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IBS 69 - Joshua 13:14

Joshua 13:14
“But to the tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance, since the food offerings presented to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as he promised them.”

A couple of months ago, Jean McClure was doing a women’s study over this verse. A few weeks ago, I started reading Joshua for myself for the first time, and when I got to this verse, I remembered the study. This verse has become very special to me in the past week, reading about how God is my inheritance. My whole life, I’ve always been excited to live in a big house with nice things and being able to have money to spend. But as my relationship with the Lord grows, the more I laugh at what I used to want. I don’t need/want a worldly inheritance, I want God and eternity with my Creator. 
As time goes on, the more I realize that choosing God is hard, because the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38). Jesus says in the Gospels to sell everything and follow Him. That right there is not something I wanted to do a few years ago. Still, it’s hard for me to think of selling all I own and following where God leads. When I think of selling all I own, I don’t just think of my items, but it also means leaving family, friends,  and comfort. That’s really hard to do. In Matthew 19:29 it says, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Following God is saying goodbye to what you want and obeying God’s will. 
Leaving everything behind is hard, I would say it’s one form of “suffering”. But following Christ doesn’t just mean I’ll “suffer” by leaving everything I’m used too. Following Him means that there will be sufferings physically. Christians are getting beaten, killed, mocked, laughed at, etc. Suffering like this has always scared me. Why? Because I don’t like pain. This is not something anyone should ever be afraid of though. 
Christ suffered for us. We read how He was whipped 39 times, beaten and spit on, mocked, a crown of thorns pushed into His scull, forced to carry a heavy cross, and then nailed to that cross. He had been beaten so severely that people couldn’t tell if He was a man or a woman. Dying on a cross is death by suffocation; the way the arms are nailed up, the body hangs down, keeping the lungs from being able to work, and the person on the cross would have to push up from the feet to breath, but that would be extremely painful and the person would stop doing that. Jesus physically suffered horribly for us. But it was just physical suffering. He died for our sins. My sin was put on Jesus. This man, being perfect, took on every persons sin, and that is a very heavy burden. And He’s apart of the trinity. But God, Jesus’ Father, cannot be in the presence of sin. So God had to turn away from His son, separating from Him. Jesus was not only suffering from dying and every persons sin placed on Him, but His father had to turn His back from Him. Jesus suffered more then anyone. And for me to say I don’t want to suffer, how foolish. I should be more then willing to suffer for my Savior. 

He is abounding in grace, mercy, love, forgiveness. He is true and His name must be known throughout the whole earth, no matter the cost. Hebrews 11 has become more and more important to me. It gives many examples of how people followed Christ despite the cost and had faith in Him. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.  These people were faithful to the Lord, they obeyed. They wasn’t afraid of the cost, they fought for the Lord. They trusted in God’s promise, the God of Israel is their inheritance. I want to be faithful like these people. I want to obey despite the cost, not being afraid. I want to fight for the Lord, for He is my inheritance. He is my everything. 

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