SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/10/2019 9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro
to the Believer’s Armor”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
6:14-15
Message of the verses: “14 Stand therefore, having your loins girded
about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and your
feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace” (KJ21).
In
our last SD we began to look at different ways that Satan opposes us and stated
that in John MacArthur’s commentary that he listed nine ways, and we looked at
two of them in our last SD, and stated we will continue to look at them in
today’s SD.
We
begin today by looking at the third ways Satan attacks believers and that is
through doctrinal confusion and falsehood.
I have written in my Spiritual Diaries the importance of staying in the
Word of God, and not just reading it but memorizing it and meditating on
it. If this is not done in the believers
life on a consistent basis then Satan can bring confusion to them. We know that Satan tried this trick on our
Lord as seen in Matthew chapter four when Satan quoted a verse from the Psalms,
but left out a couple of words, but this did not fool our Lord as he rebuked
Satan’s attempt to cause Him to fall by quoting back from the book of
Deuteronomy. “5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle
of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself
down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On
their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is
written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Matt. 4:5-7). Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12 which I will
quote now and show you the words that he left out: “11 For He will give His angels charge
concerning you, To guard you in
all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not
strike your foot against a stone.” The
highlighted words are the words that Satan left out.
One
of the things that I do while in church is to listen intently to the messages
that Pastors preach and one of the things that I have done from time to time is
disagree with some of the points that the Pastor’s bring out in their sermon
because they do not go along with what the Bible has to say. I don’t confront them in a mean spirited way,
or don’t confront them for small points, but for things that can cause people
to be misled. It has always been my
desire to know what the Word of God says so that I am not fooled by
unscriptural messages.
Let’s
move to number four and that is that Satan attacks God’s people by hindering
their service to the Lord. Satan will
oppose every faithful life and also every effective ministry. We can see from Paul’s writings that Satan
opposed him in Ephesus as seen in 1 Cor. 16:9 where Paul writes about having
“many adversaries.” Satan gave Paul a
thorn in the flesh to buffet him as seen in 2 Cor. 12:7 “Because of the
surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from
exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself!”
Fifthly
we see that Satan attacks believers by causing divisions. In our study of the gospel of John and in
particular chapter 17 we read the following “11 "I am no longer in the
world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy
Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that
they may be one even as We are.”
“21 that they may all be one;
even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in
Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 "The glory which You have given Me I
have given to them, that
they may be one, just as We are one; 23
I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know
that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:11,
21-23).
It
was about three or so years ago that I was moved by the Lord to begin to pray
for unity in our church. I did not see
any signs of disunity but felt it necessary to pray for continued unity, which
I still do. I emailed our head deacon
and spoke my concerns to which he replied that he too had been praying for
unity, and said that he had not seen any signs of disunity either. Our Pastors and deacons spent the next year
or so reading over a book by Charles Swindoll which was entitle “Hand Me
Another Brick,” as this was a study in the book of Nehemiah and promoted
unity. Yes Satan tries to bring disunity
to families, friends, and churches and if we are not protected he can be
affective.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
Both from reading Ephesians six and also from Dr. Wiersbe’s book I am reminded
to stay in the Word of God and to memorize it and meditate upon it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Remember humility as I go throughout my day.
Today’s rather long quotation from “Love
in Action” comes from the Living Bible and from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.
I can never stop
thanking God for all the
wonderful gifts he has given you,
now that you are Christ’s; he has
enriched
your whole life. He has helped you to speak
out for Him and has given you a full
understanding
of the truth; what I told you Christ
could do for you has
happened! Now you have every grace and blessing; every
spiritual gift and power for doing His
will….He guarantees
right up to the end that you will be
counted free from all
sin and guilt on that day when He
returns. God will
surely do this for you, for he always
does just
what He says, and He is the One who
invited
you into this wonderful friendship with
His Son, even Christ our Lord.
1
Corinthians 1:4-9 TLB
10/10/2019 10:40 AM
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