PT-1 "Sacrifical Love" (Eph. 5:25b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/22/2019 10:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-1 “Sacrificial Love”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 5:25b

 

            Message of the verse:  “and gave Himself up for her.”

 

            As we look at these six words, which are powerful words, we can go back into eternity past as I have been writing about from time to time talking about how in eternity past that it was all planned out for Jesus Christ to come to earth and pay the price for His bride.  Philippians 2:6-8 speaks of Christ humbling Himself in order to become the God/Man so that He could pay the price for our sins.  In the letter to the Romans Paul builds his case showing that every person born of the seed of man is a sinner, and then goes on to talk about how Christ came to save sinners.  “7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:7-8).  The point in all of this is that it was gracious love that was the reason that Christ did this for all those who will accept what He did for them on the cross. 

 

            If we look at the world’s kind of love we can see that it is always object-oriented as a person is loved because of physical attractiveness, personality, wit, prestige, or some other such positive characteristic.  We could thus say that the world loves those whom it deems worthy of love.  I think that it is fair to say that this kind of worldly love is necessarily fickle, for as soon as a person loses a positive characteristic—or that characteristic is no longer appealing to the person who thought that they love that person then the marriage will fall apart.  As soon as a partner loses his or her appeal, love is gone, because the basis for the love is gone.

 

            This above section is what we have called “Worldly Love,” and that is not at all like God’s love as God’s love is much different.  God loves because it is in His nature to love that which He has created and also because the objects of His love are in great need to be loved and not because they are attractive or deserve His love.  When Adam and Eve sinned then God could have just destroyed them and started over again, but He didn’t.  The reason is because of His love for them that He did not destroy them.  Imagine if that decision would be in the hands of a worldly person what would have happened.  In God’s marvelous graciousness, He loves because He cannot do otherwise.  That is really good to know.

 

            We will end this SD with a quote from John MacArthur who writes:  “God can command His own kind of love from those who belong to Him because He has given them the capacity to love as He loves (cf. Rom. 5:5; 1 Thess. 4:9) and because His commanded love must, therefore be a matter of choice (cf. James 2:8; 1 John 3:7, 16-18, 23; 4:7, 11).  It is an act of the will as well as of the heart.  And it seems to be a principle that whatever we choose to love and practice loving soon becomes attractive to us.  But a Christian’s loving with Christ’s kind of love is not based on the attractiveness of the one loved but on God’s command to love.  Loving as Christ loves does not depend in the least on what others are in themselves, but entirely on what we are in Christ.

            “A husband is not commanded to love his wife because of what she is or is not.  He is commanded to love her because it is God’s will for him to love her.  It is cert ainly intended for a husband to admire and be attracted by his wife’s beauty, winsomeness, kindness, gentleness, or any other positive quality or virtue.  But through such things brings great blessing and enjoyment, they are not the bond of marriage.  If every appealing characteristic and every virtue of his wife disappears, a husband is still under just as great an obligation to love her.  If anything, he is under greater obligation, because her need for the healing and restorative power of his selfless love is greater.  That is the kind of love Christ has for His church and is therefore the kind of love every Christian husband is to have for his wife.”

 

            Lord willing we will look at the parable of the Good Samaritan as we begin our next SD, showing the kind of love he had for a perfect stranger.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  That is a tall order, but with the Lord all things are possible.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Being humble by the filling of the Holy Spirit has a lot to do with loving my wife like Christ loves the church.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Actions”:  “Believers are to follow the way of love, to do everything in love, to serve one another in love, to live a life of love to speak the truth in love, to put on love, to pursue love, to spur one another on to love, and to love not only in words but in actions and truth.”

 

8/22/2019 10:57 AM

 

           

Intro to "The Manner of Love" (Eph. 5:25-31)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/21/2019 9:43 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  Intro to “The Manner of Love”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-31

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as

Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”

 

            I mentioned in our last SD as we ended the fifth introduction to Ephesians 5:25-33 that we would begin to look at two different main points which will then conclude verses 25-33.  This was in the last quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary as he gave us his outline to these verses.  In today’s SD we want to look at another introduction, this one on verses 25-31 which speaks of “the manner of love” and in this section we will find sub-sections entitled “Sacrificial Love’; “Purifying Love’; ‘Caring Love,; and ‘Unbreakable Love.”  We will begin with just the introduction to this first main section today and then will at “Sacrificial Love” in our next SD, Lord willing.

 

            In this introduction we will look at the first half of verse 25 “husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.”

 

            Verse 21 of Ephesians five states “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”  This verse gives us the explanation of the mutual submission, and loving your wife is certainly a part of that mutual submission.  The husband’s primary submission to his wife is through his love for her, and as we read these verses we see that Paul is clearly telling us that this love is a boundless love, as seen in the second part of verse 25 which says “just as Christ also loved the church.”  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s things that I have learned from the 2^nd Psalm, as this Psalm actually goes back to eternity past where the Father’s desire was to give a bride to the second person of the trinity, the Son.  The plan was set in motion for the Son to go to planet earth, which was not in existence yet, and pay the purchase price for the bride, which would mean that He would die for the bride that the Father was giving Him.  This tells us that Jesus Christ loved the church before He brought the church into existence.  He chose and also loved His own even “before the foundation of the world” as seen in Ephesians 1:4, because God’s love is eternally present, having no past and no future.

 

            It is very clear that no sinful human being has the capacity to love with the divine fullness and perfection with which Christ loves, as He forever loves the Church.  John MacArthur writes “However, because a Christian has Christ’s own nature and Holy Spirit within him, God thereby provides for husbands to love their wives with a measure of Christ’s own kind of love.  The husband who submits to the Lord by being filled with His Spirit (v. 18) is able to love his wife with the same kind of love Jesus has for His own bride, the church.  The Lord’s pattern of love for His church is the husband’s pattern of love for his wife.

 

            “In this passage Paul mentions four qualities of that divine love that husbands are to exemplify for their wives.  Like the Lord’s, the husbands love is to be sacrificial, purifying, caring, and unbreakable.”  We mentioned these four qualities earlier in this SD and that is what we will be spending our time looking at, Lord willing, in the next several days.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Husbands love your wife, Just as Christ loves the Church which can only be done by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Jesus Christ humbled Himself in order to come to planet earth to pay the price for His bride, and I believe that He was filled with the Spirit in order to accomplish this task, and so I am to be filled with the Spirit in order to live a humble life so that I can accomplish the things that God has planned for me in eternity past as seen in Ephesians 2:10.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”:

 

“Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1).

Let all that you do be done with love (1 Corinthians 16:14).

Walk…with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering,

bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2).

Walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a

Sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2).  [Speak] the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).  Put on

Tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering (Colossians 3:12b).

Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart

(2 Timothy 2:22b).  And let us consider one another in order to stir up love

And good works (Hebrew 10:24).  My little children,

Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed

and in truth (1 John 3:18).

 

8/21/2019 10:24 AM

 

P-5 (and Last) "Intro to the Role of the Husband" (Eph. 5:25-33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2019 2:00 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-5 “Intro into the Role of the Husband”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as

Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but

I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            In our last SD we spoke of the different sins that are found in the OT, especially in the first book of the OT, and as we look at our society today we find that those very sins that we mentioned in our last SD are even looked up to as being okay.  Remember what Romans 1:32 says “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”  When we look at young people who are about to get married and are both virgins in today’s world they are laughed at.  When I was a youngster there were hardly any people living together who were not married, and not this is pretty much a normal thing to do, as it seems that they want to try marriage out and see if it will work or not.  As we think about all of these sinful things we know that it is Satan who is behind them as he continues to try and weaken the family. 

 

            What I desire to do at this point in this introduction is to quote the very last paragraph in MacArthur’s commentary as this is pretty much a normal thing for me to do as in this paragraph we will see the outline in which we will follow. 

 

            “In Ephesians 5:25-33 Paul continues to describe the godly and moral life of the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit and who is mutually submissive ‘in the fear of Christ’ (v. 21).  As he has already made clear (vv. 22-24), God has ordained the husband to be head over the wife.  But the emphasis of the rest of the chapter is not on the husband’s authority but on his duty to submit to his wife through his love for her.  (Verses 25-31 explain the manner of that love and verses 32-33 reveal its motive.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To remember the importance of loving my wife as seen in this section.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that I can be humble as I live out my walk with the Lord, and as mentioned being humble means I am filled with the Holy Spirit, and this will enable me to love my wife as Christ loves the church.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”

 

“I. Changing Lives…By Encouraging You World”

 

“Love is the one ingredient of which our world never tires and of which

There is never an abundance.  The world will never outgrow its need for love.”

C. Neil Strait

 

8/20/2019 2:19 PM

 

 

PT-4 "Intro to the Role of the Husband" (Eph. 5:25-33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/19/2019 8:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                Focus:  PT-4 “Intro to the Role of the Husband”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as

Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            We have been talking about how marriage has been corrupted and the reason was both the man and the woman twisted God’s plan for their relationship.  What they have done is that the reversed their roles, and marriage has been a struggle ever since.  I believe that I understand the curse that God gave to the woman and to the man much better than I have in the past.  I can see in our society how the role of the woman is in many cases directly the opposite of that which God has intended it to be, and also in many cases the man is not fulfilling the role that God has for him.  This is all because of sin, sin that began in the Garden of Eden and then the curses that God gave because of the original sin.  One of the things that I have noticed in my family is that the marriage of my daughter to her husband seems to me a good picture of what God has planned for marriage to look like.  Some will say that she submits because of her husband’s patience, and although he is patience and makes it easier to submit then that in and of itself is good, but women are to submit to their husbands as this is the will of God for them.  I heard a statement many years ago while taking a class at my job and I believe the statement can help a marriage a lot if only followed.  The man said that we have to “fact find” and not “fault find.”  Seems we always want to be right, and this causes many problems in a marriage.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Throughout history the most dominant distortion of relationships has been on man’s side.  In most cultures of the ancient world, women were treated as little more than servants, and the practice is reflected in many parts of the world today. (1980’s) Marcius Cato, the famous Roman statesman of the second century B. C., wrote, ‘If you catch your wife in an acto fo infidelity, you can kill her without a trial.  But if she were to catch you, she would not venture to touch you with her finger.  She has no rights.’  That reflects the extreme of male chauvinism that comes out of the curse of the Fall and reflects the perversion of roles and responsibilities that God intends for husbands and wives.

 

            “Even in supposedly liberated societies, women are frequently looked on primarily as sex objects who exist for the sensual pleasures of men.  Because modern man is inclined to view himself as merely a higher form of animal—with people simply as things, to be used for his own pleasure and advantage.”

 

            We have said different things about the family, how it is what God desired to be the building block of society, and I suppose that the truth is that Satan knew this and that is why his initial attack of God’s creation involved the corruption of the family.  All you have to do is follow the early chapters of the OT, and you will see how the family began to crumble in many different ways.  We know for instance that man was only suppose to have one wife, and yet we see David had many wives and Solomon had many more, and yet God allowed this to happen and even worked it out for good in spite of the sinfulness of it.  There are stories of homosexual acts in the Old Testament as God actually destroyed two cities because of this.  There are many more sinful things described in the Old Testament as examples of how Satan attacked the family, and yet through it all God still saves people from their sins as through all of the sinfulness of the Old Testament times God brought His Son into the world to complete what He had for Him to accomplish in order to bring about salvation.

 

            John MacArthur writes, and we will conclude with this quote:  “In the first book of the Bible we see the reversal of roles of husband and wife, fratricide, polygamy, perverted sexual suggestions, adultery, homosexuality, fornication, rape, prostitution, incest, and seduction—each of which directly attacks the sanctity and harmony of marriage and the family.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Continue to relearn the roles of the husband and by the work of the Holy Spirit fulfill them.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Humility is defiantly an asset of being a better husband.

 

We begin today’s SD with the introduction to a book entitled “Love in Action, changing lives with the Power of Encouragement,” written by Dr. David Jeremiah and we will be quoting from this book for a fairly long time. 

 

“Dear Friends,

 

“It is truly amazing how the advances of science, medicine, and technology have transformed the knowledge we have about the world around us.  What was once a dirt road is now an information highway!

 

“But, if we look around at the people we know, the people we pass every day on the way to work, in the grocery store or in the bank, we realize there is one thing that hasn’t changed in all of time.  People still need love, and they need to see love in action.

 

“Sixteen centuries ago Saint Augustine asked, ‘What does love look like?’  And the answer was, ‘It has hands to help others.  It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy.  It has eyes to see misery and want.  It has ears to hear the sights and sorrows of men.’  In other words, love is action.

 

“But how can we put our love into action?  As you will learn throughout this book, encouragement can be a way that we love others.  Encouragement is one of the most powerful, life-changing forces in our world.  And no matter what advances we make in technology or medicine, nothing can improve on the power of encouragement.

 

“In the following pages, you will find excerpts from my book, The power of Encouragement.  I am convinced that the contents will challenge you to express the kind of encouragement that heals hearts, unites lives, and renews spirits.  May we learn to have hands, feet, eyes, and ears that are willing to put love into action, to change lives with the power of encouragement!”

 

As mentioned this quotation is from the pen of Dr. David Jeremiah.

 

8/19/2019 9:39 AM

PT-3 "Intro into the role of the Husband (Eph. 5:25-33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/18/2019 8:42 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-3 “Intro into the Role of the Husband”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            We want to go to the beginning of the Word of God this evening as we begin this SD, and remember that before the fall, Adam and Eve lived in the beautiful harmony and satisfaction of the perfect marriage. That is surely something to think about as marriages at best are at times difficult in the days we live in.  Adam had looked at all of the animals that God had created and because he had full use of his brain he named them all but was disappointed that looking at the animals who all had mates, he did not have one.   When Adam first saw Eve, he immediately recognized her as his perfect companion, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” Adam said in Genesis 2:23.  Adam saw no blemishes or shortcomings in Eve because both her character and his attitude were pure.  There was not a thing to criticize in Eve and there was no critical spirit in Adam.  Though they were both naked, they were not ashamed (v. 25), because there was no such thing as an evil, impure, or even any perverse thought.  Again that is far different than what we see today, and it all has to do with sin.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Man was created first and was given headship over the woman and over creation.  But their original relationship was so pure and perfect that his headship over her was a manifestation of his consuming love for her, and her submission to him was manifestation of her consuming love for him.  No selfishness or self-will marred their relationship.  Each lived for the other in perfect fulfillment of their create purpose and under God’s perfect provision and care.

 

            “The man and woman were so closely identified with each other that God’s command was for ‘them [to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth…God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’’ (Gen. 1:26-28).”

 

            Some may wonder why marriage was instituted.  It was instituted to procreate mankind, to raise up children to fill the earth as stated in Genesis 1:28.  There is more as it is also for the purpose of companionship, so that man would not be alone as seen in Genesis 2:18, and also for the purpose of sexual fulfillment and pleasure as can be seen in 1 Corinthians 7:4-5; compare Hebrew 13:4.  I think we better look at these verses:  “4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”  “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”

 

            When we were looking at the role of the wife we discussed why the perfect marriage relationship of Adam and Eve was interrupted.  The fall itself involved a perversion of marital roles, and God’s cure because of the Fall also affected marriage.  Eve sinned not only in disobeying what God specifically commanded but also in acting independently of her husband and then failing to consult Adam about the serpent’s temptation.  Adam sinned not only by disobeying God’s command but by succumbing to Eve’s leadership, thus failing to exercise his God-given authority.  Now it was because of her disobedience, God cursed the woman to pain in giving birth to children and to a perverted desire to rule over the man.  Then the man was cursed to toil, to difficulty, to frustration in wresting sustenance from the land, and to conflict with his wife over her submission.  I think we can all understand this.  Then they were both cursed with death as the penalty for their sins as seen in Genesis 3:16-19; and then we can also look at Romans 5:15-19, and as we look at these sets of verses that will end today’s SD.

 

            “16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you." 17  Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ’You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18  "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19  By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return’” (Gen. 3:16-19).

 

            15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:15-19)

 

 

Today we look at the last of the verses that go along with the quotations that have been posted.  Yesterday we looked at a quotation from Brother Lawrence, and 1 John 4:7 is the verse that goes along with this quotation:  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 

 

            I have a little booklet entitled “Love in Action, changing lives with the power of Encouragement” written by David Jeremiah and my plans are to use quotations from this book at the end of each of my Spiritual Diaries.  I remember listening to some sermons about 20+ years ago on encouragement by Dr. Jeremiah and he stated the encouragement was like pouring courage into a person so I hope that will be the outcome as these quotations are quoted from this book.  I will begin with the introduction to this book in our next SD, Lord willing.

 

8/18/2019 9:21 PM

 

           

PT-2 "Intro into the Role of the Husband" (Eph. 5:25-33)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2019 12:22 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Eph. 5:25-33”

 

Bible Reading & Mediation                                                  Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as

Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            To kind of pick up from our last SD I want to look at 2 Timothy 3:1-5 & 13 “1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5  holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these…13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”  I can’t help but think as I read these verses that we are living in times just as Paul wrote to Timothy about, and one must also remember that 2 Timothy is the very last letter that Paul wrote that is contained in the Word of God. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “In that awesome list of sins there are several—such as disobedience to parents, lack of love (the Greek term, astorgos, refers to lack of natural affection for one’s family), and brutality—that are directly undermining the home today.  But every sin that weakens the individual also weakens the home to some extent; every aspect of ungodliness weakens the relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, and brothers and sisters.  The home has become fair game for every deceiver, every sexual pervert, every exploiter, as Satan mounts his great attack on the foundation stone of society.”

           

            We will have one more quote from MacArthur on this important subject of the family and then we will continue this subject in our next SD, Lord willing.

 

            Because of the curse on marriage at the Fall and the inclinations of man’s fallen nature and of the world to oppose God’s way, the family has always had difficulty.  In the western culture of our day, however, it is under an onslaught seemingly unlike any other in this society’s history.  There is less chance than before of a family’s living together in harmony, love, and mutual respect apart from God’s justify it.  And those who persist in flouting God’s way are destined, as Paul prophesied, to go from bad to worse.  Marriage, along with every other institution and design of God, will be more and more debased, as men go deeper into sexual perversion and selfishness.”  As mentioned in our last SD this commentary on Ephesians by John MacArthur is close to 40 years old, and the messages that he used to help write this commentary are closer to 50 years old, so things have gotten considerably worse since then.

 

In today’s SD we will be looking at the very last quotation from the series that I have from Dr. David Jeremiah, and this one comes from Brother Lawrence:  “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”

 

8/17/2019 12:45 PM

PT-1 Intro to Eph. 5:25-33) The Role of the Husband

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/16/2019 11:02 AM

 

My Worship Time                        Focus:  PT-1 Intro to “The Role and Priorities of the Husband”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            This SD has to begin with the topic of marriage, and marriage was begun by God way back in the garden of Eden, and it was and still is between a man and a woman.  Marriage in today’s world is much different than when it began, but when done correctly as seen in the Scriptures it is a wonderful experience.  In his commentary on this section John MacArthur quotes a book written by Dr. Carl Rogers who is giving his views of a humanistic unbeliever.  The book is entitled “Becoming Partners:  Marriage and Its Alternatives.”

 

            “To me it seems that we are living in an important and uncertain age, and the institution of marriage is most assuredly in an uncertain state.  If 50-75 percent of Ford or General Motors cars completely fell apart within the early part of their lifetimes as automobiles, drastic steps would be taken.  We have no such well organized way of dealing with our social institutions, so people are groping, more or less blindly, to find alternatives to marriage (which is certainly less than 50 percent successful).  Living together without marriage, living in communes, extensive childcare centers, serial monogamy (which one divorce after another), the women’s liberation movement to establish the woman as person in her own right, new divorce laws which do away with the concept of guilt—these are all groping toward some new form of man-woman relations for the future.  It would take a bolder man than I to predict what will emerge.  (New York:  Dell, 1973, p. 11).”

 

            I have mentioned that this commentary on Ephesians by John MacArthur was written in the 1980’s and so this quotation had to come from sometime around that time period.  The prediction that man was afraid to give about marriage was probably a good idea that he did not give it, for what has happened back then has only gotten worse, worse probably beyond this man’s or any other man’s guess of what would happen to marriage.  However all one has to do is to look at Romans 1:18-32 to find out how the downfall of a nation happens, or the downfall of individuals, and so to be frank what is going on is not a surprise to me.  I was listening to a favorite radio show yesterday and the person speaking with half his brain tied behind his back to make if fair for other on the radio or TV stated that the reason why people around this world and in our country hate our President is because he has stopped what they want, and what they want is a one world government.  Again not surprising to me as this is all spelled out in some of the prophetic books of the Old Testament and also in the New Testament especially in the book of Revelation.  Now at this point I have to apologize for getting off the track of talking about what the roles and priorities of the husband is, but sometimes I have to just write what is on my mind.

 

            We will continue looking at this topic in our next SD, and for that matter probably for a few more after that as this introduction will be pretty long.

 

Today’s verse that goes along with our unknown author from yesterday is found in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:  “16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

 

8/16/2019 11:30 AM