SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/5/2017
10:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 Christian Witness Is About The Son
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 15:26b
Message of the
verse: “He will testify about Me”
The Spirit of God’s primary ministry to a lost and dying
world is to testify about Jesus Christ. Likewise
that is the message of the church as seen from the beginning “"This Jesus
God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses’ (Acts 2:32).” Peter repeats this in his second sermon
recorded in the book of Acts in 3:15.
I mentioned in an earlier SD that I am reading a book
entitled “Reckless Faith” written earlier by John MacArthur, and in this book
he talks about how many churches are getting away from what the Scriptures
teach us thus they end up with reckless faith, a faith that is not taught in
the Bible. The message of salvation is so
clear that my almost 5 year old grandson accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior
last year. He was convicted that he
needed to trust Christ as he heard the message of salvation at church, at home,
and at his grandparents home as well. He
walked around the house carrying his mother’s Bible telling her what was in it
even though he cannot read that well, but he knew what was in the Bible as the
Spirit of God convicted him of his sin and called him to be a believer, the
same Spirit of God that does that for all true believers. The Spirit of God quickens spiritually dead
people, brings them to new life in Jesus Christ as only He can do. I have told the story of my undertaker friend
and a former pastor of mine who was making the point that we are all born spiritually
dead and in need of new life in Christ.
Our pastor asked my friend if he ever asked one of the people he works
on what color of tie they wanted on, and of course they are all dead he works
on so he never gets a response. Same is
true of all people born as children of Adam, as we all are born spiritually
dead and cannot respond to the truth until the Holy Spirit calls us to
repentance and then gives us new life. I
can honestly see a difference in my grandson since he was saved, and like all
of my grandchildren who become believers I went out and bought him a new Bible
and he carries it to church every Sunday.
In the early church we see that the apostles fearlessly
declared to the Sanhedrin “30 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus,
whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. 31 “He is the one whom God
exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to
Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32 “And we are witnesses of these things; and
so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him’ (Acts
5:30-32).”
When Paul went to Corinth to talk to those in that city
about their need to be saved he later wrote to them telling them “For I
determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1
Cor. 2:2).” These kind of statements are
seen throughout the New Testament letters like in 1 Peter 5:1 “Therefore, I
exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.” Peter here is talking about the witnessing of
the sufferings of Christ. John wrote the
following in Revelation 1:9 “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the
tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island
called Patmos because of
the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” The story I heard about John was that someone
put him in a tank of oil trying to kill him, but God had other work for him to
do and so he was sent to the island of Patmos to spend the rest of his days,
and that is where he got the message seen in Revelation as he wrote it down and
it became the last book in our Bible, and a very important book it is for
without it we would not know as much as we now know about heaven and also the
last days on into eternity.
We will conclude with this quote from John MacArthur “But
despite of the clear biblical emphasis on being witnesses of Jesus Christ, much
of today’s evangelistic methodology focuses on meeting people’s felt
needs. It also downplays the essential
biblical emphasis on the glory of the person and work of the Savior and the
crucial importance of confronting unbelievers with their sin and its
consequences unless they are rescued by faith in the atoning accomplishment of
Jesus Christ. Any inadequate
presentation of Christ and His death for sin can leave the sinner in his love
of iniquity and ignorance of the truth of justification by faith and produce a false
and temporary confession. Evangelism is
as basic and unchanged as when Paul said
‘1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with
superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and
my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men,
but on the power of God’
(1 Cor. 2:1-5).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: My reading of the
book Reckless Faith and then my study of this portion of John along with a
Bible study that I went to yesterday makes me very upset about what many
churches are doing with the Word of God in the days we are living in. I had to leave a church that I went to for 32
years because of a pastor who was trying to make a seeker church out of what
used to be a very faithful church that preached the gospel and also edified the
saints who were attending there. It was
a sad day for me as I left family and friends there, but thanks be to God they
too have left.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is always my desire to write the truth that
is in the Scripture when I do my Spiritual Diaries.
Memory verse for the
week: (Romans 6:11) “Even so consider
yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Firstborn of man and beast
were slain” (Exodus 11:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “In Bible times what coin was
considered fair compensation for a day’s labor?” I have to tell you now that the answer to
this question given on my card does not go along with the answer that I would
give and so I will give both answers in our next SD.
Answer in our next SD.
1/5/2017 11:57 AM
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