SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/9/2019
10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “The
Submission of Children”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:1-3
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 promise: 3 "that it may
be well with you and you may live long on the earth’” (NKJV).
I
mentioned in our last SD about children growing intellectually, physically,
spiritually, and socially, and asked that you look up things to help you
understand each of these ways that a child can grow, but in today’s SD I want
to talk about the spiritual growth of the child as we begin.
John
MacArthur writes “And every child must grow spiritually, ‘in favor with God.’ Children do not know God naturally, much less
love and obey Him naturally. A child
must be taught about God, His nature, His care, His love, and His will. And when he is old enough he must be taught
His need to trust in Jesus Christ as His own Savior and Lord.
“Paul
said, ‘When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason
as a child’ (1 Cor. 13:11). Children
have deficiencies in every area of their lives, and it is the parents’
responsibility to meet those needs for growth—including the need to develop in
the truths of the Lord.”
Now as we look at the command “honor
your father and mother” we can see that it is two-fold. “That it may be well with you” relates to the
quality of life, and that you may “live long on the earth” relates to the
quantity of life promised. Now as I
write this I am reminded of the Spiritual Diaries that come from the book of
Proverbs, which I am not posting on the other blog, and it seems that the two
go together, this SD from Ephesians and that one from Proverbs. Both are speaking of children at this point
and both speak of long life if one obeys the Lord. However I have been taught
by both Dr. Wiersbe, and John MacArthur that this long life has to do with the
quality of life, for we know that many believers do not live long lives, but
have lived a great quality of life. I
don’t think that a person who is a believer and continues to walk away from the
Lord will actually live a long life, and an example of this comes from the
fifth chapter of the book of Acts where we see that Ananias and Sapphira both
died at a young age because of lying to the Holy Spirit. In the 11th chapter of 1
Corinthians we also see examples of believers dying early because they were
actually getting drunk at the Communion Table.
Let me quote from the SD that I posted earlier on my other blog: “In
verses Pr. 4:14-17 we see
that we are not to shuttle back and forth from the path of wisdom to the path
of the wicked, we
are to stay on the path of the wise so that God will direct your path, again
like Proverbs 3:5-6 states. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “God doesn’t guide His children when they’re
walking in darkness. When
you’re living in the will of God, the path gets brighter and brighter not
darker and darker (1John 1:5-10).” “5 This
is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light,
and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6
If we say that we
have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as
He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood
of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are
deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and
His word is not in us.”
As we finish this section and this SD I will once again
quote from John MacArthur’s commentary: “IF
parents, who are much older and more experienced, cannot fulfill their
responsibilities without being saved and being filled with the Holy Spirit, how
much less can children be expected to fulfill their responsibilities without
those spiritual requirements? The
children Paul addresses in Ephesians 6:1 are just as much commanded to ‘be
filled with the Spirit’ (5:18) and to ‘be subject to one another in the fear of
Christ’ (5:21) as are the husbands and wives of 5:22-33 and the parents of 6:4.
“Samuel’s close relationship to the Lord started when he
was very young, and King Josiah instigated spiritual revival in Judah when he
was a teenager. David was a boy when the
Lord first started using him, and Queen Ester was a young woman when the Lord
used her to save her people from annihilation.
John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luke
1:15).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful to
the Lord that He is teaching me again the very great importance of being filled
with the Holy Spirit.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit so
that I continue to learn humility.
Today’s quotation from “Love
in Action: “In the New Testament, each
member of the triune God (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit)
places a priority on encouragement. Here
Paul used the word paraklesis
(encouragement).” Remember that you have
to look at yesterday’s SD to see the verses
that were posted for this section to make sense.
9/9/2019 10:57 AM
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