PT-2 "Intro to Eph. 6:1-4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/2/2019 10:41 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Eph. 6:1-4”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:1-4

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH. 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

 

            We have been talking about the OT and how the Lord brought about the nation of Israel to be the instrument that God would use to instruct them how the family should operate in a way that would please the Lord and bring glory to Him.  Now the first step in bringing this about was to teach the next generation the truths that are taught in the Word of God about the family.  We find the following in Deuteronomy 6:7 “and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  We see here that parents are to continually to speak about the things of God, so that knowledge and love of Him would become a matter of life and breath for the family.  Now when parents were not speaking the testimony would continue as seen in verse 8 “And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.”  So even when the parents were gone this testimony would remain because it was to written on the doorposts of their house and even on their gates as verse 9 tells us:  “"And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  So what we see here there was always to be both verbal and visible commitment to the Word of God in the home.  It has been and always will be the plan of God that His Word is passed on from one generation to the next. 

 

            Now we know that there comes a great problem because of the fall that is described in Genesis chapter three as from that time forward every person born through the seed of man will be born with the sin nature.  The curse of the fall is built into the family and it is the curse that causes men to be chauvinistic, women to usurp the place of men, children to be disobedient to their parents, and parents to be abusive to their children.  Only where Christ is in control as Savior and Lord can a family live up to the standards and the fulfill ministry that God commands.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The Minnesota Crime Commission, demonstrating the truthfulness of the biblical view, issued a report which said in part:

 

‘Every baby starts life as a little savage.  He is completely selfish and self-centered.  He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toys, his uncle’s watch, or whatever.  Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless.  He’s dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills.  This means that all children, not just certain children, are born delinquent.  If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a papist.’”

 

            I realize that when a precious little baby is born that parents and grand-parents make a big fuss over it, but the truth is that as long as that baby gets it own way that baby will be happy, but when that baby gets hungry or in need of a change of diaper it will show that it was born with the curse found in Genesis chapter three, that is it has been born with the sin nature.  I remember listening to a sermon that was about the birth of John the Baptist, and also the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In this hypothetical situation Elisabeth was talking to Mary about her young baby and telling her all of the things that little John was doing, things like crying and all of the normal things that a baby would do and then would ask her how little Jesus was.  Mary’s answer was “perfect, just perfect.”  I have to say that I agree with that answer as Jesus was the only baby born of the “seed of the woman,” who was born without the sin nature, and so He was perfect, just perfect.

 

            Lord willing, we will talk about the second problem for the family in our next SD which is the satanic world system we live in. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Whether we call the problem we are born with the sin nature or the flesh it is still something that I do battle with every day, and in order to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord I have to be filled with His Holy Spirit.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Humility is something that is so very important for me as a believer, and this can only happen by denying self and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action:”

 

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that

We through the patience and comfort [encouragement]

Of the Scriptures might have hope.

Romans 15:4-5

 

9/2/2019 11:19 AM