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Unclaimed
Inheritance
A
formerly estranged son often told
of how he was reunited with his father:
"I
got off at the Pennsylvania depot as a vagrant, and
for a year I begged on the streets for a living. One day I touched a man on the shoulder and said, "Hey,
mister, can you give me a dime?'
As soon as I saw his face I was shocked to see
that it was my own father.
I said, 'Father, Father, do you know me?'
Throwing his arms around me and with tears in
his eyes, he said, 'Oh my son, at last I've found
you! I've
found you! You want a dime? Why,
EVERYTHING I have is yours!' Just think of it.
I was a vagrant.
I stood begging my own father for ten cents,
when for 18 years he had been looking for me to give
me ALL that he had."
This
man's experiences reflect the way God longs to treat
you, if you will only let Him.
You
belong to God by right of creation:
He created you in His OWN image (Genesis
1:26-27). He
has blessed you with the things that you need to live.
"He himself gives all men life and breath and
everything else" (Acts 17:25).
He created the world to be just the right
environment in which you can live.
He has not left Himself without evidence of His
existence and His loving care for you because He has
shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and
crops in their seasons.
He has provided you with plenty of food and He
fills your heart with joy because of His provision
(Acts 14:17).
Yet,
He wants to give you so much more!
He
wants you to become His child:
He wants to bless you with spiritual blessings
that are far greater than anything this world has to
offer. He
wants to give you an eternal inheritance "that can
never perish, spoil or fade... [that is] reserved in
heaven" for His children (1 Peter 1:4).
The
process of becoming a child of God [and
heir] is called a "new
birth"
(John 3:1-5) and an
"adoption" (Galatians 4:4-7; Romans 8:15-17).
Because of what Jesus, God's Son, has done
(Galatians 4:4-5) YOU CAN BE ADOPTED into
God's family IF you will place your faith
in God (Hebrews 11:6), repent
of your sins
(2 Corinthians 12:7-9), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and
be immersed
-- "born of water and of the Spirit" - for the
forgiveness of sins.
Once you have been born into His family..., He
wants you to CONTINUE to live faithfully to Him,
obeying Him in ALL things.
So
many people are absorbed with and consumed by lonely
lives which are lived in the "survival zone"
searching and longing for "dimes"
while the amazing love of God goes unnoticed and
an ETERNAL inheritance goes unclaimed!
If they only knew...
God
is WAITING and WATCHING for you, WANTING
you to become His child AND
His heir....
Will
YOU be born into His
family?
God
bless you!
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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