Dare 2 Share - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you (I Peter 1:3-4)
After he died, his family asked me to meet with them at his house so we could go and get his will and read it. A farmer by trade, the deceased had an average size farm but his equipment and tools were very old. His pickup truck was new but lacked all of the typical "gadgets" one normally sees such as a radio, air conditioning and electric windows.
As we entered his house it was if we had taken a ride back into time. He had no modern appliances. His refrigerator was one I had seen from the 1950's. Its handle to open it had broken so he welded a large piece of scrap metal on it. He had 9 black and white televisions-he owned no color televisions-yet none of them worked. All of his furniture was old and worn out.
When I looked in his cupboards it reminded me of "Mother Hubbard's" kitchen because they were bare. When asked how their brother had died, his family said he basically died of mal-nutrition.... he just didn't eat.
When we reached the bank, we got the deceased's will from his safety deposit box. The will was in his own handwriting. I was asked to read the will and to tell each family member what he or she was going to inherit. Considering what I had already seen and the fact that the poor man had died of mal-nutrition, I was not expecting him to have many earthly possessions.
As I started reading the will, I quickly realized that this individual owned over a million dollars in cash! I was further shocked, as I continued to read the will, to learn that the deceased had not given any of this money to his own family. Not one person from his very own family was named a beneficiary-they had not inherited anything. Instead, he had given all of his money to someone else.
The Bible talks a lot about inheritances. In the Old Testament God promised the nation of Israel is own homeland as its inheritance if Israel kept His "decrees and laws". Leviticus 20:24 God told the people of Israel that "I will give it you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey". In the New Testament Jesus told us that "the meek will inherit the earth". Matthew 5:5
Several centuries ago a very bright and rich man was also interested in obtaining a valuable inheritance. In Mark 10:17, this young man he asked Jesus Christ "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" This young man knew what was valuable and what would last.
To often money and property is inherited only to be either lost or squandered within a very short period of time. Soon the inheritance is not worth much or soon has lost its value.
For those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you are a child of God-which makes you one of his beneficiaries. Your inheritance is eternal life in heaven with Jesus Christ where "the city was pure gold" Revelation 21:18.
Michael D. Stevens
Yankton, South Dakota
Questions:
What will you ultimately inherit?
Are you storing up treasures in heaven, or on earth?
Are you in danger of spiritually dying from Biblical malnutrition?
