SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/29/2017
11:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Be Thankful
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:24-28
Message of the
verse: “24 And when they heard this,
they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, "O Lord, it is
You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, 25
who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant,
said, ’WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS? 26 ’THE
KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER
AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’ 27 "For truly in this city there
were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28
to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”
I suppose that humaningly speaking if Peter and John
returned to their companions, perhaps in the upper room, and came back dejected
this may have seemed normal. However
this is not the case. Peter writes in
his first letter the following in 4:13 “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.”
He goes on in verse 14 to write “If you are reviled for the name of
Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” I have to believe that the things that he learned
here and then again in chapter five of Acts were on his mind when he wrote what
he wrote in his first letter. Jesus
Christ came to earth to suffer and to die, to become sin for us as He was the
One who knew no sin, and He did all of this for us. He went to heaven to intercede for us and
left us here to be as Paul describes “His body,” and since we are His body were
are hated by those who do not know Him and in some cases will have to suffer
for the cause of Christ like He suffered for us. Peter and John were thankful for being worthy
to suffer for Christ “So they went on their way from the presence of the
Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His
name (Acts 5:41).”
“They lifted their voices to God with one accord and
said, “O Lord, it is Thou who didst make the heaven and the earth and the sea, and
all that is in them.” MacArthur writes “Despotes (Lord) is an uncommon title for
God in the New Testament, appearing only five other times (Luke 2:29; 2 Tim.
2:21; 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 4; Rev. 6:10).
It is the word from which our English word ‘despot’ derives and denotes
an absolute master. Faced with
opposition, they took comfort in God’s sovereignty. All their suffering was in His will. Being the Creator of everything, He is in
complete control of all events.
Confidence in the absolute rulership and might of God was enough to sustain
them.”
Luke goes on to write about things that give them more
things to be thankful for as he writes about things that happened in the
OT. He writes about creation as he
praises God for creating the heavens and the earth and the sea, and then moves
on to write about what David said “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples
devise futile things? The kings of the
earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord,
and against His Christ.” God know what
was going to happen to our Lord, He planned what was going to happen to our
Lord in eternity past, and He has planned what will happen to us as MacArthur
wrote in our previous quote. The
apostles and all who were with them at this time had witnessed the things that
happened in Jerusalem concerning our Lord, but there will be more that will
happen in Jerusalem as the final fulfillment is presented in Revelation 17:9-14
and will set the stage for our Lord’s second coming which is revealed in Revelation
19:11-21.”
Luke writes about the things that did happen “27 "For
truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant
Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles
and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose
predestined to occur.” John MacArthur
writes “Predestined is from proorizo
(Rom. 8:28-29; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11) and means ‘to determine beforehand.’
It reminds us that God is the supreme historian who wrote history before it
ever began. Having done their worst,
they merely succeeded in fulfilling God’s eternal plan (Acts 2:23). As the palmist expressed it, ‘The wrath of
man shall praise Thee’ (Ps. 76:10).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is comforting
to me that God is in complete control of all the things that are going on, on
planet earth at all times. I am also
thankful that my Lord will guide me as I serve Him while He gives me breath.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I desire to continue to trust the Lord
as I go over what I am going to teach in our Sunday school class this Sunday.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Nahor and Haran” (Genesis
11:26).
Today’s Bible
question: “What do we mean when we say
that God is omniscient?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/29/2017 11:52 AM
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