’s own heart, is grief stricken for the consequences of his actions. As the infant becomes ill David withdraws into fasting and prayer. Perhaps God will spare this child. Who is to know? David’s prayers plead with God on behalf of the child, but after seven days he still dies.

Life is not always fair. And when it is not fair, are we willing to keep our faith in God? David did, and he provides us with a wonderful example of how we should view separation from loved ones in this life.

Notice this reading from 2 Samuel 12:15-23.

Then Nathan departed to his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, "Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!" When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead." So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food." And he said, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

To the Christian, this world is only a temporary place to live. Our permanent home is awaiting us in heaven. Still, it is a difficult task for us to say goodbye to someone who has passed from this life. What makes this process bearable is the hope that we will one day be reunited with our loved ones.

Like David we must realize that we can not bring the dead back to us. Rather, we live in hope of also making that journey into eternity where we shall be reunited with not only our loved ones, but also all those who have been found righteous and acceptable to God.

Life is not always fair. And I’m not sure that it ever really becomes easy to say goodbye to someone we love. We hurt, we grieve, we feel the genuine loss and void in our lives. But, like David, we can also be strengthened by the hope that we can go to them. Like the song lyrics state, “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we determine to live each day with the full assurance that a better place awaits those who know and obey God. May we also live so our friends will have no doubt what destination awaits us.

Our thought for the day: “If God hath made this world so fair, where sin and death abound, how beautiful beyond compare, will paradise be found.” James Montgomery

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Sheep or Goat?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Do I have to take sides? That was overheard at a wedding one day when the usher asked a guest if they were friends of the bride or the groom. Of course, the tradition of sitting on one side or another has nothing to do with being for one side and against the other. It is merely a method of logically seating guests.

But like it or not, we do make many choices in our lives. Sometimes our choice for one will eliminate all others. You can’t sit on both sides of the aisle at a wedding. You must choose.

Spiritually speaking there are many people who simply do not wish to choose sides. They are perfectly content to know about God and to dabble a bit with church, but beyond that, they really don’t want to make any other choices.

“Do I have to take sides?” might well be one of their battle cries.

Throughout recorded history man has tried to straddle the fence, so to speak, and have the best of both worlds. In the Bible we find people who wanted to follow God, but also wanted to partake of the pleasures of the world as well. But that is not acceptable to God. We must choose. We must take sides.

Elijah challenged God’s people to choose between Baal and God. In 1 Kings 18:21 he said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

Joshua had a similar situation in Joshua 24:15 when he said, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

In both cases the people eventually chose God.

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells of a time when separation will come to all of us. This separation is based on our own choices. We choose whether or not to be a sheep or a goat. It is all up to us. Jesus says:

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Ask almost any person today if they want to go to heaven and the majority will quickly answer “yes.” But ask the same people if they are willing to choose God and Jesus over the sins of this world and some will hesitate as if saying, “Do I have to choose?”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we reaffirm our love and devotion to God and Jesus each and every day and may we always be reminded that a choice for sin is a choice against God.

Our thought for the day: “The power of choosing good and evil is within reach of all.” Origen

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Know God, Obey Jesus

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Alton was a really good man. In fact, he was an extraordinary man in some respects. He had served his country in the Second World War serving under Patton. He had lived a simple but distinguished life all in the same community.

Most people knew him or knew of him. He was very kind and friendly. His small home place included a large garden each summer and he was always ready to share with others. He loved the outdoors. In fact, nature was more or less a god to Alton. He would tell his wife that the outdoors was his own way of worshipping. He didn’t have any use for Jesus or the church.

Alton had always been a very healthy man. Although small in stature, pound for pound he was more than able to pull his weight and get the chores done.

Somewhat before he turned 80, he became ill and was diagnosed with a disease that would eventually take his life. Despite his wife’s requests, Alton still had no use for Jesus or the church.

As the disease continued to diminish his physical body Alton became confined to home. His hospital bed was placed in the same room that he was born in some 80 years earlier. Life’s cycle was about to come full circle ending at the same place it began.

I was able to visit with him some before he died. My last visit to him was exactly one week before his death. During that visit I pressed the question to Alton. “Don’t you want to be a Christian and have the hope of eternal life?” I knew that for years he had heard about the Christian life from his devoted wife. She had been faithful to Christ for years, rarely missing a worship and active in many ways. The only time I had ever recalled him in the church building was during the baptism of a teenage girl that Alton’s wife had picked up and taken to church for years. Yet he knew that he needed to be right with God.

At first Alton was not responsive, thinking perhaps that he had to physically be able to go to the church building or worship services in order to become a Christian. But after when we explained that he could become a Christian that very hour in his own house, he changed his answer and obeyed the gospel, putting on Christ.

Alton made his confession that he believed Jesus is the Son of God and then we immersed his frail, jaundiced body in his own bathtub. One week later Alton died.

Paul warns of the consequences of not obeying the gospel. In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 he states that Jesus will come “from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

Many people like Alton may feel that they know God from nature, but they have not obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ. True, we may know the attributes of God from nature. Paul describes this in Romans 1:18-23. But to know God is to obey God and obey His Son. Paul describes those who know of God from nature, but worship their own forms of god and turn their backs on the true God.

For the majority of his 80 years, this man rejected salvation that was continually offered to him. It wasn’t until his final hours that he finally saw that simply being a good man is not enough to be saved. Neither is simply acknowledging God’s beauty in nature. To be saved, one must obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter says in 2 Peter 3:15 that “the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” In other words, each day that the Lord delays His return is another day of opportunity for us to get right with God and obey the gospel of His son. Know God. Obey Jesus.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we make today the day that we choose to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing that today is a precious gift from God, another golden opportunity to do what we need to do.

Our thought for the day: “The fear of death is cancelled by faith in Christ.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Don't Follow Me

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Some people say “imitation is the greatest form of flattery.” Indeed that may well be true. All of us follow others to some degree. We imitate their actions.

And, like it or not, most of us also have people who are following us. Of course, we don’t always want people to imitate what we are doing. In fact, some television shows currently display a message: “Warning: do not attempt this at home.”

Jesus tells of a man who knew that others were following him. And this man didn’t want them to make the same mistakes that he had made. You see, this man had left God out of his life, and when his life was over, he found himself in a terrible place.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31. There are many things to be learned from this passage.

First and foremost, there is a life after this one. Second, the way we live here will dictate how we will live in eternity. Third, punishment or comfort will be immediately felt and will signal if we will be going to heaven or hell after judgment. Fourth, once we die we can not change sides. Fifth, if we are in torment, we will not want anyone to follow us.

We are not told the things that this rich man did to miss out on salvation. But we can learn much from him. Initially his concern was to remove his own torment. Then he sets aside his own situation and displays a great concern for those who have not yet died. If nothing changes, this man knows that his brothers will one day end up in torment also. Let’s review this passage.

"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.' Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' "

Friends, I do not believe that the dead speak to us, nor are they allowed to return to earth to warn us or to guide us in what we do. If they could, I am certain that a priority message to the world would be, “don’t follow us to torment.”

Jesus indicates that even if someone rose from the dead many would not believe the report and would instead continue to march into eternal punishment. What a waste that is.

At times someone may indicate that they would want to be with their loved ones even if they were going to hell instead of to heaven. But as much as our love for them causes us to desire to be with them, friends, we must realize that if they are in torment they certainly don’t want us to follow them there.

Not every action is worthy of imitation. The rich man loved his brothers enough to want to warn them to not follow his example. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we remember to keep obedience to God first in our lives. May we also live in such a way so that when others imitate us they will do so in righteousness.

Our thought for the day: “Others follow in your footsteps quicker than they follow your advice.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Are You Finished?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/22s7b2

The Christian life is an ongoing process of growth. We enter into Christ as infants, babies. But we don’t stay that way. Or at least we should not stay that way.

As we continue to read the Bible, surround ourselves with other Christians and pray to God, we begin to mature in our faith and grow in our Christian actions.

A bumper sticker read, “Be patient. God isn’t through with me yet.” And isn’t that the truth? Are we every really finished, complete, totally matured in our Christian life? I don’t believe that we should ever cease to learn, grow and work for our Lord. But there does come a time in our lives when we realize that our work here is close to being completed.

The apostle Paul wrote one of his last epistles to his younger preacher friend, Timothy. In 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Paul expresses his realization that his work here was coming to an end.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Paul was a tireless worker for the Lord. We read in 2 Corinthains 11:24-27 that he endured shipwrecks, beatings, perils of the sea, perils of robbers, and perils even of his own people. He was often found to be in hunger and thirst, yet he continued to be faithful to his goals. He said in Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Those are the words of a man who would not be finished until he reached his goals.

Earlier in his lifetime Paul expressed his life’s devotion to the glory of his Lord. In Philippians 1:20b-21 he says, “so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He goes on in that passage to outwardly debate the benefits of dying and going on to his reward versus staying and continuing to help the saints in Philippi and other places. But, as he stated in Philippians 4:11, he had “learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”

Paul was always wanting to do all that he could for his Lord. Maybe that’s why in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 he prays three times to have a thorn in his flesh removed by the Lord. Certainly he felt that he could do even more good with that problem out of the way. But even though the answer was no, he continued to grow, mature and work for the Lord. He wasn’t finished yet.

Of course, one of the motivations for Paul’s tireless efforts was his ongoing gratitude for being saved. Paul, as Saul, is first introduced to us in Acts 7 when Stephen is being stoned to death. Saul consented to his death and held the outer garments of those who killed him. Soon thereafter, Saul began a wider persecution of the Christians, spreading them abroad in an effort to escape him.

Jesus forgave him of all that. But he wasn’t through with him yet. There was much work to be done in spreading the gospel throughout the world. On several missionary journeys Paul and others took that good news to a sinful world.

Paul mentored others to continue in his work. Timothy was one who received this training. In 1 Timothy 2:15-16 he says, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.”

Paul consistently showed his submission to the will of his Lord. God wasn’t through with him when he was saved, nor when he established churches, nor when he mentored others to preach.

Paul persevered. He fought the good fight, as a warrior for his Lord. He kept the faith, and entrusted it to others as well. He finished his course, doing all that was expected of him in his lifetime.

Only then, as his earthly work was coming to a close, did Paul acknowledge that he was finished.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we be reminded that as long as there are lost souls in our area God isn’t finished with us yet. May we realize that God can always use us in His service to lead others to salvation.

Our thought for the day: “Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you are alive, it isn’t.” Richard Bach

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.