SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/18/2015
10:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Church and City of Philadelphia
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
3:7a, b
Message of the
verses: “"And to the angel of
the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key
of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says
this.”
There are things that are common in these seven churches
and the fact is that it is not known as to how or when these churches were
started in six of the cities, and the key can be in the one that we know how it
was started and that is the church at Ephesus.
We have mentioned Acts 19:10 in reference to how it is believed that six
of these seven churches began: “This
took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the
Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” From this
verse we believe that the ministry in Ephesus spread throughout all of Asia so
that the other six churches began there.
John MacArthur adds the following information: “A few years after John
wrote Revelation, the early church father Ignatius passed through Philadelphia
on his way to martyrdom at Rome. He
later wrote the church a letter of encouragement and instruction. Some Christians from Philadelphia were
martyred with Polycarp at Smyrna. The
church lasted for centuries. The Christians
in Philadelphia stood firm even after the region was overrun by the Muslims,
finally succumbing in the mid-fourteenth century.”
Next we look at the city of Philadelphia. In his commentary on the book of Revelation “There
is a New World Coming,” Hal Lindsey writes the following on the city of
Philadelphia: “Philadelphia was about
thirty miles southeast of Sardis. It was
destroyed in AD 17 by the same earthquake that toppled Sardis. Tiberius Caesar, the great builder of cities,
reestablished it.
“Philadelphia was at the center of a great vineyard
district and had a thriving business in wine.
Because of this, Bacchus, the god of wine, had many devotees there. Quite naturally, drunkenness was a chronic
social problem in the district.
“The very large Jewish population in Philadelphia was
apparently responsible for some of the persecution of Christians. The Jews were no stranger to persecution;
Roman laws were hard on them as well as on the Christians.”
John MacArthur writes how the city was first founded
sometime after 189 BC. The city was
started “either by King Eumenes of Pergamum or his brother, Attalus II, who
succeeded him as king. In either case,
the city derived its name from Attalus II’s nickname Philadelphus (‘brother lover’), which his loyalty to his brother
Eumenes had earned him.”
The city was set on an eight hundred high hill which
meant it was good for defensive purposes and it also had major roads running
through it which was good for trade.
We mentioned the earthquake that happened in 17 AD as
this part of what is now modern day Turkey has hand many earthquakes which gave
it the rich volcanic soil so they could grow their vineyards. John MacArthur quotes a man named Sir William
Ramsay who writes about the nerve-wracking experiences which left some
psychological scars on the inhabitants of Philadelphia because of the frequent
earthquakes: “Many of the inhabitants
remained outside the city living in huts and booths over the vale, and those
who were foolhardy enough (as the sober-minded thought) to remain in the city,
practiced various devices to support and strengthen the walls and houses
against the recurring shocks. The memory
of this disaster lived long…people lived amid ever threatening danger, in dread
always of a new disaster; and the habit
of going out to the open country had probably not disappeared when the Seven
Letters were written.”
Perhaps the people on our west coast can understand what
these people went through.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: This morning I
have been thinking about my family and how God brought my wife and I together
and a short time later we both came to know the Lord which turned our lives
around 180. I was thinking about the
miracle of my son who had to have a few different surgeries when he was
young. At six months he had his first
heart surgery and then another before he was one on his ear, next came the open
heart surgery at age 18 months, one of the longest days of my life. God brought us through this and he is now
married and has three children of his own.
I was also thinking of my daughter and her husband who now have four
children, the first one adopted from overseas and how they cried many tears to
plead with God to give them children and He surely answered their prayers. When I look back at your life, and the life
of my family I can see how the Lord has had His hands on it from the start and
for this I praise the Lord. Looking back
on these seven cities we can also see the hand of God on them.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to love the Lord with all of my
heart, soul, mind, and strength and to better understand the love He has for me
of which I have written of above.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Song of
Solomon, and Lamentations.”
Today’s Bible
question: “By what miracle did the
children of Israel enter into the Promised Land?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/18/2015 11:16 AM
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