God's Pledge (Eph. 1:14a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/25/2018 9:23 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  God’s Pledge

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Eph. 1:14a

 

            Message of the verses:  “Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.”

 

            The word in the Greek for our word “pledge” is “arrabon” and this word was used for a down-payment so as we look at this in reference to this part of verse fourteen we see that the Holy Spirit is God’s down-payment to all believers that they will get to heaven, and that all of the inheritance that we have been looking at along with what it says in this portion of verse fourteen.

 

            The Holy Spirit is “God’s first installment of His guarantee that the fullness of the promised spiritual blessings “in the heavenly places in Christ” (v.3) will one day be completely fulfilled.  They are assured and guaranteed with an absolute certainty that only God could provide.  The Holy Spirit is the church’s irrevocable pledge, her divine engagement ring, as it were, that, as Christ’s bride, she will never be neglected or forsaken (cf. 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).”

 

The Goal of Our Inheritance (Eph. 1:14b)

 

            “with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

 

            We have been studying what our inheritance is for a number of weeks, and as we look at it in view of our salvation we will see that this was not the primary purpose of it.  So what is the primary purpose of our salvation if not receiving an inheritance from our Lord?  MacArthur writes “The great, overriding purpose of God’s ‘redemption’ of men is the rescuing of what is His ‘own possession.’  All creation belongs to God, and in His infinite wisdom, love, and grace He chose to provide redemption for the fallen creatures He had made in His own image—for His own sake even more than for their sakes, because they do not belong to themselves, but to Him.”  Now as I think about that statement for a while it seems to me that this may have been the first time we have heard something like this.

 

            The key thing that Paul states here and has already stated in verse six and twelve is “to the praise of His glory.”  We are not saved for our own glory, but for the glory of God.  “20 “The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people. 21 “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise (Isa. 43:20-21).”  If we desire and bring glory to ourselves then we are robbing God of what He alone deserves as He saved us to serve Him and to praise Him.  MacArthur adds “We are saved to be restored to the intended divine purpose of creation—to bear the image of God and bring Him greater glory.

            “This is fully accomplished at the believer’s glorification, when we receive full glory and redemption and are made the perfect possession of God.”

 

            This SD ends the very long sentence from the original language which covers verses 3-14, and so in tomorrow’s SD we will begin “Our Resources in Christ” which covers 1:15-23.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He went out and weep bitterly.”

 

Today’s Bible Question:  “What was the first statement Moses and Aaron made to Pharaoh?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/25/2018 9:50 PM

 

 

PT-2 "God's Seal" (Eph. 1:13b-14a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2018 10:41 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “God’s Seal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                           Reference:  Ephesians 1:13b-14a

 

            Message of the verses:  “you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.”

 

            We began in our last SD to look at the main section entitled “The Guarantee of Our Inheritance,” and this section covers the verses mentioned above.  After doing the introduction we began to look at the first sub-section under this main-section entitled “God’s Seal” and we continue looking at this sub-section in our SD for today, as we had promised to continue to look at the sealing of the Holy Spirit in our SD for today.

 

            We have mentioned that once a person becomes a believer then at that very moment the Spirit of God takes up residence in their life.  We have continued to mention from this very long sentence in the Greek (Eph. 1:3-14) that we are in Christ, and life in Christ is different than life before coming to Christ, and that difference is because of having the Holy Spirit in our life.  The Spirit of God is there to empower us, and to equip us for the ministry, and function through the gifts He has given to us as believers.  The Holy Spirit is also our Helper and Advocate.  He also protects and gives us encouragement.  Another thing He does is to guarantee our inheritance in Jesus Christ as seen in Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”  He (The Spirit of God) is our securing force, and our guarantee.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The sealing of which Paul speaks here refers to an official mark of identification that was placed on a letter, contract, or other important document.  The seal usually was made from hot wax, which was placed on the document and then impressed with a signet ring.  The document was thereby officially identified with and under the authority of the person to whom the signet belonged.

            “That is the idea behind our being sealed in Him [Christ] with ‘the Holy Spirit of promise.’  The seal of God’s Spirit in the believer signifies four primary things:  security, authenticity, ownership, and authority.”  I want to briefly look at four primary things that are provided by the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

 

Security:  This has to do with ancient times when the seal of a king, prince, or a noble represented security and inviolability.  An example from the OT is seen in the sixth chapter of the book of Daniel when Daniel was thrown into the Lion’s den and King Darius along with his nobles, placed their seal on the stone placed over the entrance to the den, “so that nothing might be changed in regard to Daniel” as seen in Daniel 6:17.  We can be assured that if anyone would have tampered with that seal then they would have probably lost their life.  This was also seen on the tomb where Jesus’ body laid as Pilate had his seal placed there as seen in Matthew 27:62-66. 

“In an infinitely greater way, the Holy Spirit secures each believer, making him with His own unchallengeable seal.”

 

Authenticity:  The example from the OT is about the story of King Ahab wanting the vineyard of Naboth.  His wife Jezebel then wrote letters to various nobles who lived in Naboth’s city, demanding that they arranged false accusations of blasphemy and treason against him and then she sealed them with the king’s seal making them as if the king signed them.

“When God gives us His Holy Spirit, it is as if He stamps us with a seal that reads, “This person belongs to Me and is an authentic citizen of My divine kingdom and member of My divine family.”

 

Ownership:  The example from the OT is the story of when Jeremiah bought some land from his cousin that was about to be taken over by the Babylonians.  Now he did this because it was a promise from God that one day that land would again be taken over by Israel.  This story is found in Jeremiah chapter thirty-two and verse ten gives the agreement. “When the Holy Spirit seal believes, He marks them as God’s divine possessions, who from that moment on entirely and eternally belong to Him.  The Spirit’s seal declares the transaction of salvation as divinely official and final.”

 

Authority:  This OT story comes from the book of Ester.  The law that the king signed or sealed which allowed the people of his kingdom to kill the Jews and to take their possession could not be revoked, and so at Ester’s encouragement that the king would made another law which allowed the Jews to defend themselves.  (Ester 8:8-12).

“When Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit they are delegated to proclaim, teach, minister, and defend God’s Word and His gospel with the Lord’s own authority.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is interesting that as I am preparing for my Sunday school class for tomorrow that a part of this comes from the first five verses in Revelation chapter 14 where we read about how God has sealed the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and so this actually fits right into what I am teaching.  (A God Thing for sure!)

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to help me remember these four things that the Spirit of God does for me because He has sealed me.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Sin.”

 

Today’s Bible question:  “After denying Jesus three times, what did Peter do when he heard the roster crow?

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/24/2018 11:33 AM

The Guarantee of Our Inheritance (Eph. 1:13b-14a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/23/2018 9:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                           Focus: The Guarantee of Our Inheritance

 

Bible Reading & Mediation                                                              Reference:  Eph. 1:13b-14a

 

            Message of the verses:  “you were sealed in Him with the Holly Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.”

 

            “The Guarantee of Our Inheritance” is the second main section in the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary.  In this second main point we will find two sub-sections, and in today’s SD we want to look at the introduction and then perhaps begin to look at the first sub-section “God’s Seal.”

 

            In the world that we live in we would like guarantees when it comes to things in our life.  However even if we are given a guarantee from men, and even if they swear to it, or take an oath to fulfill the agreement, or even give us their assurance that what they will do will happen it does not always happen for various reasons, and some of those reasons are outright lies.

 

            When we look at God’s Word we know for sure that what He says He will do because God cannot lie.  As MacArthur writes “His graciousness He makes His promises even more certain—if that were possible—by giving us His own guarantees.  Here the Lord guarantees His promises with His seal and with His pledge.  This is reminiscent of Hebrews 6:13-18, in which God gives His promise of blessing and then confirms it with an oath to provide what the Holy Spirit calls ‘strong encouragement’ (v. 18) to all who hope in Christ.”  I think that we will take the time to look at Hebrews 6:13-18 at this time: 

“13  For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, "I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU." 15 And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. 16 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. 17 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

 

            We will now begin looking at the first sub-section “God’s Seal.”

 

            As we looked at the passage from Hebrews we saw that the writer of Hebrews was writing at first about Abraham, and the promises that God gave to Abraham.  Now we know that in Abraham’s life time he did not receive the promises that God gave to him, and many of those promises have yet to be fulfilled, but we know that because God was the One who gave those promises that they will one day all be fulfilled.  In the same way when we become a believer in Jesus Christ, when we are born from above that all of the promises that God gives to believers will not be fulfilled while we are on this earth in this human body we occupy.  Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:3-4 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.”  The highlighted portion is what we want to focus in on for our purposes today in looking at many of the promises that God has given to us which will be fulfilled for us “in heaven.”  I suppose that because of this truth that there are times when we sort of loose faith, and even think that these promises of our inheritance will not ever be fulfilled, but that is not the case as all of the inheritance we have that we have been learning about will all be fulfilled.  MacArthur writes “While we are still in this life our redemption is not complete, because we still await ‘the redemption of our body’ (Rom. 8:23).  Because we have not yet received full possession of our inheritance, we may question its reality or at least its greatness.”

 

            We can see from the first portion of our verse today the following items which gives us hope “you were sealed in Him with the Holly Spirit of promise.”  Every believer, at the moment of His salvation has been given the Person of the Holy Spirit of God as Paul declares in Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  Notice that only those who truly have been born-again are given the Holy Spirit.  This is an incredible to think that every believer has the Holy Spirit making them “the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in [him]” as seen in 1 Corinthians 6:19.

 

            We will continue looking at this amazing truth in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for those many promises that have to do with my salvation that I will receive as an inheritance when I hopefully meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes. 3:13-18).

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Holy Spirit of God to guide me, especially as I study His Word, so that He can show me the truths that He wants me to see so I can learn by them and also pass them onto those who read my blogs and who are in my Sunday school class.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He raised him from the dead” (2 Kings 4:18-37).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “What does James 4:17 call the circumstances of ‘Knowing to do good and doing it not’?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/23/2018 10:46 AM

PT-2 "The Human Perspective" (Eph. 1:12, 13a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/22/2018 11:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “The Human Perspective”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 1:12a, 13a

 

            Message of the verses:  “to the end that we who were first to hope in Christ…In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed.”

 

            In the United States of America today we celebrate “Thanksgiving Day,” a day that was designed to give thanks to the Lord that actually dates back to when the pilgrims landed on our shore and found themselves in trouble until some friendly American Indians helped them survive by instructing them to grow food.  As the harvest came the new settlers along with the Indians were thankful, and they gave thanks to the Lord. 

 

            As we have been looking at both the Divine and Human perspectives on our salvation I can think of nothing better to do on this Thanksgiving Day than to praise the Lord for the wonderful gift of salvation that He has offered to us.  We will now continue to look at the human perspective in today’s SD.

 

            In the first part of our verses today, that is verse 12a we see the word hope, and that word actually comes after the word faith in the chronological and the theological way we are saved, but Paul is actually using this word hope as a synonym of faith in this passage.  The first to hope in Christ were the first to believe in Him.

 

            Now we move on to verse 13a where Paul continues “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed.”  The Apostle Paul explains in his letter to the Romans “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  MacArthur writes “Faith comes from a positive response to the message of truth, the gospel, the good news that God has provided a way of salvation through the atoning work of His Son. To ‘as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name’ (John 1:12).  Man-made systems of religion, which rely on ritual or works or both, not only do not lead to God but can become great barriers to finding Him.  The only way to come is through His Son, ‘10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’ ‘Having also believed not only stresses the means by which salvation is appropriated but also the uniformity of such means by the use of ‘also.’”

 

            In conclusion to this section we can say that faith is man’s response to God’s elective purpose.  God chooses men through election, and then man’s choice of God is faith.  In election God gives His promises, and by faith men receive those promises.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to wish all a very happy Thanksgiving Day in the truest sense of the meaning of this wonderful holiday.  I am so very thankful for the salvation that God has given to me and my prayer is that all who read this SD will also have that wonderful hope that all true believers have.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will continue to unlock the great truths that are found in this great book of Ephesians.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Christ.”

 

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Elisha do for the Shunammite woman’s son?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/22/2018 11:45 AM

PT-1 "The Human Perspective" (Eph. 1:12a, 13a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/21/2018 10:25 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-1 “The Human Perspective”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 1:12a, 13a

 

            Message of the verses:  “to the end we who were first to hope in Christ…In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of you salvation—having also believed,”

 

            In this SD we move from the divine perspective of inheritance to the human perspective of inheritance.  Once again I need to quote from John MacArthur for us to understand the Greek in this section:  “In the Greek text this passage is continuous, the last part of verse 12 leading directly into verse 13.  Here we see the believer’s divine inheritance in Jesus Christ from our own human perspective. 

 

            In earlier SD’s I have mentioned the tension between God’s sovereignty and man’s will and we come upon this tension more than once in this book of Ephesians.  I have stated that early on in my Christian life that I felt that it was man who was the one to determine whether or not he becomes a believer in Jesus Christ for salvation, and then a bit later I began reading books on the sovereignty of God and then totally believed that it was all up to God who would be saved.  Now later on in my walk with the Lord I began to believe both views, that is that God chose me before the earth was formed, and that I was the one who had to accept the effectual call of the Holy Spirit in order to be saved.  Yes both are true, and yes we will never be able to understand it while we are in our earthly bodies.  John MacArthur writes “We know the truths are in perfect accord in God’s mind, and that knowledge should satisfy us.”  He then tells the story of what someone versioned when they got to heaven and saw a sign as then entered which read “Whosoever will may come,” and after you enter heaven you look back to the same sign and read on the other side, “Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.”

            “Whatever God’s reasons for designing such humanly irreconcilable truths, we should thank and praise Him for them.  For the very reason that they are completely true while seeming to be contradictory, we are humbled in His presence as we stand in awe of that which to us is incomprehensible.  To the trusting believer such truths are but further evidence that Scripture is God’s doing, and not man’s.”  I suppose this one truth among many which shows that it was not man who wrote the Word of God, but that is that it was not man’s idea as Peter tells us that men were moved along by the Spirit of God to write His Word.

 

            “To the end we who were first to hope in Christ” is the first statement given here about the human side of our divine inheritance in Christ.  MacArthur writes that “The Greek has a definite article before Christ, and a more literal translation is ‘hope in the Christ.’  The meaning is not changed, but the definite article emphasizes the uniqueness of our hope:  it is in the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ.  It also stresses the idea that the apostles and other first-generation Jewish believers were the first to receive the Messiah.”

 

            This is a very heavy portion of Scripture and so I think that this is all that I can write about today and will hope to finish this section in our next SD.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jehu” (2 Kings 9:20).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “What does Matthew depict not only as the greatest prophet and lawgiver, but also as fulfilling the Law and the Prophets?

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/21/2018 11:02 AM

           

PT-2 "The Divine Perspective" (Eph. 1:11, 12b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2018 10:48 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “The Divine Perspective”

 

Bible Reading & Mediation                                                          Reference: Ephesians 1:11, 12b  

 

            Message of the verses:  “having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we…should be to the praise of His glory.”

 

            In our last SD we mentioned why these verses are out of order, that is because the way we read them in this SD is the way they were in the original Greek.  Also we stated that “The Divine Perspective” is a sub-section under the main section “The ground of our inheritance,” and in our last SD we looked at the first sub sub-section “God’s predestination.”  Now in today’s SD we want to begin by looking at the next section “God’s power” which comes from “who works all things after the counsel of His will.”

 

            When we look at the Greek for the word “works” we come up with the following meanings:

 “1) to be operative, be at work, put forth power

1a) to work for one, aid one

2) to effect

3) to display one’s activity, show one’s self operative.”

 

            The English words that come from this Greek word include energy, energetic, and energize.  MacArthur writes that “God’s creating and energizing are one in His divine mind.  When he spoke each part of the world into existence it began immediately to operate precisely as He had planned it to do.  Unlike the things we make, God’s creations does not have to be redesigned, prototyped, tested, fueled, charged, and the like.  They are not only created ready to function, they are created functioning.”

 

            We may not think a lot about the energizing aspect of God’s creation, none the less it is very important and is an indispensable part of His creative plan and work.  MacArthur adds “God works out what He plans.  He energizes every believer with all the power necessary for his spiritual completion.  It is not sufficient to think that God only makes the plan.  He also makes it work out.”  Paul speaks about this in Phil. 1:6 where he wrote “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  This plan of God for believers is a part of His wonderful grace as God chose us to be His children, citizens of His kingdom and joint heirs with His Son, and that sounds too good to be true, however every word of it is true.  I pray that we can wrap our arms around this truth and live like we are in God’s eyes.  I once heard a sermon a very long time ago entitled “Becoming what you Are,” and the point of the sermon is to live like God sees us, as it is a part of being heavenly minded.

 

            God’s preeminence:  “should be to the praise of His glory.”  I mentioned this above that this phrase in verse 12 should be first as it is in the Greek text, and that order fits logically with what Paul has been saying about God’s perspective on our inheritance. 

            The following is a rather long quote, but it is the only way that I can do justice to what this section is about:

 

“The Lord’s perspective and working are seen in His predestination, in His power, and as we see here, in His preeminence.  Man is redeemed for the purpose of restoring the divine image marred by sin.  Because God’s intention in creating men was that they should bear the divine image, salvation’s goal is creation’s goal.  God desires creatures that will give Him glory by both proclaiming and displaying His glory.  For that reason He redeems men.

            “Scripture always presents salvation from God’s side, in order that He should have full credit.  In our humanly-oriented society, God’s wanting exclusive credit seems inappropriate—but only because men have no concept of His greatness, holiness, and glory.  What views they may have of Him are simply projections of themselves.  The praise and glory that men so much desire are totally undeserved, and their motives for wanting them are purely sinful.  But God seeks glory for the right reasons and because He alone is deserving of it.  His seeking glory is a holy desire of which He is supremely and singly worthy.

            “Our predestined salvation, including our attendant eternal and boundless blessings, are therefore designed that ‘they should be to the praise of His glory.’”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I am studying in the past month things that speak of God’s great gift of salvation along with all of these wonderful blessings that He has given to us and wondering what to make of them I think that in this last section the light has finally come on and all of these gifts, including the greatest gift of salvation is to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ who has provided all of this to me as a believer.  As MacArthur states that they are designed that “they should be to the praise of His glory.” 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be determined to live my life to the praise of His glory who deserves it all.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Upon the sun.”

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was noted for fast driving?”  (This is a difficult question as it surely stumped me, and so the clue I will give is that this man was a king in the divided nation of Israel, the Northern Kingdom.)

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/20/2018 11:38 AM

 

 

 

The Divine Perspective (Eph. 1:11, 12b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2018 9:14 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “The Divine Perspective”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 1:11, 12b

 

            Message of the verses:  “having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we…should be to the praise of His glory.”

 

            John MacArthur writes the following to show us why we are looking at the makeup of the verses as seen above:  “Our discussion here will follow the order of the Greek text of verse 12, in which (as reflected in the King James Version) should be to the praise of His glory precedes ‘who were the first to hope in Christ’ (which phrase will be discussed below in relation to the human perspective).”

 

            God’s perspective on our inheritance which is in Christ is here shown in His predestination, along with His power, and also His preeminence.

 

            We will first look at God’s predestination where we read “having been predestined according to His purpose.”  Predestination is one of those words that has given a Christians much trouble, but we have to look at it because it is here.  “To predetermine, decide beforehand “To foreordain, appoint beforehand.” “In the NT of God decreeing from eternity.”  These are the definitions for the English words “having been predestined” that are in the Greek as one word.

 

            As believers in Jesus Christ we are what we are because of what God chose to make us, and this happened before man was created.  Even though we are vile, rebellious, useless, and deserving only of death, from eternity past God has declared every elect sinner, the ones who have trusted in His Son would be made as righteous even as the One in whom believers have put their trust in.  We looked at this subject before in verse four where we read “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”

 

            John MacArthur quotes William Hendriksen on this passage which is helpful to us in order to better understand the passage.

 

“Neither fate nor human merit determines our destiny.  The benevolent purpose—that we should be holy and faultless (verse 4), sons of God (verse 5), destined to glorify Him forever (verse 6, cf. verses 12 and 14)—is fixed, being part of a larger universe-embracing plan.  Not only did God make this plan that includes absolutely all things that ever take place in heaven, on earth, and in hell; past present, and even the future, pertaining to both believers and unbelievers, to angels and devils, to physical as well as spiritual energies and units of existence both large and small; he also wholly carries it out. His providence in time is an comprehensive as is His decree from eternity.”

 

            We have a few more sub, sub-sections to look at before we finish “the divine perspective” and Lord willing we will look at them tomorrow.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today: When I look at the words that describe humanity as seen above I can’t help but think of a few things.  God’s love, sovereignty, and grace are just a few things that I think of along with if God was going to do this as He has; He only has these kinds of sinful people to work with.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to continue to make me able to walk in the Lord in order to fulfill the purposes that He has for me while on planet earth.

 

Answer to our last Bible question:  “Jacob” (Genesis 25:31).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did the forth angel in Revelation 16:8 pour out his vile?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/19/2018 9:45 PM