SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2014 6:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Power and Principle for Excelling
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:1b
Message of the
verses: “in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction
as to how you ought to walk and please God”
We are talking about excelling still more from verses one
and two of the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. In order to excel still more we first have to
have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is done by realizing that when we were born into this world that we
were born as sinners. When we are born
into this world we do not desire to please God, for we cannot because of the
sin nature we were born with. We realize
that we need a relationship with the Lord, for that is born into all of
us. In order to have a true relationship
with God we actually need to stand before Him perfectly, but then we remember
that we have sinned many times and cannot do this. Jesus Christ did this for us as a substitute,
as He took our place on the cross and died for our sins, and not only our sins,
but also our sin nature. By accepting
this fact we become born again as Jesus said to Nicodemus, in the third chapter
of John’s gospel. Paul and his fellow
missionaries told this truth to the people of Thessalonica and many of them
believed this truth and thus a local church was born there. Now Paul is writing to them to encourage them
to excel still more in the faith and he will go into how this is done as we continue
in this forth chapter of 1 Thessalonians.
MacArthur writes “The only way love or any other Christian virtue can
increase is when the Lord causes it to happen.
The power to excel comes from the power of the indwelling Christ.” Let us look at a couple of verses that
reinforce this truth: “I in them and You
in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You
sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me (John 17:23).” “"I have been crucified with Christ; and
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me
(Gal. 2:20).”
Paul refers to the things that he had taught them when he
writes “as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and
please God.” The following is a list
that John MacArthur has compiled to help us better understand how we can please
God, and we can be sure that Paul had taught these things to those in the
Thessalonian church. Now when we talk
about pleasing God we are actually talking about striving to please God and
glorifying Him in everything: “they
needed to confess their sins regularly; to pray continually and trust Him; to
pursue humility; to be content with God’s will as it is revealed in His Word;
to be willing to suffer for His name; to celebrate the Lord’s Table; to care
for one another; to honor God in their marriages and families; and to be
diligent and fruitful in all avenues of service.” That is a very tall order to fulfill, however
we must remember that it is Christ who has to do this work in us, we have to be
available to Him so He can work through us.
Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your salvation with fear and trembling; 13
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His
good pleasure.” We are to work it out,
but it is God who is at work in us to accomplish the things He desires for us
to accomplish for His name.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I want to go back
to what I was reminded of yesterday and that is that the purpose of all of the
Bible study I am doing is not just to understand the Bible better, but to know
God better and this is a part of excelling still more.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I again have to do some stressful things
today, and I desire to trust the Lord to see me through this day and that it
will bring honor to His name.
Memory verse for the
week: Philippians 2:5-8
5 Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “1 Samuel.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What was the third plague
that God placed on Eypt?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/3/2014 7:27 AM
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