SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 08-29-03
My
Worship Time Focus: God’s Sovereign will
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: James 1:18
1. Message of the verse: “18 In the exercise of His will He brought us
forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits
among His creatures.” (NASB)
“In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by
giving us his true word. And we, out of
all creation, became his choice possession.”
(NLT)
As noted
before this section from James 1:13-18 teaches us how we as believers are to
defeat temptations. There are three
barriers explained to aid us in this battle.
Verses 13-16 speak of God’s judgment, and verse 17 speaks of God’s
goodness to us, and now verse 18 tells us of God’s divine nature within
us. I might add that the construction of
this verse in the Greek language surely declares the sovereignty of God at work
in saving sinners. * “Of His own will. This phrase translates a Gr. Word that makes
the point that regeneration is not just a wish, but an active expression of
God’s will, which He always has the power to accomplish. This phrase occurs at the beginning of the
Gr. Sentence, which means James intends to emphasize that the sovereign will is
the source of this new life.” (*
MaCarthur study Bible) “1014 boulomai
boulomai boo'-lom-ahee 1) to will deliberately, have a purpose, be minded 2) of
willing as an affection, to desire.”
(Strong’s Concordance)
James uses the picture of birth to
explain the goodness of God’s nature within us.
(The KJV uses the word begat in the first part of this verse). 1) The
new birth is divine, and this can be seen in the story of Nicodemus in John
chapter 3. God is the One who gives us
this new birth. 2) The new birth is
gracious, for man can do nothing to earn it; the new birth is an act of God’s
grace. (See Eph 2:8,9) 3) The new birth
comes through the Word of God. Peter
puts it this way, “23 for you have been born again not of seed which is
perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of
God.” And 4) the new birth is the finest
birth possible. Dr. Wiersbe puts it this
way, “Of all the creatures God has in this universe, Christians are the very
highest and the finest! We share God’s
nature. For this reason it is beneath
our dignity to accept Satan’s bait or to desire sinful things. A higher birth must mean a higher life.”
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: Now that
I am beginning to learn that I can defeat the temptations that come my way through
knowing about the judgment of God, and also knowing about the goodness of God,
and also knowing about the divine nature of God within me. I think that I need to begin to meditate on
these truths so that when temptations come my way I will be better prepared to
defeat them through these means that James writes about.
The Word of God has taught me in this verse about
correction, about reproof, and about the instruction of righteousness.
My
Steps of Faith Today: To
trust the word of God to show me how to defeat temptations that comes my way
through Satan, and the old nature.
Memory verses for the week:
James 1:1
James, a bond- servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to the twelve tribes that are dispersed abroad, greetings.
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