Thursday, October 25, 2018

PT-5 "The Aspects of Blessings" (Eph. 1:3)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/25/2018 10:38 AM



My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-5 “The Aspects of Blessings”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:3



            Message of the verses:  3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”



            It looks like we finally made it to the last aspect of blessing found in verse three of Ephesians chapter on. 



THE BLESSING AGENT—JESUS CHRIST



            I first want to say that I covet your prayers for me as I continue on through this wonderful book of Ephesians.  God has been reminding me of things that I knew but when you don’t use things you seem to forget them. I have mentioned in an earlier SD that we see the words “in Christ” and “in Him” many times in this book and that is the case at the last part of verse three which I have highlighted.  We as believers possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because we are “in Christ.”  Being in Christ happens as soon as a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior as believers are placed in a marvelous union with our Savior.  1 Corinthians 6:17 says “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.  John MacArthur writes “Our unity as Christians is more than simply that of common agreement; it is the unity of a commonness of life, the common eternal life of God that pulses through the soul of every believer (cf. Rom. 15:5-7).”  5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”



            I realize that this is hard to believe, at least for me but all that the Lord has, those in Christ have.  I believe this is true for a couple of reasons that I can think of off the top of my head.  The first reason is because of the love that God has for us as He wants all of His children to be like His Son.  The second reason I can think of is that in order for us to enter into heaven we have to be spotless and that happens when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Now I am not saying that we don’t sin after accepting the Lord, but when we do we are to confess it to the Lord as 1 John 1:9 tells us, but our position in Christ is perfection as it has to be in order to be with Him.  Paul writes the following (for you my sister) in Romans 8:16-17 “16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together (KJV).”  



            MacArthur concludes this rather short section:  “Christ’s riches are our riches, His resources are our resources, His righteousness is our righteousness, and His power is our power.  His position is our position:  where He is, we are.  His privilege is our privilege:  what He is we are.  His possession is our possession: what He has we have.  His practice is our practice:  what He does, we do.

            “We are those things and have those things and do those things by the grace of God, which never fails to work His will in those who trust Him (1 Cor. 15:10).”  “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”



            I don’t think that I have ever written so many Spiritual Diaries on one verse, and yet there is much to learn from this 3rd verse of Ephesians chapter one.  Lord willing, we will begin to look at “The Elements of the Eternal Forming of the Body” in our next SD.  This section also has multiple sub-sections to it and we will be covering Ephesians 1:4-6a as we look at how the body of Christ is formed, or should I say was formed in eternity past which is a part of God’s eternal plan that forms the church which is the Body of Christ.



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that I may have some wrong conclusions as to all that has been looked at today, and it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit of God will show me the things that He wants to teach me regarding all we have looked at today.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  Have a teachable spirit so that the Spirit of God can teach me, and reinforce the things that we have been looking at in Eph. 1:3.



Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Four” (2 Kings 15:12).



Today’s Bible question:  “Through what does God now manifest His Word?”



Answer in our next SD.



10/25/2018 11:50 AM


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