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
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