Reading of the Will

Over the last week I have shared with you the first chapter of Like A Diamond, Sons of God. When we accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and receive forgiveness for our sins we are adopted by our heavenly Father. With our adoption we receive an inheritance that we share with our older brother Jesus…

When we enter sonship, we also come into another relationship; we become joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Jesus becomes our older brother and we share in the inheritance that our heavenly Father has given him.

Several years ago, my husband received an inheritance from his parents’ trust. It got us to thinking. What were we leaving to our children? We asked them if there was anything they really wanted of our possessions. We were pleasantly surprised by their answers; they each mentioned things of sentimental value but not those of financial substance. They all expressed a desire to spend more time with us; making memories and continuing traditions that they could hold on to when we are gone. That is what they felt would be a rich inheritance.

Our heavenly Father has set up a wonderful inheritance for us.

“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” Romans 8:15-17 MSG

Our relationship with the Father is adventurous and wonderfully exciting!  We go from living in an orphanage to playing ball in the palace.

Why does the author of Romans point out that we have been freed from fear? Our old family relationship was fear based. Jesus knows that the father of this world, the devil, is the father of lies. His purpose is to deceive, steal from and destroy us in any way he can. As our big brother, Jesus, protects us and delivers us from his schemes. Jesus never wants us looking back, scared that we may be taken away from the Father.

 “A thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I came to give life – life that is full and good.”  John 10:10 ERV

Praise God for our older brother!

He has our best interest at heart. As our joint heir He shows us that we are entitled to the same privileges He has been given by the Father.

At one time we were spiritual street urchins but now our lives have been cleansed. We are precious jewels to the Father, “Like A Diamond”. Let’s sparkle brilliantly for Him.

Like A Little Child

Yesterday morning Dave and I drove up to the Phoenix area to visit our daughters and their families. Today we will be celebrating one of our granddaughters’ third birthday.

It just so happened that our youngest daughter, her husband and two little girls had regular doctor’s visits and so we were asked to stay with our grandson while they were gone. We were reading books and learning all about the new and fun things he had been doing. He is such a smart little guy and is so much fun to listen to.

I could go on telling you stories about how smart he is but… At one point I was telling Dave about an email I had received from a friend and told him that she had requested prayer for her husband. At that, Sam said “And we need to pray for Mr. Dave, he needs a job”. We weren’t sure who Mr. Dave was so he explained it to us and that he was without a job and needed one.

I asked Sam if he would like to pray from Mr. Dave and our friend. He told me we could do it at bedtime. I told him we wouldn’t be there at bedtime but we could do it now. “Ok” and so we did. I am confident that those prayers will bring Mr. Dave to a new job very soon.

Child-like faith.

“Then he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. ‘And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.'” Matthew 18:2-5 NLT

Little children are accustomed to asking their parents for what they need and knowing that their parents will provide. The necessities of life, (food, water, shelter, protection), are the things that we as parents naturally take care of. Sometimes we go without ourselves to provide for our children – its part of who we are as parents. God, the Father, has a much deeper compassion and commitment to His children than we do.

Jesus was telling the adults who were listening to Him that they needed to be humble enough to ask their heavenly Father for help. They needed to quite relying on their own abilities or lack thereof, put their faith and trust in the Father and in so doing they would learn a valuable lesson about living in reliance and dependence upon their loving heavenly Father.

How better can we learn about placing our trust in God than from a child? They have much to teach us.

When we come to the Father in childlike faith we won’t be turned away.