SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2016 12:25 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to John 7:37-52
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 7:37-52
Message of the verses: “37 Now on the last day, the great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him
come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From
his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’" 39 But this He
spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the
Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. 40 Some of the
people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, "This
certainly is the Prophet." 41 Others were saying, "This is the
Christ." Still others were saying, "Surely the Christ is not going to
come from Galilee, is He? 42 “Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes
from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David
was?" 43 So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. 44 Some of
them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
“45 The officers
then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, "Why
did you not bring Him?" 46 The officers answered, "Never has a man spoken the way
this man speaks." 47 The Pharisees then answered them, "You
have not also been led astray, have you? 48 “No one of the rulers or Pharisees
has believed in Him, has he? 49 “But this crowd which does not know the Law is
accursed." 50 Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them)
*said to them, 51 “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him
and knows what he is doing, does it?" 52 They answered him, "You are
not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of
Galilee."”
I have
listened to two messages or at least the introduction to one and the entire second
one on these verses and also read from John MacArthur’s commentary’s
introduction and got the same message.
Now I don’t usually talk about a lot of personal things on my Spiritual
Diaries which go onto my blogs but after listening to the introduction to this
section of Scripture and knowing that I
was asked to give a brief testimony at the funeral of my uncle I was awakened
early in the morning before I was to go to the funeral and this introduction
that John MacArthur was on my mind. I
had not intended to say anything about the gospel at the funeral as I had not
heard whether or not my uncle had said that he received Jesus Christ as his
Savior, but the Lord was speaking to my heart in those early morning hours and
I was sure that was what He wanted me to do.
My sister who lives a long way from us and was not able to attend the
funeral wrote a letter to my uncle and had my sister who lives near read it to
my uncle. The gospel presentation was in
it and so when I got to the funeral I asked how my uncle responded to the
letter to which she said that he had told her that he had accepted the Lord
earlier in his life. I can say that speaking
in front of people is not something I do a lot of, but have done it in the past
teaching Sunday school classes and other things, but not for a while. The enemy of my soul was using some things
that made me realize that he did not want me to say what I was going to say,
but that only reinforced me to believe that the Lord wanted me to say
them. Now as we begin looking at the
introduction to this last section of the seventh chapter of John’s gospel we
see Jesus giving an invitation to those who were in the temple listening to
Him. He says “If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said,
’From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’"” Literally in the Greek He was yelling,
speaking loudly these words to the crowd. Now the question that we have here is
the same question that Pilate asked when Jesus was on trial before him which is
“What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Well as we get back to what I was to say as
far as memories of my uncle I said at the end that the assurance that he gave
in response to the letter that my sister wrote to him was the best memory that
I could have from my uncle for this being true I know that someday I will see
him again, however the question that I asked to those in attendance was the
same question that Pilate asked “What shall I do with Jesus who is called
Christ?” Everyone has to answer this
question for the answer to that question is going to determine whether or not
you end up in heaven or hell.
Now as we
go through these last verses in the seventh chapter of John’s gospel we will be
looking at first of all the invitation, and then the convinced, the contrary,
the confused, and the contemplative for as John MacArthur writes “Those
responses encompass the universal pattern of reactions to Jesus Christ from the
first century to the present day.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As we have been studying the boldness of our
Savior in this seventh chapter of John’s gospel and also have been studying the
timing of His life during His time on earth it has given me more of a boldness
to tell others of the way to be saved, and even though the enemy was causing me
trouble at the funeral God’s Spirit gave me peace to be bold in talking to the audience
about salvation.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To trust the Lord to get to
know Him better, and to love Him more, praying that this process will move as
fast as the Lord desires it to.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question “Jonah” (Jonah 1:3).
Today’s Bible question:
“Historically, the book of Ruth is connected with what other book?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/12/2016 12:58 PM
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