SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/26/2016 9:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Friends of Jesus Have Been
Specially Chosen by Him
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 15:16
Message of the verses: “16
"You did not
choose Me but I
chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that
your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He
may give to you.”
In the time
period when Jesus was on earth there were many rabbis and people would chose
which one they wanted to follow, but that is not the case with Jesus for in
this verse He states that His disciples were chosen by Him and this is also
speaking of all who come to believe in Him.
Let us once again look at Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” By having Jesus chose those who were His
“eliminates any pretense of spiritual pride, that Christians might otherwise
feel.” (John MacArthur)
John
MacArthur goes on to write “Not only did Jesus choose the disciples for
salvation, He also appointed them for service.
The word translated appointed
is a form of the verb titemi, which
has here the connotation of being set apart or ordained for special service
(cf. its similar usage in Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 12:28; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2:7; 2 Tim.
1:11).”
Jesus not
only chose His disciples, but for three years He had trained them so that as
stated here “you would go and bear fruit” and as we look at what is called “The
Great Commission” we see something similar.
“19 "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:19-20).”
As we look at some preaching that goes on in this world today, preaching
that speaks about the health and wealth gospel we see something that is very
wrong and different than what the Bible teaches we can see that these who
preach this treat the gospel as some kind of a spectator sport, for in the true
gospel Jesus did not choose believers to stand around idly as the world around
them is going to hell, but desires believers to engage non believers, to become
friends with them in order that they can present the gospel to them. I am not saying that we get so close to non
believers that we begin to act like them, for we are the ones who are different
and we are the ones who are salt and light to a dying world.
MacArthur
writes “When believers proclaim the gospel, those who respond savingly to it
become ‘fruit’ that will ‘remain’ forever (cf. 4:36; Luke 16:9). That the Lord repeated the promise of verse
seven ‘whatever you ask of the Father in My name He’ will ‘give to you,’
emphasizes the essential link between prayer and evangelism (cf. Luke 10:2; 2
Thess. 3:1).” Now we did write about
what was written in John 15:7 on 12/17/2016.
Now as
believers continue to grow in the Lord they see that because they are now
believers in Jesus Christ that they have certain responsibilities like loving
one another “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a
sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart (1 Peter 1:22).” (Fervently “From a verb which means to
"stretch out the hand.," thus it means to be stretched out
— earnest, resolute, tense.”)
Believers are also to continue to study the Word of God for not only
their growth but also to help others to grow in the Lord. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2
Tim. 2:15).” Now as believers we are not
to love the world as John speaks of in 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world nor
the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is
not in him.” We have just studied that
as believers we have to be subject to the Father’s pruning as seen in John 15:2
“"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every
branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” Now we have seen that the Lord has promised
to us that are prayers will be answered and so as James tells us we are to pray
effectively “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much (James
5:16b).” When we studied the letters
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians we read the following in 1 Thessalonians 5:17
“pray without ceasing.” Warren Wiersbe
wrote that this verse means that as believers we are to keep the phone off the
hook, that is the phone we have to talk to the Lord.
John
MacArthur concludes this chapter by writing “In short, those who have been
granted the inestimable privilege of being the friends Jesus Christ must ‘walk
in a manner worthy of the calling with which [they] have been called’ (Eph.
4:1).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for God’s attribute of
longsuffering as God has been very patient with me since the Holy Spirit gave
an effectiveual call to me back on January 26, 1974. Many people who have been called by the Lord
for salvation are very young while I was almost 27 years old and had walked in
the world for those first 26+ years picking up some very bad habits that are
hard to break. God wonderfully saved me
and has brought me along at His pace with the aid of giving me a desire of
studying His Word and passing it on to others each day to produce fruit in my
life and the lives of others as the Holy Spirit allows me to, and for that I am
thankful.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I received a book for
Christmas which was originally written by Matthew Henry and a man named O.
Palmer Roberson who received the original book from his family had read it so
much that the pages were almost to worn to read any more. He re-wrote Henry’s book so people today can
understand it better. The book that
Matthew Henry wrote is about prayer, praying what is found in the Scriptures so
that believers can do a James 5:16b tells us ““The effective prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much.” I look forward
to taking my time going through this book, and hopefully not just once but to
use it every day to help my prayer life, and my love for the Lord to continue
to grow.
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 our last Bible question: “Jordan” (2 Kings 2:7-8).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who defeated the Medianites with only three hundred men?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/26/2016 10:50 AM
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