SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2014
8:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Purifying
Hope
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 3:13
Message of the
verses: With this lesson on verse
thirteen we have come to the end of the third chapter of 1 Thessalonians and we
will go back to the book of Jeremiah for our next SD.
“13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in
holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His
saints.”
I have this strange habit whenever I look at a magazine that
I start from the back and then go to the front.
Sometimes I do this when I am studying a passage by looking at a
commentary and in the case today I want to quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s ending two
paragraphs as he reviews the third chapter of 1 Thessalonians: “As we review this chapter, we see how
important it is to care for new Christians.
Leading someone to Christ is not enough.
We must also lead him on in the Christian life and help him get
established. If he is not established,
he will fall when the winds of persecution start to blow. If he cannot stand, he will never learn to
walk.
“What shall we do?
We can be an encouragement and stand at his side as he matures. We can share the Word of God. We can pray.
This is what Paul did—and it worked.”
Now that we know what we are to do let us go back and
look at some of the specifics of what Paul wrote about in verse thirteen. Paul is praying for the believer’s
holiness. Holiness is moral purity, not
ever having a wrong thought of a wrong action, but we are also to continue to
learn from the Word of God in order to know how to live this holy life. Peter quotes from the OT when he writes “be
holy as God is holy.” This is part of
the sanctification process that all believers go through. Sanctification has three parts in it as we
are sanctified when we are born into God’s family and as we grow in our walk
with the Lord we are being sanctified, and when we get to heaven and receive
our new bodies we will be completely sanctified. Paul is praying for this process while we are
on planet earth that we would walk worthy of the Lord. We should remember the words of the old
Scottish preacher that Dr. Wiersbe quotes often in his commentaries and that is
“that the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.” When we fall we must dust ourselves off,
confess our sins and begin afresh with our walk with the Lord.
Notice that Paul also brings this subject up with the
return of our Lord as he writes at the end of the verse: “at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His
saints.” Dr. Wiersbe writes “Our Lord’s
return is also a source of stability, there can be sanctify; and where there is
holiness, there is assurance. The two go
together.”
As we look at this verse and see that Paul speaks of the
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ we can be assured that he is talking
about hope, but the hope that he is talking about here is a sure hope. I have mentioned this before, and worth
repeating here and that is that when we perhaps are thirsty and we hope for a
drink of cold water that would make hope a verb, but when we talk about the
hope of the believer “Tit 2:13 looking
for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Savior, Christ Jesus,” this hope is a noun, a sure thing that we can count
on. John MacArthur writes “The only way
the Thessalonians would actually live in such hope was for God to establish
their hearts without blame in holiness before (literally, ‘in the presence of’)
Him. Paul expresses a similar sentiment
in 5:23, ‘Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you, entirely; and may your
spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ.’ He knew the one
person who cared most about the Thessalonians’ purifying hope was God, and only
He truly knows what is in people’s hearts (2 Chron. 6:30; Ps. 44:21; Prov.
24:12; cf. 1 Sam. 16:7). Paul wanted
them to be pure at heart, so as to desire the coming (parousia, ‘presence’) of
the Lord Jesus, who is the Judge (cf. 2 Timothy 4:1)… Believers’ knowing that
when Christ comes to reward His people, they will have their works evaluated
before the judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10), is motivation to holy living.”
Paul was praying for their hearts which is the seat of
human emotion, thought and purpose, and if the heart is pure and clean then
they will be able to stand up against persecution and also temptation. If they can do this then this would free them
from shame and embarrassment before the Lord and this would cause them to
eagerly desire for His return, MacArthur writes “The believer’s appearance
before God is truly the consummation of his sanctification (Rom. 8:17, 30).” In living this holy life MacArthur reminds us
again “the supernatural
reality of sanctification is all the work of God and, at the same time,
dependent on the obedience of the believer.” This statement is something to ponder upon
for sure.
Paul is not only praying for the Thessalonians in this
section but for all believers and this include believers in the 21
century. I am glad for this prayer, and
hope that the Pastors in our church are praying this for the believers in our congregation.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: A wonderful reminder
of living a holy life before the Lord so that I can look forward to His coming
and not be ashamed of wrong things that I am doing, but to live a holy life
before Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-6
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,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “major.”
Today’s Bible
question: “On what day were fish and
foul created?”
Answer in our next SD. 5/19/2014 9:14 AM
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