SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2019 8:29 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “PT-3 “The
Pattern”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:2b
Message of the
verse: “just as Christ also loved
you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a
fragrant aroma.”
I mentioned that I would talk about lovelessness as we
begin this SD, and lovelessness is not just a failure or shortcoming, it is a
sin, without disobedience of God’s command and disregard of His example. John MacArthur writes “To love as God loves
is to love because God loves, because
we are to ‘be imitators of God, as beloved children’ and because Christ also
loved [us], and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.”
As we look at God’s love we can see that it is not only
forgiving and unconditional but is also self sacrificing. Therefore to love as God loves is to love
sacrificially, to love by the giving of ourselves as He gave Himself. I have to say that is not the kind of love
that a person can do on his own, but must be filled with the Spirit of God in
order to love like that.
Another difficult thing to do is to realize and remember
that the Christian’s walk in love is to extend to every person, now this is
where it gets very hard as it is to extend to believer and also to unbelievers
as well. God’s love reaches out to His
enemies and we are to love as God loves so we are to do the same. God loves His imperfect children with a
perfect love, then how can we not love fellow believers, whose imperfection we
share? Another thing and that is if
divine love led Christ to sacrifice Himself for the unworthy and the ungrateful
sinners, then how can we not give ourselves to fellow sinful people, to
unbelievers as well as to believers, in His name?
Think back to when the Lord Jesus Christ was about to
offer Himself on the cross for those who would accept the sacrifice He was
making, and as you think of this think about what His disciples were
doing. They were being very selfish in
talking with each other as to who would be the greatest. What then did Jesus do to help them understand
their selfishness? When He took a bowl
of water and a towel and begin to wash their feet. This had to be a bit humiliating to these
disciples, especially after the Lord rose from the dead and they then had the
opportunity to think about this. John
MacArthur writes “After He finished washing their feet and returned to the
supper table, ‘He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are
right, for so I am. I then, the Lord and the Teacher, wash your
feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should
do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say
to you, a slave is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent
greater than the one who sent him’ (John 13: 12-16). Later He commanded them to love in this
manner (John 13:24-25).”
Bible Verse that goes along
with yesterday’s quotation is Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible
to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is
a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
5/25/2019 8:52 PM
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