SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/5/2016 8:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Abandonment by the People
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:34
Message of the verses: “34 The crowd then answered Him, "We
have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You
say, ’The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?’”
I think
that I can imagine how I would feel if I were there listening to Jesus,
thinking and hoping that He was the Messiah that would defeat my physical
enemies and allow me to live freely in His kingdom, and then all of a sudden I
would hear Him say that He was going to die, die I thought He would remain
forever and now He says He is going to die.
Confusion would then surely set in along with great disappointment. Now things like that happen to all of us
today as we are hoping in something and it does not come to pass so we feel
great disappointment for a while and then perhaps we learn that what I was
hoping for was probably not the best thing to happen to me after all. The disciples of Jesus Christ would learn
this very difficult lesson, and even after Jesus was raised from the dead they
thought that He then was going to bring in the kingdom, and so were
disappointed again. Paul writes to Titus
that the hope of the believer is the return of Jesus Christ and so especially
as we look at the world situation today this hope even intensifies in believers
that Jesus will come again to take us out of the mess that surrounds us. I felt a bit of that disappointment earlier
this week as I think that it is possible that the Lord will return on the
Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah and I think with good reason as I have learned
that on many years during this holiday something bad has happened to the Jews
and the rapture of the church is going to be something bad for the nation of
Israel as it will soon after than usher in the tribulation period. I have read that both of the Jewish temples
were destroyed on this holiday along with the Jews being kicked out of Spain in
1492 on this holiday, and there were other examples that I honestly do not
remember at this time. God is a God of
order and this makes sense to me that the rapture could happen on this day, but
of course it may not, and so the best thing for me to do is to continue to
study His Word, and life my life like the Lord will return today.
We have
written about the term “Son of Man” that it is a Messianic title and the words
lifted up refer to crucifixion and so by knowing these terms it helps us better
understand this verse. Daniel 7:13 says “"I
kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One
like a Son of Man
was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.” There are other examples of this in the OT
like Isaiah 9:7 “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne
of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice
and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts
will accomplish this.” We get from this verse that the Messiah will have no end
in His government, so it would be natural for the people to think they way they
were thinking. When we look at the Old
Testament prophecies of the Messiah, knowing what we know now that the Messiah
would come the first time as a humble Servant to die for our sins, and then the
second time He would come to destroy our enemies and set up His kingdom, but as
we now understand this it is like looking a long way off at a high mountain
peak only to get closer to see that there are two mountain peaks with a valley
in between them. That valley is the
church age, and we are getting closer to the second mountain peak every day.
John
MacArthur concludes this fourth chapter in his commentary on verses 27-34 with
these words, “Thus, as the writer of Hebrews declares, ‘It was fitting for Him,
for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons
to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.’ (Heb. 2:10).
Because Jesus Christ endured the death that God required for sin,
believers will enjoy the everlasting glory of eternal life.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There will be many disappointments that come
my way in this life, but I must remember that the Lord is in control of
everything that happens in my life and will work all things out for His glory
and my good.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to trust the Lord as
He leads me all the way.
Memory verse for the week (Romans 6:13): “13 and do not go
on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of
unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Grace” (2 Timothy 2:1).
Today’s Bible question:
“When was the prophecy made ‘this same Jesus…shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven?”
Answer in our next SD
10/5/2016 9:00 AM
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