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
No comments:
Post a Comment