PT-3 "What we Were" (Eph. 5:8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/6/2019 10:34 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-3 “What We Were”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:8

 

            Message of the verse:  “8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”  “For you at one time were dark, but now are light in the Lord: let your behavior be that of children of light) (BBE).

 

            We continue to look at what we were before the Lord saved us and caused us to be born-again. 

            As we look at the world around us, which is the world of unbelievers it does not take us long to see that the world is confused, unjust, wicked, corrupt, and also hopeless as both unbelievers and believers alike can see this truth.  An unbeliever can be seen as one who deceives, lies, steals, and also commits immorality, that kill, and have the capability  do every other sin.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that total depravity means the following:  “Not that we are as bad as we could be, but we are as bad off as we can be.”  MacArthur writes “Just as obvious as the world’s propensity to sin is the inescapable reality that reality cannot be found where men keep looking for it.  Yet when God’s supreme reality is offered in Jesus Christ, men turn away because the reality of His righteous and goodness also reveals the reality of their own sin and wickedness.  Jesus said, ‘And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who practices the truth come to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought by God’ (John 3:19-21).”

 

            The following is a pretty good example.  Suppose that you are lost in an abandoned mine and you keep walking around in that mine and when you come to a dead end you turn around and look for another way out, but you are still lost.  This goes on for about a week and then one day you see a very dim light at the end of the mine and you follow that light in order to get yourself out of that mine.  With all of your remaining energy you make you way toward that light, and you eventually find your way out of that dark place and come out of the mine.  When you get out the light is so bright that it hurts your eyes, and so you begin to wonder if you would really have been better off, and so you go back into the darkness of the mine. 

 

            This story though strange and unlikely to happen is repeated countless times every day in an infinitely more tragic way as people hear the gospel and then they turn right back into the darkness and eventually eternal death.

 

            In our next SD, Lord willing, we will begin to look at “What We Are as we talk about the second verb in verse eight “are.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that I came out of the darkness and am not in the light as God has saved me through the miracle of the New Birth.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue my quest of humility.

The verse that goes along with our unknown quote is Psalm 121:1-2 “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

 

6/6/2019 11:12 AM