SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/25/2012 9:10:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Jesus Tells of His
Death
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark 10:32-34
Message of the verses: 32 ¶
They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on
ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And
again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen
to Him, 33 saying, "Behold, we are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief
priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him
over to the Gentiles. 34 ‘They will mock
Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will
rise again.’”
We
see in this section the determination of Jesus keeping His appointment with
death that would happen in Jerusalem, and also telling His disciples what was
about to happen to Him there in Jerusalem, for they were clueless of all of
this even though Jesus had been telling them about it.
I
find it interesting that in the book of Luke we see that the first thing that
Jesus says was in the temple after His parents were searching for Him. I believe that I mentioned this in an earlier
SD, but it bears repeating, and that is that Jesus tells His parents that they
should not be surprised to find Him in the temple for He had to be about His
Father’s business. When we read through
the book of John especially, though we can see it in all the Gospels, that
Jesus plan to come to earth was to redeem those who were going to accept Him as
their Lord and Savior. This was prophesied
in many of the OT Scriptures. We see in
the 3rd chapter of the book of Genesis that God required a sacrifice
for sin and it is my belief that the animal that the Lord killed to make
clothes was a lamb. Adam and Eve tried
to do it on their own by sewing leaves together to cover themselves and man has
been trying to cover their sins ever since, but God requires a sacrifice and as
we go through the OT we see that, for in the book of Exodus we see the tabernacle
made and the OT sacrificial system
began.
One
of my favorite parts of the Bible is found in the 24th chapter of
Luke where the risen Lord talks to two of His followers and opens up the OT in
order to explain to them that He had to die and all the things that happened to
Him were planned by His Father to accomplish. One of the OT prophecies is found
in the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, a prophecy so complete
that the Jews even today say that this speaks of the nation of Israel for they
know that if they see the truth in it that they would be condemned. Psalm 22 speaks of the crucifixion of Jesus
so vividly that it is as if the psalmist (David) was standing at the foot of
the cross. The psalm was written many
years before crucifixion was ever practiced.
There are prophecies about Judas eating bread with Jesus and getting 30
pieces of silver to betray Him. There is
a prophecy of where Jesus was to be buried, and that He would rise from the
dead, and many other prophecies about His life and death.
His
disciples were not able to understand this at this time but after Jesus was
raised from the dead and the Spirit was given to them at Pentecost they
understood what had happened and what they were to do about it, and that was
tell others so that they too could believe and the story has continued to be
told ever since.
Daniel’s
prophecy in the 9th chapter of Daniel is one of the greatest if not
the greatest prophecy in all the OT for it tells many things that have already
happened and many things that will happen in the future. One of the things we see is that Messiah would
come and be killed, yet not for Him, but for others. The prophecy also tells of the exact day that
Jesus would offer Himself to be King and that was on what we call Psalm Sunday.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: What does all of this mean to me? Well for one thing it shows that I do not
need to be afraid of worshiping the Lord because He knows all things and has
planned all things to work out for His honor and glory. Another thing that I can see in this is that
since all of the things that were prophesied about Jesus came true at His first
coming then I can be sure that the things concerning His second coming will
happen just as they are predicted to happen.
It was through prophecy that God got my attention and then saved me in January
of 1974 and so prophecy is very important to me, but even though I do believe
that we are very close to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to take His bride
home with Him at what is called the Rapture, I am not and never will be a date
setter, but the Rapture is my hope and the hope of all believers.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Understand the times that we live in as we are
told to do from the Scriptures.
Memory verses for the week: 1Cor. 13:1-7
1
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have
become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all
of my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned,
and do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag, and is
not arrogant, 5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
but rejoices with the truth, 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, believes all things.
9/25/2012 9:52:02 AM
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