SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/14/2017
9:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“A Wrong View of Sin”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 8:22-24
Message of the
verses: “22 “Therefore repent of
this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of
your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of
bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." 24 But Simon answered and
said, "Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you
have said may come upon me.’”
It seems to me that Peter had great insight into what was
going on in the heart of Simon for the first thing that Peter did was to say to
Simon that he needed to repent, and perhaps because of his background in being
a magician he did not realize what Peter was talking about. Repent (metanoeo)
involves turning from sin to God. One
has to realize that they are a sinner before they repent, one has to be
convicted by the Holy Spirit that they are a sinner, and as I read this passage
I don’t believe that Simon understood or was convicted by God’s Spirit. Peter tells him “For I see that you are in
the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” John MacArthur writes “The phrase gall of
bitterness is very strong. Chole (gall)
refers to a bitter ingredient or bile.
Coupled with pikria (bitterness), it conveys an extremely bitter, harsh, and distasteful
condition. It vividly pictures the
reality of one in the bondage of iniquity.
Sin is a harsh taskmaster.
Proverbs 5:22 warns that ‘his own iniquities will capture the wicked,
and he will be held with the cords of his sin.’”
Let us look at the next statement from Simon “Pray to the
Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” I believe that if Simon was wanting to repent
he would have gotten down on his knees and cried out to the Lord, for Peter had
just said that he was in need of repentance.
It seems that all he wanted to do was escape the temporal consequences
of his sin, but true repentance, however, consists of more than just being
sorrowful as was the case with Judas.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10,
“9 I now rejoice, not that you were made
sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made
sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in
anything through us. 10 For
the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without
regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
MacArthur concludes “Simon had a wrong view of self, of
salvation, of the Spirit, and of sin.
All that added up to a faith that did not save.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Sin is very
serious, and understanding that when I sin I must turn from it and claim the
forgiveness that the Lord has for me as seen in 1 John 1:9.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to trust that the Lord will give me
wisdom as I continue looking at my Sunday school lesson for this week and also
what I have planned for next week’s special Christmas class.
Memory verses: Philippians 4:1, 8 “Therefore, my beloved brethren
whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my
beloved.” 8 Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything
worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jesus” (Matthew 4:19).
Today’s Bible
question: “By what brook did the ravens
feed Elijah?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/14/2017 10:13 AM
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