SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2014
10:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Message
about Jeremiah’s Strange Conduct PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jer. 16:19-21
Message of the
verses: We will be looking at the
last part of Jeremiah’s strange conduct in this SD.
Jeremiah’s affirmation (Jeremiah 16:19-21): “19 O LORD,
my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the
nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have
inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility and things of no profit." 20 Can
man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods! 21 “Therefore behold, I am
going to make them know-This time I will make them know My power and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the LORD.’”
In this vision that Jeremiah has he sees a day when all
the nations of the world will bow and worship the Lord, that will throw away
all of their idols and worship the One True God. I want to look at similar visions that Isaiah
and also Zechariah saw.
Isaiah 2:1-5 “1 The word
which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come about that In the last days
The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the
mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream
to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us
concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will
go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge
between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will
hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation
will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. 5
Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”
Isaiah 45:14 “14 Thus says the LORD, "The products of
Egypt and the merchandise of Cush And the Sabeans, men of stature, Will come
over to you and will be yours; They will walk behind you, they will come over
in chains And will bow down to you; They will make supplication to you:
’Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God.’"
Zechariah 8:20-23 “20 “Thus
says the LORD of hosts, ’It will yet be that peoples will come, even the
inhabitants of many cities. 21 ’The inhabitants of one will go to another,
saying, "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek
the LORD of hosts; I will also go." 22 ’So many peoples and mighty nations
will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of
the LORD.’ 23 "Thus says the LORD
of hosts, ’In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of
a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with
you.’”
We can see that this will happen during the 1000 year
reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is explained more fully in the book of
Revelations. Israel had been given a
promise that they would have a kingdom with their Messiah as the ruler of it,
but the time period is given in the book of Revelations 20:1-5 “1 Then I saw an angel coming down from
heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he
laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and
bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it
and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer,
until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released
for a short time. 4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was
given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of
their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not
worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their
forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a
thousand years.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section with
the following words: “The Gentiles will confess their sin of idolatry and admit
that the idols were worthless. Then they
will be taught to know the Lord.
Meanwhile, it’s the task of the church today to spread the message of
the Gospel to the ends of the earth so that sinners might abandon their false
gods, whatever they may be, and trust in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.” As believers we need to be up to that
task. One of the ways we can be up to
this task is to be worshiping in a church where there are good spiritual
leaders. I want to copy a quote from
John MacArthur that comes from my study in 1 Thessalonians, something I want to
get back to early next month. In this
quote we will see what good leaders are to do, and even though we can see what
they can do we will realize that without the help of the Holy Spirit of God it
is impossible to do. I have entitled
this quote from John MacArthur “Praying for Pastors and Leaders” and the reason
I have entitled it this way is because our Pastors and leaders need our prayers
so that they can be up to the task that God has given to them.
Praying for
Pastors and Leaders
The following is a quote
from John MacArthur’s commentary on the book of 1 Thessalonians.
“Those called to be elders
in the church, who preach, teach and lead God’s flock, are entrusted with the
unequalled duty of proclaiming the gospel to unbelieving sinners, and bringing
those who believe and are baptized into the fellowship of the local
church. There the Holy Spirit will
sanctify them as they worship God in spirit and truth, submitting to the
exposition and application of Scripture.
Pastors also must intercede for their people through public and private
prayer, oversee the administration of the Lord’s Table so their people will
regularly confess their sins and renew their covenant of obedience, equip other
teachers and workers within the church, superintend and enforce church
discipline, and provide biblical counseling to the congregation. All of this spiritual work is to build up the
saints to maturity—‘to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness
of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13).
“The elder must be a
spiritual physician who can capably apply biblical cures to those vices and
heresies that might afflict members of his church. He also must be a tender shepherd who, while
feeding the flock, also heals their wounds, clams their fears, protects them from
spiritual dangers, and comforts them in their distresses. In short, he is to be a champion form
biblical truth (1 Tim. 4:12), a provider of spiritual resources (1 Peter
5:1-2), a guardian and protector (Acts 20:28-31), and always a model of
spiritual virtue (1 Tim. 4:12), for all of which he is directly accountable to
his Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:17; James 3:1).
“Even the uniquely gifted
apostle Paul asked the question, ‘And who is adequate for these thing?’ (2 Cor. 2:16).
He realized that no man could effectively discharge the immense
obligation of spiritual leadership by human wisdom, effort, and strength alone. He knew that only God could provide the power
to be an effective leader, although he struggled with his flesh and found
himself not doing the things he wanted to do and doing the things he did not
want to do (Rom. 7:14-25). God
graciously game him suffering and pain to continually humble him and make him
dependent on divine power (2 Cor. 12:7-10).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I can’t help but remember the prayer that is
in Daniel chapter nine where Daniel is praying for something that God had
already promised to the children of Israel, but he continued to pray about
it. I realize that the Kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ will come just as He has promised it will, but I still
believe that I need to be like Daniel and pray for it to come, for the Lord
Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray for it in what we call the Lord’s
Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be
done.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray for opportunities to advance the cause
of Christ as the Holy Spirit gives them to me.
1 Peter 3:15.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-10
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form
of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likens of
men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted
Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the
name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and
under the earth,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Woman of Samaria” (John
4:9-12).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘ I’m going fishing?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/25/2014 11:00 AM
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