SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/25/2019 11:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Preaching of the Mystery”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
3:7-9
Message of the verses: “7 of which I was
made a minister, according to the gift of God’s
grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To
me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable
riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to
light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who
created all things;”
As
we continue to talk about “mystery” I can’t help but think of one of my
favorite verses: “"The secret
things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to
our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law (Deu.
29:19).” ““The LORD our God has secrets
known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are
accountable forever for all that He has revealed to us, so that we may obey all
the terms of these instructions (Deut. 29:29 NLT),”
One
of the things that we can take note of in this section is that God is the One
who called Paul to preach to the Gentiles, and in our churches today, the ones
where the Word of God is preached each day by Pastors who are truly born-again
believers, that God has called them to do this.
When the church began God used the eleven apostles to preach the Word of
God, and as the early church began to grow there were men who had been saved
through the apostle’s ministry who were called by the Lord to continue to
preach the Word of God. Later on God
called Paul in order to have him preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Now as the years went by there were no more
apostles, as John was probably the last to die at the end of the fist century,
and so God continued to call men to preach the Word in the churches, and so it
goes on today as it is God who calls men to become preachers in the churches
today. I want to say that what I am
talking about here are true born-again Pastors, whose qualifications are found
in the letters that Paul wrote to men that were preachers in the early church,
men like Timothy and Titus. Now here is
what has happened in the church, not only in our day, but throughout the history
of the church, and that is that there are many people in the church today who
were not called by the Lord to preach and to teach and John MacArthur writes to
this issue: “Any person in the ministry
of the church whom God has not appointed is a usurper. No matter how seemingly good his intentions,
he can do nothing but harm the work of the Lord and to the Lord’s people. Jeremiah speaks to this matter when he writes
the Lord’s word: ‘I did not send these
prophets, but they ran. I did not speak
to them, but they prophesied…I did not send them or command them’ (Jer. 23:21,
32). No man should enter the ministry
unless he is absolutely certain of the Lord’s calling.” I have to admit that in my life as a
born-again believer in Jesus Christ that I have sat under three wonderful
Pastors that I have no doubt have been called by God to preach His Word to
those in the congregations that God has given to them. I have also sat under two Pastors who I am
not sure that God called them to the ministry.
My thoughts are that they could have been listening in on someone elses
conversation and though that God was speaking to them.
I
mention the Pastoral letters and so I want to look at 1 Timothy 3:1-7 “1 It is
a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a
fine work he desires to do. 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach,
the husband of one wife,
temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to
wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 He
must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under
control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own
household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 6 and not a new convert, so
that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by
the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the
church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” I can thankfully say that in all of my years
as a believer in Jesus Christ, which will be 45 years tomorrow, that the three
Pastors that I have set under fit what Paul is writing to Timothy says they
should be. The other two, as mentioned,
I’m not sure of their calling, but am sure they did not follow what these
qualifications listed above.
Perhaps
two of the things that can cause Pastors to fail in today’s world are the
constant bombarding of sex related issues.
Another thing is pride as they forget that they are stewards of God and
began to think of themselves as being able to do the ministry on their own.
We
will, Lord willing, continue to look at these verses in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: To keep on fighting the spiritual battle as I
continues to go on for me and for every believer, to rely on the Word of God
and the God of the Word to give me victory.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will teach me to rely on
“truth” and not on my emotions, and to teach me the truths from Rom. 12:3.
Verse related to yesterday’s quotation.
James 1:17 “Every Good and every perfect
Gift is from Above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there
is no variation or shadow of turning.”
The following comes from my SD dated
08:28-2003 and is from the help of Warren Wiersbe: “If I
understand what Dr. Wiersbe says about this verse it could start out something
like this: Every gift that God gives us
is perfect, and the way that He gives it to us is perfect, and He keeps on
giving us gifts all of the time, even when we do not realize that He is giving
them to us, and God is not like the moving of the planets and stars, for He
never changes because He cannot change for worse because He is holy, and He
cannot change for better because He is perfect.
1/25/2019 12:13 PM
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