I will Restore (Amos 9:11-15)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2015 9:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  I will Restore

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Amos 9:11-15

Message of the verses:  “11 "In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name," Declares the LORD who does this. 13 “Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. 14 “Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 “I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them," Says the LORD your God.”

In today’s SD we will conclude our study on the book of Amos, a study that we began on August 17, of this year, but I do have to admit that I have not done a SD on Amos every day.

I have mentioned in many SD’s that I have written on the OT prophets that many times after God gives a series of judgments on the nation of Israel that He will then give promises that have to do with Israel in the end times especially, but also some of them had to do with Israel going back to their land after being in Babylon for 70 years, and then in Ezekiel there were even prophecies of when they would come back to Israel before the end time judgments began.  I believe what we are looking at in this section of Amos has to do with the Millennial kingdom. 

Dr. Wiersbe writes at the beginning of his commentary on this section:  “In contrast to God’s destroying the Israelite house of false worship, God will raise up the ‘hut’ of David, thereby assuring a bright future for the people of Israel and Judah.  Like a rickety shack, David’s dynasty was about to collapse.  From the Babylonian Captivity to this present hour, there has been no Davidic king ruling over the Jews; and though a Jewish nation has been restored, they have no king, priest, temple, or sacrifice.”

This prophecy among many others in the OT show that one day the Lord will restore, repair, and rebuild the dynasty of David and then establish the kingdom that He has promised to give them.  This will happen when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back at the end of the period that is called the Tribulation period when the battle of Armageddon will be going on, as God will bring all the nations’ armies to the plain of Megiddo in Israel and there they will be fighting among themselves until the Lord comes back to earth as He descends out of the air with many angels and saints with Him, and then they will begin to fight against Him, but this will not last long as the Lord will defeat all these armies.  Christ will then set up His promised kingdom where he will rule on David’s throne from Jerusalem for 1000 years.  During this time “God will bless the land and the people, and His people shall live in peace and security” (Warren Wiersbe’s commentary). 

Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section which ends his commentary for Amos with the following paragraph:  “Amos ends his prophecy with the wonderful promise that Israel shall be planted, protected, and never again pulled up from her hand ‘says the Lord your God.’  Your God!  What a great encouragement for the Jews to know that, in spite of their unbelief, their God will be faithful to keep His covenant promises.”

Lord willing we will begin looking at the one chapter book of Obadiah in our next SD that are done in the evenings.

10/31/2015 9:28 PM

Short Introduction to Rev. 21:9-22:5

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2015 11:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  A Short Introduction to Rev. 21:9-22:5

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 21:9-22:5

            Message of the verses:  In Today’s Spiritual Diary I am not going to write the verses that we are going to be looking at over the next several days as they are many and can be read in any Christian Bible.  These verses speak of “The New Jerusalem,” something that is a real place and a place where all believers will go to some day when this world is destroyed by fire as we have been learning about in our previous Spiritual Diaries.

            Last night my wife and I went to a memorial service for a friend of ours and the Pastor whom I know and have great respect for did a wonderful job in his sermon, and his sermon was about heaven.  As I sat and listened to what he had to say about heaven I went back to what we have been learning about heaven in our studies from the book of Revelation, especially these last chapters.  It is comforting to believers who lose a loved one to the enemy of death, and this is the way we all will go unless the Lord returns in the Rapture to take us to be with Him while we are still alive.  As I thought about heaven last night I thought about how important it is to study about heaven and to let others know about heaven, for as the Pastor said last night Heaven is a real place and will be filled with real people, people who have in their life here on earth have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them from their sins, as He died on the cross to save all who will come to Him in faith.  When love ones die who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord it surely gives us great comfort knowing that some day we will see them again when we get to heaven.

            Let us look at some verses that come from the lips of our Lord on the very night that He was taken to be tried and later on killed Jesus told His disciples “1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2  "In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”  The disciples of Jesus needed to hear this, just like we need to hear it and that is that our Lord is preparing a real place for us to go to when our work on this earth is finished.  Thomas was not sure how they were to get there so Jesus said to him and to us:  “"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  (John 14:1-3, 6)

            As we look at several verses from the book of Hebrews we will see that the OT saints knew that there would be a place where they would go to be with the Lord when they died.  Before we look at these verse I have a quote from John MacArthur on the New Jerusalem which is the Capital City of Heaven:  “Because it is the capital city of heaven and the link between the new heaven and the new earth, the New Jerusalem is central to the vision and is described in far more detail than the rest of the eternal state.”  Now we look at Hebrews 11:8-10 “8  By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

            MacArthur goes on to write “In the next chapter, the writer penned the following description of the New Jerusalem”:  “22  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”  “As he closed out that epistle, he reminded his readers that ‘here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come’ (Heb.13:14).

            “What Abraham, the writer of Hebrews, and the rest of the redeemed have anticipated by faith was revealed to and described by John.  His view of heaven’s capital includes several features:  its general appearance, exterior design, internal character, and the privileges of its inhabitants.”

            That, of course will be the outline that we will be following as we look at these verses in Revelation 21-22.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God’s timing is always perfect even if we don’t realize it until later, but listening to the sermon last night and studying about heaven has brought great peace to my heart over the loss of our friend.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have a rather long prayer list that has different things for me to pray about and one of the categories has people who are ill, and another is for God to give strength to widows and widowers and I hate to cross one off who has been sick and not recovered and then put their spouse on the widow and widower list.  This happened again on 10-19-15.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Profane and old wives’ fables” (1 Timothy 4).

Today’s Bible question:  “What kind of worship does God desire”

Answer in our next SD.

10/31/2015 12:17 PM

 

I Will Destroy (Amos 9:5-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2015 10:38 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  I will Destroy

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Amos 9:5-10

            Message of the verses:  “5 The Lord GOD of hosts, The One who touches the land so that it melts, And all those who dwell in it mourn, And all of it rises up like the Nile And subsides like the Nile of Egypt; 6 The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name. 7 “Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, O sons of Israel?" declares the LORD. "Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? 8 “Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," Declares the LORD. 9 “For behold, I am commanding, And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations As grain is shaken in a sieve, But not a kernel will fall to the ground. 10 “All the sinners of My people will die by the sword, Those who say, ’The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’”

            I want to repeat verse five from the NLT “The Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, touches the land and it melts, and all its people mourn.”  Dr. Wiersbe points out that we see this phrase or name of the Lord as the Lord of Heaven’s Armies nine times in the book of Amos.  He then quotes one of my favorite authors, A. W. Tozer who writes “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”  Israel created their own God and put them in their own image and that is usually how it goes when idols are made.  I have heard it over and over that it is man who wrote the Bible, and it irritates me when I hear this.  The reason that it irritates me is because man would never write what is found in the Scriptures because of the sinful condition of man.  Man would never write the truth found in Scripture because there is no real truth in the unconverted man.  That is what we read that idols are made up by man to be in their own image.

            We see in the first part of our verses that Amos tells his readers how great God really is, the fact that He is the Creator God who made the earth and all that is in it, and no idol could ever do that.  I have to tell you a little joke that goes along with this.  There was a man who told God that it was not to difficult to create a man and so God tells this man to go ahead and make a man.  The man begins to get some dirt in order to make his man and the Lord steps in and says to him “Get your own dirt.”  We see that not only did God create the earth and all we see, but He controls it also, even though at times we wonder what He is doing when things don’t go the way that we think they should.

            Amos tells his readers about how the Lord brought up Israel out of Egypt, and He not only did this but He told Abraham that He was going to do it four hundred years before He did it.  God had claimed Israel for His own people, and then Israel turned their backs on God, something that we see from the 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy that God said they would do.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section by writing “But He is always the God or mercy (vv. 8-10), who will keep His covenant with Abraham and his descendants and not destroy the nation.  The nations would be sifted, and the sinners punished, but no one of His true worshipers would be lost.  It’s always the believing remnant that God watches over so that they might fulfill His will on the earth.  The self-confident sinners, who don’t expect to be punished, are the ones who will be slain by the sword (v. 10).”

10/30/2015 11:00 PM

 

Those who will not be in The New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21:8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2015 11:07 AM

My Worship Time                             Focus:  The Outcasts From the New Heaven and New Earth

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 21:8

            Message of the verses:  “8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’”

            John gives a list of sinners from this verse, those who have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and who prove that they are not by habitually coming sins that are listed on this list.  We will now look at some other lists from Scripture, but first I want to talk about believers and the sins that they commit from time to time.  When we look at these lists of sins from the different parts of Scripture we will find some of them that we are more vulnerable to than others and so we should never look at a person who has problems with different sins that we don’t have a problem with because as we look at these different lists we will surely find some that we have a problem with.  I go back to when the children of Israel were attacking the different people groups who were living in the Promised Land, those whom God had given over 400 years to repent but they did not and as Joshua went into the Promised Land conquering these people they did a good job in defeating them, but there were still some work to do which was up to the people of Israel in each tribe to accomplish.  We read of Calab doing exactly that in getting rid of the enemies of God who lived in his section of land that was given to Him by Joshua.  The rest of the people did not follow up like Calab did and so the enemies of the Lord began to take more and more control of the land until finally God would have to judge the Kingdoms of Israel and take them out of the Promised Land.  Why do I bring this up?  Well we see a picture of God saving us as God sent Joshua into the Promised Land to conquer the enemies of God in the land.  Now as believers we are to be like Calab and be able to fight against the “Canaanites”  that cause us problems, problems like pride, lust, anger and other things that we will see on the lists we are about to look at.  The point in all of this is that we as believers have troubles with different sins that are listed, but we have been forgiven and hopefully we do not habitually sin in these areas.  Now we will take a look at Revelation 22:15:  “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”  Next Romans 1:28-32 “28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29  being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32  and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”  Next 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”  Next Galatians 6:19-21 “19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Lastly 2 Timothy 3:2-5 “2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

            Now we will look at the different groups that John writes will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and they are the cowardly.  John MacArthur writes “These are the ones who lack endurance (cf. Matt. 24:13; Mark 8:35).  They fell away when their faith was challenged or opposed, because their faith was not genuine.  Jesus described such people in the parable of the soils:  ‘The one whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away’ (Matt. 13:20-21).” 

            We have a pretty good idea of what most of these sins are about, but I want to focus in on one that is causing a great deal of trouble, not only in our country but countries around the world, and that is the word sorcerers.  John MacArthur writes “(‘from the Greek word pharmaceuticals’ from which the English word ‘pharmacy’ and pharmaceuticals’ derive; that indicates the inclusion of those who use mind-altering drugs in occult religion).”  When my wife and I were living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai I had a chance to speak to people who were in the prison there and at the end of my talk with them I ask if anyone knew the Greek word translated “sorcerers” in the Bible and one of the inmates knew it and asked me why I asked that question.  I simply told him that this is the reason why many people were in prison at this time, but unbelievers who continually practice this will go to a worse prison than the one they are in at this time for John concludes by saying that they will go to the “lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

            John MacArthur concludes his 18^th chapter with these words:  “The new heaven and the new earth await believers and the final hell awaits resurrected unbelievers.  For believers, it will be a universe of eternal happiness as they dwell forever in the glorious presence of God.  For unbelievers, it will be a terrifying place of unbearable torment and unrelieved misery away from God’s presence (2 Thess. 1:9).  The choices men and women make in this life determine in which of these realms they will live forever.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Psalm 119:133 “Establish my footsteps in Your word, And do not let any iniquity have dominion over me.”  

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember Psalm 119:133.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “A tenth (or tithe)” (Genesis 28:20-22).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Paul tell ministers to refuse?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/30/2015 12:12 PM

I will Search (Amos 9:2-4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2015 10:32 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  I will Search

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Amos 9:2-4

            Message of the verses:  “2 “Though they dig into Sheol, From there will My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down. 3 “Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, From there I will command the serpent and it will bite them. 4 “And though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword that it slay them, And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good.’”

            We are looking at all the times that we read the phrase “though they” and we see it five times in these three verses.  Amos is speaking of what God will do to track down those who worship idols and what He is going to do to them for their unfaithfulness to Him and to His covenant that they knew about, and even though they knew about they continued to disobey it.  Let’s look at the first of the Ten Commandments:  “3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”  This is the commandment that they had broken and this was one of the reasons that God was going to destroy them.

            You remember the story of Jonah who thought that he could hide from God, but found out that he could not do that as God is omnipresence, meaning that He is everywhere.  If there was no place that God was not then He would not be God as this is one of His attributes.  7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9  If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10  Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night," 12 Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”  These verses come from Psalm 139 and we can see all of the scenarios that David speaks of in these verses, and some of them go along with what we are reading about in our verses from Amos today.  Now the eye of the Lord was upon the people of Israel for judgment and not for blessing at this point in their history. 

10/29/2015 10:50 PM

The Residients of the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21:6b-7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2015 11:29 AM

My Worship Time                                Focus:  The Residents of the New Heaven and New Earth

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 21:6b-7

            Message of the verses:  “I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

            As we look at this verse and a half of verse we see that there are two descriptive phrases which tells us who will dwell in the New Heaven and New Earth and those phrases are “the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life without cost,” and then a more familiar one “he who overcomes.”  We looked at who the overcomer was when we studied the different churches at the beginning of our study of the book of Revelation.  The word “overcomes” is found eight times in the book of Revelation (NASB), and the word “overcome” is found four times in the book of Revelation (NASB).  Okay I guess I had better start at the beginning and look at the first term, “thirsts” before we look at the overcomer.

            Jesus began His “Sermon on the Mount” by talking about one who has a hunger and thirst for righteousness:  “"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  This is of course a beatitude meaning a blessing and we have seen beatitudes in the book of Revelation, as I recall there are seven of these blessings in Revelation.  Isaiah 55:1 says “"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.”  John MacArthur writes “Those who will be redeemed and enter heaven are those who are dissatisfied with their hopeless, lost condition and crave God’s righteousness with every part of their being.  The psalmist expressed that strong desire in Psalm 42:1-1 ‘As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?’ The promise to such earnest seekers is that their thirst will be satisfied.”  Now we have an example of this in the book of John and it ties in with receiving the water of life which is what is needed to receive eternal life as Jesus will put it.  Let us first look at the passage in John chapter four and I want to emphasize the fourth verse which says “And He had to pass through Samaria.”  Going through Samaria was not what the Jews did in that day, in fact they would go way out of their way to avoid going into Samaria because of their hatred for them as they were not true Jews, but had mixed “blood” which happened after the Assyrians defeated the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and then sent some of them back to the land but they had intermarried with Gentiles.  Here we see that Jesus had to go through Samaria and the reason that He had to go through there was He was going to meet the “woman at the well.”  Now as we look at the story this woman did not realize that she had a hunger and thirst for spiritual things until Jesus spoke with her.  She was a woman who had five husbands and was now living with someone who was not her husband and so probably the women of that village did not have a high opinion of her, along with some of the men.  She has to travel a ways to get water at the well, which we find is a very famous well as we read the story as Jacob had dug the well and water was still coming out of it many years later.  My point again is that she did not realize her need to for salvation.  “10  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18  for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.’”  Well the end of the story is that now the woman realizes she has a thirst for righteousness and she becomes a believer, but it was the Lord who while speaking to her showed her, her need for salvation.

            As mentioned we have seen the word overcome and overcomes in Revelation earlier in our study, but let’s go to another letter that John penned to see the meaning of this word:  “1Jo 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.”  True believers in Jesus Christ are those who have overcome as John tells us in this verse.  John goes on to write in verse five “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”  So we see in these two phrases those who will inherit eternal life and live in the New Heaven and New Earth. 

            Jesus goes on to say “I will be his God” and then later on they “will be My son.”  These also are wonderful words for us to hang onto especially when times are tough.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the fact that the Holy Spirit have me a thirst for God and for salvation and also that because of this call that I answered through His power that I am now one who has overcome.

My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will lead me through the preparation of my study to teach a lesson from Ezekiel next week.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Simon Maccabees.”

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jacob promise to give God, if God took care of him?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/29/2015 12:18 PM

I Will Strike (Amos 9:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2015 11:30 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  I will Strike

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Amos 9:1

            Message of the verse:  “1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, "Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them with the sword; They will not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee who will escape.”

            We begin our last main section from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline in our SD for this evening and he entitles that last main point “The prophet affirms” and it will cover the ninth and last chapter of the book of Amos.  He writes the following in his introductory comments:  “In this final chapter of the book, the Prophet Amos shares four affirmations from the heart of the Lord—three of which deal with judgment and the fourth with mercy.”  We will look at the first of these four which surely has to do with judgment.

            I want to go back and look at some verses from the third chapter of Amos which is believed to be a parallel passage to this verse as in this verse we see the Lord standing by an altar, and it is believed that the altar in question is the one in Bethel and then it goes on to talk about how this building will be destroyed.  The verses in Amos 3:13-15 speak of how the Assyrians were going to destroy the people of Israel when they entered the land.  “13 “Hear and testify against the house of Jacob," Declares the Lord GOD, the God of hosts. 14 “For on the day that I punish Israel’s transgressions, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; The horns of the altar will be cut off And they will fall to the ground. 15 “I will also smite the winter house together with the summer house; The houses of ivory will also perish And the great houses will come to an end," Declares the LORD.”

            The problem was that the altar, although it was suppose to be the place of sacrifice and atonement, was not accepted by the Lord for this was a man made religion.  You have to go back to after the death of Solomon to understand how this false religion got started, for after the death of Solomon the nation of Israel split and became two kingdoms.  Now the first person who became the king of the Northern Kingdom started his own religion with a calf in order to keep the people from going to Jerusalem where God’s temple was set up as directed by Him.  This is how this religion by man got started and in 722 B. C. God had had enough as His longsuffering ran out and He had the Northern Kingdom destroyed by the Assyrians. 

10/28/2015 11:45 PM

The Changes in the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21:4-6a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2015 9:46 AM

Bible Reading & Meditation     Focus:  The Changes in the New Heaven and New Earth

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 21:4-6a

            Message of the verses:  “4  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

            There will be a great change when believers get to heaven, and John writes that our Lord will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  What does this mean?  Well I have heard different things about this phrase, some say that this will not take place until after the new heavens and new earth are displayed, that people will still have things to cry about when they get to heaven, but one thing is for sure and that is that we will not be crying over sins for Paul writes the following to the Romans in Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  John MacArthur writes more about no more tears “What it declares is the absence of anything to be sorry about—no sadness, no disappointment, no pain.  There will be  no tears of misfortune, tears over lost love, tears of remorse, tears of regret, tears over the death of loved ones, or tears for any other reason.”  That surely will be different from how things are now working on planet earth.

            Next John tells us another dramatic difference from the present world, and that is “there will no longer be any death.”  We have touched on this in earlier SD’s as we learned about the Rapture when all the dead believers from the church age along with those alive when this event happens will go directly to heaven with the Lord.  We learned that there are two deaths and that those who are in the second death because they did not trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will be a part of.  We all have been touched by death, death of a love one, or watching death on TV as many wars and terrorists issues are going on at this time, but in heaven there will never, ever be any death.  Paul writes the following in what is known as the resurrection chapter of the Bible 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 54-55 “54  But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?’”  Isaiah wrote in Isa 25:8 “He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.”  MacArthur writes “Both Satan, who had the power of death (Heb. 2:14) and death itself will have been cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 14).”

            Next we learn of another difference, and that is that there will not be any mourning or crying in heaven.  We looked about crying already, but we will touch on this and mourning again.  John MacArthur writes “The grief, sorrow, and distress that produces mourning and its outward manifestation, crying, will not exist in heaven.”  I believe that is a wonderful statement and something to truly look forward to.  This is not pie in the sky religion, but truth from the Word of God, truth that gives all believers hope to live out the troubled times that we live in.

            Another thing that will be absence in heaven is pain, and many people live their lives in great pain.  I remember listening to Johnny Erikson Toda who has lived in a wheel chair since the age of seventeen speak about pain from bed sores that she continually has, yet her hope is to be with her Lord in heaven where there will never, ever be any more pain.  She is a remarkable woman who loves the Lord and serves Him daily.

            When we think about all of these changes that happen we will better understand it when we read what John writes next:  “the first things have passed away.”  This is something that I hold onto for when these first things have passed away that means that there will be no more temptation to sin, no more battles to fight and that is what I look forward to. 

            Next we read in verse five “He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’  This of course in our Lord Jesus Christ who promises to make all things new and John MacArthur writes about this “The new heaven and the new earth will be truly a new creation, and not merely a refurbishing of the present heaven and earth.  In that forever new creation, there will be no entropy, no atrophy, no decay, no decline, and no waste.”

            It seems that perhaps that John may have lost his concentration at this point and so the Lord tells him “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”  If that is the case of him losing his concentration I surely can understand it.  We have been reading about the old heavens and earth passing away, but one thing for sure is that “heaven and earth will pass away” still God’s “words will not pass away (Luke 21:33).”

            We next read some familiar words from our Lord, words that we His last said when in His human body, words He said right before He gave up His spirit “It is finished.”  We don’t know the first words that Jesus spoke after being born but we do know that when He was 12 years old He was in the temple telling His mother that He was about His Father’s business and at the end of His life He said it is finished and now we read that again as He says “It is done.”  John MacArthur writes “Jesus’ words marked the completion of the work of redemption; these words marked the end of redemptive history.  It is the time of which Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 ‘24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28  When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.’”

            Jesus Christ is surely qualified to declare the end of redemptive history and the reason He is qualified is because of what He says last in our verses for today:  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “O Sovereign Lord, thank you for Jesus, who by His willful death and supernatural resurrection has defeated death, sin and Satan, both now and forever.  I confess you, Lord Jesus, as my King, My God, and my faithful Friend and Savior! Amen.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Fight the good fight.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Rahab” (Joshua 2:1-6).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was given permission by Antiochus VII to make the first Jewish coins (about 139 B. C.?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/28/2015 10:46 AM

How the End is Coming (Amos 8:7-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2015 12:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  How the End is Coming

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Amos 8:7-14

            Message of the verses:  “7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 “Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt. 9 “It will come about in that day," declares the Lord GOD, "That I will make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight. 10 “Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.

    “11 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. 12 “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it. 13 “In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst. 14  "As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, ’As your god lives, O Dan,’ And, ’As the way of Beersheba lives,’ They will fall and not rise again.’”

            As we look at these eight verses we see four pictures of judgment that will come upon Israel and as we look at them some of them remind us of what the Lord is going to do during “The Day of the Lord” as described in Revelation 6-19.  The first picture is that of an earthquake as seen in verse eight.  Amos speaks of the land rising like the Nile River which could raise as much as 20 feet over its banks during the flood season.  Next we see darkness that covers the land and perhaps as Dr. Wiersbe writes this could be an eclipse for there was one in 763 BC.  This does remind us of what happened in the judgments on Egypt and also when the Day of the Lord comes as there is darkness as a judgment there too.  In verse ten we see the picture of a funeral as I have highlighted the different parts of that verse that speak of this, things like lamentations, mourning’s and sackcloth being used.  Lastly we see in verses 11-14 the picture of judgment through famine, but in this section we not only see the famine of food, or the lack of food and water, but also the famine of not having the Word of the Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes “What a tragedy to have plenty of ‘religion’ but no Word from the Lord!  That means no light in the darkness, no nourishment for the soul, no direction for making decisions, no protection from the lies of the Enemy.  The people would stagger like drunks from place to place, always hoping to find food and drink for their bodies and spiritual sustenance for their souls.”

            I am totally surprised of how many people in our society are living without the direction of the Word of God, but then again when the morals in our country are at an all time low that should not surprise me at all.

10/28/2015 12:46 AM

           

Supreme Reality of the New Heaven and Earth (Rev. 21:3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2015 2:14 PM

My Worship Time              Focus:  The Supreme Reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Rev. 21:3

            Message of the verse:  “3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”

            As I look at this verse I decided to look up how many times the phrase “loud voice” is found in the book of Revelation and found that it is found twelve times.  I guess that perhaps heaven will be a little loud from time to time gauging from this phrase.  Now I used the Online Bible concordance to find twelve times and as I read the commentary from John MacArthur he states it is found twenty times so I guess that perhaps there may be something different in the translation of that phrase to find it eight more times than I found it.  Now as far as who is speaking this phrase we will have to guess that it is an angel because we do not see who it was who said it as they are not identified.

            When we get to heaven we will find out that the joy and glory of heaven will be that God Almighty lives there.  “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth (Psalm 73:25).”  The angel goes on to say “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men.”  John MacArthur writes “Skene (tabernacle) can also mean ‘tent’ or ‘dwelling place.’  God will pitch His tent among His people; no longer will He be far off, distant, transcendent.  No more will His presence be veiled in the human form of Jesus Christ, even in His millennial majesty, or in the cloud and pillar of fire, or inside the Holy of Holies.  The amazing reality that ‘the pure in heart…shall see God’ (Matt. 5:8) will come to pass.  Christ’s prayer, recorded in John 17:24, will be answered:  ‘Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me’ (cf. John 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 4:13-17).  There will be ‘no temple in [heaven], for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple’ (21:22).  Their presence will permeate heaven and will not be confined tone place of manifestation.” 

            It seems that the angel cannot contain himself as he goes on to say even more about God dwelling with men:  “and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”

            In heaven we as believers will enjoy fellowship with the Lord and that is kind of hard to think about because of the sinfulness of man even after the new birth.  It seems like we will need to take a long shower, but what will happen is that we will receive a new glorified body, the kind that our Lord has and the sin nature will then be gone forever.  John MacArthur quotes Puritan Richard Baxter from his book The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, a book from the seventeenth-century who writes:  “Doubtless as God advanceth our senses, and enlargeth our capacity, so will He advance the happiness of those sense and fill up with himself all that capacity….We shall then have light without a candle, and perpetual day without the sun….We shall then have enlightened understanding without Scripture, and be governed without a written law; for the Lord will perfect his law in our hearts, and we shall be all perfectly taught of God.  We shall have joy, which we drew not from the promises, nor fetched home by faith or hope.  We shall have communion without sacraments, without this fruit of the vine, when Christ shall drink it new with us in his Father’s kingdom and refresh us with the comforting wine of immediate enjoyment.  To have necessities, but no supply, is the case of them in hell.  To have necessity supplied by means of the creatures, is the case of us on earth.  To have necessity supplied immediately from God, is the case of the saints in heaven.  To have no necessity at all, is the prerogative of God himself.”

            The next thing believers will be able to see God as He is as John wrote in 1 John 3:2:  “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”  Seeing God as John speaks of is impossible for human beings for if we saw God as a human we would die because of His glory, something He had to hide from Moses who wanted to see His glory.  MacArthur adds “Even the saints in heavenly glory will not be able to comprehend all the infinite majesty of God’s wondrous being.  But they will see all that glorified beings are able to comprehend.  Is it any wonder that Paul, thinking of the glory of heaven, had ‘the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better’ (Phil. 1:23).”

            Thirdly as believers we will worship God.  Now as we have gone through the book of Revelation and seen some glimpses of heaven we got to see how the angels and others who were there worshiping God.  Remember in chapters four and five along with chapters seven and also nineteen we saw this. 

            Fourthly we as believers will be able to serve God and this actually comes from 22:3 “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him.” 

            Finally, and John MacArthur writes “most astounding of all, the Lord will serve believers.  Jesus told a parable reflecting that truth in Luke 12:35-40:

            ‘35 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36 “Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. 37  "Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 “Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.’’

            “Jesus pictures Himself as a wealthy nobleman, who returns to His estate after a long trip.  Finding that his servants ministered faithfully in His absence, He rewards them by taking the role of a servant and preparing a feast for them.  So will it be for believers in heaven, forever to be served a heavenly feast of joy by their Lord.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Looking at the five things that I as a believer will be able to do in heaven causes me to be so thankful that the Lord has saved me to be a part of what He has planned in the future.         

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to prepare my heart, soul, and mind in preparation for what will happen in heaven.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Capernaum” (John 4:46).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who protected the spies that Joshua sent to Jericho?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/27/2015 3:02 PM

 

Why the End is Coming (Amos 8:4-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2015 9:35 PM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  Why the End is Coming

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Amos 8:4-6

            Message of the verses:  “4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5  saying, "When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the Sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 6  So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?"”

            I suppose that this is a good question to ask that is why is the end coming for the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  As we look at these verses we can see in verse four that there is a good reason for God to be angry with Israel for in His Law He states that people were to take care of the poorer people and not to take advantage of them, which is what the rulers were doing.  I mentioned that Israel was not keeping the Law and so let us look at the Ten Commandments remembering that the first five had to do with or relationship with God and the second five have to do with or relationship with others, and we will find out that Israel pretty much broke all of them.  “1 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3  "You shall have no other gods before Me. 4  "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7  "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. 8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9  "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10  but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11  "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

    “12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 13 “You shall not murder. 14 “You shall not commit adultery. 15 “You shall not steal. 16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor."”

            Other things that Amos tells them in our verses today has to do with their business practices, and they were not right according to what the Lord had set up for them. They set up their practices to rob those that they were doing business with.  We read in Lev. 19:35-36 “35 ’You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. 36 ’You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt.”  We can see that Amos is accusing them of not following these laws that the Lord gave to them.

            Next we see that they were not following the laws that had to do with the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a day in which they were suppose to not work, and to take time to worship the Lord.  Now when we get to the NT time of Jesus we see that the Pharisees were going the other way something Jesus had to speak to them about. 

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes “These evil vendors would not only alter their weights and measures and inflate their prices, but they would also cheapen their products by mixing the sweepings of the threshing floor with the grain.  You didn’t get pure grain; you got the chaff as well.  ‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil’ (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV).”

10/26/2015 9:55 PM