Aleph--Blessed and Blameless (Psalm 119:1-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2012 10:36:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 119 PT-2

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 119:1-8

 

            Message of the verses:  In Today’s SD we will begin to look at this longest chapter (Psalm) in the entire Bible by looking at the first eight verses of the psalm, remembering that it is a psalm about the Word of God.

 

            Aleph (vv. 1-8)—Blessed and Blameless :  1 ¶  Aleph. How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the LORD. 2  How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart. 3  They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways.

    “4 ¶  You have ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently. 5  Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes! 6  Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments.

    “7 ¶  I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous judgments. 8  I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me utterly!”

 

            In the past psalms that we have been studying we have seen the word “blessed” on many occasions, and we see this word in the first two verses of this psalm, but that is it we won’t see it again and the question arises “How can we receive God’s blessing?”  The psalmist states “How blessed are those whose way is blameless, those who walk in the law of the Lord.” 

            When we think of the law it sometimes frightens us even almost paralyzing us with great despair.  In the book of Deuteronomy and in chapter 27:1-28:68 and also in Joshua 9:30-35 we see that the law is more cursing than blessing, and this can frighten us.  However when we look at Galatians 3:10-13 we read, “10  For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM." 11  Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 12  However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM." 13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE.’”   Dr. Wiersbe writes these important words “The law is not a weapon in the hands of an angry judge but a tool in the hands of a loving Father, used by the Spirit to make us more like Jesus Christ.”  The Word enables us to know God better and draw closed to Him. ‘Blameless’ does not mean sinless but wholehearted devotion to the Lord, sincerity, and integrity.  Only Jesus Christ was totally blameless in His relationship to God and His law, but because believers are ‘in Christ,’ we are ‘holy and without blame before Him’ (Eph. 1:4).  He loves us in our hearts (Rom. 5:5) and His Spirit enable us (Gal. 5:16-26), so His law is not a heavy yoke that crushes us, for ‘His commandments are not burdensome’ (1John 5:3, NKJV).”

 

            When we think of seeking God it means much more than just reading the Word or even studying the Word, it means hearing the voice of God in His Word.  Now don’t get me wrong it is not an auditable voice that I am speaking of here.  It also means loving the Lord more and having a desire to delight His very heart and to please Him.  We also have to surrender to Him wholeheartedly, and this makes me think of Romans 12:1-2 and also we see this in this psalm verses 2, 10, 34, 58, 69, and 145.  One more thing and that is that we must not allow any rival love to enter, things like TV, sports, and other hobbies that can creep in and actually start to become an idol in our life taking away are devotion and love to the Lord. 

 

We see in places of this 119^th Psalm that the psalmist had failed and that is one of the dangers and disappointments that we too will face, and when this happens we must cry out like the psalmist for revival or reviving that can be seen in verses 25, 37, 40, 50, 88, 93, 107 149, 154, 156, and 159.  I think that before we seek this revival from the Lord we must follow 1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins He is faithful to and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  We can see in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel along with the 9^th chapter of the book of Nehemiah that both of these OT saints not only confessed the sins of Israel, but also their own sins before God that caused the Lord to bring the Babylonian captivity upon them.  We have many things in our country that are not going right in the day that we live in, and the biggest reason for this is a spiritual reason.  In reading Joel Rosenberg’s new book “Implosion” he talks about that there were two great “spiritual awakenings” in the United States, one which happened right before the Revolutionary War and one right before the Civil War.  He goes on to say that we are in a great need of having another great awakening and as believers we should be praying for this to happen.

 

Dr. Wiersbe give a quote that is in many of his books, a quote that is from an old Scottish Pastor, a quote that has meant a lot to me because of it great meaning, he states, “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”  A wonderful Holy Spirit revival in the hearts of many believers today because of many getting serious with the Lord in confessing their sins would bring about a series of many new beginnings and could be the spark needed to start the fire of the next great awakening in our country.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “As we cultivate an appetite for the Word (vv. 10, 20, 40, 81, 131) and feed upon it, we give the Spirit something to work with in our hearts, and He enables us to walk in God’s paths.  If we feel ashamed when we read the Word (v. 6; see v. 80), then we have to stop and find out why and then confess it to the Lord.  If we are ashamed because of our disobedience, then we cannot witness to others (v. 46) and we will be ashamed of our hope (v. 116).  Better to be ashamed now and confess it than to be ashamed when we meet the Lord (1John 2:28).”

 

We see that the psalmist talks about praise in verse seven and praise is good preparation for learning about God and His Word.  We see this again in verse 12 and 171, making a point that it is important to remember.  In verses  3 and 5 we see can see that our ways are not always God’s ways, and this shows us that we need to continue to press on by faith, and by doing this God will help us, “I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me utterly” (V.8)  “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,’”  (Heb. 13:5). 

 

When we read the story of Jacob, whom God later renamed Israel, we find out that Jacob was not a spiritual person when he ran away from home, but through his life God worked on him and Jacob ended up to be a very godly man.  Jacob knew that God had promised not to forsake him, and this was a reason that he moved forward in his walk with the Lord.  (See Genesis 28:10-22.)

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It was a long time ago that I read through the 119^th Psalm one evening and the word “revival” kept coming up when I was reading it and because I knew that my life needed to be revived the Lord used this psalm to bring about revival in my life.  Upon first reading the quote from the old Scottish preacher it has always been meaningful to me as it goes along with what 1John 1:9 says.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Pray that God will send a third great awakening upon our land.

 

8/31/2012 12:08:23 PM

Introduction to Psalm 119

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/30/2012 7:36:45 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 119 PT-1

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 119

 

            Message of the verses:  Today’s SD will be a bit different than the other SD’s that I have done in that we will begin to look at the longest Psalm, which is also the longest chapter in the Scriptures.  Psalm 117 is the shortest and it took us three days to get through the two verses that are in it, but Psalm 119 has 176 verses so it will take a much longer time in looking at all of those verses.  How long?  I am not sure of the answer to that question, but we will try and take one section a day and look at it.  The psalm is broken up into 22 different sections of eight verses in each section each section uses a Hebrew letter in all of the verses to talk about the Word of God, which is the theme of this psalm.  In Today’s SD we will begin to look at the introduction to this wonderful portion of God’s Word.

 

            “This longest of the psalms and chapters in the Bible stands as the ‘Mt. Everest’ of the Psalter.  It joins Pss. 1 and 19 in exalting God’s Word.  The author is unknown for certain, although David, Daniel, or Ezra have reasonably been suggested.  The psalmist apparently wrote while under some sort of serious duress.  This is an acrostic psalm (cf. Pss. 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 145) composed of 22 sections, each containing 8 lines.  All 8 lines of the first section start with the first letter of the Heb. Alphabet; thus the psalm continues until all letters have been used in order.  The 8 different terms referring to Scripture occurring throughout the psalm are: 1) law, 2) testimonies, 3) precepts, 4) statutes, 5) commandments, 6) judgments, 7) word, and 8) ordinances.  From before sunrise to beyond sunset, the Word of God dominated the psalmist’s life e. g., 1) before dawn (v 147), 2) daily (v 97), 3) 7 times daily (v 164), 4) nightly (vv. 55, 148), and 5) at midnight (v 162).  Other than the acrostic form, Ps 119 does not have an outline.  Rather, there are many frequently recurring themes which will be delineated in the notes.”  (The John MacArthur Study Bible)

 

            It has been my practice to quote from three different sources at the beginning of each psalm that we have been studying.  As you may imagine the introduction from Charles H. Spurgeon is very lengthy and Dr. Wiersbe’s introduction is also very lengthy so I have decided not to use Spurgeon’s and to only use portions from Dr. Wiersbe’s introduction.  His commentary on the entire psalm is 26 pages long.

 

            In Dr. Wiersbe’s introduction to Psalm 119 he states that it is possible that the prophet Jeremiah wrote this psalm.  “Whether right or wrong, I have often thought that the prophet Jeremiah might have been the author of Psalm 119 and that he wrote it to teach and encourage his young disciples (v. 9) after the destruction of the temple.  Many of the statements in the psalm could be applied to Jeremiah.  He spoke with kings, five of them in fact (Jer. 1:2), and bore reproach because he faithfully served the Lord (Jer. 15:15; 20:8).  He was surrounded by critics and enemies who did not seek God’s law (Jer. 11:19), but wanted to get rid of the prophet (Jer. 18:23).  Jeremiah was definitely the prophet of ‘God’s Word in the heart’ (Jer. 31:31-34), and this is an emphasis in 119 (vv. 11, 32, 39, 80, 111).  The writer wept over the plight of his people (vv. 28, NASB, 136; Jer. 9:1, 18; 13:17; 14:17; Lam. 1:16; 2:18: 3:48).  However, in the midst of catastrophe and danger, Jeremiah rejoiced in God’s Word and nourished himself in it (v.111; Jer. 15:16).  In both vocabulary and message, this psalm is rooted in the book of Deuteronomy (‘second law’), which is Moses’ second declaration of the Law.  However, unlike Exodus, Deuteronomy emphasizes love and obedience from the heart, not just a ‘ritual following of God’s rules.  Jeremiah was a priest as well as a prophet and had a working knowledge of Deuteronomy.”

 

            I suppose that in the life of all believers there has been a conflict between Law and grace at one time or another.  There are verses in the Bible that seem to teach that these two are in conflict, and yet it is hard to understand.  We are told that we are not under Law but under grace and perhaps this is one of the reasons believers do not take the time to study the Old Testament as much as they should or need to.  We have to remember that it was not until late in the first century that we had the entire Bible written so after Jesus ascended into heaven and the apostles began to teach they only had the Old Testament to teach from.  We see that when under the leadership of Peter that an apostle was chosen to take Judas’ place, and in his first sermon Peter quoted OT prophets showing that he knew the OT.  There are many more of these examples in the NT. 

            More from Dr. Wiersbe:  “Many believers today stand guilty of ignoring the Old Testament, except for reading ‘favorite psalms,’ and therefore many are ignorant of what God’s law teaches.  ‘The law is a yoke,’ they exclaim, and point to Acts 15:10 and Galatians 5:1, but the psalmist found freedom through the law (vv. 45, 133).  ‘To pay attention to the law is to move into the shadows!’  they argue, referring to Colossians 2:16-17 and Hebrews 10:1, but the write of Psalm 119 found the law to be his light (vv. 105, 130).  ‘By the law is the knowledge of sin’ (Rom. 3:20), but the psalmist used the law to get victory over sin (vv. 9-11). ‘The law kills!’ (Romans 79-11), but the law brought the psalmist new life when he was down in the dust (see NASB vv. 25, 40, 88, 107, 149 etc).  ‘Law and grace are in opposition!’ many declare, but the psalmist testified that law and grace worked together in his life (vv. 29 and 58).  God used Moses to liberate the people from Egypt, but then God gave Moses the law to give to Israel at Sinai.  The German philosopher Goethe wrote, ‘Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us self-control is disastrous.’  Law and grace are not enemies, for law sets the standard and grace enables us to meet it (Rom. 8:1-3).”

 

            A couple of more quotes from Dr. Wiersbe:  “The way we treat the Word of God is the way we treat the God of the Word.” 

            “As you read and study Psalm 119, you will see the writer in a variety of experiences, but His devotion to the Lord and His Word will not change.  Circumstance may change, but God and His Word remain the same.” 

 

            In Tomorrow’s SD we will begin to look at Psalm 119, starting with verse one and will look at the first eight verses of the psalm.  In Charles H. Spurgeon’s introduction he had the first eight verses that began with the letter “A,” to show how the psalmist wrote these first eight verses.

 

“A blessing is on them that are undefiled in the way

and walk in the law of Jehovah;

A blessing is on them that keep his testimonies,

and seek him with their whole heart;

Also on them that do no wickedness,

but walk in his ways.

A law hast thou given unto us,

that we should diligently keep thy commandments.

Ah! Lord, that my ways were made so direct

that I might keep thy statutes!

And then shall I not be confounded.

While I have respect unto all thy commandments.

As for me, I will thank thee with an unfeigned heart,

when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

An eye will I have unto thy ceremonies,

O forsake me not utterly.

 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am happy for the writings of Dr. Warren Wiersbe, and am especially for the information that he wrote about law and grace and how they work together.  Jesus fulfilled the entire law so that I don’t have to, but because of His grace that was given to me, and because of the Word of God and the Spirit who lives within me I now have a desire to live my life by the Word of God.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give wisdom to my family concerning a decision we have to make in the near future.

 

8/30/2012 9:33:35 AM    

Service Leads to Honor PT-2 (Mark 9:41-50)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2012 7:24:51 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Service Leads to Honor

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Mark 9:41-50

 

            Message of the verses:  In Today’s SD we will attempt to look at the last section of Mark chapter nine.  It is a difficult passage to understand, and there are even parts of it that were probably not in the original text, which makes it even more difficult to understand.  There are a number of places in the NT where there seems to be things added after the original text was written, and they were later added to the text, in the most part, to help understand the text better, although that is not the case in all the additions.  When we get to the last chapter of the book of Mark there is a section there that was added on, a large section that was added onto the text, however we will wait until we get there to comment on it.

 

            We ended yesterday’s SD with these words:  “In tomorrow’s SD we will learn that Jesus did not treat the statement made by John lightly, but in fact, He goes on to explain the danger of causing others to stumble, and this will cause them to stop serving the Lord.”

 

            Service Leads to Honor Part Two (Mark 9:41-50): “41 ¶  "For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. 42  "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. 43  "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, 44  [[where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]] 45  "If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, 46  [[where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]] 47  "If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, 48  where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. 49  "For everyone will be salted with fire. 50  "Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’”

 

            Verses 44 and 46 are not in the original text and that is why the NASB put brackets around them.  We do see in verse 48 the same words, and these are in the original text.

 

            Jesus’ statement to the disciples is very serious as He talks to them about how they are to treat others who are believers, something that is seen in John’s statement that he was not doing.  We know that the disciples did have disputes with each other and did not always get along.  It is good to remember that Jesus would use these twelve men to turn the world upside down and so He wanted them to get along in order to show a good example to those whom they would be used to lead to the Lord.  Jesus is speaking about hell in this section, and He is speaking about getting along, along with believers not tempting others to do wrong.  Paul speaks about this in several of his letters stating that it was his great desire not to cause anyone to stumble.  Jesus shows us the importance of this statement in this section.  The word millstone, according to John MacArthur is a Hebrew word meaning “Mule Stone,” and we get this word from the mules who pulled a large stone around in a circle in order to process grain, and perhaps even olive oil.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes the following in part of his commentary on this section:  The solemn message about hell carries a warning to all of us to deal drastically with sin.  Whatever in our lives makes us stumble, and therefore causes others to stumble, must be removed as if by surgery.  The hand, foot, and eye would be considered valuable parts of the body, yet they must be removed if they are causing sin.  Of course, the Lord is not commanding literal physical surgery, since He had already made it clear that sin comes from the heart (Mark 7:20-23).  What He is teaching is that sin is to the inner person what a cancerous tumor is to the body, and it must be dealt with drastically.”

            I mentioned that verses 44 and 46 are not in the original text, and verse 48 is, but did not mention that this is a quote from Isaiah 66:24, “’Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.’”  Interestingly enough this is the very last verse in the book of Isaiah, and this verse is speaking about hell.  Jesus speaks of hell in this section and some are surprised about that, but hell is a real place and a permanent place where those who have not accepted the forgiveness offered to them by God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  In Isaiah’s day the people were looking forward to the Messiah in order to have their sins cared for by Him, and we look back at that event in order to place our trust in the finished work that Christ accomplished for us on the cross. 

 

            Dr. Wiersbe continues his commentary, “But isn’t that too great a sacrifice to ask from us?’  Some might argue. ‘To deal that drastically with sin would cost us too much!’  In Mark 9:49-50, Jesus used the concept of ‘living sacrifices’ to illustrate His point (see Rom. 12:1-2).  The sacrifice ends up on the altar and is consumed by the fire.  Would you rather endure the fires of hell as a lost sinner or the purifying fires of God as a sacrifice for His glory?  Remember, Satan promises you glory now, but the pain comes later.  Jesus calls us to suffering now, and then we will enjoy the glory.” 

 

            The word “hell” is gehenna, and it comes from a Hebrew phrase “the valley of [ge] of Hinnon.”  This refers to a valley outside of Jerusalem where the evil king Ahaz worshipped Molech, who was the fire god and this is where human baby sacrifices were made to this god.

 

            A few words about salt:  Salt was put onto the sacrifices that were offered to the Lord and salt speaks of purity and also preservation.  It was also used in OT days in the establishing of covenants.  The disciples were God’s salt as seen in Matthew 5:13, however they were in danger in losing their saltiness.  The disciples should not have been rebuking others but examining their own hearts so that they could be more useful to the Lord.

 

            Dr. Wiersbe finishes his commentary by writing:  “The three lessons Jesus taught in this section are basic to Christian living today.  If we are yielded to Him, then suffering will lead to glory, faith will produce power, and our sacrificial services will lead to honor.  In spite of his impetuousness and occasional mistakes, Peter got the message and wrote:  ‘But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.  To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever’ (1Peter 5:10).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Be salt in a world that needs it.  Do not cause anyone to stumble.  This is a difficult lesson to write about and even more difficult to practice, but it is important to do both.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to help me practice the things that I have learned in this section of Scripture.

 

8/29/2012 8:30:48 AM      

Service Leads to Honor (PT-1) (Mark 9:30-40)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/28/2012 9:45:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Service Leads to Honor

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Mark 9:30-40

 

            Message of the verses:  As mentioned in yesterday’s SD we will once again look into the 9^th chapter of the book of Mark.  I have mentioned in an earlier SD that one of my goals this year was to look at a whole chapter of Mark each month by listening to it and then listen to sermons on it from John MacArthur and then break up the chapter into sections and comment on it.  I actually began to look at the Gospel of Mark in December of 2011.  Today we will pick up our study of Mark’s Gospel in the 9^th chapter at verse thirty.

 

            Service Leads to Honor:  (Mark 9:30-50):  I want to begin by just looking at Mark 9:30-40 and then see how far we can get. 

 

            “30 ¶  From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it. 31  For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later." 32  But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. 33  They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34  But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. 35  Sitting down, He called the twelve and *said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36  Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 37  "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me." 38  John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us." 39  But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40  "For he who is not against us is for us.”

 

            I suppose that humanly speaking it would have been hard for Jesus and His disciples to just disappear from the crowds for Jesus was so to say “the only show in town” and what I mean by that is that no one had ever seen anything like the miracles that He had done and no one had ever heard a man speak like this before, and for that matter no one has since either.  Jesus wanted to make some time to just teach His disciples things that they would need to know for in just a few short months He would be gone from them, and He was the one that they relied on for everything, so the lessons had to begin with more intensity for His disciples.  Now when we read through this Gospel and we look at some of the things that His disciples did and said we sometimes kind of shake our heads wondering why they would say and do things like they did.  Then when we get to the book of Acts we see the disciples in a whole different light, doing things by faith, stepping out on faith and even being tortured for the cause of Christ.  What was the difference?  For the answer to that question let us look at several verses from the 14^th chapter of the Gospel of John.  “18 ¶  "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  25 ¶  "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26  "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  We see that Jesus tells His disciples that He would not leave them alone, but that His Father would send them the Holy Spirit to give them the strength that they need in order to do what Jesus wanted them to do.  We also see that the Holy Spirit would cause them to remember things that they would need to remember, and that is why we have the four Gospels.  I want to look at one more section of Scripture from the book of Acts that will shed a bit more light on this subject:  “6 ¶  So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7  He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8  but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."   

            We see in verse thirty-two that the disciples did not know what raising from the dead meant, and when we look at the book of Acts we see this as one of the major themes, if not the major them of the book of acts.  Paul writes a whole chapter on the resurrection in 1Cor. 15, for without the hope of the resurrection we as believers have no hope at all. Paul says “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”  (1Cor. 15:19)  Paul writes to Titus saying “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, (Titus 2:13)  The believers hope is the return of Jesus Christ, but in order for Him to return He had to have been raised from the dead.  The point in all of this is that His disciples had their lives transformed through the coming of the Holy Spirit, and everyone who is a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord has the very same Holy Spirit in them to lead them and to guide them into the life that God desires you to live. 

 

            The next thing we see in this section is arguing amongst the disciples, so even though they were grieved because they did not understand about the resurrection they still had time to argue among themselves as to who would be the greatest.  It looks like they got over their grief in kind of a hurry.  Jesus had just told them that He would suffer and die and they wanted to know which of them would be the greatest.  This may all have come about because Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John up on the mountain with Him and left the others behind.  How would Jesus teach them humility?  Well He would use a child to teach them, and there was a time when mothers brought their children to see Jesus and the disciples tried to stop them from seeing Him, so it seems that there record with children was not a good one.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “To teach them (and us) a lesson on honor, Jesus set a child before them and explained that the way to be first is to be last, and the way to be last is to be the servant of all.  The unspoken child is an example of submission and humility.  A child knows he is  chld and acts like a child, and that is his secret of attracting love and care.  The child who tries to impress us by acting like an adult does not get the same attention.

            “True humility means knowing yourself, accepting yourself, being yourself—and giving of yourself for others.  The world’s philosophy is that you are ‘great’ if others are working for you, but Christ’s message is that greatness comes from our serving others.  Since the words ‘child’ and ‘servant’ are the same in the Aramaic language, it is easy to see why Jesus connected the two.  If we have the heart of a child, we will have little attitude of servants, we will welcome the children as the representatives of Jesus Christ and the Father.”

 

            At first glance it seems that verses 38-40 do not fit into the context of what is going on, but we see that John takes it upon himself to defend all the disciples by talking about a person that they had seen casting out demons by doing it in the name of Jesus.  Now we must remember that the disciples whom Jesus left while going on the mountain could not cast out the demon in the deaf boy.  Dr. Wiersbe points out “To use the name of Jesus is the same as working under His authority so the men had no right to stop the man.”   

            We see a similar statement by Jesus in Mark 12:30 as the one in Mark 9:40, “’He who is not with Me is against Me;’”  What we see in these verses is a dividing line, you are either for and with Jesus or you are not with Him and therefore against Him.  We don’t know when the disciples saw the casting out of demons by these men, but Jesus said that they were with Him.

            We don’t have to perform great miracles to prove our love for Jesus, as seen by the example of the child that Jesus uses as an illustration.  When we lovingly receive a child or in compassion give a cup of cold water to those who need it we are showing our love for Jesus Christ, we are giving evidence that we have a humble heart of one who is a servant.

            In tomorrow’s SD we will learn that Jesus did not treat the statement made by John lightly, but in fact, He goes on to explain the danger of causing others to stumble, and this will cause them to stop serving the Lord.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Humility is not really something that you can work on, for once you think you have it, then it is lost from you.  The theme verse in the book of Mark is truly about humility as it states:  “"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’”  (Mark 10:45)  Sometimes it is hard to help others because you really don’t feel like it but when you go past your feelings and help you feel better that you have done it.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Do thing in the power of the Lord that I know that I should do.

 

Memory verses:  Continue to review 2Peter 1:1-11

 

8/28/2012 11:37:08 AM  

 

           

Glorify the Lord after each Victory & See the Lord in all experiences (Ps. 118:15-29)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/27/2012 7:45:29 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 118 PT-3

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 118:15-29

 

            Message of the verses:  We will continue to look at Psalm 118 in Today’s SD, and I want to again remind you of what Dr. Wiersbe wrote at the end of his introduction to Psalm 118:  “—the psalm speaks to all believers in every age and gives them four practical instructions.”

 

            Glorify the Lord after Every Victory (vv. 15-21):  “15  The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. 16  The right hand of the LORD is exalted; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. 17  I will not die, but live, And tell of the works of the LORD. 18  The LORD has disciplined me severely, But He has not given me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD. 20  This is the gate of the LORD; The righteous will enter through it. 21  I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, And You have become my salvation.”

 

            I want to remind you that although there are different opinions on who wrote this psalm and what time period it was written in I am going to look at it as if it were written after the Jewish people came out of their captivity from Babylon and they began to work on the temple of the Lord as they were surrounded by many enemies. 

            We see in verse fifteen that there are shouts of joy and this could be speaking of the great shout that went up after the walls were dedicated which is found in Nehemiah 12:47.  The salvation in the tents of the righteousness could be referring to new homes and the temporary homes that were put up for the Feast of Tabernacles.

            We see that the people gave glory to the Lord for His protection while they restored Jerusalem (vv. 17-18).  Dr. Wiersbe writes, “One of the best ways to ‘seal’ God’s blessing to our hearts and make sure He gets the glory is to publicly praise Him—and keep on praising Him!”

 

            See the Lord in Every Experience (vv. 22-29):  “22  The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. 23  This is the LORD’S doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24  This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25  O LORD, do save, we beseech You; O LORD, we beseech You, do send prosperity! 26  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. 27  The LORD is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. 28 You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You. 29  Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

 

            I want to give Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on verse twenty-two:  “Under Zerubbable and Ezra, the Jewish people had been rebuilding the temple, and under the leadership of Nehemiah, they had built the walls of Jerusalem and restored the gates.  During these activities, did they find among the ruins a large stone that they rejected, only to discover it was the most important stone of all?  The Gentile nations had despised and rejected Israel (Neh. 2:18-20; 4:1ff), but God had spared them to finish the work He gave them to do.”  As I read this commentary I begin to think that this surely could have been the reason that the psalmist wrote this verse, and then it is used in the NT to describe the rejecting of Jesus Christ by the people of Israel.  The verses we find in this psalm are used many different times in the NT, which shows the richness of this psalm.  There are many reference of a stone representing the Lord in the Scriptures, and we see in Isaiah 8:14; 28:16; Dan. 2:34-35, 45; Matt. 21:42-44; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17-18; Acts 4:11; and Romans 9:32-33 that these are references to the Messiah as a rock or stone.  In Acts 4:11 we read these words of Peter, “’He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone.’”  Peter goes on to speak these words which are familiar words that speak of salvation, “’And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.’”  It was the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ which made Him become the chief cornerstone of the Church, God’s temple, binding Jews and Gentiles together in one sanctuary (Eph. 2:19-22).  When Jesus returns to judge the earth He will be that crushing stone that Daniel speaks about in Daniel 2:34, 44-45. 

            All true believers can use verses 22-24 to praise the Lord for the great salvation that He has provided for us.  Dr. Wiersbe points out “Save now’ (v. 25) is the word ‘hosanna’ which the people shouted when Jesus rode into Jerusalem (Matt 21:9; Mark 11:9-10), and note the words, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”  We find these words in the 19^th chapter of Luke which were words spoken by the disciples of Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem on what is called “Palm Sunday.”  It is believed by many that this was the fulfillment of a part of Daniel’s prophecy that is found in Daniel 9:24-27, stating that Messiah would offer Himself as king, be turned down and then be “cut off” meaning killed.  The prophecy begins in Nehemiah chapter two and ends here for these words that were spoken of by the disciples were only to be spoken when Messiah came and the Scribes and Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke His disciples to which Jesus spoke these words, “"I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!’”  Jesus went on to say “"If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes 43  "For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44  and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.’”  The words “this day” and then “because you did not recognize the time of your visitation” were spoken by Jesus and they fulfilled the prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27.  From the time that Nehemiah was given permission to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem until this day was 183, 880 days and that is why Jesus says, “This day.” 

 

            Verse 27 states “. 27 The LORD is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”  Dr. Wiersbe explains, “The blood of a sacrifice was applied to the horns of the altar (v. 27; Lev. 4:7), but there is no evidence that the sacrifices were tied to the altar before they were slain.  The altar was considered so holy that it was not likely it would be used for tethering animals.  The New International Version marginal reading suggests that the bound sacrifices were brought up to the altar where the priests cut the animals’ throats, caught the blood, and offered both the animals and the blood on the altar to the Lord.  Of course, each sacrifice was a picture of the death of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.  One each of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, the priest led a procession once around the altar and then offered one burnt offering, but on the eight day, the procession marched seven times around the altar and seven sacrifices were offered.

            “Jesus Chris is seen in the psalm—His triumphal entry (vv. 25-26), His rejection (v. 27), His death and resurrection (v. 17), and His exaltation as God’s chosen Stone (vv. 22-23).  Perhaps verse 24 hints at the Lord’s Day, the day of resurrection, as ‘the new day’ of the new creation made possible by His atoning work.  It is important that we see Jesus Christ in every experience of life, for then these experiences will help us grow in grace and become more like the Savior.”

 

            We will take a short break from the book of Psalms in order to finish up the ninth chapter of the book of Marks and then we will begin to look at the longest Psalm, and the longest chapter in all of Scripture, the 119^th Psalm, which is all about the Word of God, or the Law of God.  This will take many Spiritual Diaries to look at because of the length of it. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The last section goes along with our Pastors message from last evening in which he spoke on two verses in Psalm 18, verses 30-31.  David is the author of that psalm written near the end of his life and these two verses speak of God being in control while this last section of Psalm 118 speaks of the Lord in every circumstances of life.  Knowing that the Lord is in control and in every circumstance of life brings confidence to my heart, knowing that I am not in this alone, but can trust the Lord in all circumstances of life, and this give me confidence in the Lord, and a desire to praise the Lord

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me His wisdom to work out something that I am facing.

 

Memory verses for the week:  I am going to continue to go over the first eleven verses in 2Peter 1 for the rest of this week, making sure that I have them memorized and then I may work on the 13^th chapter of 1Cornithians, verses that I once memorized, but need to work on them again.

 

8/27/2012 9:07:33 AM

 

 

 

Trust the Lord in Every Crisis (Psalm 118:5-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/26/2012 7:51:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 118 PT-2

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 118:5-14

 

            Message of the verses:  In yesterday’s SD we began to look at Psalm 118, which is the psalm that is between the shortest and the longest psalms that are found in the Bible.  We learned through several introductions that it is difficult to truly understand who the author was or when the psalm was written as some thought the author was David, and one even thought it was Moses.  At the end of his introduction Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following in order to show us the direction that we will be going while studying this psalm:  “—the psalm speaks to all believers in every age and gives them four practical instructions.”  We looked at the first instruction in yesterday’s SD and will continue with the second in today’s SD.

 

            Trust the Lord in Every Crisis (vv. 5-14):  “5  From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large place. 6  The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? 7  The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me. 8  It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. 9  It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes. 10  All nations surrounded me; In the name of the LORD I will surely cut them off. 11  They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; In the name of the LORD I will surely cut them off. 12  They surrounded me like bees; They were extinguished as a fire of thorns; In the name of the LORD I will surely cut them off. 13  You pushed me violently so that I was falling, But the LORD helped me. 14  The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”

 

            We see the “LORD” mentioned eleven times in these ten verses and it is because He is the One protected Israel from their enemies and He is the One who enabled the people to complete the work in difficult times.  (Now we must remember that Dr. Wiersbe believes that this 118^th Psalm was written after the Jews returned from their captivity in Babylon and since much of my help comes from Dr. Wiersbe, along with other commentators, this commentary may slant towards the psalm being written after the captivity.)  I must say that what is found in these ten verses could well fit in with the times when the Jews returned from captivity since there was a lot of trouble during that time period from 537 when they first returned until the time when the Jews finished the temple and the walls around the city of Jerusalem as seen in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.  The Jews laid the foundation of the temple in 536 BC but because of troubles from local officials it was stopped and then resumed in 520 BC.  Israel was surrounded by their enemies similar to what they are today, but God is and always has been the protector of Israel, and continues to be that today even though most of them today do not realize this.  We see from Ezekiel’s writings in chapters 36-37 that God would bring Israel back to their land in the “last days” and that the last thing that would come to them was the Spirit, for they would come into the land not truly realizing that it was the hand of God who brought them back there, not realizing that it was during the “last days.”  When you look at Israel today you can see this, especially in the generations that followed those who came out of WW-II who mostly came from the holocaust in Europe during that time.  In some ways this is good since the younger Jews that are living there today do not follow the Jewish religion and are more open to the gospel.

            So we can see that when Israel came back to their land there was a time of great trouble and so perhaps this psalm speaks of their trouble and their dependence upon the Lord during this time period, but we can also learn from these words that the psalmist writes when we as believers go through difficult times in our lives, knowing that the Lord will see us through those difficult times, and if we cling to the Lord we can learn to trust Him more and more as the psalmist was learning.  The psalmist learned to trust the Lord and not trust in man.  This is also true in trusting the gifts that the Lord has given to us and forget about trusting the Giver of the gifts.  I have also learned this from some difficult times that I have gone through.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Trusting the Lord in all situations of my life is the best and one of the reasons is that He does not change, and also I know that He loves me as was demonstrated at the cross.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust in the Giver of the gifts and not in the gifts that the Giver has given to me.

 

8/26/2012 8:43:36 AM