SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/4/2014
9:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to 1 Thessalonians Five
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 5:1
Message
of the verses: Today’s SD will be
the first SD from the 5th chapter of 1 Thessalonians. I did not know if I should take the entire
month of August to work on this chapter, but decided to do this as I did not
want to split up this important chapter into different months so I decided to
go through it all this month and then begin with where we left off in the book
of Jeremiah in September, which will be the 46th chapter of
Jeremiah.
Times and the Epochs: (1
Thessalonians 5:1) “1 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no
need of anything to be written to you (NASB).”
“1 I don’t think, friends that I need to deal with the question of when
all this is going to happen (Message).” “1
When is all this going to happen? I really
don’t need to say anything about that, dear brothers (Living Bible).”
Here is a sampling of verse one from
different Bible translations and also from both the Message and Living Bibles, which are
paraphrased versions of the Bible.
Warren Wiersbe entitles the chapter in his commentary on 1st
and 2nd Thessalonians “Be Ready” and he entitles the eight chapter
of this book “Don’t Walk in Your Sleep,” which is a very good title for the
first eleven verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter five. He writes the following on the phrase “Times
and Seasons” which is the way the KJV of the Bible has verse one whereas the
NASB uses the words “Times and Epochs.” “This
phrase is found only three times in the Bible, and refers primarily to God’s
plans for Israel. This is the way Daniel
started it when God gave him understanding of the king’s dream (Dan.
2:21). Our Lord’s use of the phrase in
Acts 1:7 indicates that times and seasons relate primarily to Israel.
“God has a definite plan for the
nations of the world (Acts 17:26), and Israel is the key nation. Dr. A. T. Pierson used to say ‘History is His
story.’ (Quite a contrast to Napoleon’s
definition: ‘History is a set of lies
agreed upon.’) God has ordained times
and seasons for the nations on earth, particularly Israel; and all of this will
culminate in a terrible time called ‘the Day of the Lord.’” We will begin to deal with “The Day of the
Lord” in our next SD, but first I want to continue looking at what different
people have stated as to what they think are the plans for how the world is
moving along and perhaps even end.
When I first became a believer I was
listening to Hal Lindsey, who wrote “The Late Great Planet Earth,” and he
stated that if you want to know what time it is on the prophetic clock you have
to look at the nation of Israel, for at that time the nation of Israel had only
been in existence again for 24 years, whereas now it has been in existence for
66 years. Israel is indeed the key to
seeing what time it is on the prophetic clock as far as how the Word of God
says it, and for me that is the only way to look at it. I have stated over and over again in my
Spiritual Diaries that the theory of Evolution, and I should say that correctly
it should be said “The Lie of Evolution” for that is exactly what it is, has
caused the most problems in the world today.
Why do I say that? Well this lie
has caused people to take God out of their lives, for if one does not believe
that the world was created by God as seen in the first chapter of Genesis, and
thinks that the world is some kind of a cosmic accident then they do not have
to be accountable to the God who created the world and this is why so many
people do not believe in God today and even believers have fallen into this
trap of how old the earth is which causes a great deal of trouble in the
Church. Now if one does not believe that
God created the earth then one has to come up with their own ideas of how the
earth was created and how it will end.
John MacArthur entitles the twelfth
chapter of his commentary on the books of 1st and 2nd
Thessalonians “The Day of the Lord” and it covers the first three verses of 1
Thessalonians chapter five. In this
chapter he writes about three popular contemporary views of history. He names them as 1) The cyclical view, 2) The
Atheistic Naturalism view, and 3) The Christian View.
The
Cyclical View: This sees history as an
endless circle, spiraling back through the same things over and over. We see this in Hinduism and they call it “samsara.”
The
Atheistic Naturalism Vies: He writes “Unlike
the cyclical view, this view sees history as linear and non-receptive. But like the cyclical view, the naturalistic
view assigns no meaning to history.
History may be proceeding in a straight line instead of going around in
circles, but it is not leading anywhere; it has no ultimate goal or purpose.”
The
Christians View: We have covered this
view while looking at the quote from Warren Wiersbe, but I just want to add
some things to this view, in which I believe it is not a view, but the
truth. Now I believe that God has a
definite plan for the earth that He created and that plan is seen in the pages
of the Bible. I don’t believe that God
had a plan A and a plan B as some believe, for I would not want to worship a
God who had a plan A and a plan B. After
man fell into sin as seen in the third chapter of Genesis we see that God
immediately spoke of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to make a bridge to
God for men who lived on planet earth.
Sin broke our coming to God and talking to Him in the way that Adam and
Eve could do, but Jesus Christ has made the bride back to God so believers can
have fellowship with our Creator. We don’t
have to come too far in the book of Genesis when we see that man’s sinfulness
caused the Lord to bring a great flood upon the earth and destroy all flesh
with the exception of Noah and his family and also all of the air breathing
animals that were on the ark. Shortly
after that we see that God called Abram, and then changed his name to
Abraham. Abraham is who the Lord used to
begin the nation of Israel, and it was through Israel that the Messiah would
come through as He did as seen in the genealogies of both Matthew and
Luke. Israel sinned and broke her
covenant with the Lord and so God took her out of the Promised Land, but
brought he back in again, however Israel was not an independent nation when she
came back into the Promised Land. Daniel
prayed as to what would happen to Israel and God, through the angel Gabriel
showed Daniel what would happen to Israel in the ninth chapter of Daniel. I have written on this prophecy when I
studied Daniel. Briefly God showed
Daniel that Israel would go back into their land and then the Messiah would
come and offer Himself as King, but would be turned down and killed. The length of the prophecy had 490 years on
it and still has seven years left on it, but the Church was created to live in
the period of time until the time when the last seven years begins. Now we have studied what will happen to the
Church in chapter four of 1 Thessalonians and now we will look at what will
happen after the Church is raptured to heaven to be with our Lord. This is what Paul is writing about in this
fifth chapter of 1 Thessalonians and will continue to write about it in his second
letter to the Thessalonians. We will
learn that the seven years that are coming soon after the rapture will bring
about the Day of the Lord and at the conclusion of this event the Lord Jesus
Christ will reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years. Next the earth will be destroyed and then a
new heaven and a New Jerusalem will come down from heaven and we will then go
into eternity serving and worshiping the Lord.
This is a brief look at God’s plan.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Peter
writes the following after telling his readers about how the earth will be
burned with fire: “Since all these
things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in
holy conduct and godliness.” I have a
statement on my refrigerator that says “We are not human beings going through a
temporary spiritual experience. We are
spiritual beings going through a temporary experience. By remembering this it will help keep my
focus on the things of the Lord and doing things for the cause of Christ in my
life in this temporary human experience.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Live my life
so that it is pleasing to the Lord.
Memory
verses for the week: Colossians 3:1-4.
1
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things
above, where Christ is, seated at the right and of God. 2 Set you mind on
things above, not on the things that are one earth. 3 For you died and your life is not hidden with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Good
News.”
Today’s
Bible question: “Of what kind of wood
was the ark of the covenant made?”
Answer
in our next SD.
8/4/2014
11:16 AM
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