Scripture Somtimes Commends Wine (Eph. 5:18a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/30/2019 5:06 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus: Scripture Sometimes Commends Wine

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:18a

 

            Message of the verses:  “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life” (NLT).

 

            Perhaps one may think that because of all we have learned about drunkenness that it forbids the drinking of wine.  Sometimes it even commends the drinking of wine.  In the Old Testament as seen in places like Exodus 29:40 and Numbers 15:5 we see that wine is actually a part of the sacrifices given to God.  Psalm 104:15 says “And wine which makes man’s heart glad, So that he may make his face glisten with oil, And food which sustains man’s heart.”  The author of Proverbs advised giving “strong drink to him who is perishing and wine to him whose life is bitter (Pr. 31:6).  Now in speaking of God’s gracious invitation to salvation, Isaiah declared, “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat.  Come; buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isa. 55:1).

 

            In 1 Timothy 5:23 Paul advised Timothy to drink a little wine to help his stomach problems.  We also know that Jesus made water into wine at the wedding in Cana as seen in John 2:6-10. 

 

            John MacArthur concludes this short section with the following comments:  “Like many other things, the kind of wine of which Scripture speaks (discussed below) has the potential either for evil or good.  I believe there was a time when the juice of the grape, like every other thing God created, was only good and did not have even the potential for evil.  Fermentation, a form of decay, likely was made possible by the corruption of nature at the Fall and actually began with the vast environmental change caused by the Flood and the accompanying removal of the vapor canopy over the earth that had protected it from direct sunlight.  It is not unreasonable to believe that in the millennial kingdom the process will again be reversed, when the curse is removed and nature is restored to its original state of perfect goodness.”

 

            I did mention a part of this in an earlier SD, and so that makes me happy that John MacArthur agrees with me on some things.

 

Scripture that goes along with Spiros Zodiates quotation from yesterday is from Proverbs 9:9 “Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man and he will increase in learning.”

 

6/30/2019 5:21 PM

"Scripture Always Condemns Drunkenness" (Eph. 5:18a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2019 2:02 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  Scripture Always Condemns Drunkenness

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:18a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Don’t get your stimulus from wine (for there is always the danger of excessive drinking)” (Phillips).

 

            It is probably not any surprise to anyone who reads the Word of God to find out that getting drunk is never supported by the Bible.  If we think back to after the flood when Noah and his family got off of the ark we read that Noah got drunk and his son Ham had some kind of sexual relation with his father.  Noah actually cursed the son of Ham, Canaan 9:24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 So he said, "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.’”  It is believed that before the flood that things could not ferment, so there could never be any fermented wine or other things that make liquor, but after the flood it could happen and that is why Noah got drunk.  Perhaps he had made grape juice from grapes before the flood and did not realize that it could now make him drunk, at any rate we see what happened to Noah once he drunk wine and perverted sexual relationships happened due to wine and this still goes on today, not just homosexual but also sexual relationships between a man and a woman can happen easier once one of both are drunk. 

 

            I want to give some different verses from the Word of God to show that drunkenness is against it.

 

            The first one we will look at is what happened to Lot and his daughters after God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  30 Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth. 32 “Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father." 33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father." 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day” (Gen. 19:30-38).

 

            This would not have happened with Lot being drunk is the first thing I want to say about this, and there are many other reasons that we will not get into as to why this happened.  Next I want to say that the word “incest” is a new word.  In today’s world this would be called incest, and it was just as wrong then as it is today.  However when we look back at when Adam and Eve were living on the earth the only way the human race could continue is if brothers and sisters, and then cousins could get married and have children.  The reason that this could happen then is because the gene pool was not as corrupted as it is today.

 

            In the fifth chapter of Daniel we see how the Babylonian Empire ended and it also had to do with drunkenness.  I will let you read that chapter on your own.

 

            If you scan through the book of Proverbs you will see it has much to say about the harsh realities of drunkenness.  We did look at a section in our last SD.  John MacArthur writes “Drunkenness mocks a person by making him think he is better off instead of worse off, smarter instead of more foolish, and happier instead of simply dazed.  It is a favorite tool of Satan for the very reason that it deceives while it destroys.  Surely it presents vulnerability to demons.  The drunk does not learn his lesson and is deceived over and over again.  Even when he is waylaid, beaten, and finally awakens from his drunken stupor he “will seek another drink” (23:35). 

 

            One more quote from MacArthur and we will be done with this section:  “In Ephesians 5:18, Paul was therefore not simply making a moral but also a theological contrast.  He was not only speaking of the moral and social evils of drunkenness, but of the spiritually perverted use of drunkenness as a means of worship.  Christians are not to seek religious fulfillment through such pagan means as getting drunk with wine, but are to find their spiritual fulfillment and enjoyment by being ‘filled with the Spirit.’  The believer has no need for the artificial, counterfeit, degrading, destructive, and idolatrous ways of the world.  He has God’s own Spirit indwelling him, the Spirit whose great desire is to give believers the fullest benefits and enjoyment of their high position as children of God.

 

            “The context of this passage further indicates that Paul was speaking primarily about the religious implications of drunkenness.  The frenzied, immoral, and drunken orgies of pagan ceremonies were accompanied by correspondingly corrupt liturgies.  In verses 19-20 Paul showed the kind of liturgy that pleases God: Spirit-filled believers ‘speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.’”

 

            I think that in reading over these last two quotes that we are able to see why Paul wrote this section in Ephesians.  I once was in a Sunday school class at the church we used to go to and the subject of moral issues came up.  One of the Pastors stated that it is not the job of the Church to just show people the moral high ground, as they will still end up in hell, but it is our job as believers to show people their spiritual needs, that is to realize that they are sinners, that they were born sinners, and need to repent of their sinfulness and sins and accept what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross and then to accept and believe that He did this for them and invite Him into their lives to be their Savior and also the Lord of their lives.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life:  It is, and has been my desire for many hears to have the Spirit of God fill me in order to do the things that God planned for me to do in eternity past.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire for the Lord to continue to teach me, and that the Spirit of God continues to encourage me to seek humility.

 

Today’s quotation is from a man named Spiros Zodiates who was a Greek American Bible scholar.  He said “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 of the will of God.”  Remember I shuffled these cards that the quotations are on and had no idea that this one would be similar to what I have written today.

 

6/29/2019 2:50 PM

2nd Intro to Eph. 5:18a

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2019 11:50 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Eph. 5:18a”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 5:18a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery” (NIV). “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation” (NASB95).

 

            I looked up the different Greek words found in this section of verse eight and found that “Do not get” and then “drunk” are the same Greek word.  “1) To intoxicate, make drunk 2) to get drunk, become intoxicated.”  The next Greek word in this passage is “wine” “1) wine

2) metaph. fiery wine of God’s wrath.”  Then we have one more Greek word for “debauchery” in the NIV and then “dissipation” from the NASB95.  “1) an abandoned, dissolute life 2) profligacy, prodigality.”  Synonyms for “profligacy” are “wastefulness” “dissolution” and also “licentiousness” among a few.  Synonyms for “prodigality” are “lavishness” dissipation, and extravagance.”  Meaning of the word is “excessive spending.”  I hope this will add some insight into this partial verse.

 

            John MacArthur writes at the very beginning of his commentary on this verse the following:  The verse which these words introduce is one of the most crucial texts relating to Christian living, to walking ‘in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (4:1).  Begin controlled by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for living the Christian life by God’s standards.  God’s way cannot be properly understood or faithfully followed apart from the working of the Spirit in the life of a believer.

 

            “But before Paul commanded us to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ and gave the characteristics of the Spirit-filled life (vv. 18b-21), he first gave a contrasting and negative command, ‘and do not get drunk with wine.’  Getting drunk with wine not only is a hindrance to, but a counterfeit of, being filled with the Spirit.  In light of the apostle’s preceding contrasts between light and darkness (vv. 8-14) and between wisdom and foolishness (vv. 15-17), his point here is that getting drunk is a mark of darkness and foolishness and that being filled with the Spirit is the source of a believer’s being able to walk in light and wisdom.”

 

            As one thinks about church history there are a number of things that come up that have caused disagreements with believers in the church.  One of them is music, and another one is drinking alcohol.  I remember talking to a missionary who ministered in Italy about where or not people in his church drank wine and he said that this was a part of their life style and the certainly did drink wine.  I have to think that although they drank wine that they did not get drunk. 

 

            In the church that I use to attend and the one that I attend now we have in our covenant not to drink alcohol as a beverage.  It also talks about not doing drugs.  I have to admit that I do from time to time have a glass of wine when I cannot sleep, which I do consider as a type of medicine to aid me in getting to sleep.  There were times in my life, especially after coming home from my job in a foundry when the temperature would reach well over 100 degrees for an entire shift that I would drink a couple of beers to try and get some liquids into my system.  I have a problem with what is in our church covenant yet I do my best to follow it because the church that I go to is a wonderful church and I desire to continue to go there. 

 

            In our next SD, God willing, we will look at the subject “Scripture always condemns drunkenness.”  I have mentioned that I will try to be brief as we move through the different sections we will be looking at concerning the drinking of wine and alcohol. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As for me not being able to drink wine or alcohol has not really been a problem for me even though I do like the taste of a beer now and then, especially when it is hot outside, but as mentioned I rarely do this because of our church covenant.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to continue to think and learn about humility and also heaven.  One must be humble in order to get to heaven.

 

Today’s verse that goes along with yesterday’s quotation from Charles Swindoll is from Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”

 

6/28/2019 12:30 PM  

First Intro to Eph. 5:18a

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2019 11:05 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Intro to Ephesians 5:18a

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:18a

 

            Message of the verses:  “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation,”  “Don’t get your stimulus from wine (for there is always the danger of excessive drinking),” (Philips). Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life” (NLT).

 

            I was looking over John MacArthur’s commentary on Ephesians and as I looked at the 18^th chapter which he entitles “Do Not Get Drunk with Wine,” I noticed that it has a total of 15 pages in it.  This kind of took me by surprise and because I had a bit of trouble sleeping last night I decided to read through this section, but I only got through five of the fifteen pages.  Now what I want to do in this introduction as far as today is first of all go over the different names of the sections that are found in MacArthur’s commentary, which is something that I use in my Spiritual Diaries which go onto the “Focus” portion of it.

 

1.     “Scripture Always Condemns Drunkenness.”

2.     “Scripture Sometimes Commends Wine.”

3.     “Guidelines For Christians.”

A.     “Is Toda’s Wine The Same as That in Bible Times?”

B.    “Is It necessary?”

C.    “Is It The Best Choice?”

D.    “Is It Habit Forming?”

E.     “Is It Potentially Destructive?”

F.     “Will It Offend Other Christians?”

G.    “Will It Harm My Christian Testimony?”

H.    “Is It Right?”

 

            These are the subjects that we will look at as we study this short section of Ephesians, but actually if you go back to some of the other things that we have been looking at this fits right into them.  If you look at the entire verse you see that there is a choice to make, either getting drunk with wine or being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We have also looked at being in the darkness or being in the light.  We also looked at walking in wisdom as opposed to walking in foolishness.

 

            As I went through some of MacArthur’s comments he had much to say about what the Bible has to say about the tremendous problems that drunkenness brings onto individual’s and their families. I want to quote from proverbs 23 and verses 29-35 which to me is a good example of some of the things that the Bible has to say about drunkenness.

 

“29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine. 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things. 34 And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. 35 “They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.’”

 

            Needless to say we will be looking at this subject for a little while, but it is my desire to not linger as long as I could on this subject.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire never to ever end up like the person written about in Proverbs 23.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to think about humility.

 

Today’s quotation is from a man who I have tremendous respect for and that is Charles Swindoll who said “Soul surgery transpires as serenity replaces anxiety.”

 

6/27/2019 11:33 AM

 

   

PT-2 "The Lord's Purposes" (Eph. 5:17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2019 9:38 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Lord’s Purposes”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:17

 

            Message of the verse:  “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

 

            Let us begin by talking about the unwise believer.  He will act foolishly in a manner where he tries to function apart from what God’s will is for him, and this will inevitably make him weak, frustrated, and also ineffective, in both his personal life and also in his work for the Lord.  There is only one cure for such foolishness and that is to find and to follow what the will of God is for his life.

 

            Now where do we find God’s basic will?  Well the Lord has given it to us in His Word, and it is here we find His perfect sufficient guidelines for knowing and doing what it is that will please the Lord.  MacArthur states “But the ‘will’ of which Paul seems to be speaking here is the Lord’s specific leading of individual believers.  Although His plans and directions for each believer are not found in Scripture, the general principles for understanding them are there.  God does not promise to show us His will through visions, strange coincidences, or miracles.  Nor does He play a divine guessing game with us, seeing if we can somehow stumble onto His will like a small child finds an egg at an Easter egg hunt.  God’s deepest desire for all of His children is that they know and obey His will, and He gives us every possible help both to know and to obey it.”

 

            It should not come as a surprise that God’s will for our lives is first of all to belong to Him through Jesus Christ.  That is first and primary will for every person is that he be saved and thus brought into the family and the kingdom of God as seen in 1 Timothy 2:3-4:  “3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  Next God’s will is that we all be Spirit-filled.  If we look at the next verse in Ephesians we read “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,”

 

            1 Thessalonians 4:3 tells us more about being in God’s will:  “3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;” now I am not trying to speak lightly about the last part of this verse but what I am looking at here is the sanctification of the believer being in the will of God.  Next we will enjoy His will through proper submission to other men as seen in 1 Peter 2:13-15 “13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.”  Hebrews 13:17 gives us the next way to be in the will of God “17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”

 

            Suffering may be in the will of God and we know this by looking at all of those people who are actually losing their lives for the cause of Christ each day in places like Nigeria, the Central African  Republic, China, and also North Korea among some of the places in the world.  “20  For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Peter 2:20).  MacArthur writes “God’s will culminate in believers’ giving thanks no matter what.  ‘In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1 Thess. 5:18).”

 

            He goes on to write “When a person is saved, sanctified, submissive, suffering and thankful he is already in God’s will.  ‘Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart’ (Ps. 37:4), David tells us.  In other words, when we are what God wants us to be, He is in control and our will is merged with His will, and He therefore gives us the desires He has planted in our hearts.”   As I have stated in many SD’s about God, in eternity past giving us works for us to do for the cause of Christ, this seems to go along with this quote from John MacArthur.

 

            When we look back at Ephesians 5:15-17 we will find that our Lord Jesus Christ is our supreme example for fulfilling the commands of these verses, as Christ always functioned according to the divine principles establish by His Father as seen in John 5:19 “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”  Let us also look at John 5:30 “30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  Now as we look in the gospels we find that Jesus knew that once He began His ministry that it would be rather short as He stated on different occasions, and yet Christ made the most of His time while on earth.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that from the very moment we first hear His voice in the Gospel of Luke where he stated in 2:49 (KJV) “49  And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”  And when we get to the end of His life on earth Jesus stated “It is finished.”  Doing His Father’s business was finished, as He accomplished what it was that the Father sent Him to do.  “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His word” (John 4:34).

 

            Peter writes “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:12).

 

            John MacArthur concludes “The words of David sum up the proper reaction to this teaching:  ‘I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.  I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way’ (Ps. 101:1-2 KJV).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Ever since I first became a believer I have been looking at the subject of being in the will of the Lord.  I have been to different places where this is what they talk about and in most cases we are told some similar things that we have looked at as far as being in the will of the Lord.  This is, of course one of the most important things that I as a believer can learn, as it is part of the sanctification process that I am to go through.  One thing that I can say is that I will never arrive to be perfectly doing the things that the Lord has for me to do, and what I mean is that I need to continue to grow as Peter writes, which is the last thing that Peter wrote in his last letter before he would be crucified upside down for the cause of Christ, and when a person is about to die, and he knows it then what he has to say should be listened to.  “18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”  I am assured that by following this verse that I will be in the will of the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Humility is certainly in the will of the Lord, something He is teaching me, and will continue to teach me.

 

The Scripture verses that go with yesterday’s quotation from D. L. Moody is from Proverbs 3:3-4 “Don’t lose your grip on love and loyalty.  Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.  Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of people.”

 

6/26/2019 10:31 AM

 

 

 

 

 

PT-1 "The Lord's Purposees" (Eph. 5:17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2019 11:48 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Lord’s Purposes”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:17

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

 

            As we look at this 17^th verse we see that the phrase “do not be foolish” actually reinforces what Paul wrote in verse 15 for believers not to be unwise, and “understand what the will of the Lord is,” and this expands and makes more explicit his plea to walk wisely.

 

            John MacArthur writes “In light of the urgency to make the most of our time, not being ‘foolish’ includes, among other things, not becoming anxious or panicked.  When we look around at the perverseness of evil and at the unending needs for evangelism and service to others in Christ’s name, it is easy to be overwhelmed.  We are tempted either to give up and withdraw or to become hyperactive, losing precision, purpose, and effectiveness in a frenzy of superficial activity.

 

            “The proper sense of urgency, however, drives the wise believer to want more than ever to ‘understand what the will of the Lord is,’ because he knows that only in the Lord’s will and power can anything good and lasting be accomplished.  He will not ‘be foolish’ by running frenetically in every direction trying to see how many programs and projects he can become involved in.  Such activity easily become futile and leads to burnout and discouragement, because it works in the power of the flesh even when it is well-intentioned.  Trying to run ahead of God only puts us further behind in His work.”

 

            As I look at these two paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary I have to say that I agree with the points that he is making.  There is a fine line in a believer’s life to be doing things in the power of the Spirit and doing things in the flesh.  We can never help God out for He needs no help, but if we are in tune with Him in the Spirit and doing the things that He has planned for us to do from eternity past then we will be doing what He desires us to do.  The flesh is deceptive and so we all must be on guard not to fall prey of the flesh even though at times this can bring pride in our hearts.  Those who have been following my Spiritual Diaries know that I have been thinking about being more humble, and certainly not prideful in my walk with the Lord and in my Spiritual Diary from Psalm 131 which I put onto my other blog this morning I found it was all about humility and pride.  In that Spiritual Diary I found to wonderful quotes from the late Warren Wiersbe who said “We move toward maturity when we honestly accept who we are, understand what we can do, accept both and live for God’s glory.  Rejecting or hating ourselves, fantasizing about ourselves, and envying others are marks of immaturity.”  Next quote “When you accept yourself and your lot and thank God for the way He made you, you do not need to impress people.  They will see your wroth and love you for who you are.”  So when we do things in the power of the flesh we are doing them with pride, but when we are doing things in the power of the Spirit then we are being humble, for after all it is the power of the Spirit who is the One working through us.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to follow the Spirit of God in doing the things that God planned for me to do in eternity past as seen in Ephesians 2:10.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am thankful for more information that I have learned about humility in my lesson from Psalm 131 and desire to follow what I have learned.

 

Today’s quotation is from Dwight L. Moody who states “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.”

 

6/25/2019 12:19 PM

           

PT-4 "The Believer's Limited Priviledges" (Eph. 5:16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/24/2019 10:33 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-4“The Believer’s Limited Privileges”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:16

 

            Message of the verses:  “16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”

 

            We want to continue to talk about the African family as we begin this fourth SD and Ephesians 5:16.  The experience of this African family also dramatically points up the truth that is seen in the last portion of this verse “because the days are evil.”  As believers we are to make the most of every opportunity not only because our days are numbered, but also because the world continually opposes us and they seek to hinder our work for the Lord.  We have so little time and yet and yet much opposition.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Because ‘the days are evil,’ our opportunities for freely doing righteousness are often limited.  When we have opportunity to do something for His name’s sake and for His glory, we should do so with all that we have.  How God’s heart must be broken to see His children ignore or halfheartedly take up opportunity after opportunity that He sends to them Every moment of every day should be filled with  things good, things righteous, things glorifying to God.

            “By ‘the days are evil’ Paul may have specifically had in mind the corrupt and debauched living that characterized the city of Ephesus.  The Christians there were surrounded by paganism and infiltrated by heresy (see 4:14).  Greediness, dishonesty, and immorality were a way of life in Ephesus, a way in which most of the believers had themselves once been involved and to which they were tempted to revert.”  I have to say that becoming a believer at the age of almost 27 I can truly understand what is being discussed here.

 

            A history of Ephesus shows that it was less than 100 years after Paul wrote to the Ephesians that the Romans were brutally killing Christians and when you look at the book of Revelation in the second chapter you will find out that the believers in Ephesus had left their first love, and it would not be long before Ephesus would be destroyed and is so to this day.

 

            In our world today the sense of urgency is even greater as many more believers are being killed each day for the cause of Christ, and that is one reason that we look for the sudden return of Jesus Christ to take us home to be with him in the Rapture.

 

            John MacArthur concludes this section by going back to writing about Pastor Kefa Sempangi.  When Pastor Kefa Sempangi began ministering at his church in Uganda, growth was small but steady.  Idi Amin had come into military and political power and the people expected conditions in their country to improve.  But soon friends and neighbors, especially those who were Christians, began to disappear.  One day pastor Sempangi visited the home of a family and found their young son standing just inside in the doorway with a glazed look on his face and his arms transfixed in the air.  They discovered he had been in that state of rigid shock for days, after being forced to witness the inexpressibly brutal murder and dismembering of everyone else in his family.

            “Faced with a totally unexpected and horrible danger, pastor Sempangi’s church immediately that life as they had known it was at an end, and that the very existence of the Lord’s people and the Lord’s work in their land was threatened with extinction.  They began continuous vigils of prayer, taking turns praying for long hours at a time.  When they were not praying they were witnessing to their neighbors and friends, urging them to receive Christ and be saved.  The church stands today and it has not died.  In many ways it is stronger than ever.  Its lampstand is still very much in place and shining brightly for the Lord, because His people made the most of the time, did not succumb to the evil days in which they lived, and would not leave their first love.  It cost many of them dearly, but the proved again that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that the stage is being set for things like what happened to this African Pastor to happen in our country and so it would be good to pray that God would turn this country around.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to continue to teach me how to be more humble in my walk with Him.

 

Bible verse that goes along with ST. John Chrysostom’s quotation is from Psalm 119:11 “Your Word I have hidden in my heart; that I might not sin against You.”

 

6/24/2019 11:05 PM

PT-3 "The Believer's Limited Priviledges" (Eph. 5:16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2019 8:59 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-3 “The Believer’s Limited Privileges”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:16  

 

            Message of the verses:  “16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”

 

            In our last SD we looked at the end of it how Judas was the man who is probably the one who wasted his life the most of any person ever born.  Now we want to look at what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:17 “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;”  In his farewell remarks to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, Paul said, “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:24).  MacArthur continues “Paul’s course was prescribed by God, and within that course he would minister to the utmost until his last breath.  He was determined to run with endurance the race that was set before him (see Heb. 12:1).  At the end of his life he therefore could say, ‘I fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim. 4:7).”  Now as I look at these two verses it is my belief that as believers we all have certain things that God has planned for us to do in eternity past (Eph. 2:10), and that means that not all of us have the same work to do for the Lord, other than we all have the job of what is explained in the Great Commission.  If you think that Paul calls the church “The Body of Christ” and when you think of a body having different parts to do different things in the body, then as believers we all have different jobs to do for the cause of Christ, but as our verse tells us we are to make the most of our time, because the days are evil, and no one living in the world today can argue that are world is evil, for evil seems to be growing everywhere around the world.

 

            Let us look at what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in first Corinthians 7:29 “But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none.”  I want to focus in on “the time has been shortened” and not the rest of the verse as it had to do with the time period that Paul was living in and what was going on in his life as well as in the Corinthian’s lives.  James also had something to say about people who were rather arrogant about their time:  “13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:13-14). 

 

            Today is Sunday and my SD’s are a bit shorter than in the other six days of the week, and so I want to finish with a story from MacArthur’s commentary.

 

“Kefa Sempangi (whose story is told in the book A Distant Grief. Regal Books) was a national pastor in Africa and barely escaped with his family from brutal oppression and terror in his home country of Uganda.  They made their way to Philadelphia, where a group of Christians began caring for them.  One day his wife said, ‘Tomorrow I am going to go and buy some clothes for the children,’ and immediately she and her husband brok into tears.  Because of the constant threat of death under which they had so long lived, that was the first time in many years they had dared even speak the word tomorrow. 

 

Their terrifying experiences forced them to realize what is true of every person: there is no assurance of tomorrow.  The only time we can be sure of having is what we have at the moment.  To the self-satisfied farmer who had grandiose plans to build bigger and better barns to store his crops, the Lord said, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you’ (Luke 12:20).  He had already lived his last tomorrow.”

 

            Today’s quote comes from St. John Chrysostom who wrote “The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.”

 

6/23/2019 10:09 PM