Thursday, February 21, 2019

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




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