Spiritual Diary for 12/24/2018 4:45 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT- Salvation is Unto Good Works
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 2:10
Message of the verses: “10 For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
I
have said that I have many favorite verses, and Ephesians 2:10 ranks up there
with my all time favorite verses in the Scriptures. What I like about it is that in verses 8-10
we see that Paul puts horse is in front of the cart. We are saved by grace through faith and not
because of good works, but
once we are saved we are then able to do good works for the cause of Christ. Good works causes us to live out our own
salvation as Paul said 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; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Jesus spoke the following in John 15:8 “"By this is My Father glorified, that you
bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John MacArthur writes “When God’s people do
good deeds they bear fruit for His kingdom and bring glory to His name.”
The
word “works” is found 125 Times in the Word of God and work is found 355 times
in the Word of God, so we can conclude that the Bible has much to say about this
subject. One of the times speaking of
this it speaks of the works of the law, which are good but cannot saves a
person as found in Galatians 2:16 “nevertheless knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we
have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” In Hebrews 6:1 we see that the Bible speaks
of dead works “Therefore
leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity,
not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward
God.” The Bible also talks of works, or
deeds of darkness that are of the flesh and all of these are evil as seen in
the following verses: (Rom. 13:12; Gal.
5:19-21; Eph. 5:11). Every one of these
kinds of works is done in man’s own strength.
I
will conclude with another quote from John MacArthur and then look at John
15:1-8 as I conclude this SD. Another
thing to mention is that I have been putting a Christmas message onto my Blogs
for the last several years and so that will be what goes on here for tomorrow,
Lord willing, and then I desire to finish the commentary on Ephesians 2:10 the
following day. Thanks for your patience.
“Before
we can do any good work for the Lord, He has to do His good work in us. By God’s grace, make effective through our
faith, we become ‘His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.’ God has ordained that we then live lives of
good works, works done in the power and for His glory.”
“1 “I am the true vine, and
My Father is the vinedresser. 2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit,
He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that
it may bear more fruit. 3 “You are already clean because of the word which I
have spoken to you. 4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless
you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and
I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 “If
anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and
they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 “If you
abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
done for you. 8 “My Father
is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to
be My
disciples.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John.”
Today’s Bible question: “Did Naaman think it was a good idea to wash
in the Jordan River?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/24/2018 5:18 PM
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