SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2019 11:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
“Equipping”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 4:12
Message of the verse: “12 for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body
of Christ;”
As
we begin to talk again about equipping we will see from the verses that we
ended up looking at in our last SD; 2 Cor. 13:11; and also Heb. 13:20-21 that
individual equipping had been implied there.
Now we want to look at what we can call collective equipping that is
expressed in 1 Corinthians 1:10 “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” The word for complete is from katartizo
meaning it is the same mind and in the same judgment. The equipping of each believer results in the
unity of all.
John
MacArthur points out that God has given four basic tools, as it were for the
spiritual equipping of the saints. He
writes “These are spiritual means, because the flesh cannot make anyone perfect
(Gal. 3:3).” Now we want to look at this
first basic tool, and this is the most important of the four that we will look
at. The Word of God, the Bible is this first tool: “16 All Scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every
good work.” Jesus said in John 15:3 “"You
are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” MacArthur writes “The first purpose of the pastor-teacher,
therefore, is to feed himself, to feed his people, and to lead them to feed
themselves on the Word of God.”
From
Acts 6:4 we read that the example of the apostles “"But we will devote
ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’” This indicates that the second tool of equipping is prayer. I think we know the story from the 6th
chapter of Acts, and that is as the church grew the apostles did not have time
to do all the things that they were doing, and one of them was the feeding of
those in the very early church. To solve
this problem they appointed seven godly men they called deacons to do this work
so that they could study the Word and to pray.
“The pastor-teacher
is responsible to prepare himself and to lead his people to prepare themselves
in prayer” writes John MacArthur.
You may recall that from our devotional a couple days ago that I told
the story of the Moravian church who had 24 men and 24 women praying that God,
the Lord of the Harvest would send forth laborers, and in a truly miraculous
way the Lord answered their prayers as they did this for 100 years.
MacArthur
writes “It is essential to note that this equipping, completing, or perfecting
of the saints is attainable here on earth, because Paul uses katartizo (the verb form of equipping)
to refer to what spiritually strong believers are to do for fellow believers
who have fallen into sin. The text
strongly teaches that the ministry of equipping is the work of leading Christians
from sin to obedience.
Next we look at the third tool
of equipping and this is testing, and the fourth is suffering, something
we probably don’t like to think or talk about but from time to time we are all
tested and we all suffer in one way or another.
We can call these as purging experiences by which we as believers are
refined, and a good example from the Old Testament is found in the 109th
Psalm which we spent the last three devotionals in on my other blog talking
about how David was suffering, but in the end, as most if not all of his Psalms
he was praising the Lord. These experiences of testing and
suffering refine us to becoming greater in holiness. Both James and Paul wrote about this, Paul in
the book of Romans and James in his epistle where we read “2 Consider it all
joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing.” I
have read that the Greek term for testing is the same word that is translated
as tempting and so we are tested by the Lord, but if we don’t allow the Lord to
test us it can be turned into tempting by the devil. Testing brings goodness to our lives while
falling into temptation from the devil brings great harm into our lives. MacArthur writes “When we respond to God’s
testing in trust and continued obedience, spiritual muscles are strengthened
and effective service for Him is broadened.”
In
our next SD we want to look more at suffering, Lord willing.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Trusting and tempting can be from the same
issue, and it is my desire that I know when I am being tested by the Lord, and
not turn it into temptation from the devil.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to rely upon the Lord to help me to
become more humble in His sight.
Scripture verse that goes with
yesterday’s quotation: John 16:33 “These
things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
4/1/2019 11:53 AM
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