SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2016 8:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Problem
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 9:1
Message of the verses: “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from
birth.”
As we look
at this verse we cannot be sure if this incident happened right after the
events of chapter eight or if they occurred later. Although the exact location of this event is
not given it probably happened near the temple, and diffidently in the city of
Jerusalem for Jesus tells this man later on in verse seven to go and wash in
the pool of Siloam. More evidence that
it happened near the temple is that many beggars would come there to beg since
people came to the temple to give their offerings and people were more likely
to give money to the poor as they went into the temple area. There is a good example of a similar thing
happening in the third chapter of the book of Acts that we will quote
here: “1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at
the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. 2 And a man who had been lame from his
mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at
the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. 3 When he
saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive
alms. 4 But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, "Look
at us!" 5 And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive
something from them. 6 But Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold,
but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazarene-walk!" 7 And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and
immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8 With a leap he stood
upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and
leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising
God; 10 and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at
the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder
and amazement at what had happened to him (Acts 3:1-10).” There are similar things that occur in this
miracle in Acts with the one Jesus performed in John chapter nine. We mentioned that we feel that it happened in
the temple area, and as we continue to look at this miracle in John’s gospel we
will see that both men were born with the problem that they had. When we look at a few of the miracles in the
book of Acts done by Jesus’ disciples we do see similar things happen that
Jesus did while on earth and we can conclude from that that His disciples saw
Jesus doing these things and even though Jesus was not physically with them His
Spirit was with them.
We know that
blindness occurred more in the OT than it does in our modern day and the
following is a list of verse that show Christ healing the blind: (Matthew 9:27-28; 11:5; 12:22; 15:30-31;
20:30-34; 21:14; Mark 8:22-25; Luke 4:18).
Physical blindness is a picture of spiritual blindness for we will see
later on in this chapter that this blind man will say “once I was blind, but
now I see,” and as we proceed through this chapter we will see that just as
Jesus cured his physical blindness He also cured his spiritual blindness.
MacArthur
concludes this short section by writing “The text does not say how the
disciples knew that this man had been ‘blind from birth’ (v.2). Presumably he was a familiar enough figure
that his background was common knowledge.
Or the blind man himself may have told them. In either case, this is the only recorded
instance in the gospels of Jesus healing someone who is said to have had a
congenital condition.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I
think about the phrase “as He passed by,” that is the beginning phrase of
chapter nine and at first one may think this was accidental that this happened,
but then we read on to find out that it was not accidental at all for we know
that there are no accidents when it comes to the God. All of the steps of Jesus were in the plan of
God and I have to believe that once I get to heaven and can review my life that
I will see that it will be just as the song states “Jesus led me all the way.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: As I see things in our
country spiritually falling at a rapid pace I must trust the Lord who I know
has this all planned out even though I don’t like it and am angry over it I
still have to trust the Lord who promises to work all things out for my good
and for His glory.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:1-2): “1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may
increase? 2. May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it?”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Jesus” (Luke 21:15).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where were the disciples first called Christians?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/6/2016 8:43 AM
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