PT-2 "Meekness" (Eph. 4:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2019 9:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “Gentleness” 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2

            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”

            We continue to look at “gentleness” or as some translations say “meekness” in today’s SD.  Numbers 12:3 “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)”  As one thinks about what Moses did they may not believe that he was so humble, after all Moses confronted Pharaoh on many different occasions, and once Israel left Egypt Moses had to confront some of the children of Israel too.  Moses even confronted God a couple of times on behalf of the children of Israel.  When you think about where Moses began back in Exodus 4:10 where we read “Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."  Moses came a long ways from that time period, and we must remember that he was 80 years old when he began to minister for the Lord, but God had prepared him as Moses tended sheep for forty years getting ready to take care of people.  Moses was nothing on his own, but everything in the hands of God and that is what made him a meek man.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones said “To be meek means you have finished with yourself altogether.”

            John MacArthur writes “Yet the meek person is also capable of righteous anger and action when God’s Word or name is maligned, as Jesus was when His Father’s house was made into a robber’s den and He forcibly drove out the offenders (Matt. 21:13).  As Paul affirms later in this letter, it is possible to be angry and not sin (Eph. 4:26).  Like the Lord Himself, the meek person does not revile in return when he is reviled (1 Pet. 2:23).  When the meek person becomes angry, he is aroused by that which maligns God or is harmful to others, not by what is done against himself.  And his anger is controlled and carefully directed, not a careless and wild venting of emotion that spatters everyone who is near.”

            If one thinks of a mark of a meek person it has to be that they are self-controlled.   They don’t let everything that comes there way cause them to get upset, as they are like what the Proverbs say “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city” (Proverbs 16:32).  There are two other marks of meekness that we have already mentioned, and that is the meek person is angered at God’s name or work being maligned and lack of anger when we ourselves are harmed or criticized. 

            The meek person will respond willingly to the Word of God, no matter what the requirements or consequences, as they humbly receive “the word implanted” as James 1:21 says.  The meek person is also a peacemaker, as he readily forgives and helps to restore a sinning brother as seen in Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”

            John MacArthur concludes this section with the following:  “Finally, the person who is truly meek and gentle according to God’s standards has the right attitude toward the unsaved.  He does not look down on them with a feeling of superiority but longs for their salvation, knowing that he himself was once lost—and would still be lost but for God’s grace.  We are to be ‘ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us], yet with gentleness (praotes) and reverence’ (1 Pet. 3:15).  Not only Christian women but all believers should be adorned ‘with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit’ (1 Pet. 3:4).”

            In our next SD we will begin to look at “Patience” something that all of us could probably use more of, but perhaps we are afraid to ask God to give it to us for fear that He will send troubles to us so that we can learn more about patience.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I think about how God worked in the heart of Moses when he was 80 years old to teach him the things that caused him to be called the most humble person on earth I have to think that God is not done with me yet and so I am willing to be taught by God to be more humble, and to have a greater quality of meekness.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to think and learn more about humility from the teaching of Romans 12:2 and also Eph. 4:2.

            Verse that goes along with our quote from yesterday:  “If you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you…then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.  For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:1, 5-6).

2/28/2019 11:08 AM

Gentleness (Eph. 4:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/27/2019 10:23 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-1 “Meekness, Gentleness”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2



            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”  “2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;” (AV).

           

            As you can see there are different words used in these different Bible translations, but for us today we will be using the word “gentleness.” 

           

            When we began looking at chapter four in our introduction we mentioned that as we look at the words in verses 2-4 that we as believers had to have one before we got the next one.  We have to be humble before we can have gentleness, as gentleness or meekness is one of the surest signs of true humility.  Just as we learned that you cannot have pride and humility, the same is true with meekness and pride, if you are prideful you cannot be meek or gentle.



            The Lord Jesus Christ was a meek person while on planet earth, and some think that means that He was timid, but that is not the case at all for we saw many times His reactions and conversations with the Scribes and Pharisees.  John MacArthur writes “Praotes” (here translated gentleness) refers to that which is mild-spirited and self-controlled, the opposite of vindictiveness and vengeance.  Jesus used the adjective form in giving the third beatitude (‘Blessed are the gentle,’ Matt. 5:5) and to describe His own character (‘For I am gentle,’ Matt. 11:29).  ‘Gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23) and should characterize every child of God (Col. 3:12; cf. Phil. 4:5).



            The meaning of praotes has nothing to do with weakness, timidity, indifference, or cowardice.  It was used of wild animals that were tamed, especially of horses that were broken and trained.  Such an animal still has his strength and spirit, but its will is under the control of its master.  The tamed lion is still powerful, but his power is under the control of the trainer.  The horse can run just as fast, but he runs only when and where his master tells him to run.”



            Now after looking at the meaning of this word one can better understand why at times Jesus got so upset with the Scribes and Pharisees, after all they were doing and saying things that were in direct opposition with the Word of God and the God of the Word.



            Biblical meekness is power under control of God.  Think about when the Lord Jesus Christ was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by the soldiers and what He said to them about the fact that if He desired that His Father would send 12 legions of angels to rescue Him.  Even in His humanity Jesus had access to infinite divine power, which He could at any time have used in His own defense.  Yet not one time in His life on earth did He use that power from His Father.  His refusal to enlist this divine resources for anything but obeying His Father’s will is the supreme picture of meekness—power under control.



            We can even go back to the life of David and see this meekness demonstrated a number of times when he could have killed Saul, but refused to do so even though Saul was chasing him to kill him.  There is another story in 2 Samuel which speaks of David’s meekness and with that story we will conclude this SD.

“5 When King David came to Bahurim, behold, there came out from there a man of the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera; he came out cursing continually as he came. 6 He threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David; and all the people and all the mighty men were at his right hand and at his left. 7 Thus Shimei said when he cursed, "Get out, get out, you man of bloodshed, and worthless fellow! 8 "The LORD has returned upon you all the bloodshed of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. And behold, you are taken in your own evil, for you are a man of bloodshed!" 9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over now and cut off his head." 10 But the king said, "What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if the LORD has told him, ’Curse David,’ then who shall say, ’Why have you done so?’" 11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, "Behold, my son who came out from me seeks my life; how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him. 12 “Perhaps the LORD will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day." 13 So David and his men went on the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside parallel with him and as he went he cursed and cast stones and threw dust at him. 14 The king and all the people who were with him arrived weary and he refreshed himself there.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that as I look at the things that are going on in our country, especially the way that the left is treating and killing unborn babies it truly makes me angry, and I suppose if I had the power that I would do things to them that would not be something that I should do.  However what they are doing will cause them to face the wrath of God for God has said “vengeance is mine” and so one day those who are killing those innocent babies will face His wrath, and so I must pray that God will stop this killing of innocent lives knowing that some day He will do so. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to teach me humility as seen in both Romans 12:3 and also Eph. 4:2.

Today’s quotation:  “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main ends of his life and studies; to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all knowledge and learning and see that the Lord only giveth wisdom” (John Harvard [Harvard University]).

2/27/2019 11:16 AM

           

PT-5 "Humility" (Eph. 4:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/26/2019 9:40 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-5 “Humility”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2



            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”



            I have mentioned many different times this year that the Lord seems to working on my heart for me to understand true humility.  In my prayer time each day I go over Romans 12:3 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”  Paul writes this right after begging his readers to give themselves to the Lord for service and for worship as found in Romans 12:1-2.  He wrote the first eleven chapters of Romans about doctrine and now just as in this fourth chapter of Ephesians he writes about how believers are to live out these doctrines.  He desires us to become what we already are.  In Romans 12:3 Paul begins to write about spiritual gifts, and he does this also in 1 Corinthians 12, and we will also see this in Ephesians chapter four, along with what Peter wrote in 1 Peter chapter four.  In both Romans and Ephesians Paul talks about humility as believers are in need of humility to exercise their spiritual gifts, for after all they are gifts bestowed upon them by the Spirit of God and not something we are born with, but something we need to help in the body of Christ.  God is certainly gracious to me in first of all laying on my heart the desire to understand humility better, and then to teach me about humility as, I believe that He has drawn me to study the book of Ephesians.  I am thankful that God continues to work in my heart to make me more like my Lord Jesus Christ, and it is my desire to continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of my Lord each day.  Spiritual growth is kind of like the title of Chuck Swindoll’s book entitled “Three Steps Forward, One Step Back.”  It’s slow but there is nothing better to do in my walk with the Lord.  With all of this said I want to quote the last several paragraphs found in John MacArthur’s commentary as he finishes up his comments on Humility.



            “Humility begins with proper self-awareness, ‘the virtue,’ said Bernard of Clairvaux, ‘by which a man becomes conscious of his own unworthiness.’  It begins with an honest, unadorned, unretouched view of oneself.  The first thing the honest person sees in himself is sin, and therefore one of the surest marks of true humility is daily confession of sin.  ‘If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:8-9).  ‘We are not bole to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves,’ Paul says; ‘but when tey measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding’ (2 Cor. 10:12).  It is not only unspiritual but unintelligent to judge ourselves by comparison with others.  Humility takes off our rose-colored glasses and allows us to see ourselves as we really are.  We are not ‘adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves,’ says Paul, ‘but our adequacy is from God’ (2 Cor. 3:5).



            “Second humility involves Christ-awareness.  He is the only standard by which righteousness can be judged and by which pleasing God can be judged.  Our goal should be no less than ‘to walk in the same manner as He walked’ (1 John 2:6), and Jesus Christ walked in perfection.  Only of Jesus has God ever said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased’ (Matt. 3:17).



            “Third, humility involves God-awareness.  As we study His life in the gospels we come to see Jesus more and more in His human perfection—His perfect humility, His perfect submission to the Father, His perfect love, compassion, and wisdom.  But beyond His human perfection we also come to see His divine person; and His authority to heal diseases, cast our demons, and even forgive sins.  We come to see Jesus Christ as Isaiah saw the Lord, ‘sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted’ and we want to cry out with the seraphim, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory,’ and with the prophet himself, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts’ (Isaiah 6:1, 3, 5).



            “When Paul looked at himself in self-awareness, he saw the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).  When Peter looked at himself in Christ awareness, he said ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ (Luke 5:8).  When Job looked at himself in God awareness, he said, ‘Therefore I retract, I repent in dust and ashes’ (Job 42:6).



            “Our business success, fame, education wealth, personality, good works, or anything else we are or have in ourselves counts for nothing before God.  The more we rely on and glory in such things, the greater barrier they become to our communion with God.  Every person comes before the Lord with nothing to commend him and everything to condemn him.  But when he comes with the spirit of the penitent tax-collector, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner,’ God will willingly and lovingly accept him.  ‘For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted’ (Luke 18:13-14).”



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I had never thought about Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 as both talk about spiritual gifts after both books talk about doctrine, and then before writing about the spiritual gifts, both begin with writing about humility.  God is gracious in teaching us about humility before He bestows His gifts upon us.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to learn more about humility as found in both Romans 12:3 and Ephesians 4:2.



Verse that goes along with yesterday’s quotation:  “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to Him” (James 1:5).



2/26/2019 10:47 AM

PT-4 "Humility" (Eph. 4:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2019 10:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-4 “Humility”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2



            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”



            I promised a story from MacArthur’s commentary as we begin this SD:

During the days of slavery in the West Indies, a group of Moravian Christians found it impossible to witness to the slaves because they were almost totally separated from the ruling class—many of whom felt it beneath them even to speak to a slave.  Two young missionaries, however, were determined to reach those oppressed peoples at any cost.  In order to fulfill God’s calling they joined the slaves.  They worked and lived beside the slaves, becoming totally identified with them—sharing their overwork, their beatings, and their abuse.  It is not strange that the two missionaries soon won the hearts of those slaves, many of whom accepted for themselves the God who could move men to such loving selflessness.”

            How could not one think of our Lord Jesus Christ who actually became a slave as Paul points out in Philippians 2: 5-7 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”  The word for “bond-servant” is actually slave, (doulos) and it is unfortunate that in most NT translations of the Bible that the word is not translated slave in the more than 120 times it is used in the NT.  At any rate the point that I am trying to make is that these missionaries in this story did something very similar in what Jesus did in becoming a slave so that those who accept him can become children of God.

            A person cannot become a believer without humility, for a person has to realize that they are a sinner, and that takes humility to do that.  John the Baptist is a perfect example of a person having humility.  John the Baptist was called by God to make things ready for the Messiah and even though he had a great ministry when he saw Jesus coming, the One he was making a way for, John said “I am not fit to remove His sandals” (Matt. 3:11).  He went on to say “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).  There are other examples in the Scripture of having humility, one would be Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus listening to Him, and then there was Matthew the tax collector who after Jesus’ call he got rid of everything to follow Jesus.  Matthew did not write about his conversion as he left it up to Luke to do so. 

            As far as Mark’s gospel we believe that this was written under the influence of Peter and so in Mark’s gospel we don’t see the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water, and we don’t see the story that comes out of Matthew 16 about Peter confessing that Jesus is the Messiah. 

            John MacArthur has a quote in this section of his commentary from Thomas Guthrie:

“The grandest edifices, the tallest towers, the loftiest spires rest on deep foundations.  The very safety of eminent gifts and preeminent graces lies in their association with deep humility.  They are dangerous without it.  Great men do need to be good men.  Look at the mighty ship.  A leviathan into the sea, with her towering masts and carrying a cloud of canvas.  How she steadies herself on the waves and walks erect on the rolling waters like a thing with inherent, self-regulating life…Why is she not flung on her beam’s end, sent down floundering into the deep?  Because unseen beneath the surface a vast well-ballasted hull gives her balance and takes hold of the water, keeps her steady under a pressive sail and on the bosom of a swelling sea.  Even though to preserve the saint upright, to preserve the saint erect and safe from falling, God gives him balance and ballast bestowing on the man to whom He has given lofty endowments, the tendant grace of a proportionate humility. “

            It looks like we will have to finish this section in our next SD as after this last quote I think it would be good to think about it for a while.  I have been making my Spiritual Diaries shorter as we go through the book of Ephesians because there is a lot to digest in this wonderful book and I don’t want to have too much to digest at one time.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Lord led me to study the book of Ephesians in order for me to better understand the great truths that are found in its pages.  Along with that goes what I believe the Lord desires to teach me this year from Romans 12:3.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust learn more about humility, and to trust the Lord as I prepare my Sunday school lesson for this up-coming Sunday.

Today’s quotation:  “Knowledge is horizontal, wisdom is vertical—it comes down from above” (Billy Graham).

2/25/2019 11:05 AM

           

PT-3 "Humility" (Eph. 4:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2019 7:14 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “Humility”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Eph. 4:2



            Message of the verse:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”



            We are looking at the different characterizes of the worthy walk, beginning with humility and then we will move onto the other four essential characteristics of the worthy walk after we finish writing about humility.  Humility could be characterized as the most important characteristic for if believers are not humble then the other four characteristics will be difficult if not impossible to live out.



            In our last SD I wrote about how a young student asked John MacArthur when he stopped having trouble with pride, and in today’s SD I want to, first of all give a quote from MacArthur to help answer that question.  “Pride is the supreme temptation from Satan, because pride is at the heart of his own evil nature.  Consequently, Satan makes sure that the Christian is never entirely free from the temptation of pride.  We will always be in a battle with pride until the Lord takes us to be with Himself.  Our only protection against pride, and our only source of humility, is a proper view of God.  Pride is the sin of competing with God, and humility is the virtue of submitting to His supreme glory.”



            I am not sure why we believers can be so proud, for if we look at our life before we became a believer in Jesus Christ we were pretty pitiful, and the only reason that we became a believer is because of the effectual call that the Spirit of God gave to us that we could not say no to. 



            Pride comes in all different forms, and we are tempted to fall into all of these forms of pride, things like being tempted to be proud of our abilities, our possessions, our education, our social status, our appearance, our power, and even our biblical knowledge or religious accomplishments.  The Lord calls us as believers to humility.  Proverbs 15:33b says “And before honor comes humility.”  Proverbs 22:4 “The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD Are riches, honor and life.”  One more from Proverbs 27:2 “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.”



            2/24/2019 7:37 AM 2/24/2019 9:01 PM



            John MacArthur writes:  “Humility is an ingredient of all spiritual blessing.  Just as every sin has its roots in pride, every virtue has its roots in humility.  Humility allows us to see ourselves as we are, because it shows us before God as He is.  Just as pride is behind every conflict we have with other people and every problem of fellowship we have with the Lord, so humility is behind every harmonious human relationship, every spiritual success, and every moment of joyous fellowship with the Lord.”



            In our next SD we will begin with a story that will help us better understand humility.



Bible verse that goes with our last quotation:  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).”



2/24/2019 9:07 PM

PT-2 "Humility" (Eph. 4:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2019 9:48 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                  Focus: PT-2 “Humility”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2



            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”



            We have been talking about humility in our last SD, and humility is the most foundational Christian virtue.  There is no way that we can please God without humility, and in the same way the Lord Jesus Christ could have not pleased His Father without being humble as we looked at when we looked at the verses in Philippians.  “Emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and…humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross’ (Phil. 2:7-8).



            The following is a very interesting quote from John MacArthur’s commentary on Ephesians as he writes about humility:  “Yet humility is terribly elusive, because if focused on too much it will turn into pride, its very opposite.  Humility is a virtue to be highly sought but never claimed, because once claimed it is forfeited.  Only Jesus Christ, as the perfectly obedient Son, could justifiably claim humility for Himself.  ‘Take My yoke upon you,’ He said, ‘for I am gentle and humble in heart’ (Matt. 11:29).  He came to earth as God’s Son, yet was born in a stable, raised in a peasant family, never owned property except the garments on His back, and was buried in a borrowed tomb.  At any time He could have exercised His divine rights, prerogatives, and glory, but in obedience and humility He refused to do so because it would have been to go outside His Father’s will.  If the Lord of glory walked in humility while He was on earth, how much more are His imperfect followers to do so?  ‘The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked’ (1 John 2:6).”

            As we look around the world today we do not see a lot of humility, even in the church, and I suppose that one of the reasons is that pride, the opposite of humility, is a part of our old nature.  The first sin ever committed was pride as seen in the 14^th chapter of Isaiah where he writes about the fall of Lucifer, who became Satan.  In that chapter we see five “I wills” as Lucifer states “12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ’I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ’I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit (Isaiah 14:12-15).  Notice what the Lord says will happen to Lucifer because of his pride as seen in verse fifteen.

            As stated earlier that the church has its fair share of being prideful, that is not being humble, and one of the reasons that this is could be that far too many times the church goes after the things of the world.  God has much to say about both pride and humility in His Word, and I suppose that we can find many of them in the book of Proverbs, along with the OT prophets. 

            We will talk more about humility in our next few Spiritual Diaries, but as I close this section today I want to talk about something that I heard on a sermon on this section of Ephesians spoken by John MacArthur.  He stated that he had some students over to his house one day and one of them asked when did he overcome pride.  What he said afterwards helps put things into perspective in our battle against this sin of pride.  He stated that this will be an ongoing battle, perhaps this is one of the reasons that we as believers need to put on the Spiritual Armor each day, and perhaps this is a reason why we are to keep short lists with God, asking Him to search our hearts so that His Spirit can find sinful things that we have committed, and then confess them to the Lord.  The statement that MacArthur made about this being a battle actually encouraged me as I believe that our obedient life, our walk with the Lord is and always will be a battle until we shed this earthly body we live in and are transported to heaven.

Quotation for Today:  “Fear knocked, faith answered, no one was there.”

We will look at the verse that goes along with this quote in our next SD.

2/23/2019 10:24 AM

PT-1 "The Characteristics of the Worthy Walk" (Eph. 4:2-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/22/2019 8:57 AM

My Worship Time                                    Focus:  PT-1 “The Characteristics of the Worthy Walk”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:2-3

            Message of the verses:  “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

            As we look at the five highlighted sections in these two verses we will see that Paul has given us five essentials for faithful Christian living, five attitudes on which walking worthy in the Lord’s call are predicated. 

            I have mentioned that I want to study Romans 12:3 which speak of humility, and so I am thankful to the Lord for allowing me to get a better understanding of this as I study it here in verse two.  I believe that it will take a few days just to get through this word and so we will just take our time and try and learn what we can as the Spirit of God will teach us more about these five essentials of walking worthy in the Lord.

            These five essentials that we are looking at are in order, similar to what we looked at when studying the second chapter of Peter a few years back.  You have to have and understand humility before you go onto gentleness and so on as we go through these different essentials.

            “5012 ταπεινοφροσυνη tapeinophrosune tap-i-nof-ros-oo’-nay

from a compound of 5011 and the base of 5424; TDNT-8:1,1152; n f

AV-humility 3, humbleness of mind 1, humility of mind 1, lowliness 1, lowliness of mind 1; 7

1) the having a humble opinion of one’s self

2) a deep sense of one’s (moral) littleness

3) modesty, humility, lowliness of mind”

            This is what it looks like in my Online Bible English/Greek dictionary and as you see the word translated “humility” is a compound word.  I find it interesting that “neither the Romans nor the Greeks had a word for humility” so writes John Wesley.  I find that interesting too.  John MacArthur writes “The very concept was so foreign and abhorrent to their way of thinking that they had no term to describe it.  Apparently this Greek term was coined by Christians, probably by Paul himself, to describe a quality for which no other word was available.  To the proud Greeks and Romans, their terms for ignoble, cowardly, and other such characteristics were sufficient to describe the ‘unnatural’ proud who did not think of himself with pride and self-satisfaction. When, during the first several centuries of Christianity, pagan writers borrowed the term tapeinophrosune, they always used it derogatorily—frequently of Christians—because to them humility was a pitiable weakness.”

            When I think of the word “humility” I think of what Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 2:5-11 where Paul writes about Christ coming to earth, and the fact that when He did this He had to do it in a humble way.  I think of the hymn “Out of the Ivory Palaces” when I think of Philippians 2:5-11. 

            I will close this SD by quoting those verses in Philippians two, and then in our next SD we will look more closely at the meaning of humility as it has some, what we may believe are strange things about it.

“5  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at the highlighted portion from Philippians where we read “He humbled Himself.”  Jesus humbled Himself by taking on the form of a bond-servant in order to come to earth and die for me.  I have to believe that I cannot humble myself, but I have to learn how to be humble so that I can serve the Lord in a worthy manner.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to learn to be humble so I can be used by God.

Verse that goes along with our last quotation:  “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Ps. 51:10).”

2/22/2019 9:44 AM

PT-3 "The call to the Worthy Walk" (Eph. 4:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2019 10:46 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “The Call to the Worthy Walk”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 4:1

            Message of the verse:  “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,”

            In these Spiritual Diaries that I write the words “effectual call” have been used on different occasions.  This speaks of the call that the Holy Spirit gives to those whom God chose in eternity past, and as we look towards the end of Ephesians 4:1 we see “walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called.”  Paul, here is speaking of that effectual call that the Holy Spirit gave to these believers, and says to them walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling that you have received when you were saved.  John MacArthur writes “No one can come to me,” Jesus said, ‘unless the Father who sent me draws him’ (John 6:44; cf. v. 65).  On another, He said, ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself’ (John 12:32).  Paul tells us that those whom God ‘predestined, those He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified; (Rom. 8:30).  As the apostle mentioned in the opening of this letter, ‘He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him’ (Eph. 1:4).  No person can be saved apart from receiving Jesus Christ as his Savior.  But no person can choose Christ who has not already been chosen by the Father and the Son.  ‘You did not choose Me,’ Jesus explained to the disciples, ‘but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain’ (John 15:16).”

            These references are only a few of the references that Paul has written in different letters that he wrote that refer to the believer’s calling (klesis).  This, as in the case we have just looked refers to the Lord’s sovereign, effectual call to salvation.  (Rom. 11:29; 1 Cor. 1:26; Eph. 1:18, 4; Phil. 3:14; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:9; cf. Heb. 3:1; 2 Pet. 1:10.)

            Now without God’s calling, and without His choosing us, if we were to chose Him then that would be futile.  Paul writes in Romans from a quote from the OT “No one seeks after God.”  This is true because the natural man and all are born natural is at enmity with God as also seen in Romans (8:7).  However the marvelous truth of the gospel is that God not only sent His Son to provide the way of salvation as seen in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” but that He sent Him to seek and to save those who are lost in order to save them as seen in Luke 19:10 “"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  MacArthur adds “God was not content simply to make salvation available.  He has called the redeemed elect to Himself.”

            He goes on to conclude this section by writing “That is why our calling is a high calling, a ‘heavenly calling’ (Heb. 3:1), and ‘a holy calling’ (2 Tim. 1:9).  And that is why the faithful, responsive Christian is determined to ‘press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to remember that at times there are some stinking things in the closet of my home where Christ lives, and that I have to get rid of them in order to walk worthy of the Lord who called me to salvation and who calls me to walk worthy in my Christian life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Give myself to the Lord as a living sacrifice, and to live humbly before my God.

Today’s quotation:  “One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake (Billy Sunday).”

2/21/2019 11:15 AM

PT-2 "The Call to the Worthy Walk" (Eph. 4:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/20/2019 8:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “The Call to the Worthy Walk”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Ephesians 4:1

            Message of the verse:  “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,”

            We want to look at the words “I…entreat you,” first of all as Paul made no apology for pleading with people to do what he knew was right.  John MacArthur writes “Parakaleo (entreat) means to call to one’s side, with the idea of wanting to help or be helped.  It connotes intense feeling, strong desire.  In this context it is not simply a request but a plea, an imploring or begging.  Paul was not giving suggestions to the Ephesians but divine standards, standards apart from which they could not live in a way that fittingly corresponded to their being children of God.  Paul never exhorted on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.  He could not rest until all those given into his spiritual care walked ‘in a manner worthy of the calling with which’ they had ‘been called.’”

            As we look at some different places in the New Testament we see more of Paul’s heart speaking to people like King Agrippa to listen to his testimony.  This is found in Acts 26:3.  Then in another place he strongly urged the Corinthians to reaffirm their love for a brother who had repented.  This is found in 2 Corinthians 2:8. He pleaded with the Galatians to stand in the liberty of the gospel as seen in Galatians 4:12.  One of my favorite sections that goes along these lines comes from Romans 9:1-3 as Paul pleads with his Jewish brethren to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.  “1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”  We truly see Paul’s heart in this section of Romans.

            In MacArthur’s commentary he writes about the difficulty of being a Pastor and trying to do the things that go along with what Pastors do, stating that some get depressed because they do not have enough time to prepare their sermons and to do the other things in the ministry that they need to do.  My thoughts on this is that first of all the people in the congregation should be praying for their Pastors on a daily basis, and then they should also be doing the things that they need to do, and in the case that we are looking at here that means to learn to walk worthy with the Lord.  I have a special prayer list that I use to pray for our Pastors every Saturday, and also a smaller portion that I use to pray daily for our Pastors.  In that one used on Saturday there is a section in it that I have quoted from time to time on different Spiritual Diaries, and I think that it fits in here and so I will quote it on this SD.  This quote comes under the heading of “Effectiveness in Proclamation.” 

“Now the following is a quote from Gardener Spring “"We cannot convert a single soul. We press home the divine commands and they trample upon His authority. We press home His threatenings and they despise His justice. We speak tenderly of His promises, they heed not His faithfulness of His beloved Son and they tread Him under their feet, of His patience and long suffering but their impenitence and obstinacy are proof against them all. We reason and plead with them until the obstacles to their conversions seem to us to rise higher by every effort we make to overcome them. Until finally we sink in dejection and cry out, `What mighty power can break these granite-like hearts, what omnipotent grasp can rescue these perishing men from everlasting burnings?' O you blood-bought churches, your minister’s need your prayers for the exceeding greatness of that power which God worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead," end quote.”

            As we go back to our text we see the word “walk” in it and that word in the New Testament is frequently used to refer to daily conduct in our day-by-day living, and it is the theme of the last three chapters in Ephesians.  John MacArthur writes “In the first sixteen verses of chapter 4, Paul emphasizes the unity and in the rest of the chapter the uniqueness of the Christian walk.  In chapters 5 and 6 he stresses the moral purity, the wisdom, the Spirit control, the family manifestations, and the warfare of the Christian walk.”

            He goes on to explain the word “worthy:”  Axios (worthy) has the root meaning of balancing the scales—what is on the one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side.  By extension, the word came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else.  A person worthy of his pay was one whose day’s work corresponded to his day’s wages.  The believer who walks ‘in a manner worthy of the calling with which he has been called’ is one whose daily living corresponds to his high position as a child of God and fellow heir with Jesus Christ.  His practical living matches his spiritual position.”

            We will continue looking at this subject in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to continually to learn more about my high position that I have in Christ as I have been looking at since the middle of October that is found here in Ephesians and then to walk in a manner worthy of that high calling.  When I fail I have to remember the words of the old Scottish preacher who said “The successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Part of a worthy walk has to do with being humble as seen in Romans 12:3.

Verse that goes along with yesterday’s quotation:  “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13).”

2/20/2019 9:03 AM

PT-1 "The Call to the Worthy Walk" (Eph. 4:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2019 9:52 AM

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-1 “The Call To the Worthy Walk”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Ephesians 4:1

            Message of the verses:  “1 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,”

            Ephesians 3:1 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.”  We see another reminder of 3:1 in 4:1, that is that Paul was a prisoner of the Lord, and we can take from this that Paul did not believe he was a prisoner of Rome, but that he was a prisoner of the Lord.

            As we look at 4:1 and what Paul reminds his readers of as far as being a prisoner of the Lord we then can see that when he brings up the worthy walk that there may be times when that worthy walk will bring hardships to those who are walking worthy with the Lord.  It was not the intention of Paul to ask them to walk in a way in which he had not himself was walking or to pay a price that he himself was not willing to pay.  MacArthur adds “His present physical circumstances seemed extremely negative from a human perspective, but Paul wanted his readers to know that this did not change his commitment to or his confidence in the Lord.

            Paul was not asking for sympathy because of his imprisonment, but he was reminding them again of his complete subservience to Christ, his being “the prisoner of the Lord” whether he was in jail or not.  When Paul was on his way to Damascus as seen in Acts chapter nine and the Lord saved him at that time he then became a prisoner of the Lord and never sought to be free of that divine imprisonment.

            As I was reading in MacArthur’s commentary on this section of Ephesians I read two paragraphs that really have great meaning to me.  I know that from listening to his sermons and reading his commentaries that John MacArthur loves the apostle Paul and loves the life that he lived as Paul gives every believer many things that they want to do in their walk with the Lord, and so at this point I want to quote these two paragraphs and then end this SD so that we can all think about what is said here.

            “Paul had the ability to see everything in the light of how it affected Christ.  He saw everything vertically before he saw it horizontally.  His motives were Christ’s, his standards were Christ’s, his objectives were Christ’s, his vision was Christ’s, his entire orientation was Christ’s.  Everything he thought, planned, said, and did was in relation to his Lord.  He was in the fullest sense a captive of Lord Jesus Christ.

            “Most of us will admit that we tend to be so self-oriented that we see many things first of all—and sometimes only—in relation to ourselves.  But the person who has the Word of Christ abiding in him richly, to one who saturates his mind with divine wisdom and truth will ask, ‘How does this affect God?  How will it reflect on Him?  What does he want me to do with this problem or this blessing?  How can I most please and honor Him in this?’  He tries to see everything through God’s divine grid.  That attitude is the basis and the mark of spiritual maturity.  With David, the mature Christian can say, ‘I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand’ (Ps. 16:8).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The bar has been set very high for me as I read these two paragraphs, and only by the grace of God can I do things that will bring honor and glory to my Lord Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Romans 12:3, “Not to think more highly of myself.”

Quotation for today which is actually from an Unknown Author:  No one ever falls into sin as the result of being to watchful.”

We will look at the verse that goes along with this quote in our next SD.

2/19/2019 10:24 AM