PT-4 The Future Glory of Jerusalem (Zech. 2:6-9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2016 5:17 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-4 The Future Glory of Jerusalem

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 2:6-9

            Message of the verse:  “6 "Ho there! Flee from the land of the north," declares the LORD, "for I have dispersed you as the four winds of the heavens," declares the LORD.”

            This fourth point is “The Delivered People” and we see that it if from verse six.  Now the first thing that we need to see is that the Lord is telling His people, those captives who are still in Babylon to flee from there.  MacArthur writes “And God is saying look there’s a great day coming for Jerusalem.  You’d better get out of the world’s system, you’d better get away from Babylon before you’re totally engulfed in the system itself and your’ better get back to the land.”  Even though when you look at a map you find that Babylon is East of Jerusalem when you come into Jerusalem you have to come from the North, even in 70 AD when Titus came into Jerusalem he came from the North.  Verse seven tells us that he is talking about Babylon, “"Ho, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon."”  The problem with the exiles who were still in Babylon is that they got comfortable living there and it was easier for them to stay in Babylon, but even though it was the Persians who now controlled Babylon as they defeated them, there would come a time when the Greeks would conquer them according to Daniel, and according to history.  We can see a picture of this when we look at the NT book of 2 Corinthians “17 Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you." 18 “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty’ (2 Cor. 6:17-18 NKJV).”

            “I can't resist a footnote here, I taste an element of the future in this too, because there's going to come a day in the tribulation when God's going to give the same message. He's going to say to people come out from Babylon, because if you read Revelation 17, and Revelation 18, you will read that the final world system is called what, Babylon. The final world system is Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. And as the world consummates it's final amalgamation, its final world system, God's going to call Israel out of Babylon in the future. Don't be a part of the world system, he's saying to these people. This city has an eternal future and some day He's going to call His people from out of Babylon yet to come in the time of the tribulation. Jerusalem will be restored. Come back, identify with the city of God (MacArthur’s Sermon).”

            Let us now look at the fifth point “The Destroyed Powers.”  Zechariah 2:8-9 “8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. 9 “For behold, I will wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me.”  I can’t resist than to talk about the statement “the apple of His eye,” as seen at the end of this verse.  A long time ago I read the story and actually saw the movie “The Hiding Place,” which is a true story of Corie Ten Boom who lived in Holland during the German invasion of that country.  She was in her fifties and she and her family began to hide the Jewish people from the Germans.  Her father and sister and she were eventually sent to a prison camp because of this and her father was very old.  The Germans told her father if he promised not to hide anymore Jews he could go free, but he told them that his house was open to anyone who wanted to come into it and so he died in prison.  Before his death he stated that the Germans were messing with the “apple of God’s eye” in that they were doing harm to the Jewish people.

            MacArthur writes the following on these verses:  “Now I want you to watch this. Now watch. Very difficult, but interesting verse. Look what it says in verse 8. This is terrific! "For thus says the Lord of hosts. After the glory hath he sent me." Now the Lord of hosts says after the glory hath He sent me. Who in the world send the Lord of hosts? That's what I said. The answer is in verse 9. "For behold I will shake my hand on them and they should be a spoil to their servants and you shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me." Who sends the Lord of hosts? The Lord of hosts sends the Lord of hosts. Say now wait a minute, Jehovah sends Jehovah? If you reject the New Testament you've got a problem with that. Right? If you accept the New Testament you don't have a problem with that. The Lord of hosts, the Father sends the Lord of hosts the Son. Isn't that great?

            “And he is the one who comes to deliver His people. He is the one who comes to conquer the nations and he is after glory, he is after glory. Listen everything is done for glory for God. The nations are judged that God may be glorified. Summing it up he says the second person of the Trinity, the Savior, the Messiah, is sent by the first person of the Trinity, the Father in order that He may judge the nations to bring glory to God because God too long has been looked down on because His people have been downtrodden. And God says in the end when I exalt My people then the world will know that I am God.”

            Now as we think about this we may want to look once again at 1:15 “"But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster."”  God has a perfect time table in which He will destroy those nations who have done harm to the Jewish people.  They think that they are getting away with something, but they are not, for one day the wrath of God will come upon them as we see in the Tribulation Period and also in the 38^th and 39^th chapters of Ezekiel.  Remember Genesis 12:3And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."”  Don’t ever hate a Jewish person because he is a Jewish person or the wrath of God will come upon you.  John MacArthur states that when we look at the 25^th chapter of Matthew which is a part of the Olivet Discourse, that Christ will judge the nations on the way they treated Israel. 

            We will try and finish the chapter in our next SD.

4/30/2016 5:53 PM

           

           

Introduction to John 7:14-24

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2016 11:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Intro to John 7:14-24

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 7:14-24

            Message of the verses:  “14  But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" 16  So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17  "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. 19 “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?" 20 The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?" 21 Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel. 22 “For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? 24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."”

            In John MacArthur’s commentary on this section he entitles it “Verifying the Claims of Christ.”  In the introduction to this chapter, which is the 24^th chapter of his commentary he cites a long list of verses to show that Jesus claimed to be God coming in the flesh, something that is the most important decision a person has to answer whether or not he believes that Jesus Christ is who He claims to be.  C. S. Lewis in his book “Mere Christianity” writes the following:  “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make you choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.”

            John MacArthur writes at the end of his introduction, in the last paragraph, the following which tells us how he will break down these verses:  “Despite the mounting opposition He faced, Jesus fearlessly proclaimed the uncensored truth about His identity and mission.  The ensuing dialog in verses 15-24 provides five features to lead doubters and skeptics to believe His astounding claims:  His source of knowledge, His surety, His selflessness, His sentence, and His signs, all of which proved Him to be the Son of God.”

            I want at this point quote from the introduction of Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on this seventh chapter of John’s gospel which he entitles “Feast Fight.”  I think that is a clever name for this section for that is what happens in this chapter.  He writes that there are three words that describe the contents of this chapter, “Disbelief, Debate, and Division.”    Now as stated here is the following quote from his introduction:  “The Feast of Tabernacles looked back to Israel’s journey through the wilderness, and looked forward to the promised kingdom of Messiah.  The Jews lived in booths made of branches to remind them of God’s providential care of the nation for nearly forty years (Lev. 23:33-44).

            “Following the Feast of Trumpets and the solemn Day of Atonement, Tabernacles was a festive time for the people.  The temple area was illumined by large candlesticks that reminded the people of the guiding pillar of fire; and each day the priest would carry water from the Pool of Siloam and pour it out from a golden vessel, reminding of the Jews of the miraculous of water from the rock.

            “The feast may have been a jubilant time for the people, but it was a difficult time for Jesus, for it marked the beginning of open and militant opposition to Him and His ministry.  Ever since He had healed the paralytic on the Sabbath Day, Jesus had been targeted by the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill Him (John 7:1, 19-20, 25, 30, 32, 44; and note 8:37, 40).  He remained in Galilee, where He would be safer, but He could not remain in Galilee and also observe the feast.

            “John 7 has three time divisions; before the feast (vv. 1-10), in the midst of the feast (vv. 11-36), and on the last day of the feast (vv. 37-52).”

            Now we are actually following the outline and division of this chapter from John MacArthur’s commentary, but I will look at some of the things that Warren Wiersbe has to say, as I always value his insights.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “450” (1 Kings 18:19-22).

Today’s Bible question:  “From what tribe did the Lord spring?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/30/2016 12:16 PM

           

PT-3 The Future Glory of Jerusalem (Zechariah 2:5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2016 11:03 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-3 The Future Glory of Jerusalem

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 2:5

            Message of the verses:  We are looking at the third point in the vision that is described in chapter two which is his second vision that he received from the Lord, second of eight, which were all received on the same night.  The name of this point that comes from a sermon by John MacArthur is “The Divine Protector,” and of course that would be the Lord Jesus Christ as we will see from verse five:  “5  ’For I,’ declares the LORD, ’will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’"” 

            Now as we look at this verse we can see for sure that there is some historical principles seen in it as we think about when the children of Israel were leaving Egypt after God destroyed their nation with ten plagues.  When they were traveling in the wilderness the Lord would be a cloud over them to protect them from the heat in the desert, and then at night when it got cold He would be a fire around them to keep them warm.  There is a name for this and it is called the Shekinah glory of the Lord, the same glory that would fill the tabernacle and then the temple once they were built.

            John MacArthur writes “God has been a flaming wall. I couldn't help but mention to you II Kings 6:15, remember this one? This is great! We went over this when we studied angels. "When the servant of the man of God was risen early, Elisha's servant, and he'd gone forth, the host compassed the city with horses and chariots. "And his servant said to him, 'Alas, my master, what will we do?'" He says, the army is on us. "And he said, 'Don't be afraid for they who are with us are more than they who are with them.' The servant looks around and he says you got to be kidding. You and me guy, that's it. What do you mean they who are with us? "Oh Elisha prayed and said, 'Lord open his eyes.' And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha." God had His angelic wall of fire protecting His prophet and his servant. God can make a wall of protection around and in and that's exactly what He'll do in the future for Israel.”

            One more quote from MacArthur’s sermon which is actually a long quote from the book of Ezekiel:  “Afterwards, says Ezekiel in Chapter 43, "He brought me to the gate, to the gate that looks toward the east and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east and His voice was like the noise of many waters and the earth shined with His glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, that according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face and the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard Him speaking to me out of the house and the man stood by me and said, "Son of man the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever, and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places." God returns to Israel, a wonderful, wonderful truth. So we see the glorious plan and then we see the wonderful delivering protecting God.”  Now remember that chapters 40-48 of the book of Ezekiel speaks of the Millennial Kingdom and what the nation of Israel, and especially what Jerusalem will look like during that time period.

4/29/2016 11:18 PM

The Right Time (John 7:10-13)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2016 9:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  The Right Time

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 7:10-13

            Message of the verses:  “10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. 11 So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, "Where is He?" 12 There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, "He is a good man"; others were saying, "No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray." 13 Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.”

            I want to begin by looking at Luke 9:51-56 “51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; 52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [[and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them."]] And they went on to another village.”  Now the reason we began with these verses is because according to John MacArthur who wrote that most scholars believe that this is the route that Jesus took after talking with His brothers who told Him to go up to the feast and make Himself known.  Jesus actually did the opposite as He went up in secret for many of the Jews were seeking to kill Him.  However He did go up for as we have learned this was in the plan from the Father for Him to go up when He did.

            We see from verse eleven that the wisdom of the Lord was right on as we read that the Jews were seeking Him at this feast, for they knew that all males were to come up to this feast and that He would be there, and it was their desire to kill Him as seen in 5:18 “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”

            As we look at verse twelve we see that there were many who were grumbling about Him as there was many who did not believe in Him, but some who did believe in Him, and it seems that the ones who believed in Him only said that “He is a good man,” which is not what it takes to became a true believer in Him.  There are many today who would say that He is a good man, but that is as far as they want to go with it, not saying that He is the Son of God who came in the flesh to take our place on the cross to die for our sins, to become sin for us that we may have His righteousness, to say that He is the way the truth and the life and that no one can come to God without going through Him. The ones who thought He was a deceiver would eventually win out for this was what would cause the Jews to have Him crucified as He was truly the Son of God, but they did not believe Him and felt He was committing blasphemy.

            People were not actually speaking openly about Jesus as the Jews caused so much fear to be upon the people that they were not standing up and saying that He was good or that He was a deceiver, but only speaking among themselves and probably most were even fearful in doing that.  John MacArthur writes “Though it was clear that the authorities rejected Jesus, the Sanhedrin had not yet rendered a formal judgment regarding Him.  Thus, the people were careful to guard their words, speaking neither for Him or against Him until they knew what the official response to Jesus would be.  In any case, the crowds certainly did not want to publicly contradict their religious leaders.  The consequences for doing so were severe and could include excommunication from the synagogue (9:22; cf. 16:2).  That dreadful punishment cut a person off from all of Jewish life.

            “As this account in John’s gospel illustrates, Jesus followed God’s timetable perfectly.  He always performed God’s will exactly as the Father wished.  Those who are true followers of Christ also have the ability to follow God’s revealed will—because they have been given both His Word and His Spirit.  His Word informs believers as to what His will is (Ps. 40:8), and His Spirit empowers them to obey that will with gladness (143:10; cf. 119:111).

            “Unbelievers do not have the capacity to understand God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:14) or the ability to obey His Spirit (Rom. 8:5-9).  Nonetheless, for those who have not yet come to Him, the time is right to do so, ‘for He says, ‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.’  Behold, now ‘The acceptable time, ‘behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’’ (2 Cor. 6:2).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The highlighted portion above has spoken to my heart today.  It is not something that I did not know, but sometimes you know something, but don’t follow it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To follow the Lord’s will by seeking to know what the Father has for me to do as I study His Word and trust His Spirit to guide me; to love the Lord more, and to know Him better, and to trust Him move.

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

Today’s Bible question:  “How many prophets of Baal came to Mount Carmel?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/29/2016 10:25 AM

 

PT-2 The Future Glory of Jerusalem (Zech. 2:1-5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2016 3:18 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 The Future Glory of Jerusalem

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 2:1-5

            Message of the verses:  Now in our last SD we quoted from a sermon by John MacArthur “The Future Glory of Jerusalem” which gave us a short history of the city of Jerusalem.  Now I want to begin this SD with another short quote from that sermon which gives us a brief review of the visions that we saw in the first chapter of Zechariah:  “You remember that the first vision of the rider of the red horse predicted hope for downtrodden Israel.  The second vision presented of the horns and the smiths presented the fact that the nations that hand triumphed over Israel would be crushed.  And now the third vision says your hope will be realized when the nations are crushed and Jerusalem is glorified.  Now I want to look at six parts to this vision and I think you’ll see how it unfolds.”  We begin this SD by beginning to look at these six parts to the vision which is in Zechariah chapter two.

            The first part is entitled “The design Proposed.”  “1 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zech. 2:1).”  Now it is good of us to remember that Zechariah received eight visions and that he received them all in one night.  We are not sure what he did between visions, perhaps he would bow his head and pray for in verse one we see that he lifted up his eyes, so he may have been praying about the vision he just saw.  Perhaps he was looking at what we have determined as the interrupting angle.  We have mentioned that it is difficult for us to understand what any of the prophets went through when they received a vision from the Lord, but we can be sure that it was not an easy thing to go through.  After Daniel received one of his visions he was sick for many days.  These prophets were seeing thing, in many cases things that they did not truly understand, and in many times it was far off in the future when these things would happen, which is probably the case in this vision that he writes about here.  Zechariah sees a man with a measuring line in his hand, which we could understand as a tape measure in today’s language.  We have mentioned that when a person measures something it is because he has ownership of it.  Zechariah asks the man with the tape “2 So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is (V – 2).”  This man is laying out the city of Jerusalem.

            Now I will not go into the details of why it is that John MacArthur believes that this person who is laying out the city of Jerusalem is, but he believes that this once again is the preincarnate Jesus Christ.  We will look briefly at Ezekiel chapter forty, and when we were studying the book of Ezekiel we learned that chapters 40-48 were future events that will take place in the Millennial Kingdom, as Ezekiel also sees a person with a measuring tape measuring the city of Jerusalem and what Ezekiel sees is something much larger than what we see in Jerusalem today.  Now remember that this will take place when Jesus Christ returns to planet earth to end the great battle of Armageddon and the earth will be in very bad shape, but He will put the earth back together again and when He does this we must believe that Jerusalem will be the size of what Ezekiel sees in chapters 40-48 and also what we will be looking at in this vision.  Ezekiel 40:2 says “In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure like a city.”  He has to be talking about the city of Jerusalem here.  Again it is very possible that the person doing the measuring here is the preincarnate Jesus Christ. 

            The answer that Zechariah gets is that this person is going to measure the length and width of Jerusalem.  Now as mentioned I believe that the city that this person is measuring is not the present city of Jerusalem in Zechariah’s day, but the city of Jerusalem in the Millennial Kingdom age.  The city in Zechariah’s day was all broken down with no walls intact and not temple completed so perhaps this is why Zechariah is kind of stunned. 

            Part two is entitled “The Destined Plan.”  “3 And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, 4 and said to him, "Run, speak to that young man, saying, ’Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it.”  MacArthur writes “Another angel went out to meet him.’  And so over here you have the man in the scene, and over here you have Zechariah, and in the middle you have these two angels who all of a sudden begin to converse,” and he goes on to write “Run and speak to this young man.’  In other words he says interpreter angel you go back and tell Zechariah this message.  God back and tell the young man this message and this is the message:  ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited like towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle in it.’  Stop right there.  You go tell him that the reason he can’t figure it out is because it will be so vast that it will be as if there is a city without walls.”  Zechariah could not understand that, for all major cities during his time had walls.  When we read the book of Nehemiah we see that the most important thing he wanted to accomplish was to build the walls around Jerusalem and also build the gates, and the gates in that time were the first line of defense against their enemies for they were not little gates like a person has today, but very large gates, and most of the time they were double, one in front of the other, so all of this was strange for Zechariah.  However when you think about the time period that this prophecy will take place the Lord Jesus Christ will be on the throne of David in Jerusalem so there will be no need of walls and gates.  Look at verse five “5 ’For I,’ declares the LORD, ’will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’"”  MacArthur writes “The root verb in the Hebrew perasmeans to exceed limits, to overflow its bounds, to spread or expand and the millennial Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of the king, the Jerusalem yet when Jesus returns will be so big and so populated with people and animals that it will go way past its walls, it will spread all over the place and God will be its wall.”  We will look more at verse five in our next SD when we look at point number three, “the divine protector.”

           

The Response (John 7:6-9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2016 8:08 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Response

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  John 7:6-9

            Message of the verses:  “6 So Jesus said to them, "My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. 7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. 8 “Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come." 9 Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.”

            I have to admit that this section of the seventh chapter of John’s gospel has been something that I have not understood.  In the first place I know that Jesus is God, and in the second place I know that God is immutable, for He cannot change His mind about anything, and I guess that it seems like to me that He did change His mind about going up to Jerusalem.  Another thing that I read here is that Jesus says in verse eight “I do not go up to this feast” and then adds “My time has not yet fully come.” 

            Jesus was not going to be pressured by what His brothers wanted Him to do, for we read the following in John 8:29 “"And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him."”  Now if you are looking to understand the will of God in your life, look no further than the end of verse twenty-nine where it says for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”  In doing the will of God Jesus was doing all of the time the things that are pleasing to Him, and so Jesus was on the divine timetable of God and did not go up to the feast because of the pressures that His brothers were putting on Him.

            Jesus’ response to His brothers was similar to the one that He gave to His mother in the second chapter of John were He said to her “My hour has not yet come.”  In the same way here He rejects pressure from His earthly family in order to reveal Himself prematurely.  Jesus would not manifest Himself before the right time, which was the time His Father had chosen for Him to manifest Himself.

            It was a long time ago that I listened to a sermon by Hal Lindsey on the 7^th chapter of John, which I may be getting ahead of myself here, but when you think about Jesus manifesting Himself to let people in Jerusalem know that He was the promised Messiah that would not come fully until the following Passover, however my memory of the sermon tells me that when Jesus did what He did, which comes later on in this chapter, He was manifesting Himself as the chosen Messiah.  “37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).”  These are the verses that I remember from that sermon and what Jesus does here is only suppose to be done by the Messiah, and that is all that I remember, but I listened to that sermon around 40 years ago so my memory is not the best.

            Now Jesus had said to His brothers that His time had not yet come, but their time was always opportune.  Now as mentioned in an earlier SD James, and Jude, Jesus’ brothers would come to believe in Jesus in the time that God appointed for them to believe and they would do the things that God had planned for them, as James was the leader of the Jerusalem church and wrote the book of James, and Jude would write the book of Jude.  I believe his name was Judas, but no one wants to have that name after what Judas did to Jesus in betraying Him.  Unlike Jesus they would not be putting their life on the line for people in Jerusalem wanted to kill Jesus and would eventually do so, but the brothers did not have that kind of pressure on themselves.

            John MacArthur writes “Because the time was not yet right, Jesus refused His brother’s request, telling them ‘God up to the feast yourselves.’  The Lord, for the reasons already noted, chose not to go with them in what would have probably been a large caravan of people (cf. Luke 2:44).  Such a public journey would have risked another attempt to make Him king by force (as in 6:14-15), or perhaps have triggered a premature triumphal entry.  Either might have sparked a confrontation with the Jewish authorities, resulting in Jesus’ death before the proper time, which was to be precisely at Passover.

            The Greek manuscripts are about evenly divided between the reading ouk (‘not’) and oupo (‘not yet’ cf. the NIV).  Ouk is most likely the correct reading, since it is unlikely that anyone would replace oupo with ouk, thereby introducing a seeming contradiction into the text (cf. v. 10).  On the other hand, there is an obvious reason for scribes to have replaced ouk with oupo, since doing so removes that apparent contradiction with verse 10.  In either case, however, the Lord’s meaning is clear.  He was not saying that He would not attend the feast at all, but that He would not go with his brothers in the manner they expected.  Nor would He allow the Jewish leaders to take His life ‘because’ His ‘time’ had ‘not yet fully come.’  When Jesus did lay down His life, six months later, it would be at the very moment God had predetermined (cf. v. 30; 8:20).  Thus, ‘having said these things to ‘His brothers, ‘He stayed in Galilee’ for a little while.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that I understand this section a lot better.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to help me understand the difficult things from His Word.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Saul” (1 Samuel 28:5-8).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which country had her civil and religious institutions already formed prior to having a land in which to occupy?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/28/2016 8:59 AM

 

A quick History of Jerusalem

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2016 10:30 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  A quick History of Jerusalem

            In today’s SD I will quote from a sermon by John MacArthur which is entitled “The Future Glory of Jerusalem” which is on the second chapter of the book of Zechariah.  In the beginning of this sermon he gives a quick history of Jerusalem and that is what I want to quote for this SD.  Think about how important the city of Jerusalem is to our God as you read this history of that wonderful city.

            “Let me give you a little fast history, hang on. It first appears in Scripture as the city of Salem, ruled by a man by the name of Melchizedek. In Genesis 14 he is called the king of Salem. Most people assume the name Jerusalem or Salem comes from the Hebrew shalom, which means peace. Twenty centuries before Christ it existed as the city of Salem. The next time we see Jerusalem in history it appears as a Canaanite stronghold with an allegiance to Egypt. Soon after that we see it in reference to Joshua. This is 600 years after the Genesis record or 1400 years before Christ. Joshua in Chapter 10 sets his sights on this city as he conquers Canaan. And in Chapter 15 Joshua says that this territory, including this city, has been given to Judah when the land was divided among the tribes. But even though it was 1400 years before Christ that the city was said to belong to Judah, it wasn't until 1003 B.C. that David stormed Jerusalem, which was then a fortress of the people called the Jebusites and according to II Samuel 5, David took the city, which was later to bear the name the city of David. The city never really became much under David. It wasn't until David's brilliant son, Solomon, that Jerusalem reached its golden age.

“And under Solomon the wall was extended, an incredible palace was built, an amazing and marvelous wonder of the world the temple was accomplished, and Jerusalem became something astonishing, something astounding. But after Solomon the ages that flowed on brought no comparable glory to Jerusalem and by 586 B.C. or about 400 years after Solomon, the city was a rubble, destroyed by Nebuchnezzar. Nehemiah went back and rebuilt it but it remained rather insignificant from then on. Finally in 70 A.D. after the birth of Jesus Christ some 70 years the city was wiped out again and destroyed by the Roman army, as we saw last week. Jerusalem arose rather meekly from the ashes a little after 70 A.D., but by 132 A.D. whatever was left was crushed by the Emperor Hadrine from Rome. And until modern times even in our modern era Jerusalem has been kicked back and forth between the Turks and the Christian nations, the Moslems and the Christians kicking it back and forth.

“And finally in our generation the marvelous rebirth of the state of Israel has occurred, a miracle of sociology, a miracle of the perpetuity of a race of human beings. I dare say nobody has ever met a Jebusite, a Hivite, a Amorite, a Moabite or a Edomite, or any other ite around the Bible, but we sure have Israelites because God has preserved them in their own land. They've come back, but the hold it very tenuously don't they, surrounded by enemies. In fact surrounded on every side of them that is land they are locked in with literally bloodthirsty enemies and their hold is tenuous and they are always on the edge of war. Incredible as it is from Melchizedek in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis to 1977, the story of Jerusalem weaves its way through history. Cities come and go but not that city, it just continues. The city of Melchizedek, the city of David, the city of Christ, the city of Paul, the city of Salidine, the city of General Allenby, the city of Ben Guion, the city of Moshedian, it is ever the perpetual city and someday it'll be the city of the seat of David, the Lord Jesus Christ yet again.

“This final chapter hasn't been written. It's final hero hasn't arrived yet, but He will. For about 2,000 years now the Jews have been going to the Wailing Wall at one point or another to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to plead with God to send a deliverer and break Gentile power, and I imagine if you were to go up to the wall, and you wouldn't dare do this, and pull out of the cracks the little notes that the Orthodox stick in the cracks and read them, they would say O God for the peace of Jerusalem. And God will answer. Jerusalem has not only been the center of redemptive history it will be the center of redemptive consummation in the great future that God has planned. It is, incidentally, sill to be the habitation of God. It is the only intended capitol for the kingdom and as Melchizedek was its first king so one after the order of Melchizedek will be its last king, but until then the Bible says Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles.

“In Daniel 9:26, listen to what Daniel said, "In that city," said Daniel, "even unto the end there will be war." Even until the end, they will never know peace until the Prince of Peace arrives. Oh there will be a false peace, won't there, set up by the anti-Christ, but not the real thing. In fact, the greatest war that the land will ever know hasn't happened yet, has it? What war is it, Armageddon, the plane of Megiddo? I couldn't help but think as I stood on the Mount of Ezralon and the stables and also on the other side on the stables of Solomon and looked over the plain of Megiddo, which Napoleon said is the greatest battlefield he's ever seen in the world, I couldn't help but think of what was yet to come when the book of Revelation says the blood will be as deep as the bridles of the horses for 200 miles, a blood bath that's inconceivable. And at the end of that great battle of Armageddon comes the Lord Jesus Christ. Apparently from what the Bible tells us the people who are fighting in the battle of Armageddon will all of a sudden will see Christ coming out of the sky and they'll turn to fight against Him and He'll destroy them and set up His glorious kingdom. When the delivered comes Jerusalem will be exalted. And you can't help when you're there but realize that, and I kept thinking to myself, "If they only knew what was going to happen here."

“Isaiah's call will be fulfilled, Isaiah 66:10. You know what he said? Listen. "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, be glad with her all ye that love her. Rejoice with her for joy all ye that mourn her, for thus said the Lord, 'Behold I will extend peace to her like a river.'" The day is coming. Look with me at a couple of texts in Isaiah: chapter 1:26, And I will restore thy judges as at the first and thy counselors as at the beginning and afterward thou shalt be called the city of Righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her converts with righteousness." There's coming a different day, a saving day. Look at 62 of Isaiah, and this is one of the great pictures of the future of the city of Jerusalem called Zion again here because it's of the significance of Mount Zion. 62:2, "And the nations shall see thy righteousness and all kings thy glory and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name, and thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." Here is Jerusalem will be a sparkling jewel studded crown, tremendous thought. And verse 4 is so beautiful, "Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be called desolate."

“Now go down to verse 11, "Behold the Lord has proclaimed until the end of the earth, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation commeth, behold his reward is with him, his work before him and they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord and thou shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken." Will God forsake Jerusalem? No. It's a city not forsaken.

“Someday when Jerusalem is righteous, when Jerusalem is cleansed, when Jerusalem is washed of its shame and its pollution it will become what God originally intended it to be. It will become a holy city. In Isaiah 4:3, "It shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and he who remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy." Isaiah looks at the future and he says someday everybody there who is left will be holy, and that's the way it is at the beginning of Messiah's kingdom. Everybody there will be holy because all the ungodly and the unholy will have been judged. When the Lord, and here is the key in verse four, "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by the spirit of justice and the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies the cloud and the smoke by day and the shinning of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defense and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a culvert from storm and from rain.

“God says there will come a day when everything's going to be different and I'll be there and my Shekinah will be there as it was in the wilderness and the light will be there and the fire will be there by night and I will be a refuge but it'll only happen, verse 4 says, after the Lord has washed the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem. There's got to be a cleansing first, there's got to be a dramatic change in the nation Israel.

“And Jeremiah 30:9 says, "They shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up unto them." And of course that's a reference to the Messiah Christ. And he said this in Ezekiel 34:23, Ezekiel said, this is really a beautiful statement, he said, "I will set up one shepherd over them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd." There's coming a day then when there will be a washing and there will be a purifying and there will be a cleansing and they will be given a new king and a new shepherd none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

“In Ezekiel 37:21, "Say unto them, 'Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they are gone, and gather them on every side and bring them into their own land, and I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all, and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all, neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions. I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and cleans them. So shall they be my people and I will be their God and David my servant shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd and they shall walk in My ordinances and observe My statutes to do them and they will dwell in the land I have given unto Jacob." And then the next verse 26, "I will make a covenant of peace with them and it will be an everlasting covenant and I will place them and multiply them and set My sanctuary in the midst of them forever, My tabernacle shall also be with them, ye I will be their God, they shall be My people, and the nations shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel and my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore." Great promises! God has great plans for that place, restoration, salvation, cleansing, a delivering of their king and their Messiah.

“Isaiah 32:17 says, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever, and my people will dwell in a peaceable habitation," listen to this, "in sure dwellings and quiet resting places." Peace for Jerusalem. That must seem incredible to anybody whose ever been there. It's coming. We are in Zechariah believe it or not.

“And Zechariah 9:10 says, "And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off," in other words no more weapons of war, no more articles of war," He shall speak peace to the nations and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth."

“I'm telling you people that's the marvelous message to Israel. That ought to gladden the heart of every hoping Jew. God isn't finished. The glory of Israel is yet to come. There's will be a day when Jerusalem is glorious beyond anything we have ever dreamed, and that kind of message of hope would be thrilling to every Jew and to every Christian who holds in his heart a special place for that city because it's the city where our dear Lord was crucified and rose again. And this is precisely the message the Zechariah delivers to his saddened and humiliated people.”

4/27/2016 11:06 AM

The Request (John 7:2-5)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2016 9:44 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Request

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                          Reference:  John 7:2-5

            Message of the verse: “2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." 5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”

            I have said in the past how much one can learn from the word “therefore” which is found over 900 times in the Word of God, that is in the NASB95 version.  You have to go back and see what went on to understand what the therefore is there for.  In this case it goes back to what is in verse two, where we learn of “the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths.  While listening to my Bible on DVD this morning I was in the book of Nehemiah and there is a great revival in that book in chapters 8-9 and in chapter eight the remnant who had returned from Babylon celebrated the Feats of Booths and Nehemiah writes that it had not been celebrated like that since the days of Joshua.  The Feast of Booths was one of the required feasts that all males were to go to Jerusalem to celebrate, so we know that Jesus would go in order to keep the Law.  This feast is celebrated in our September/October months depending on which day it falls, and it is a celebration of how the Lord kept Israel while they were wondering in the wilderness for those 40 years and had to live in tents.  Let us take a look at Nehemiah 8:14-17 “14 They found written in the law how the LORD had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. 15 So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." 16  So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing.”  We find here a good description of this feast.

            Now we want to make sure as we read the verses in our SD this morning that we understand that Jesus had half brothers, that Mary and Joseph had other children, including sons and daughters who grew up with Jesus.  Mary is not God, Mary is not a perpetual virgin.  These verses are speaking of Jesus’ physical half brothers two of them are NT writers in Jude, and also James and James became the head of the Jerusalem church as seen in Acts chapter 15.

            Jesus’ brothers wanted Him to continue to perform His miracles openly on the grand stage that Jerusalem would provide during this feast they would go up to.  Now remember that none of His brothers believed in Him, and their belief probably came after the resurrection.  John MacArthur writes on the comments of His brothers “Their comments appear to have had a dual motivation.  First, they may have wanted to see Jesus perform miracles, so they could decide for themselves whether or not His works were genuine.  Second, they were probably expecting a political Messiah, like the crowd Jesus fed (6:14-15).  Thus, in their minds, the acid test of Jesus’ messiahship would be at Jerusalem (the political center of Israel), and not in Galilee.  If the ruling authorities at Jerusalem signed off on Jesus, His brothers would also accept Him as the Messiah.”  When we look again at verse four then what MacArthur wrote makes more sense.  ““For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world."”  It seems that they wanted Jesus to be something of which He is not, like someone performing on a stage to prove He was the Messiah, when as we learned earlier from chapter six it was the words that He spoke that will convict people of who He is, and not necessarily the works.  Oh the works can show He is the Messiah, but if you don’t believe the Words He speaks then the miracles will mean nothing to you as far as having eternal life. 

            John footnotes their unbelief in verse five “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I may desire that Jesus do something for me as I pray to Him, but if it is not His desire to do it, if He knows that it will not be in my best interest to answer yes to that prayer, then I will have to trust Him with what He has for me to do without that answer.  Jesus’ brothers wanted Him to do something that He was not going to do and in the end it was best for them that He did not do what they wanted Him to do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Learn to love the Lord more, to also get to know Him better.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Tarsus” Acts 22:3).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who, when in trouble, consulted a woman with a familiar spirit at En-Dor?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/27/2016 10:22 AM

 

           

Acclamation (Zech. 2:10-13)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2016 8:31 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  Acclamation

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Zech. 2:10-13

            Message of the verses:  “10 "Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," declares the LORD. 11 “Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 “The LORD will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. 13 “Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for He is aroused from His holy habitation."”

            These are wonderful verses which give all believers something to greatly look forward to and in the mean time to do as Zechariah suggests “Sing for joy and be glad.”  One of the things that I look forward to is the Millennial Kingdom where I will be able to live on planet earth in a glorified body and work for my Lord Jesus Christ doing exactly what He has planned for me to do, whatever that may be, and while doing that not be troubled with the world, the flesh, nor the devil.

            When we studied the last eight chapters of the book of Ezekiel we learned about some things that were going to happen during the Millennial Kingdom as the temple of the Lord will be built and the earth will be restored and also the Lord will reign from Jerusalem and as Ezekiel writes “"The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ’The LORD is there’ (Ezekiel 48:35).  This is the last verse in the book of Ezekiel and notice the last thing he writes “The LORD is there.”  This word is “Jehovah Shammah,” and “The Lord is there” is exactly what that means.

            Verse eleven shows that there will be many Gentiles there who will know the Lord and worship Him there as when the Tribulation is over and the sheep and the goats are separated, the sheep going into the Millennial Kingdom and the goats into the lake of fire, and then the devil is cast into the pit for those 1000 years all on earth at that time will be believers, as it won’t be until the time when offspring are born that unbelievers will once again be on planet earth.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Zechariah 2:12 is the only place in the Scripture where Palestine is called ‘the holy land.’  That designation is often used today, but it really doesn’t apply.  The land will not be holy until Messiah cleanses the people and the land when He returns to reign (3:9).  A fountain will be opened to wash away sin and uncleanness (13:1), and then the Jews shall be called ‘the holy people’ (Isa. 62: 12).  That’s something to shout about!”

            Zechariah is saying in verse thirteen that the nations should be silent before the Lord, something that surely does not go on today as people are mocking the Lord and His people, and killing His people, but according to Zechariah 1:15 all those who treat God’s people in a wrong way will pay for that in the future.  That verse is especially speaking of how people have treated the Jews, God’s special people, but I’m sure that it also those who harm all of God’s people.  Now people should be silent before the Lord because Messiah is coming to reign and will reign forever.  Can you imagine being on earth during the last battle, the battle of Armageddon and as the war is ragging and millions of people are dying all of a sudden you look up to see the Lord Jesus Christ along with His angels and saints coming to earth and so the people stop fighting each other and start fighting against the Lord and instantly the Lord ends the war with the Sword in His mouth.  Now that is something to be silent about for sure!

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes “As you review these three night visions, you learn that God watches the nations and knows what they are doing; that He judges the nations for their sins, especially for their mistreatment of Israel; and that there is a glorious future planned for Jerusalem and the Jewish nation, when Messiah will return to cleanse them and restore the glory of God in their midst.

            “No wonder we’re taught to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come’ (Matt. 6:10); for when we pray that prayer, we are praying for the peace of Jerusalem.  And there can be no true peace in Jerusalem until the Prince of Peace reigns in glory.”   

            In our next SD I want to look again at this second chapter from the sermon from John MacArthur.

4/26/2016 9:00 AM

The Remaining (John 7:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2016 7:46 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-1 The Wrong Time

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 7:1

            Message of the verse:  “1 After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.”

            Before we begin discussing what we will find in this verse I want to say that in this main point (The Wrong Time) that we will be looking at three different sub-sections, “The Remaining,” “The Request,” and “The Response.”  Today we will look at “The Remaining.”

            First we will look at the phrase “after these things” something that we have seen in John’s gospel before, and what John is doing is saying that there was a period of time between the things that happened in the sixth chapter and what we will now be looking at in this seventh chapter.  What took place in the sixth chapter was around the time of the Passover which happens in April, as it just took place last Saturday of this month and this year.  Chapter seven speaks of the Feast of Tabernacles which takes place in October so the events in chapter seven happen between six and seven months after the events in chapter six.  Now John does not record anything about what happened between these two feasts.  MacArthur writes “The apostle’s purpose in composing his gospel was not to write an exhaustive biography of Jesus Christ, but to present Him as the Son of God and Messiah (20:21).  The other gospel writers note that during those six months, Jesus traveled the length of Galilee, from Tyre and Sidon, northwest of Galilee (Matt. 15:21-28) to Decapolis, in the southeast (Mark 7:31-37).  During that time He performed miracles, including healing (Matt. 15:29-31; Mark 8:22-26), casting out demons (Matt. 15:21-28; 17:14-18), and feeding the four thousand (Matt. 15:32-38).”  So we are now pretty much caught up on the things that Jesus did between that celebrations of the Passover until the beginning of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles.  However much of the time was actually spent teaching His disciples, for in a few short months (around 6) Jesus would be going back to the Father after His crucifixion, death, and resurrection, so it was important for Him to continue to teach His disciples.  I suppose that much of that teaching that He gave to them was remembered later on as the Holy Spirit would come upon them on the Day of Pentecost, as Jesus said that the Spirit would remind them of things after He came upon them.

            MacArthur writes about discipleship:  “Discipleship must also be a priority for the church.  The Lord did not commission the church to attract large crowds, but to go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19).  Likewise Paul charged the young pastor Timothy, ‘The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also’ (2 Tim. 2:2).  The measure of any church’s success is not the size of its congregation, but the depth of its discipleship.”  In the sermon that I listened to that go along with verses 1-13 MacArthur told of how different Pastors were seemingly bragging about how many people that have been attracted by their ministry to which he responded that the Super Bowl attracts many people, more that their ministry.  He was saying that the number means nothing but what one does with the number of people in the ministry means everything.

            As we move along in our verse we see the reason what Jesus was not willing to walk in Judah “for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.”  We see from this that the hostility against Jesus was beginning to mount and would continue to mount until they would kill Him.  Jesus was on a divine timetable as we are looking at in this section of chapter seven, but this timetable included everything that He did while on planet earth, including the exact time that He would die and how He would die, and nothing was going to change these events.  MacArthur writes “He was not, of course, unwilling to die; that was why He came into the world (John 12:27; cf. Matt. 20:28).  As John Calvin wrote, ‘Although Christ avoided dangers, he did not turn aside a hair’s breadth from the course of his duty.’”  “Until His hour came, Jesus would not put God to the test (Matt. 4:5-7).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I was pondering the thought of the divine timetable that Jesus was following while here on earth my mind went to John chapter four where we read that Jesus must go through Samaria, and the reason was that He had to talk to the woman at the well and then as a result of that stay two days ministering to those in her village, as many would come to know Him as their Messiah.  The divine plan of God from eternity past was for Jesus to go and talk to the woman at the well.  And then I thought that a part of His divine plan was for me to listen to a series of tapes in a friend’s house while on vacation and as a result of that coming to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  This is awe inspiring to me!

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be thankful and praiseful for being a part of Christ’s divine plan for my salvation and as a result of this to love Christ more, and learn to know Him better.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Samaritan woman” (John 4:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Paul born?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/26/2016 8:22 AM