SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/13/2018 12:20 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-IV
“Redemptive Results”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians 1:7b-9a
Message of the verses: “the forgiveness of
our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.
In all wisdom and insight
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will,”
I
have to say that as we continue to talk about forgiveness that I for one, have not
totally understood all of what goes into our forgiveness as it is vast to be
sure. Paul says in the last part of
verse seven that “the forgiveness of our trespasses” is “according to the
riches of His grace.” He is speaking of
God’s grace and like His love, holiness, power and all of the rest of His
attributes it is boundless. It goes far
beyond our ability to comprehend or to describe, and yet we know that it is
according to the riches of that infinite grace that God provides
forgiveness. I think that I do not ever
want to make light of this forgiveness that God has given to me through His
Son, My Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ.
John
MacArthur writes “If you were to go to a multimillionaire and ask him to
contribute to a worthy ministry, and he gave you a check for twenty-five
dollars, he would only be giving out of his riches. Many poor people give that much. But if, instead, he gave you a check for
fifty thousand dollars, he would be giving according to his riches.
That
is a small picture of God’s generosity.
His forgiveness not only is given ‘according to the riches of His grace’
but is ‘lavished upon us. We need never
worry that our sin will outstrip God’s gracious forgiveness. ‘Where sin increased,’ Paul assures us,
‘grace abounded all the more’ (Rom. 5:20).
Our heavenly Father
does not simply give us subsistence forgiveness that will barely cover our sins
if we are careful not to overdo.
We cannot sin beyond God’s grace, because as wicked and extensive as our
sins might be or become, they will never approach the greatness of His
grace. His ‘forgiveness’ is infinite,
and He lavishes it without measure upon those who trust in His Son. We therefore not only can enjoy future glory
with God but present fellowship with Him as well.”
11/13/2018 2:49 PM
Now we want to move to “Wisdom and
Insight” which is the second result of redemption for the believers. I have mentioned that one of the reasons that
I like reading John MacArthur’s commentaries is that many times he digs into
the Greek language to help me understand more deeply the different words that
are found in the Word of God. “Sophia (wisdom) emphasizes understanding
of ultimate things—such as life and death, God and man, righteousness and sin,
heaven and hell, eternity and time. Paul
is speaking of wisdom concerning the things of God. Phronesis
(insight), on the other hand, emphasizes practical understanding, comprehension
of the needs, problems, and principles of everyday living. It is spiritual prudence in the handling of
daily affairs.” As you read this quote
you may come to the same idea that I came up with and that is that it seems to
me that God has given us the things we need to understand things of His and
also things that we need to live our Christian life here on earth.
The
next quote comes from a French Philosopher Andre Maurois, and once I write the
quote if you believe the opposite of what he writes that will be the right way
to look at it. “The universe is
indifferent. Who created it? Why are we on this puny mud-heap, spinning in
infinite space? I have not the slightest
idea, and I am convinced that no one has the last idea.” Well as we think of the great wisdom that God
has given to us, those of us who are His children, we do know who created it
and if we dig deeply into His Word we will understand that one day this entire
universe, everything that God has created will come to an end as seen in 2
Peter chapter three, and so since we know this truth then as Peter says, we
should be ready to tell others about it so that once this universe is
un-created that we will be in heaven with God.
We
as believers know these things if we will only dig into His Word each day to
continue to learn more of how Great God is.
Jesus said “"I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things
from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants
(Matthew 11:26).” I suppose that one of
those wise and intelligent ones is that French Philosopher, Andre Maurois. James says “if any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will
be given to him (James 1:5).”
MacArthur
concludes “When God takes away sin, He does not leave us in a spiritual, moral,
and mental vacuum where we must then work things out for ourselves. He lavishes wisdom and insight on us
according to the riches of His grace just as He lavishes forgiveness on us
according to those riches.”
This
is the last SD under this sub-section.
It has been a long time looking at some very important issues and I hope
that all who read these SD’s on “The Redemptive Results” will take the time to
think about the richness that we have been given, or should I say that have
been lavished upon us from God through Jesus Christ.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for the wisdom and insight that
has been given to me from my Savior. It
is difficult for me to comprehend all that God has given to me through His Son,
but the more that I learn of what I have, my prayer is that I hope that the
Lord will cause me to have a better understanding of all I have in Christ so
that I can live a life that is pleasing to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I pray that the Lord will allow me to get
over the problems that I have with my colon, and that I will learn things He is
teaching me through these problems.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Melchezedek” (Hebrews 7:1-2).
Today’s Bible question: “Which two apostles wrote a Gospel?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/13/2018 3:16 PM
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