Wednesday, February 13, 2019

PT-3 "Loves Abundance" (Eph. 3:17b-19a)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/13/2019 7:58 AM



My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-3 “Loves Abundance”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:17b-19a



            Message of the verses:  and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,”



            I think it would be fair to say that the last two SD’s on this section from Ephesians 3:17b-19a have been like an introduction to these verses.  As we look at the last half of verse seventeen and then verse eighteen we could ask a question.  What happens when we as believers are “rooted and grounded in love?”  The answer is seen in verse 18 as we become “able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and dept” of love.  We have to be immersed in love before we can comprehend its fullness and it as to be the very root and ground of our being.  John MacArthur writes “When someone asked the famed jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong to explain jazz, he replied, ‘Man, if I got to explain it, you ain’t got it.’  In some ways that simplistic idea applies to love.  It cannot truly be understood and comprehended until it is experienced.  Yet the experience and working of love that Paul is talking about in this passage is not emotional or subjective.  It is not nice feeling or warm sentiments that bring such comprehension, but the actual working of God’s Spirit and God’s Son in our lives to produce a love that is pure and sincere, selfless and serving.  To be ‘rooted and grounded in love’ requires being rooted and grounded in God.  When we are saved, God’s love is ‘poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us’ (Rom. 5:5).  It is the Lord Himself who directs our ‘hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ’ (2 Thess. 3:5).”



            Why is love available to every Christian?  The answer is that Christ is available to every Christian.  Paul writes that believers will become “able to comprehend with all the saints” and he is not saying just the even tempered Christian or the naturally pleasant and agreeable Christian, but “all the saints.”  He is not talking only about some supposed special class of Christians who have an inside spiritual track either, for it is for and also commanded of every Christian as he states “all the Christians.” 



            For this to happen to us as believers we have to be continually immersed in the things of God and the best way to do that is to be in His Word.  Jeremiah wrote “Thy words were found and I ate them and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts (Jeremiah 15:16).”  Job said “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” in Job 23:12.  The psalmist tells us that the delight of the righteousness person “is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” Psalm 1:2.



            As we look at comprehending “what is the breadth and length and height and dept” of love we will understand its fulness.  Love goes in every direction and to the greatest distance.  We can see this in what God did for us by sending His Son to earth and taking our place by dying on the cross to pay for our sins, and know that He went all the way for us because of His great love for us, His love was full. 



            We will attempt to finish this section on love in our next SD.



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have a friend who demonstrates Christ’s love by standing out in all kinds of weather talking to woman who are about to have their babies killed through abortion.  I have begun to pray for her daily, especially on Wednesday’s as she will be out there today sharing the love of Christ in all of its fulness to those who believe that they have the right to commit murder.  I don’t know how many babies that the Lord has allowed her to save, but I do know that it is because of her love for the Lord that she does what she does.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  That Christ will fill me with His love today and every day.



Today’s quote:  “The wise man is he who has given himself to Jesus Christ, and who, by the help of the Holy Spirit, keeps his intellect in submission to the will of God.”  (Spiros Zodiates) 



Bible verse that goes along with this quote in our next SD.



2/13/2019 8:34 AM

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