SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/11/2015
7:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Characteristic of Partisanship
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
14:4b
Message
of the verses: “These are the ones
who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men
as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”
I am not sure if I ever heard of the
word “partisans” before, but at least it has been a long time. According to the Oxford English Dictionary this word means “on who takes part of
sides with another; an adherent or supporter of a party, person, or cause…a
devoted or zealous supporter…One who supports his party ‘through thick and thin’;
a blind, prejudiced, unreasoning, or fanatical adherent.” John MacArthur quotes John Phillips is showing
how the 144,000 are completely loyal to the Lamb: “They allow no rivals, no refusals, and no
restraint to mar their dedication to Him.
Does He need someone to stand upon the steps of the Vatican and cry out
against the marriage of Christendom to the Beast? There are 144,000 ready to go! Does the Lord need someone to beard the Beast
at some high function of state and roundly denounce him, his policy, his statecraft,
his religion, his economic boycott, his mark, his ministers, his alliances with
Satan? There are 144,000 eager to
go! Does the Lamb need evangelists to
proclaim to the untold millions the gospel of the coming kingdom of God? To climb
the highest Himalayas, to cross the desert stands, to blaze evangelistic trails
through steaming jungles, or to mush huskies across wide arctic wastes? There are 144,000 ready to go! And though the Beast’s Gestapo [sic] dog
their footsteps and wreak upon their converts his direst vengeance, yet on they
go undaunted and undeterred. That was
the very spirit of their consecration as they followed the Lamb whithersoever
He led them on earth, and their reward is in kind.”
These are the kind of loyal followers
that the Lord Jesus Christ is looking for as He states in Matthew 16:24 “Then
Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” In another Word from Him as He spoke to the
rich young ruler He advised him “"If you wish to be complete, go and sell
your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven;
and come, follow Me’ (Matthew 19:21).”
Another time from the gospel of John Jesus told a crowd of unbelieving
Jews that they were not His sheep for if they were, He says that “"My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me’ (John 10:27).” Paul says the following in 1 Corinthians 11:1
“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” John writes the following in 1 John 2:6 “the
one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He
walked.”
As we continue to look at the
144,000 from the fourteenth chapter of Revelation we can learn what it means to
be a committed follower of Jesus Christ, and these men will do this in the
worst time that the world has ever faced as it will not only have judgments
from the Lord, some we have already looked at and some we will look at later,
and also have the restraint taken away, that restraint that is in the world
today, and they will also face the wrath of Satan as he and all of his demons
have been kicked out of heaven and some of the demons that have been locked up
in the pit will be let loose, so you can see that these men will be truly sold
out for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I
remember a sermon that Billy Graham preached in the western part of Canada many
years ago, and in that sermon he spoke of the difficulty of being sold out to
the Lord Jesus living in the prosperous world of that day, and I suppose you
can say of this day. Too many
distractions cause believes not to be truly sold out to the Lord when we really
need to be, I need to be.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I need to
think about what I am learning concerning these 144,00 men and then make some
changes in my life so that I, like them can be surrendered to the Lord in a
similar way.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Spain”
(Romans 15:24).
Today’s
Bible question: “Who in all of his glory
was not arrayed like the lilies?”
Answer
in our next SD.
7/11/2015
7:49 AM
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