SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2017
8:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
Introduction to John 17:1b-5
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:1b-5
Message of the
verses: “"Father, the hour has
come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him
authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give
eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 “I glorified You on the earth, having
accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me
together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world
was.”
We will continue with some quotes from John MacArthur’s
introduction to his chapter he entitled “Jesus Prayer and the Eternal Plan of
God.”
“The humbling but marvelous reality is that believers are
secondary within the scope of God’s eternal plan. The Father’s primary concern is the honor of
the Son whom He loves and desires to see glorified. That is why, in eternity past, He promised to
redeem a segment of sinful humanity whom He would give to the Son to worship
and exalt Him forever.” Now as you read
over this paragraph think about how humbling this statement is. We are a part of the plan of God that came
about in eternity past, a plan as stated
that will bring glory to the Son, so we are a part of God’s plan that will
bring glory to the Son of God.
“The Son’s primary concern, likewise, is the honor and
glory of the Father. Because of His
perfect love for the Father, He receives the Father’s gift with infinite joy—gladly
embracing every sinner whom the Father draws.
Moreover, He considered the Father’s gift so precious that He ‘emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, that being made in the likeness of
men. Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross’ (Phi. 2:7-8). He did this that
the eternal purposes of God might be fulfilled in Him, (cf. Eph. 3:11)—purposes
that will finally culminate when He gives all things back to His Father at the
end of the age (1 Cor. 15:25-28).
“It is with these eternal purposes in mind that Jesus
came to His Father in prayer on the night before His death. He knew that the Father had predetermined to
redeem a people whom He would give to the Son as His bride. He also knew that the redeemed would reflect
His glory (John 17:22; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2), bear His image (Rom. 8:29),
and praise, glorify, and serve Him through all eternity. Likewise, He knew that their names were
written in the Book of Life (Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27),
and that He had come into the world to pay the redemptive price to purchase
them from the slave market of sin (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18;
Rev. 5:9). He was fully aware that ‘the
hour’ had ‘come’ for Him to do all that had been planned from before the
foundation of the world.”
I hope to finish this introduction in our next SD. Now we have mentioned that this chapter is
probably the most important chapter in the Word of God so we desire to get as
much out of it as the Lord allows us to learn from it, and that what we will
learn from it will bring glory to the Lord.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful to
be a part of the plan and family of God, and I am humbled to be one of His
children who was bought with the blood of our Lord on the cross.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Life like I am a child of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Healing on the Sabbath”
(Matthew 12:11-12)
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘"Have nothing
to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream
because of Him’?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/19/2017 8:28 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment