9/3/2011 8:59:09 AM
SPIRITIUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The goodness of God PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Nehemiah 9:23-30
Message of the verses: “23 "You made their sons numerous as the stars of heaven, And You brought them into the land Which You had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 "So their sons entered and possessed the land. And You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, And You gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, To do with them as they desired. 25 "They captured fortified cities and a fertile land. They took possession of houses full of every good thing, Hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, Fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were filled and grew fat, And reveled in Your great goodness. 26 "But they became disobedient and rebelled against You, And cast Your law behind their backs And killed Your prophets who had admonished them So that they might return to You, And they committed great blasphemies. 27 "Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their oppressors who oppressed them, But when they cried to You in the time of their distress, You heard from heaven, and according to Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors. 28 "But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before You; Therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. When they cried again to You, You heard from heaven, And many times You rescued them according to Your compassion, 29 And admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances, By which if a man observes them he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck, and would not listen. 30 "However, You bore with them for many years, And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, Yet they would not give ear. Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.”
This is the third and last sub-point from this second main point “The goodness of God,” and Dr. Wiersbe entitles this sub-point “Chastening the nation.” All one has to do is to read through the OT books of history to see that God finally had to chasten Israel to the point that He removed them from the land that He had given them. As stated before this is like the condensed version of this account and it is found in several places in the OT and one place in the NT, while it is alluded to in different places in the NT, like some of Paul’s writings.
When one first reads over these verses they may wonder where the goodness of God is found in them, but it is because of the great love of God that He will discipline His children. You can also see the unfaithfulness of God’s people and the faithfulness of God in this section. You can also see that God’s plans will not be stopped by the sinfulness of man, for God does have a plan for His people, all of His people and nothing will ever stop that plan from coming to be fulfilled. That is one of the greatest things that I see God doing, that is having a plan, yet having Satan, his demons, and unregenerated man against His plan, and yet because of the great wisdom of God, He uses all of this to accomplish His plans. That is truly amazing to me.
Why was it that Israel fell so many times and had to be disciplined by the Lord so many times? I think that the answer lies in them becoming successful without the Lord and thus they became complacent in their life of sin, not realizing that the Lord would soon discipline them because of their sin, and then after that realizing their need for repentance, then the cycle would start over again.
Thomas Carlyle said this “For every one hundred men who can stand adversity, there is only one who can stand prosperity.” John Steinbeck wrote “If you want to destroy a nation, give it too much—make it greedy, miserable, and sick.” There are churches today that think that they are rich, and yet they are poor, and churches that look like they are poor, yet they are rich. All one has to do is read about these types of churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelations.
Now when we think about the statement that Thomas Carlyle writes we must think about the Apostle Paul and what he writes to the Philippian church, and one must remember that Paul was in prison when he wrote this and the reason that he was in prison was really unjustified, and can be read about in Acts chapter 21. Paul was certainly the one man out of a hundred men who could stand prosperity along with having nothing. Paul is surely one of my heroes and it is because of what I am writing about here that he is one of my heroes. I want to look at this section in Philippians, and in this section is my life verse, a verse that the Lord has brought to my attention about six years ago and has not let me forget it, for in this one verse one can find a great secret in living the Christian life, yet it is a learning process that will take many years to learn, that great secret is contentment, and Paul learned it. “10 ¶ But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. I would suppose that when one reads these verses one will wonder how it was that Paul learned this secret, and yet this too is found in his writings. Paul explained this to the Corinthians in 2Corinthians 11:22-33.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have been reminded of the faithfulness of the Lord in this lesson today. I have been reminded of the goodness of God, along with the wisdom of God, and I have been reminded of something that I have been learning for a number of years and that is to continue to learn contentment and I truly needed to be reminded of that today.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. The truth of Psalm 119:67.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
9/3/2011 9:53:44 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment