SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2019 6:59 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Equipping”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 4:12
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;”
I
suppose that you could say that yesterday’s SD was kind of an introduction to
this subject of equipping the saints as this verse speaks of. We mentioned that the first task within God’s
design is for the evangelists and the pastor/teachers to be properly equipping
the saints. Saints are everyone who has
realized that they are a sinner because they were born with a sin nature, and
therefore that is why they sin. They
also realize that in and of their selves they can do nothing to care for this
sin problem. They then realize that
Jesus Christ, the God/man came to earth in order to take their place on the
cross to pay for their sins. Once they
put their faith in Jesus Christ for their salvation after agreeing with God
that they are a sinner then they will be saved, and once they are saved they
then become a born-again believer and thus they are a saint.
Now
back to the word of the evangelist and that is to tell others about their need
of the Savior as they bring men and women to understanding the gospel of
salvation, to lead them to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and thereby
become children in His spiritual family and also citizens of His divine
kingdom. Back in the early years there
objective was to establish a local church.
Once this was done they began the equipping as the pastor/teacher’s
subsequent work, then, is to provide the leadership and spiritual resources to
cause believers to be taking on the likeness of their Lord and Savior through
continual obedience to His Word and to provide a pattern, or an example, of
godliness as seen in 1 Thessalonians 1:2-7; and 1 Peter 5:3. I have to say that the work of the
evangelists in our world today, especially in the country that I live in is
done inside the church, and is also done through the work of what is called a
missionary. A missionary will either go
to our country or to a foreign country to begin to tell others about the Lord
Jesus Christ and His work for them on the cross. Once the missionary sees a number of people
come to know the Lord then they will begin a small church, and once that is
done they will seek to bring deacons on board in this small church. Once that is done and the church begins to
grow then this church plant will one day find a pastor-teacher from their own
country to lead the newly formed flock.
As the church begins to grow then the next step would be for them to
send out missionaries in their own country to begin another church and thus the
work continues to grow as more and more churches are planted. This example was given by our Pastor who went
to Peru and spoke to many church leaders there.
The work in Peru began in the 1930’s and was very slow to get
started. Now in this year (2019) there
are probably around 500 churches that preach the gospel in Peru. God started slowly, but now the work is going
strongly, and for that we can praise the Lord.
Let’s
look at the word for equipping (Katartismos)
“basically refers to that which is fit, is restored to its original condition,
or is made complete. The word was often
used as a medical term for the setting of bones. Paul used the verb form in his closing
admonition to the Corinthian believers:
‘Finally, brethren, rejoice, be
made complete’ (2 cor. 13:11, emphasis added). The writer of Hebrews used the term in his
closing prayer: ‘Now the God of peace,
who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to
do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight’ (Hebrew
13:20-21).
Today’s quotation and this one is from
Corrie Ten Boom: “There is no pit so
deep that God is not deeper still.”
Corrie Ten Boom knew this as she was a prisoner of war in WWII.
3/31/2019 7:21 PM
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