SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2015
10:21 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: Philadelphia’s
Commendation PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
3:8-11a
Message of the
verses: “8 ’I know your deeds.
Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you
have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 ’Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue
of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie-I will make them come
and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. 10
’Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from
the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to
test those who dwell on the earth. 11 ’I am coming quickly;”
We have already mentioned that the Lord found nothing in
their deeds that would cause Him any concern, so He goes right into the
commendation for this church. Notice the
first words of verse eight “I know your deeds,” and think about this for a
minute. Jesus Christ the all knowing,
all seeing God of the church knows our deeds.
Now that can a great deal of discomfort to you or it can cause a great
deal of comfort to you, but which every way the fact remains that Jesus Christ
knows our deeds. I have mentioned many
times in my Spiritual Diaries that Ephesians 2:10 is a verse that causes me to
better understand the God that I serve and I draw strength from it. “For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good
works, which God
prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” We see here that we were created for doing
good works, and we also see that God in eternity past prepared works that we
will do for Him. I believe that the
words or as we see in Rev. 3:8, the deeds that Christ knows we are doing are
done in the power of the Holy Spirit as we yield to Him so that God will
receive the glory for the works (deeds) that He has planned for us to do. If you look at a hose that would be us and
the water that flows through us (the hose) is the Holy Spirit using us to do
good works. Now remember these works are
done after our salvation which is seen in verses 8-9 of Ephesians 2. We can’t work for our salvation, but we work
after our salvation. As we look at the
phrase “little power” we can see that this is all we need to accomplish the
works that Christ has for us to do, for Christ through the Holy Spirit gives us
the power that we have to do these deeds.
One may think that this is a negative comment, but no it is a positive comment
for what they had they were using for the cause of Christ. This church was a very small one, but they
had an impact on the city that they lived in.
Remember what Paul said in 2 Cor. 12:10 “Therefore I am well content
with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with
difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Next we want to look at their obedience as we read you “have
kept My word.” Think about when you were
little or perhaps when you had children and you gave them something to do and
they did what you wanted them to do, and this brought joy to your heart because
they kept your word and obeyed you.
Christ feels the same way as we can see in this verse. Job writes “"I have not departed from
the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my
necessary food (Job. 23:12).” We saw in
Ephesus that those there had lost their first love, but we see here that this
church loved the Lord and that is why they were keeping His Word.
Next we see that they did not deny His name, and this was
done in times of persecution that was surrounding them. Paul said the same thing to the church at
Thessalonica, a letter we studied last year.
Paul was concerned that because of the persecution that was going on
there and the fact that he only spend a short time with them that they may have
fallen to the temptations of Satan, but they did not and this church in Philadelphia
did not either.
John MacArthur writes “Finally, Christ commended the
Philadelphia church because its members had kept the word of His
perseverance. The NIV translation clarifies
Christ’s meaning: ‘You have kept my
command to endure patiently.’ The Christians
at Philadelphia persevered faithfully through all of their trials and
difficulties.”
We see an example of this in the life of Christ as seen
by the writer to the Hebrews “1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of
witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin
which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured
such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and
lose heart. 4 You have not yet
resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin (Heb.
12:1-4).” Paul writes about the
perseverance of the Thessalonians in 2 Thess. 3:5 “May the Lord direct your
hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.” We will pick up on this subject in our next
SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The word “perseverance”
has kind of popped up in my life a lot lately.
It seems to me that it is a first cousin of “patience” and both
qualities are hard to accomplish, but I must remember that nothing is
impossible with God. “’Ah Lord GOD!
Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your
outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You (Jer. 32:17).” Sound like a good verse for a song.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand the love Christ has for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “God stopped the flow of the
Jordan while it was flooded” (Joshua 3:14-17).
Today’s Bible
question: “Why did the Jewish council in
Jerusalem contend with Peter?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/19/2015 10:57 AM
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