SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2019 11:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “Intro
into The Believer’s Warfare”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:10-13
Message of the verses: “10 Finally, be
strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor
of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the
full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having
done everything, to stand firm.”
In our last SD we ended by talking
about how we end up with Spiritual defection, and stated that we need to
remember how things were whenever we first became believers. I remember that I was like a dry sponge that
needed to soak up the things from the Word of God, but really did not know
where to start. I wanted to know about
the end times right after I got saved, and so I read the book of Revelation which
was the first book that read. I have to
say that I don’t recommend this for anyone to do, but God was and still is
patient with me.
One
of the problems that is in the church today is that we become loveless, we do
things in an orthodox manner, and not do things in loving service. This is what the Pharisees did, and we know
what Jesus though of the Pharisees. I
will quote what Jesus said to the church of Pergamum from the book of
Revelations as this is an example of what we are talking about. “12 “And to the angel of the church in
Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: 13 ’I know
where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did
not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who
was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 ’But I have a few things against you, because you have
there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a
stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols
and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ’So you also have some who in the
same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 ’Therefore repent; or else I
am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My
mouth. 17 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden
manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone
which no one knows but he who receives it.’”
John
MacArthur writes “Being a Christian in Pergamum was difficult, and the Lord’s
people there were basically faithful.
But they compromised in some important areas. The ‘teaching of Balaam,’ which some of them
held, was probably the practice of intermarriage with unbelievers, the sin by
which Balak and Balaam managed to lead the Israelites astray (Rev. 2:14; cf.
Num. 24:10-25:3). They also were eating
things sacrificed to idols and committing acts of immorality by engaging in the
orgiastic (orgies) idolatry of the unregenerate pagans (Rev. 2:14). In short, they were aping the world, falling
into sinful habits and practices contrary to God’s standards while attempting
to maintain the church (cf. 1 Cor 10:20-22).”
“imitate the behavior or manner of (someone or something),
especially in an absurd or unthinking way.
"new architecture can respect the old
without aping its style" (Meaning of aping.)
“This
is one of the greatest dangers in the church today. Many believers are inclined to accommodate to
nearly every worldly practice. Under the
pretense of relevance, they copy the world’s materialistic and immoral
ways. When the world becomes with
material things, so has the church. When
the world lowers its sexual standards, so has the church. When the world becomes entertainment crazed,
so has the church. When the world
glorifies self-worth and self-fulfillment, so has the church.”
I
have mentioned that if you take out Smyrna and Philadelphia in the seven
churches you will find a direct line downward in the spirituality in the
church. Another thing that I believe we
can find in these churches as far as the order they are in is that they are in
prophetic order, in other words the dominate church in the world is seen in the
order of the churches of Revelation. That
would make us in the era of Laodicea which is the church in Revelation where
Christ is knocking on the door of the church to get in. Another thing I want to mention is that in
the world almost since the church began there has been each type of church found. The prophetic meaning is that of the dominant
church.
We
will continue, Lord willing, to look at some warnings from these churches as we
continue looking at this intro to “The Believers Warfare.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Looking again at the different churches from
the book of Revelation has caused me to better understand the problems that we
have in the churches today, which can cause believers to be conformed to the
world’s system, therefore needing the spiritual armor that we will be looking
at as we conclude the last main section of Ephesians.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
remember that being filled with the Holy Spirit will help me to live a humble
life.
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
completes the thoughts from yesterday’s verse from Romans 5:5.
What our world needs most is to see love
in action—in our homes, in our churches, in our cities, in our streets. God wants to love this world through us by
His Spirit. But remember, His love
demands action and we must take those first steps. We must put ourselves in situations where God
can love through us.”
9/26/2019 11:51 AM
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