SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2019 9:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Eph. 4:12-16
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:12-16
Message of the verses: “12 for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body
of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs
to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children,
tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the
truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the
head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held
together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each
individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in
love.”
One
of the problems that goes on in churches today is that they are using the ways
of the world to build the church, to get growth in numbers and at times they forget
to remember to help build up the spirituality of the people in the church. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He is the One
who will build His church. In this
section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians Paul is talking about church growth,
growth the way that God will use it. I
have mentioned in earlier Spiritual Diaries that I attended a church for over
32 years until we got a Pastor who wanted to turn our church into what is
called a seekers church. Seeker churches
do not follow the plan that is seen here in these verses. Seeker churches bring their spirituality down
to that of the world’s system in order attract people of the world to come in
and to hear the Word of God preached, and when the Word of God is preached in a
seeker church it is baby food as talked about in the book of Hebrews. People will be drawn to a church because they
are looking for something different from the way that they are living, and so
if they walk into a seeker church and find that it has little difference from
what they are living why would they want to go there. Believers are to be salt and light to a dark
world and the Bible tells us that believers are to be different than those who
live in the world.
The
building of Christ’s church must be in accordance to what He wants to build and
that can only be found in the Word of God and much of it is found in these
verses. John MacArthur entitles this 12th
chapter in his commentary on the book of Ephesians “Building the Body of
Christ.” That is what we will be looking
at over the next week or so as Paul explains how God wants the church to grow
in God’s way.
MacArthur
concludes his very short introduction to this section of Ephesians 4:12-16 by
writing “As discussed in the previous chapter, God’s spiritual gifts to His
church include both the individual gifting of every believer as well as the
gifted men called apostles and prophets, who were given strictly for New
Testament times and were followed by the gifted men called evangelists and
pastor-teachers, who are given for continuing ministry to the church (Eph.
4:11). It is God’s plan for the last two
groups of gifted men—the evangelists and pastor-teachers—to equip, build up,
and develop His church by the general operational procedure set forth in verses
12-16. In this passage we are shown the progression, the purpose,
and the power of God’s divine pattern for the building and function of
His church.” The highlighted areas in
this last sentence are the main points that we will be following, and there
will also be sub-points involved in these main points.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to learn this section of
Ephesians as the Lord opens my eyes to see the way that He desires to build His
church, and to find out what my function in all of this will be.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
see how the Lord is bring into my life messages and verses on humility, and to
grow in that important area of my life.
Quotation for today and this one is
again from David Jeremiah: “You are in
His hands and He is Lord.”
3/29/2019 10:12 AM
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