SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2016 11:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to John 7:1-13
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 7:1-13
Message of the verses: “1 After these things Jesus was walking in
Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to
kill Him. 2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3
Therefore His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that
Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 “For no one does
anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these
things, show Yourself to the world." 5 For not even His brothers were
believing in Him. 6 So Jesus said to them, "My time is not yet here, but
your time is always opportune. 7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me
because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. 8 “Go up to the feast
yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully
come." 9 Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. 10 But when His brothers had gone up to the
feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. 11 So
the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, "Where is
He?" 12 There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some
were saying, "He is a good man"; others were saying, "No, on the
contrary, He leads the people astray." 13 Yet no one was speaking openly
of Him for fear of the Jews.”
A couple of
things that I want to say before we begin the introduction to these verses, and
the first is that it has been a long time since I missed doing my SD’s, but
yesterday do to some circumstances I did miss them. The second and this does have something to do
with these verses in a way that I hope will be made clear as we look at them
and that is that my wife was reading a political piece about what is going on
in our country with the election and why things are going the way they are
going on and why things are so corrupt in this nation and the article does make
sense but I am not writing a political blog, a spiritual blog is what I am
writing but when you look back on human history you will see that all history
is controlled by God, but perhaps we will not understand all of it until the
end when perhaps we will look back and be able to understand how God’s plan
worked out. John MacArthur writes “From
the unbelieving world’s point of view, history is an unexplained succession of
seemingly random events—a meaningless chain of causes and effects. In contrast, the Bible portrays history as
the very opposite, the purposeful and perfect outworking of God’s eternal
plan. As the ‘ruler over all the
kingdoms of the nations’ (2 Chron. 20:6; cf. 1 Chron. 29:11-12; Ps. 47:2, 7)
and the ‘blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords’ (1
Tim. 6:15; cf. Rev. 17:14; 19:16), God is in complete control of every
situation, working all things together for His glory and the good of His
children (cf. Rom. 8:28; 11:36).”
I have to
say that I truly believe that as far as who will become our next President is a
concern to me, but I do not stay up nights and worry about it for it is God who
will put the next person He wants in the White House. In his introductory commentary John MacArthur
writes about how Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by God for stating that it was him
who built Babylon and how great it was, and the next thing that happened was he
became like an animal for seven years and after that he learned that the Most
High God was the Ruler. He also mentions
Sennacherib who also bragged about how great his empire was before the time of
Babylon, and asked the questions to the leaders of Israel what other nation’s
gods had stopped him, but Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed and the Angel of the Lord
killed 185,000 Assyrian troops and next we hear that Sennacherib was worshiping
in the temple of his god and his sons killed him. I guess his god did not protect him too good.
John
MacArthur then writes “God’s sovereignty and providence extend beyond nations
and governments to include all people and events. Everything happens according to His divine
schedule. At the pinnacle of that
schedule are the birth, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ—history’s
most significant events.” He then goes
on to write about how the Bible talks about Christ’s birth, death, and
resurrection along with His return are in God’s timetable.
As we look
at the gospels we see that Jesus was always doing the things that were on the
Father’s timetable and in chapter seven we will see this illustrated. MacArthur writes “Chapters 7 and 8 usher in a
new, more volatile section of John’s gospel, as the smoldering resentment that
Jesus encountered in chapters 1-6 finally burst into a blazing inferno of
hatred. Chapter 8 even ends with an
unsuccessful attempt on Jesus’ life: ‘Therefore
they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the
temple’ (8:59). The hatred Jesus faced
would reach its peak in 11:45-57, when the Jewish authorities made their final
decision to kill Him—a plot that culminated in His crucifixion.
“As chapter
7 opens, Jesus was still in Galilee, but preparing to return to Jerusalem at
the time predetermined in God’s plan.
The section obviously divides into two elements: the wrong time and the right time.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I guess that not doing my SD yesterday was in
the plan of God and even when I started it this morning I became hungry and got
up to fix some food, and that is when I listened to my wife read the email
about the political situation in our country, and then when I came back I begin
to read from MacArthur’s commentary.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord’s timing as He
is in complete control of all things and will work them out for His glory and
my good as I am one of His children.
Answer to our last Bible question: “John” (John 20:31).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘"Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor
come all the way here to draw’?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/25/2016 12:15 PM
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