For Thou, O God, hast heard my vows; Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name. Psalm 61:5
The day after I was saved, I saw my grandmother and rushed up to her to tell her the news. She wrapped her arms around me and couldn’t speak for a few moments, as her eyes filled with tears. She had been praying for that very thing to happen even before I was born. So too had her husband, my grandfather, who had died about a year earlier. Not only that, but my other set of grandparents, my mother’s parents, were also Christians, and had no doubt prayed for my salvation as well. I had a wonderful heritage. Not all of us have had such a heritage in our own families, but we all do have a wonderful heritage of those that fear the Lord.
Hebrews 11 reminds us of the wonderful heritage of the heroes of the Bible. Great men and women of faith have shown us a pattern that we can follow. Most prominently portrayed in Scripture is the life of the Lord Jesus, our greatest Example. He also has left for us a wonderful heritage for us to study and follow. In all of the Word of God do we find a heritage that the unregenerate world knows nothing of.
Each of our Assemblies have given us a heritage, as we consider those godly brothers and sisters who were there at the beginning of the planting of the testimony. Do we know who these folks were? Are we aware what struggles they had to surpass before they saw the lampstand established? Can we describe the history of the Assembly from its formation until today? We ought to delve into these things, because it helps us to realize how precious a heritage we have in the Lord.
We also have a wonderful heritage of doctrine, wrested from the Scriptures by faithful Men of the Book. The long-ignored principles on which our Assemblies are based are ours today because those who came before us were willing to bow to God’s Word and to let the Holy Spirit guide them into truth. Some of these truths are slipping today, slipping because some of those among us do not understand or appreciate the heritage that brought them to us.
A greater treasure than all of the vaults of earth have ever enclosed is ours in the heritage our God has given us. May we value that heritage today. -Jim MacIntosh