Birthright

Genesis 25:34 - And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

I think we all know what a birthright is, right!? In most cases it is given to the firstborn child. It is a right, privilege, or possession. And it is a privilege.

This one part of our sermon Sunday became a focal point for my thoughts. Salvation is a right. 

Esau's father Isaac gave him the birthright because he was firstborn, by minutes. Esau's twin brother was Jacob. The brothers were as different as night and day, as was suggested in the chapter when God told their mother Rebekah: ...“Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23)

Esau was, according to scripture, a wild man, an outdoorsman and hunter. Jacob was a mild man and liked being at home...living in tents. Or as I have read, he was most devoted to God and his family. Esau was described as ruddy and hairy where Jacob was fair. Isaac was more drawn to Esau while Rebekah to Jacob. Now don't start trying to come to any conclusions about Jacob! He was, despite this seemingly gentle nature, also a deceiver, which you can read further in Chapter 27.

One day Esau was out hunting and came home, ravenous. Jacob was cooking a pot of stew. Esau wanted some of that food...Jacob said he would give him some if he would sell his birthright (our first glimpse of deception). What an odd request. But Esau did just that...gave up his birthright all for a bowl of stew. He gave up all his rights to his inheritance. At that moment it meant absolutely nothing to him. 

We can live most of our life never considering the fact that we have a Father in heaven who wants each one of us to receive a better birthright. Many people, including myself for a lot of years, thought absolutely nothing about He who gives this birthright.

Salvation is a right. If it weren't I don't think we'd see examples of inheritance in the Bible. But we do. It is important. 

So, have you received the greatest birthright possible? If you have, do you take it for granted? If not, would you like to? We all can receive this inheritance. We will not receive a physical inheritance, nothing we can put our hands on today, but greater is our reward when we get to heaven. It takes no more than seriously receiving Christ. We ask Him to forgive us of our sins and trust and follow Him the rest of our days. It's that simple.

If we have given our lives to Christ, what are we willing to give up our spiritual birthright for? Popularity or prestige, money, addictions, lust? None of those things last after our last breath. But a spiritual birthright is forever.

I've said this a few times...not all people will go to heaven. It is a great myth many denominations have taught. Life doesn't just end and everyone goes to heaven. Our salvation was bought with a price. We need to get beyond taking the afterlife for granted. Without this inheritance, birthright, we cannot enter the kingdom of God. 

I was at our church's youth retreat last week. It was the driving theme for the kids...we cannot be promised another day. Young people think they have their whole life ahead of them...some adults think the same. They think they can wait to give their lives to Christ if they even think that. But what if today was your last and you'd not given Jesus a second thought? What if I'm right? I can tell you things are different with Christ in a life. You have to experience it to understand. It takes a heart willing to bend and take in the truth. 

God loves all people, but He has standards. If you are in your mind an upstanding person, honest, generous, kind, would you want to make friends with a criminal or murderer? You have your standards too. God is righteous and will only associate with righteous people. We can become righteous through Christ. It's the thing called being saved, born again, becoming a new man. 

                

Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of           God. (John 3:3)

I've been listening to a sermon in my car on eternity. I am considering sharing some of the pastor's thoughts. It might make this thing called birthright, inheritance and salvation more of a desire.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name...          ...lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. (John 1:12, Hebrews 12:16-17)

Trials, Grace AND Wisdom

Hebrews 10:32 - But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings.

Certain things change when one becomes a Christ follower. I don't mean a Christian, but a Christ follower. One who hungers and thirsts for Him. One who craves His Word and is changed by His words. Many will say they are a Christian but don't go to church, don't believe all the Bible is true, support the very things God calls abhorrent, even believe God is not all He claims to be. They believe God is good but fail to understand His judgment. They are able to justify their actions believing God is love and He'd understand...after all, there are others who are worse.

Like I've said, certain things change. When we come to Christ we see things differently; we have an understanding unlike what we had before. We change as we grow in Christ. We are, hopefully, more aware of our sin and while some churches call for a specific time of confession, we are called to repent of our sin immediately...and we are able to go directly to God. Hebrews 4:16 alludes to this: Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Last Sunday our pastor's son Aaron preached a good word. The title of the sermon was Remember.

There were two points that stood out to me. One was, paraphrasing: We are to grow and mature in Christ. You have everything if you have Christ. You can't be valuable to Him unless you're going through something. It's the trials that build us up. Through the trials we see God work, we become strengthened, we grow. There's something greater on the other side. There's a blessing. In this trial we find truth and see what He wants us to see, but these trails must be faced. They must be walked out.

It's true sin has caused us to have to have trials in our life. God allows them...the purpose of which is to look to Him for strength and wisdom...and to glorify Him when we do. If we are in God's will He will get us through it.

Aaron continued by saying when we are in Christ and following Him we can at times seem as though we have gotten lost somewhere. We question whether we've done something wrong because our trials are not there. We wonder if this is a time of rest or if we have missed something somewhere and have fallen away from Him.

His response was to remember...what Christ has done for us. If we haven't had a trial lately does it mean I am not the same as before? Have I grown spiritually weak, fallen away and far from God? Do I feel condemned? Remember! Remember when your eyes were first opened to the things of Christ. You don't go from darkness to light without remembering that moment. Then we are to stand fast on that.

I certainly remember that day! I was in a trial at the time and that is exactly when we are most vulnerable to receiving Christ, when there's nowhere else to go for help. I remembered just about every second of the day my eyes were opened to the glory and grace of God.

If we feel, now that we are in Christ, that things are different, he pointed out it may seem like we are lame. That lameness can be healed. He shared an account of a man with a withered hand whom Jesus healed. If we feel we've become withered or maimed, it doesn't mean we've been cut off. The withered or maimed areas can be healed. Just stand in your faith in Christ. Come to grips with areas of your life that may be a problem; i.e. anger, bitterness, judgment, those things that grow and fester.

And more that spoke volumes to me: Esau was willing to give up his inheritance for a bowl of stew. (Genesis 25) He placed little value on this birthright. If we are in Christ we should not forget the true birthright He has given us. Don't let anything take it away; don't be tempted to give it up for some worldly possession. Nothing is more important than that birthright. If we are experiencing anything, take it to God. Ask for support from your church family. But remember His grace toward you that one particular day you saw the truth of who He is.

I believe we don't always realize we are in a struggle. Maybe it has been there a long time and we live with it somehow. It surfaces occasionally as a reminder. And some struggles are more difficult than others. Some people are stronger than others...hopefully, in Christ, not in their own strength.

God has granted His grace when we received Him as our Savior.  We need to be ever thankful and mindful of that. We have not been cut off from Him if we are faithful to Him in even the small things. Let me end with this and isn't it amazing, a little break from my wisdom from the Proverbs and it shows up again. Go figure!

James 1:2-6 - My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

Blessed

Blessed

Psalm 1:1-2: - Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.

What does the word bless conjure up in your mind? Hopefully a positive thing. The Bible shows 287 references to the word in the Old and New Testaments. There may be other references in different forms.

I read Psalm 1 this morning. A song, surprisingly enough (NOT) has been going through my head for days now. I was humming and whistling it all morning...everywhere I went. I'm still humming it. I believe I've been blessed! And there was this word in the Psalm.

The words to the song, in part, go like this: We're blessed in the city, we're blessed in the field, we're blessed when we come and when we go... We sing it occasionally in church. It comes from Deuteronomy 28, specifically verses 3 and 6. What Deuteronomy 28 tells us is that if we keep ourselves focused on God, obey Him, follow Him, He will bless us in many ways and the chapter lists them. I'd love to share them all with you but you can read for yourself! You will also see a list of the curses incurred....

I'm sure we all know the general meaning of the word blessed. It's a good thing. Some like to say they're lucky or a marvelous thing happened to them. Maybe some even cringe when they hear others say they've been blessed by something. The biblical meaning: invoke divine care; preserve, protect, endow; cause to prosper, make happy, favored of God.

We can be grateful for a good job, nice home, loving family, abundance of things, but God has actually allowed us to have them. 1Corinthians 10:26 reminds us that the earth is the Lord's; and everything in it. He has given us these things for our pleasure because He loves us. Let us not forget that. Let us not pat ourselves on our backs for something we should be giving the Lord credit for.

In the Old Testament fathers blessed their sons. They received birthrights and inheritances. In the same way, only in greater measure because it comes from above, our Father blesses us if we adhere to His commands and treat Him with the respect and reverence He deserves, if we don't push Him aside for what might seem more important things. If our hearts and minds are stayed on Him, He will shower us with blessings.

We might not always recognize blessings. They might come in the form of strength in dire situations...we might not recognize it at first, but looking back...you see God's hand on the situation. They might be small and seemingly insignificant but I believe an abundance of small blessings might be just as good as one great one. They can come in the form of an encouraging word, a good report, inheritance, protection, even a sunrise or sunset, nature at its finest. Our God is not limited in His ability and creativity to bless.

One of the greatest blessings is is our inheritance in Christ...and the ultimate birthright. We can become children of God and receive these things. Before man sinned, there was an assurance of our inheritance and birthright. We are not physically born into this inheritance. Because of man's sin, it is now offered to us as the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ alone. But we need to receive it. We need to realize our need for it and Him.

If you've been seemingly in a period of joylessness, things not going your way, call out to our Father in Heaven. Ask Him to search your heart and see what might be askew. Confess your troubled heart to Him and ask His forgiveness for whatever it might be that is causing the troublesome heart. If you are sincere, He will reveal something to you.

He is most willing to bring joy and blessing if you honestly seek the best of Him.

Psalm 112:1-2 - Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed.