SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/13/2016 9:43 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Gentiles: God’s gracious forgiveness
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zephaniah 3:9-10
Message of the verses: “9 “For then I will give to the peoples
purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him
shoulder to shoulder. 10 “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My
dispersed ones, Will bring My offerings.”
In our
studies of both the Old Testament and also the New Testament we have learned
truths that have not been practiced, or were practiced throughout parts of the
Old Testament. What I am speaking of
stems from when the Lord first called Abraham in Genesis 122:1-3 which states “1
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your
relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And
I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the
one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."” Notice the highlighted part of verse three
and you will see that Abraham would be a blessing to the whole world. This did happen just as God said it would
happen, however as we study the Old Testament we have seen that the Jewish
people did not want much, if anything at all to do with the Gentiles and this
was not the purpose for the Lord to bring Israel into existence. We have just studied the 4th
chapter of the book of John and saw the great prejudice that the Jews had
against the Samaritans and also the other way too. In the New Testament after the church had
begun there was also great problems that the believing Jews had with the Gentiles,
but none of this was what God truly planned to happen. As mentioned Abraham has blessed all the
families of the earth by having the Messiah born through his loins, and also
the Jews have written the Bible for us so we can understand how we can come to
know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “What blessings does God promise for the Gentiles in the last days? First, He promises that the Gentiles shall be
converted (Zeph. 3:9). Instead of
calling on their false gods, the Gentiles will call upon the true and living
God and have their lips purified. Since
what we say with our lips comes from the heart (Matt. 12:34-35), cleansed lips
indicate forgiven sin and a cleansed heart (Isa. 6:1-8).”
We will
continue to look at what blessings the Gentiles will have in the last days in
our next Spiritual Diary.
3/13/2016 9:58 PM
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