SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2019
11:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Equipping”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 4:12
Message of the verse: “12 for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body
of Christ;”
As
we begin to talk again about equipping we will see from the verses that we
ended up looking at in our last SD; 2 Cor. 13:11; and also Heb. 13:20-21 that
individual equipping had been implied there.
Now we want to look at what we can call collective equipping that is
expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:10 “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” The word for complete is from katartizo meaning it is the same mind
and in the same judgment. The equipping
of each believer results in the unity of all.
John
MacArthur points out that God has given four basic tools, as it were for the
spiritual equipping of the saints. He
writes “These are spiritual means, because the flesh cannot make anyone perfect
(Gal. 3:3).” Now we want to look at this
first basic tool, and this is the most important of the four that we will look
at. The Word of God, the Bible is this
first tool: “16 All Scripture is
inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped
for every good work.” Jesus said in John
15:3 “"You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to
you.” MacArthur writes “The first
purpose of the pastor-teacher, therefore, is to feed himself, to feed his
people, and to lead them to feed themselves on the Word of God.”
From
Acts 6:4 we read that the example of the apostles “"But we will devote
ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’” This indicates that the second tool of
equipping is prayer. I think we know the
story from the 6th chapter of Acts, and that is as the church grew
the apostles did not have time to do all the things that they were doing, and
one of them was the feeding of those in the very early church. To solve this problem they appointed seven
godly men they called deacons to do this work so that they could study the Word
and to pray. “The pastor-teacher is
responsible to prepare himself and to lead his people to prepare themselves in
prayer” writes John MacArthur. You may
recall that from our devotional a couple days ago that I told the story of the
Moravian church who had 24 men and 24 women praying that God, the Lord of the
Harvest would send forth laborers, and in a truly miraculous way the Lord
answered their prayers as they did this for 100 years.
MacArthur
writes “It is essential to note that this equipping, completing, or perfecting
of the saints is attainable here on earth, because Pau uses katartizo (the verb form of equipping)
to refer to what spiritually strong believers are to do for fellow believers
who have fallen into sin. The text
strongly teaches that the ministry of equipping is the work of leading
Christians from sin to obedience.
Next
we look at the third tool of equipping and this is testing, and the fourth is
suffering, something we probably don’t like to think or talk about but from
time to time we are all tested and we all suffer in one way or another. We can call these as purging experiences by
which we as believers are refined, and a good example from the Old Testament is
found in the 109th Psalm which we spent the last three devotionals
in on my other blog talking about how David was suffering, but in the end, as
most if not all of his Psalms he was praising the Lord. These experiences of testing and suffering
refine us to becoming greater in holiness.
Both James and Paul wrote about this, Paul in the book of Romans and
James in his epistle where we read “2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when
you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance
have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking
in nothing.” I have read that the Greek
term for testing is the same word that is translated as tempting and so we are
tested by the Lord, but if we don’t allow the Lord to test us it can be turned
into tempting by the devil. Testing
brings goodness to our lives while falling into temptation from the devil
brings great harm into our lives.
MacArthur writes “When we respond to God’s testing in trust and
continued obedience, spiritual muscles are strengthened and effective service
for Him is broadened.”
In
our next SD we want to look more at suffering, Lord willing.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Trusting and tempting can be from the same
issue, and it is my desire that I know when I am being tested by the Lord, and
not turn it into temptation from the devil.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to rely upon the Lord to help me to
become more humble in His sight.
Scripture verse that goes with yesterday’s
quotation: John 16:33 “These things I
have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
4/1/2019 11:53 AM
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