SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2019
9:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Necessary Foundation”
Bible Meaning and Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:21
Message of the
verse: “and
be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
In the last several weeks we have
been looking at the drinking of alcohol, when it comes to believers, and then
we took some time to talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now we move onto looking what it looks like
for believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and this will continue as we
move through verses 5:22-6:9. This
verse, 5:21, is what we call the necessary foundation as we transfer between
what the meaning of being filled with the Spirit to what it looks like. I suppose that I could go out on a limb and
say that being filled with the Holy Spirit is the most important thing that
believers can do, and when believers are not filled with the Spirit then they
really cannot be a great witness to the lost or live a life that is really
pleasing to the Lord. I have struggled
with what it means to live a humble life before the Lord and have been asking
the Lord to show me what that is and all of the time it is something that I
should have realized what it is all about as there are two things that I have
been learning from my study of Ephesians to help me solve what was a mystery to
me. The first is that of the example of
Jesus Christ as Paul describes in the 2nd chapter of Philippians,
and the second is being filled with the Holy Spirit which leads to the third
thing and that is that I cannot do it on my own. I have mentioned what Ephesians 2:10 means to
me in that I believe that God has planned things for me to do way back in
eternity past and the only way that I can do things that are pleasing to the
Lord is in the power of the Holy Spirit, that means to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength and what I do on my own for Him will end up at the
judgment seat of Christ as wood, hay, and stubble. So once again in order for me to do things
that please the Lord I must be filled with His Spirit continually as the verb
in Eph. 5:18 shows us.
John MacArthur writes “James said, ‘What
is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage
war in your members?’ (James 4:1).
Conflicts in the church, in the home, and in marriage always result from
hearts that are directed by self rather than by the Spirit of God. When self insists on its own rights,
opinions, and goals, harmony and peace are precluded. The self-centered life is always in a battle
for the top, and pushes others down as it climbs up in pride. The Spirit-centered life, on the other hand,
is directed toward lowliness, toward subservience, and it lifts others up as it
descends in humility. The Spirit-filled
believer does ‘not merely look out for [his] own personal interests, but also
for the interests of others’ (Phil. 2:4).”
MacArthur has many good things to
listen to in this section, so much that I only want to take a little bit at a
time, and so I want to finish this SD with one more quote from him and then,
Lord willing, pick up on some more in our next SD.
“Be subject’ is from hupotasso, originally a military term
meaning to arrange or rank under.
Spirit-filled Christians rank themselves under ‘one another.’ The main idea is that of relinquishing one’s
rights to another person. Paul counseled
the Corinthian believers to be in subjection to their faithful ministers ‘and
to everyone who helps in the word and labors’ (1 Cor. 16:16). Peter commands us to ‘submit [ourselves] for
the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,
or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise
of those who do right. For such is the
will of God’ (1 Pet. 2:13-15; cf. Rom. 13:1-7).
A nation cannot function without the authority of its rulers, soldiers,
police, judges, and so on. Such people
do not hold their authority because they are inherently better than everyone
else but because without the appointment and exercise of orderly authority the
nation would disintegrate in anarchy.”
(In light of what we have seen over this past week-end what MacArthur
has written is very insightful.)
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The Bible
always has the things that helps us to live a life that will end up in a
peaceful way of living, and I am always thankful for better understanding what
it has to tell me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to
be filled with the Spirit this day so that my life will be humble before the
Lord and others I associate with today.
Today’s
quotation comes from Phillips Brooks who stated “Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that God
in answering it will not wish you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but wings.”
8/5/2019 9:40
AM
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