SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/7/2019 11:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Submission of Children”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:1-3
Message
of the verses: “1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is
right. 2 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a
promise), 3 SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE
EARTH.”
What
does it mean to honor your parents? I
suppose that there are many ways we can honor our parents, but one way is to
take care of the parents when they cannot take care of themselves. When a child is born the parents spend a lot
of time and effort, along with a lot of
money to care for that child, which takes place on most occasions for
around twenty years, and so when the parents get older they are to take care of
their aging parents. I have seen this
done in my family and most of it was done by my two sisters, (one has a
birthday today, and her age will remain a secret). I have to say that there were no regrets from
the way that they cared for our parents.
My wife is now taking care of the financial situation with her almost
102 year old father who does live in a nursing home, but still has many things
that are done by my wife. There are
things that we as a couple cannot do as we take few trips because of we feel we
need to stay close to her dad. The point
in all of this is that what I have written about is giving honor to ones
parents as spoken of in the Word of God.
As
one goes through the gospels we see that the Pharisees in Jesus’ day did not
follow this giving honor to their parents and you can read about this in
Matthew 15:1-6 “1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem
and said, 2 "Why do Your disciples
break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they
eat bread." 3 And He answered and said to them, "Why do you
yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4
"For God said, ’HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ’HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF
FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ 5 "But you say, ’Whoever says to his
father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to
God," 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this
you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
One
can find how to honor and obey their parents by reading the book of
Proverbs. This book was written by
Solomon, who by the way did not follow his own writings when he got older, but
his book has much wisdom in it to help children as it was written for the
benefit of his son, and we can gleam from it as well. The book of Proverbs can give much wisdom to
those who read it. If you are up to the
challenge then begin at the beginning of the month and read through the book of
Proverbs one chapter a day. This will
work out good for the months that have 31 days in them, and the other months
one will have to read two or three chapters on that last day. I believe that you will find this a
worthwhile thing to do. In reading this
book, either as a child or as a parent much will be learned for both children
and parents.
John
MacArthur writes “An old Chinese proverb says, ‘One generation plants the trees
and the next gets the shade.’ The
opportunities and freedoms we have to live and practice our faith were won by
our forefathers centuries ago and passed on to us by those in between. Children raised in Christian families are
blessed with the fruit from spiritual trees planted many years earlier by
parents and grandparents. Conversely, it
takes three or four generations to reverse the effects of the one wicked group
of fathers (cf. Ex. 20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18; Deut 5:9). The blessings we have from the preaching,
teaching, and fellowship of our local church are fruit of the dedication and
sacrifice of believers who have gone before us.” I can say that the church that I go to began
before the civil war in our country, and one can read about the history of our
church on the website by clicking on the history tab. https://firstbaptistelyria.org/ click on the “About Us” and then scroll down
to the history tab and click on it. I am
very thankful to be attending a church that God has blessed for over 180 years.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for the many things that my
sisters did for our parents, and I am thankful for the Lord bringing our family
to the church we attend even though when we had to leave our former church
which we attended for 32 years, it has been a blessing to be where we are now.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to be filled by the Holy
Spirit so that He will keep me from pride and bring humility into my life.
Quotation from "Love in
Action" "Encourager' is one of the names of the Holy Spirit
according to the King James Bible. The title 'Comforter' translates to
the word paraclete which means 'to encourage.' When we encourage
people, we live out the ministry of the third Person of the Trinity. He
is the Encourager."
9/7/2019 11:43 AM
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