SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/13/2017
11:09 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3
The Conflict With The World
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 16:1-4
Message of the
verses: 1 "These things I have
spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. 2 “They will make you
outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you
to think that he is offering service to God. 3 “These things they will do because
they have not known the Father or Me. 4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their
hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not
say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”
As we mentioned in our last SD we want to take time in
this SD to talk about verse four, as in this verse Jesus gives another reason
for His warning to His disciples, one that will be personal to them. I remember reading in one of the gospels
where Mary, the mother of James, and John asked Jesus if allow them to sit on
each side of Him in the coming kingdom, and Jesus asked them if they were will
to drink the cup that He was about to drink.
They responded by saying yes, not really knowing at that time what that
cup was about. He told them that one day
they would drink a similar cup and I believe that verse four is similar and
even more defining as to what is going to happen to His disciples. He is saying that persecution would surely
come as Paul tells Timothy “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will
be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12. Peter
writes the following in 1 Peter 4:12-13 “12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the
fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some
strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the
sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His
glory you may rejoice with exultation.”
Now what we may think as something odd was perhaps a paradox in that
instead of the persecution causing them to fall away in their faith it would
strengthen their resolve as they saw the Lord’s prediction fulfilled. “29 "Now I have told you before it
happens, so that when it happens, you may believe (John 14:29).”
The last part of verse four tells us that Jesus did not
need to tell His disciples in the beginning because He was with them. The focus was always on Jesus and not on His
disciples during His earthly ministry, they always wanted to kill Him and did
not think much about His disciples, but when Jesus is gone the focus will not
be on all those who are followers of Him.
God back to what Paul writes to Timothy that “all who desire to live
godly in Christ will be persecuted,” and that is because those who want to
persecute the godly followers of Jesus are, as mentioned before, they think
they are doing a service to God.
Satan is the one behind the persecution of believers and
the way he does it is to make up false religions where people do not really realize
that they are following the will of Satan as we read that he is an “angel of
light,” fooling people to think that what they are doing is in the will of
God. I am reading an older book written
by John MacArthur from 1994 called “Reckless Faith,” and in this book he
explains how the church in that time period was falling for things that are not
written in the Bible, people are not discerning things properly and when they
do these kind of things they are falling right into Satan’s trap.
It cost all true believers something as they follow the
Lord “If anyone whishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his
cross daily and follow Me. For whoever
wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake,
he is the one who will save it (Luke 9:23-24).
Jesus was truthful about the cost of following Him, of course He was
truthful, He could be no other way.
We will conclude this SD with a parable from Luke
14:28-33 which speaks more of this truth:
“28 "For
which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and
calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 "Otherwise,
when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it
begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ’This man began to build and was not able to
finish.’ 31 "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in
battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with
ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 "Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and
asks for terms of peace. 33 "So then, none of you can be My disciple who
does not give up all his own possessions.”
MacArthur concludes “Christ does not offer His followers
the way of comfort and ease, but a hard and difficult path. Though the gate is small and the road is
narrow, it is certainly well worth the strenuous journey, for it alone ‘leads
to life’ and to eternal glory (Matt. 7:13-14).
Thus Paul could write, in the midst of his multitudinous trials, ‘For
momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far
beyond all comparison’ (2 Cor. 4:17).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I remember the
story of Corry Ten Boom she told in her book “The Hiding Place” when she was
concerned about trials that may, and did, come her way along with her sister
and father. She was concerned about her
faith and her father asked her when she received the ticket from him to ride on
the train, and she replied “when I get on the train.” I feel the same way as she did many times,
and her story encourages me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me strength each day
for what He desires for me to do each day.
Memory verse for the
week: (Romans 6:12) “Therefore do not
let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its lusts;”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “So that we can resist the
attacks of the devil.”
Today’s Bible
question: “From what mountain did Jesus
speak about his coming again?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/13/2017 11:49 AM
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