SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/3/2017
10:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Submission of the Disciples
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 1:12-15
Message
of the verses: “12 Then they
returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath
day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the
upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and
Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 These all with one mind were
continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and
with His brothers. 15 At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the
brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there
together), and said,”
We have learned earlier that Jesus
told his eleven disciples to return to Jerusalem and to wait for divine
enablement that was to be given them in the coming of the Holy Spirit. “"And behold, I am sending forth the
promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed
with power from on high’ (Luke 24:49).” “4
Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait
for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard
of from Me (Acts 1:4).”
We can see in verse 12 that the
eleven disciples followed the orders that were given to them from the Lord and
went to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, and a lot of things has happened on
the Mount of Olives in the life of our Lord as this is where He spent many
nights praying and where He was praying just before he was arrested and also
where He ascended to heaven to go back to the Father, and also according to Zachariah
14:4 “In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front
of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle
from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will
move toward the north and the other half toward the south.” It is believed that since Luke is writing to Theophilus
he added the phrase Mount of Olives as he probably did not know where that was
but also telling him that it was a Sabbath day from Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives rises to overlook the
city of Jerusalem across from the Kidron valley to the East of Jerusalem, and
we talked earlier about this valley when we were looking at the ending chapters
of the gospel of John. A Sabbath’s day’s
journey was 2,000 cubits or between one half to three quarters of a mile.
The disciples went back to Jerusalem
and probably went to the same house where they had the “Last Supper,” and many
believe that it was the home of the mother of John Mark “And when he realized
this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called
Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying (Acts 12:12).”
Now as they gathered in this upper
room the disciples had some time to think about what has transpired over the
last weeks and their lives now were completely different than what they were
when they were walking with Jesus. Peter
had been brought back into the fold as we saw in John 21, as he had been shaken
like wheat as Jesus said that he would be, but when wheat is shaken the chaff
is blown away with the wind and only the wheat is left. It is hard to imagine what was all going on
in the minds of the disciples, but one thing for sure and that is that the
prayer of Jesus found in John 17 was being answered as God had taken care of
them and now they must have had the courage return to them as perhaps they
thought about that wonderful prayer that Jesus had prayed for them now being
fulfilled.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have
been shaken like wheat a few times in my walk with the Lord and although it
probably was not anything like when Peter was shaken the results were the same
as God is always faithful to bring me back to Him as He teaches me lessons from
the shaking.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I pray that
God will give me the things that He wants me to teach in our next Sunday school
class and that He will bring those He wants there for His purposes.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “She was
a seller of purple cloth” (Acts 16:14).
Today’s
Bible question: “What will Christ do if
we confess our sins?”
Answer
in our next SD.
7/3/2017
10:30 AM
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