A Worthy Walk (Col. 1:10a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/31/2016 12:38 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  A Worthy Walk

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:10a

            Message of the verses:   9  For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously;”

            We spent four days looking at verse nine and now we move into the next main point which John MacArthur entitles “The Results” and in our SD for today we will look at the first of five purposes that are fulfilled in the spiritual knowledge we have been studying for those last four days.  The first purpose is a “worthy walk.”

            The following is what is in my Greek/English dictionary on my Online Bible program on the word walk1) to walk:  “peripateo per-ee-pat-eh’-o” Used 93 times as the word “walk” in the KJV of the Bible.

1a) to make one’s way, progress; to make due use of opportunities

1b) Hebrew for, to live

1b1) to regulate one’s life

1b2) to conduct one’s self

1b3) to pass one’s life

            As one has their mind controlled by wisdom and knowledge one will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.  I know that this is a difficult thing to do as a believer’s life is filled with conflict, conflict in doing right or wrong, but it is possible if we continue to study God’s Word, rely on the Holy Spirit, and pray a lot.  John MacArthur writes “Although it seems impossible that anyone could walk worthy of the Lord, that is the teaching of Scripture.  Paul desired the Thessalonians to ‘walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory’ (1 Thess. 2:12).  He exhorted the Ephesians to ‘walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called’ (Eph. 4:1).  He told the Philippians to ‘conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ’ (Phil. 1:27).”  Looks like Paul had much to say about our walk with the Lord, seeing how important that is to a believer.

            Do you wonder if God has left us on our own to walk in this worthy manner?  He did not just save us and then tell us that we are on our own:  “"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20).”  As mentioned we have the Holy Spirit living in us to aid us in our walk with the Lord as Jesus promised that He would send Him to believers.  “16  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Eph. 3:16-17a).” 

            Martin Luther knew that we as believers, could not walk worthy on our own strength as he penned the following verse in “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”:

Did we in our strength confide

Our striving would be losing,

Were not the right Man on our side,

The Man of God’s own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He.

Lord Sabaoth His name,

From age to age the same.

And He must win the battle.”

            We must be thankful that the Lord did not leave us on our own to walk worthy in our lives for Him.  As I think about the aid that we receive in our walk so that we can produce fruit in our lives for the cause of Christ, something we will look at in our next SD, I think of Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Notice that God is the One who prepares us to produce these good works, and the reason is that first of all we cannot do it on our own, as what we would produce would not be worthy, and would not give glory to the Lord.  I have said in earlier SD’s that I picture my life as a hose that the Holy Spirit uses to flow His water through me to produce in me what God desires for me to do.  May God always receive the glory from what He does through me.

12/31/2016 1:06 PM

PT-2 "The World Hates Believers because it does not know God (John 15:21-25)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/31/2016 11:40 AM

My Worship Time        Focus: PT-2 The World Hates Believers Because it does not Know God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 15:21-25

            Message of the verses:  “21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22  "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24  "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ’THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’”

            I mentioned in our last SD that this section will take some time to get through, but I really don’t have a problem with that as it is my desire not to rush through our study of John, but to stop and to understand the things that John writes so we can better serve the Lord.

            We will not look at verse twenty-two in this SD.  As we look at verse 22 we have to stop and think about all the people who had heard Jesus speak, and had seen Him do miracles like raising the dead after being dead for four days.  Think about that for a moment as it was different when He did these miracles and spoke His Words to the people than it is today for people today can say that they don’t believe that He did these miracles of even spoke the words that He spoke, but not then.  The people who saw these things have to answer for not believing in Jesus Christ, I think more than those today who can read about it, but did not see it.  Jesus told Thomas later on in this book when Thomas refused to believe what the disciples told him about what they saw about Jesus being raised from the dead “John 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

            I want to quote from John MacArthur concerning the use of the word sin in verse 22.  “The Lord was not speaking here of sin in general, but rather of the specific sin of willfully rejecting Him in the face of full revelation.  That is the most serious sin of all, because it is the only one that is not forgivable.  Having witnessed firsthand Jesus’ miracles and heard His teaching—both of which testified unmistakably to His deity (cf. Matt. 7:28-29; John 7:46; 10:25, 37-38; 14:10-11)—the Pharisees’ conclusion was, ‘This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons’ (Matt. 23:24).  Because they attributed His miraculous works to Satan instead of the Holy Spirit, Jesus pronounced their sin to be unforgivable:

 ‘31  "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32  "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.’

            “While that specific sin can no longer be committed, since Jesus is not physically present on earth, the principle remains the same.  Total rejection in the face of total revelation is unforgivable, since there is nothing left for God to show such people.  In the sobering words of the writer of Hebrews,

            ‘4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame (Heb. 6:4-6).”

            I have to say at this point that this section from is a very difficult passage to understand and if my memory is correct I think that John MacArthur has a different view on these verses than Warren Wiersbe and also my former pastor, Pastor Jacobs.  I looked back at what I wrote on this passage from February, 27, 2003 and thought that it may be good to quote it here, but before I do that I have to say that the point that MacArthur is making here is the line that I highlighted in his quote, that God has nothing more to show people than His Son and what He did.

            “This is a very difficult passage to understand as evidenced by the many different opinions of the people that I have read who have their own ideas about the meaning of it.  My own Pastor Jacobs seemed to put thing in the proper prospective for me to understand what the writer is speaking about.  Pastor Jacobs believes that this was a very poor place to have a chapter break as the things that were written about in chapter five seem to flow with these things written in the first part of chapter six.  The writer has been warning these people that he is writing to about the fact that they are not growing in the Lord as they should be and that they are wasting time in their walk with the Lord because of this lack of growth.  He could have given them deeper spiritual truths if they we not stuck in immaturity needing again predigested milk as if they were babes in the Lord.

            “I believe that the writer is trying to get the attention of these people and thus the strong warning he gives here to them.  It seems clear to me that if they would not have been in the “mess” that the writer would not have had to write to them about this and so others in the Church age would have missed out on this warning that God has for them.  God makes no mistakes and uses all of these problems to help those along the way who need to read warnings like this one.

            “I believe that the writer is saying to this group of people that they need to stop and take inventory of their spiritual life and make sure that they indeed are true believers, and it could be that some of them were not believers; however I do not believe that he was writing to that group in particular.  The part in verse six that speaks of if they fall away they cannot be renewed again could mean that while they are in that condition that they could not be renewed, but once they repent then they can be renewed.  There are far to many other passages that say different.  I think of 1John 1:9 which is speaking to believers confessing their sins and that God is faithful and just to forgive those sins.  However if a person is just “playing Christian” and continues to sin there will come a time like in the life of Pharaoh that God will eventually harden his heart.  If a believer continues to sin and does not repent God may take him home “early.”  Paul speaks of this in 1Corinthians eleven on the passage about the Lords Table.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Lord has, through His Holy Spirit and His Word who Jesus Christ is and that He died for me and not lives to make intercession for me in heaven, and that He will one day, I hope soon, will return to take me to be with Him forever.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I will have contentment in the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Depart from me:  For I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Luke 5:8).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Behold, the half was not told me:  thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard’?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/31/2016 12:25 PM

 

PT-4 "The Petition" (Col. 1:9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2016 10:31 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  PT-4 “The Petition”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:9

            Message of the verses:  “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

            It is my hope that I will finish my thoughts on this verse in this SD, and I want to pretty much concentrate on the highlighted portion of this verse.  Now we have been talking about “knowledge” and have found out that Biblically speaking that this has a lot to do with the different doctrines that are found in the Scriptures.  We also talked about how in Paul’s letters that he would spend the first part of his letters talking about doctrine and then in the later part of them he would talk about how we are to act on the basis of the doctrine that he has written about.  As a born again believer it is our responsibility to know doctrines as we are to “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).”  Once we learn about the different doctrines that are found in the Scripture we are to remember them so that when we go through life that we can apply them in our lives and that constitutes wisdom, putting our knowledge in to action.

            There is more of the quote from John MacArthur’s commentary that I wish to quote that will help us learn more on about what is packed into the verse.  “Paul prays that the knowledge we have would be of His will.  God’s will is not a secret; He has revealed it in His Word.  For example, it is God’s desire that a person be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9).  Once a person is saved, it is God’s will that he be filled with the Spirit.  Ephesians 5:17-18 says, ‘Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.’  Furthermore, sanctification is God’s will:  ‘For this is the will of God your sanctification’ (1 Thess. 4:3).  God also wills that the believer be submissive to the government.  Peter writes, ‘Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution…for such is the will of God’ (1 Pet. 2:13, 15). Suffering may also be God’s will for the believer.  ‘Let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right’ (1 Pet. 4:19).  Finally, giving thanks is God’s will.  Paul writes, ‘In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1 Thess. 5:18).”

            Let’s move to look at wisdom as MacArthur writes:  “Though the terms ‘wisdom’ and ‘understanding’ may be synonymous, Sophia (‘wisdom’) may be broader of the two terms.  It refers to the ability to collect and concisely organize principles from Scripture.  Sunesis (‘understanding’) could be a more specialized term, referring to the application of those principles to everyday life.  Both Sophia and sunesis are spiritual; they deal in the nonphyaical realm and have the Holy Spirit as their source.

            “Believing, submissive Bible study leads to the knowledge of God’s will.  A mind saturated with such knowledge will also be able to comprehend general principles of godly behavior.  With that wisdom will come understanding of how to apply those principles to the situations of life.  That progression will inevitably result in godly character and practice.”

 

PT-1 "The World Hates Believers Because it Does not Know God." (John 15:21-25)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2016 11:11 AM

My Worship Time  Focus:  PT-1 “The World Hates Believers Because it Does Not Know God”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 15:21-25

            Message of the verses:  “21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22  "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24  "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ’THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’”

            To begin with this section will take us a few days to get through, so we will get started on it today to see how far we can get.

            We can begin by looking at the word things which speaks of what is going to happen to Christ and to His followers, and they are not good at all.  Perhaps people do things to the followers of Jesus Christ because they hate Him more than they hate His followers; they do it for His “name sake.”  Let us look at one of the Beatitudes Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:11 “"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”  I want to point out something that caught my attention as I was listening to John chapter fifteen this morning where Jesus spoke about the love that the Father had for Him, and the fact that He has the same kind of love for His followers.  The thought that came to my mind was that hours after this was spoken by Jesus He was hanging on the cross having His Father’s wrath poured out on Him for our sins.  Jesus says the following in what we call “The Olivet Discourse:” “"Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.”  Now I believe that this prophecy speaks mainly of the tribulation period, but these things have been happening to His followers since His resurrection.  Again we look at the fact that Jesus loves us like His Father loves Him.  My conclusion is that I absolutely believe that Jesus loves me as His Father loves Him, but I confess that I don’t know all about this kind of love, but I do believe that even when a believer dies for the cause of Christ that they are surely not out of the love that Christ has for them, for after all they will immediately be with the Lord.  Let us look at another verse the Jesus spoke from heaven to Ananias about what would happen to Saul of Tarsus:  “for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake."”  Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:14 “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”  Now as we look throughout the New Testament we will see that suffering for the cause of Christ is a major theme.

            Now as we move to the end of verse twenty-one we see “they do not know the One who sent Me.”  There are many religions in this world that do not believe in the trinity, among them are the Jewish religion, and the Muslim religion as they believe in god, but do not believe in Jesus Christ as being God come in the Flesh with the same attributes that God the Father and the Holy Spirit have.  With this said we can understand what Jesus said “they do not know the One who sent Me.  They think that they know the One who Sent Jesus and they also think that because of their hatred of Jesus Christ that they are actually worshiping God.  Let us look at a couple of verses that will help us out:  “Romans 8:7a ‘the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.’”  Verse eight says “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in [their] trespasses and sins” Colossians 1:21 says that they are “alienated and hostile in mind,” and are “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18).  What we are really saying is that all people are sinners by nature as all of us are born into a state of rebellion against God.  Until or if a person becomes born-again they do what Romans 1:18 says “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”  It is easy to see why people who do not know the Lord, who have not been born from above can think the way they think, that they do not know about the One who sent Christ to earth to die for them.  It takes the miracle of the new birth to be able to understand this truth.    We will begin looking at verse 22 in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust things that are true in the Word of God even though I don’t fully understand all of it at this time remembering that “it will be worth it all when we see Jesus.”

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:10):  “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Seven” (Luke 20:29-31).”

Today’s Bible question:  “What statement did Peter make to Jesus after he caught the fish?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/30/2016 11:52 AM

PT-3 "The Petition" (Col. 1:9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2016 6:35 PM

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Focus:  PT-3 “The Petition”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 1:9

            Message of the verses:  “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

            I have to say as we begin this 3^rd SD on this subject that there is a lot of things on it.  I promised to do a rather long quote from John MacArthur’s commentary on this SD, on knowledge and so that will be the bulk of this SD.

            The denial of absolutes, particularly in the area of morals, characterizes our society.  Without a source of authority to provide absolute standards, virtually anything goes.  What moral values are enforced are often arbitrary, based merely on human option.  But for the Christian the authoritative Word of God provides absolutes.  Those absolutes are the basis upon which all truth about God and all standards of faith and conduct are set.  Because knowledge of those absolutes is the basis for correct behavior and ultimate judgment, it is crucial that Christians know God’s revealed truth.  Ignorance is not bliss, nor can anyone please God on the basis of principles they do not know.

            “So the Bible views knowledge on doctrinal absolutes as foundational to godly living.  Most of Paul’s letters begin by laying a doctrinal foundation before giving practical exhortations.  For example, Paul gives eleven chapters of doctrine in Romans before turning to godly living in chapter 12.  Galatians 1-4 are doctrinal, chapters 5 and 6 practical.  The first three chapters of Ephesians detail our position in Christ, while the last three urge us to live accordingly.  Philippians and Colossians also conform to the same pattern of doctrine preceding practical exhortations.  Godly living is directly linked in Scripture to knowledge of doctrinal truth.

            “The Bible warns of the danger of a lack of knowledge.  Proverbs 19:2 says that ‘it is not good for a person to be without knowledge.’  It was for lack of knowledge that Israel went into exile (Isa. 5:13), and God says in Hosea 4:6, ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.’  First Corinthians 14:20 warns us, ‘Do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature.’  Ephesians 4:13-14 tells us that lack of knowledge produces ‘children tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.’  Verse 18 describes unbelievers as ‘being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.’

            “How does a person obtain knowledge?  First, he must desire it.  In John 7:17 Jesus says, ‘If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.  That thought is echoed in Hosea 6:3, ‘Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.’  Second, he must depend on the Holy Spirit.  It is through Him that we know the things God has revealed to us (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-12).  Finally, he must study the Scriptures, for they make the believer ‘adequate, equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  Perhaps the most graphic text related to the pursuit of divine truth is Job 28.”

            We will look at more of this quote in our next SD.

12/29/2016 7:14 PM

The World Hates Believers Because it Hates Jesus (John 15:8b, 20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2016

My Worship Time                              Focus:  The World Hates Believers Because it Hates Jesus

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 15:8b, 20

            Message of the verses:  “you know that it has hated Me before it hated you…Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word they will keep yours also.”

            There was a time in our country when there was not problem in mentioning the word Jesus for our country was mostly in agreement that God created the world and that Jesus was God’s only Son who came to earth to purchase mankind from sin.  This is not the case today as the gospel message and the Lord Jesus have been kicked out of our schools and also out of our government, and in many cases even out of the liberal churches.  So as this country and this world move rapidly toward the end times we can see that the world hates Jesus as much as He was hated when He was crucified, and the world hates His true followers.  I can’t help but to think of what happened after the 9-11 attacks in our country, and shortly after that there was a church service in a national church in Washington DC and one of the songs that was sung was “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”  The problem was that they left out the second verse, as it is the only verse with the name Jesus in it.  Even after all of the people were killed they could not worship the Lord by singing that second verse. 

“Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.”

 

            The hatred of Jesus has been seen as we work our way through the gospel of John and it will culminate in His crucifixion which will take place soon after His prayer in John chapter 17, only a short time from when He is talking to His disciples. 

            The quote that Jesus gives “A slave is not greater than his master” is from John 13:16 “"Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.”  MacArthur writes “There, however, the Lord was speaking of humblest service of a slave.  He, ‘the Lord and the Teacher’ (v. 14) had humbly washed their feet, and the disciples were to follow His example (v. 15).  Here Christ’s point was that the disciples should expect to follow His example of suffering (cf. 1 Peter 2:21); they had no right to expect better treatment from the world than He had received.  ‘If they persecuted Me,’ Jesus reiterated, ‘they will also persecute you.’  Earlier in His ministry Jesus had told them, ‘A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.  It is enough for the disciple that he became like his teacher and the slave like his master.  If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members off his household?’  (Matt. 10:24-25).  Believers identify with Jesus Christ in the ‘fellowship of His sufferings’ (Phil 3:10; cf. 2 Cor. 1:5; Gal. 6:17; Col. 1:24).”  Now I want to go back to the quote from Matthew 10:24-25 and talk a bit about that as this would actually happen in the 12^th chapter of Matthew when the Pharisees said that Jesus was doing His miracles in the power of Beelzebul which is another name for Satan.  Now as you move to the 13^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel you see that Jesus begins to speak in parables as He says “"Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14  "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; 15  For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ 16  "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.”  That was the purpose of His parables as they were stories that brought out truth and salvation but were hid from those who had gone so far as to say that the devil was the one doing His miracles.  Jesus gave up on them.  I just finished a book by John MacArthur which was on some of the parables that Jesus spoke and it was eye opening to me as to what the parables that he used in the book meant.

            Ok now for some good news from our Lord as He said “If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”  As we have learned in our study of John many would reject the Lord’s teaching and many will reject His disciple’s teaching, and our teaching, but there will be some who receive the truth, get saved and grow in Christ so that they too can spread His word and go through this same process of having many reject, but some will receive it.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am always thrilled when the Lord allows me to lead someone to a saving knowledge of His Son and be saved, knowing that they are one of the few who will going on the narrow road that has led to salvation.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  A praise from me as far as having a computer to continue writing my Spiritual Diaries on and then being able to put them onto my blogs so others can read them.  The problem with my wife’s computer, the one I am using now is that I had to slow down the mouse, some wisdom that I believe came from the Lord and I am thankful for that.

Memory verse for the week (Rom. 6:10) “10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He was put into prison” (Genesis 39:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “In the Sadducees question, how many brothers married the same wife?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/29/2016

PT-2 "The Petition" (Col. 1:9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/28/2016 10:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “The Petition”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Colossians 1:9

            Message of the verse:  “9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

            The word for “filled” in the Greek is Pleroo “to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full” from the Greek/English Dictionary on my Online Bible program.  There are some examples that we can find in Scriptures that help us understand this word better.  “"But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart (John 16:6).”  The disciple’s hearts were filled with sorrow because Jesus was leaving them and going back to the Father.  “They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today’ (John 5:26).”  The crowd’s were filled with fear after Jesus healed the paralytic.  “11 But they themselves were filled with rage, and discussed together what they might do to Jesus (Luke 6:11).”  This speaks of the Pharisees after Jesus healed on the Sabbath day.  We will look at two more “31  And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31).”   “5 The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch (Acts 6:5).”

            Now we will look at the word knowledge as it is a central them in Paul’s writing.  1 Corinthians 1:5 says “that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge.”  John MacArthur writes “Paul wants the Colossians to be totally controlled by knowledge.  Epignosis (knowledge) consists of the normal Greek word for knowledge (gnosis) with an added preposition (epi), which intensifies the meaning.  The knowledge Paul wants the Colossians to have is a deep and through knowledge.”

            I just got an older book written by John MacArthur sometime in the 1990’s that seems to go along with this subject of knowledge:  “Reckless Faith” “When The Church Loses Its Will To Discern.”  Faith today in a lot of cases does not have the correct Object, which of course is Jesus Christ.  Many people go by feelings instead of what is in the Bible and in order to understand the Bible believers must have knowledge something that MacArthur writes about in his commentary on Colossians which I may just copy so all can read it because it is a very important subject for us to understand.  I have to admit that understand knowledge has not been a strong suit for me and so I think we can do that in our next SD for Colossians.  If we don’t have the proper knowledge the things that MacArthur writes about in this book mentioned above can happen to us, and that will not be good for us at all.  Remember that our enemy is always trying to cause us to turn away from the Word of God which will cause us great problems, so we need to stay in the Word of God each and every day depending on the Holy Spirit to teach us the Truth found there.

12/28/2016 11:14 AM

PT-1 "The Petition" (Col. 1:9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/27/2016 8:13 PM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus: PT-1 “The Petition”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Colossians 1:9

            Message of the verses:  “9  For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

            Now we have to go back and look at verse eight “and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit,” and this talks about the favorable report that Paul had received from Epaphras about the Colossian church.  So we see that since Paul got this report that he was praying for the Colossian people.  Perhaps one may think that because this church was doing well that Paul may not want to pray for them, but if they were not doing well that he would then want to pray for them.  The truth is that Paul wanted to continue to pray for them that they would continue to do well as they were growing up in the Lord.  One of my new favorite verses comes from 2 Thessalonians 3:1 where Paul is actually asking that church to pray for him, but as you look at this verse you realize that Paul was complementing them for the good things that they were doing and in the beginning of the book as was his custom he said that he was praying for them “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you.”  One of the things that perhaps we forget to do when we learn that the Lord has answered our prayers is to thank and praise Him for the answered prayer.

            John MacArthur writes the following about unceasing or recurring prayer:  “Such unceasing or recurring prayer (1 Thess. 5:17) demands first of all an attitude of God-consciousness.  That does not mean to be constantly in the act of verbal prayer, but to view everything in life in relation to God.  For example, if we hear of something good that has happened, we respond with immediate praise to God for it because we know He is glorified.  When Paul looked about his world, everything he saw prompted him to prayer in some way.  When he thought of or heard about one of his beloved churches, it moved him toward communion with God.”  I hope this paragraph helps us understand what 1 Thess. 5:17 means, and it goes along with what Dr. Wiersbe had to say about that verse when he wrote that this verse means to a believer that we are to keep the phone off the hook to God so we can talk to Him at a moment’s notice in both prayer and praise.

            Nehemiah is a wonderful example of one who was praying without ceasing for his heart was broken over the fact that the city of Jerusalem and the temple there was in ruins and we are led to believe that he prayed often for that and so when he was sand in the presence of the king the king asked him why he was sad.  Even though this was not looking good Nehemiah had prayed for the Lord to let him go to Jerusalem and this was the answer to his prayers as the king would send him there. “Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven (Neh. 2:4).”

            There is a second aspect of unceasing prayer and that is we have to be consciousness of what is going on in the lives of people around us.  This is a good reason to read the prayer letters of missionaries so we can pray intelligently for them.  Later on Paul would write to them “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving (Col. 4:2).”  He wrote the following to the Ephesians “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Eph. 6:18).”

            MacArthur adds “The two elements of praying without ceasing came together in Paul’s prayer life.  His love for God led him to seek unbroken communion with Him.  His love for people drove him to unceasing prayer on their behalf.  The prayers of Paul recorded in his letters are a precious legacy.  They reveal his heart and are models for us to emulate.  This text records the first of those prayers.”

12/27/2016 8:44 PM

Update on Computer Problems

I think that at least one of our computer problems has been solved so I should be able to keep up with my blog posts.  Thank you Lord.

The World Rejects Those Who Are Not Part of It (John. 15:18a-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/28/2016 8:20 AM

My Worship Time                                Focus:  The World Rejects Those Who Are Not Part of It

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  John 15:18a-19

            Message of the verses:  “If the world hates you…If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

            The first thing we need to do is understand the word “world” and in the Greek it is kosmos.  When I look up this word in my Greek/English dictionary from my Online Bible program there are nine different items showing what this word means.  I will choose just one as it is the one that fits into what we are looking at from this verse:  “6) the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.”  There are other places where John uses this word to reflect on this meaning that we have quoted (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1 John 5:19; cf. Eph. 2:1-3).  Satan is behind this and because he hates God he also hates those who belong to God.  Satan is the one in control of this world system but we must remember that he can only do what God allows him to do and no more, but he can do much to harm those who belong to God and also to the nation of Israel as was seen in the UN decision that was made against Israel this past week.

            When we go back to the book of Genesis and look at the reason that Cain killed Able we can understand why it is that the world hates believers.  Cain brought the right sacrifice to the Lord as it is believed that the Lord had told both brothers what to bring, yet Able brought what he wanted to bring to please God which did not please God because God told him to bring and animal sacrifice.  Able could not stand that Cain was doing right and as the world looks at believes who are living a righteous life they do not like it and so there are many who desire to destroy believers for this reason.  This is the reason that the Jews killed Christ because the Pharisees and also the other leading groups hated Christ because He was perfect and would not do the things that they wanted Him to do, things like keeping the Law in the way that they tried to do, but was against the true Law of God, and so they hated Him.  Let us look at 1 John 3:2 “2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”  Now as we go back to our story of the first murder looking at the verse in 1 John 3:2 it helps us understand why Cain killed Able “Cain…was of the evil one and slew his brother.  And for what reason did he slay Him?  Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.”  Proverbs 29:27 tells us “he who is upright in the way is abominable to the wicked.”  Now I want to look at Romans 1:32 “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”  This is the last verse in the first chapter of Romans and Paul from verses 18-32 talks about the downfall of man, and if a man follows these steps he will surely end up in hell.  As he gets to this last verse he is saying that not only do these men do the wrong things, things against the Lord, but they give hearty approval to those who practice these things.  The bottom line is that they all love evil and hate good.

            Now as believers we live in the world but we are not to be a part of this world system, we are to be different; we are to be living a life that pleases the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  Paul charged the Philippians in Phil. 2:15 “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” 

            John MacArthur writes “While worthy people hate those who follow Jesus Christ, they love each other.  Unbelievers are comfortable with and supportive of other unbelievers.  ‘If you were of the world,’ Jesus said, ‘the world would love its own.’  The conditional clauses in verse 18 (‘If the word hates you’) expresses a condition assumed to be true.  This conditional clause, however, expresses a condition assumed to be false; the Lord’s statement might be translated, ‘If you were of the world (and you are not)…’ Had the disciples been part of the world, they would have experienced the imperfect love the world has for its own.  ‘Love’ is the from phileco, which referst to ‘natural affection and passion, and not [agapao], the high, intelligent, purposeful love of an ethical state’ (R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel.”

            How is it that true Christians are not a part of this world system as we have been describing it?  The reason is because Jesus chose them ‘out of the world.”  Now we have going over this many times in our study of not only the gospel of John, but also in other NT studies we have done, and although we in our finite minds will never understand this, nevertheless the Bible teaches that God chooses those for salvation, and when the Holy Spirit gives us the effectual call we will always answer yes to it as that is a part of the miracle of the new birth.

            John MacArthur writes the following on this subject:  “The doctrine of election silences human pride.  Paul reminded the Ephesians that God ‘chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him…to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved’ (Eph. 1:4, 6).  To the Romans he wrote, ‘Where then is boasting?  It is excluded.  By what kind of law?  Of works? No, but by a law of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law’ (Rom. 3:27-28).  In the next chapter he added, ‘If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God’ (4:2).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The world can lure me, but what the world has to offer is only temporary.  24  By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25  choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26  considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward (Hebrews 11:24-26).”  I can say that the world has more to offer Moses than it does me and yet Moses was looking for the reward, the city built without hands that John writes about in Revelation.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I was very upset when my computer broke down and would not connect to the internet because it probably has a virus.  I was using my wife’s computer to put my Spiritual Diaries onto the blog, but it seems to have a virus too.  God gave me a peace about this as I realized that He is in control and so I will patiently wait until both of them are fixed so I can continue doing what I believe the Lord wants me to do.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).”

Today’s Bible question:  “What happened to Joseph when he refused to commit sin with his master’s wife?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/28/2016 9:17 AM

Computer Problems

I am writing this post on our Ipad as both of our coumputers have virus problems and so I will not be posting any Spiritual Diaries until perhaps Friday as I hope they will both be fixed by then.

Intro to John 15:17-25

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/27/2016 11:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  Intro to John 15:17-25

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  John 15:17-25

            Message of the verses:  “17 “This I command you, that you love one another.  18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ’A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24  "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ’THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’”

            Now as we look at what amounts to a prophecy by our Lord telling that because the world hated Him that the world would hate His followers too and as we look at the history of the early church we saw that this came true.  Not only did the world hate the early church but the world has hated the true Christian church ever since it began.

            I have mentioned in different SD’s that there are people who believe that the seven churches found in the second and third chapters of Revelation are prophetic in nature.  Yes there were seven literal churches in that region of Asia Minor, which is not modern day Turkey, but as you look back at the history of the church age you can see that the dominant type of church can be traced back to the different churches that are seen in Revelation.  I say the dominant type of church can be seen throughout the church age, but during the church age there were all of these types of churches around.  I can give you the different time periods in which each of these churches seemed to be dominant and as we look at these we can tell from the different types of churches the amounts of persecution that would have been going on during that time period for the more purer the church the more likely the church is to be persecuted.  However we know that the Lord can protect different churches if it is His desire and in His will. 

            The following are a list of the seven churches found in Revelation chapters 2-3 and I will list the prophetic application after the name of the church as seen in “There’s A New World Coming,” written by Hal Lindsey which is his commentary on the book of Revelation.

·         Ephesus: A.D. 33-100

·         Smyrna:  100-312

·         Pergamos: 312-590

·         Thyatira:  590-1517

·         Sardis:  1517-1750

·         Philadelphia:  1750-1925

·         Laodicea:  1900-Tribulation

I have read that in our world today that there are many people who lose their lives for the cause of Christ each day, I have heard that as many as 1000 people a day are killed for the cause of Christ and that in my generation (baby boomers) more people have died for the cause of Christ than all years previous years since the church began.  The Muslims are responsible for many Christian martyrs in our world today.  When the church began it was actually the Jews who were responsible for many Christian deaths.  There is a book entitled “Foxes Book of Martyrs” that tells the history of people slain for the cause of Christ, and although I have not read this book I believe that it is an accurate detail of the fulfillment of this prophecy that Jesus gives here in these verses.  John MacArthur entitled this chapter in his commentary “Hated by the World.”  I think that this is a very insightful title for true believers are hated by the world. 

Satan is truly behind this hatred and is very clever in how to determine whether one is a believer or not.  During the Roman Empire if one refused to worship the leader of that empire then they could be killed, and a Christian could not worship anyone but Jesus and so many were killed during that time.  Now I know that the tribulation period is not a part of the church age, but during that time many millions will be killed because they refuse to take the mark of the beast, a way to find out who is a believer and who is not. 

            In his commentary on this subject we are looking at John MacArthur gave a rather long introduction on this subject of people being martyred for the cause of Christ talking about the different time periods when the most people were martyred.  At the end of His introduction he writes the following:  “Jesus balanced the promises of comfort and blessing with a warning to the disciples of the hostility and awaited them.  In the face of the world’s hatred, the disciples would need each other desperately.  The Lord therefore repeated His earlier instruction, ‘This I command you, that you love one another.’ (cf. v. 12; 13:34-35).  That command forms a transition between the Lord’s promises to the disciples and His warning of the world’s hatred—a warning that should also motivate them to love one another.

            “This passage reveals three reasons why the world hates believers:  because the world rejects those who are not part of it, because the world hated Jesus, and because the world does not know God.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for keeping believers in our country safe in my life time so far, but as I look at how our country continues to speak about being a part of the new world order and seeing signs of a coming persecution of believers in our country I have to trust the Lord completely.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord that the problems that I am experiencing with my computer can be fixed at a cost that is not too high.  Sometimes I think that there is outside beings causing my computer issues because of what I use it for.

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:10) “10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Gideon” (Judges 7:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “In the beginning what did God create?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/27/2016 12:35 PM