Originally posted on January 27, 2013 on a facebook note originally and I moved it here. :) Seems fitting now that we know we'll be moving to Zambia - and we'll need to get rid of a lot of "stuff."
"Offering up my life" -all areas of it..... even my money and possessions. Here's just a small pile of some of my kids' "stuff" and I'm not sharing any photos of how much stuff I have!
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Hi all! I'm studying Ephesians these days with my Bible study girls here (Precepts course). Just spent some time on Ephesians 1:13,14 "And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own* by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him." (emphasis mine).
Pretty simple from what I studied (though the study was not as simple!) When you hear the truth and you believe it. God gives you the Holy Spirit as a mark of ownership that we are His. It's His first gift to us and it's a deposit of the inheritance we are going to get in Heaven (priceless inheritance that also includes a new heavenly body and eternal life somewhere in there!)
Now what stuck out to me the most with all the word studies and cross references that I did (feel free to ask my anything more specific if you'd like and I can share the extra stuff for you to look up!) was James 2:5 "Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters. Hasn't God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? Aren't they the ones who will inherit the Kingdom he promised to those who love him?" This stuck out so much because I had just researched what the inheritance is going to be (pure, priceless, never decay, never change, undefiled, given by God, Christ's glory, glorious freedom from death and decay, new heavenly bodies, eternal life).
We can be generous with our material things and be rich in faith (you have to be when you give until it hurts!) since our inheritance is safely stored in heaven. I want to be one of those people who get to inherit the Kingdom he has promised to those who love Him. So I need to be poor and love God. Poor - I can do that, though it's harder at times to let go of "stuff." How do you love God? I think what we do in our First World country to show our love to God - go to church, praise music, etc. and it's all good. However, I think it's loving and caring for those people who can't care for themselves, the unloveable, the outcasts, the "taxpayers and sinners" of our day is the way the Bible tells us to love God (whatever we do to the least of these we do to God). And, honestly, giving money away is probably one of the easier "hands off" ways to give to others! (I shudder at the thought of how hard some of the more down to earth / personal ways to help can be! Author Beth Moore combing the hair of some elderly homeless man comes to mind.....shudder).
So just remember - we have a PRICELESS inheritance stored up in heaven all safe and waiting for us! How can you use the money God has blessed and freely given you to bless God back? Or any ideas on how to love God? I'd love to hear it all!
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