SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/19/2018
10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Caring”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Acts 14:21-23
Message of the verses:
“21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many
disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the
faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of
God." 23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having
prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
We want to pick up on looking at Paul and Barnabas’s
exhortation which was twofold and can be seen in verse 22 where they exhort
them to “continue in the faith” and they tell their listeners that thought they
may go through may tribulations that they will enter the kingdom of God. John MacArthur writes that “Perseverance in
the Christian life is a ceasless warfare against the forces of the kingdom of
darkness (cf. Eph. 6:10ff.). Christians
therefore need to be reminded to expect hardships and persecution and not be
dismayed by them. Jesus promised that ‘in
the world you have tribulation’ (John 16:22).
‘Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,’ Paul
exhorted Timothy, since ‘all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted’ (2 Tim. 2:3; 3:12). James
gave the good news that such tribulation produces spiritual endurance (James
1:2-4), and Peter confirms that truth in 1 Peter 5:10).”
We now look at the next key to effective follow-up is
organization. Paul and Barnabas would
not be spending much time with these new believers as they were only stopping
to see how their walk with the Lord was going and so in their brief time there
they appointed elders as seen in verse 23.
Elders are under shepherds of the Great Shepherd and they were to lead
the flock that was entrusted to them.
Being an elder or pastor is a call from the Lord, and I have to say that
I have listened to some pastors that made me think that they were listening in
on a party line when God was calling another person to be a Pastor. Luke goes on to write in verse 23 that the
seriousness of being an elder was seen by Paul and Barnabas’s praying and
fasting.
Paul and Barnabas did all that they could humaningly do
and so we read that “they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
I just want to say that this process that we are looking
at is still going on today as missionaries leave their home after being called
by the Lord and go to places where they may even suffer greatly for the Lord in
order to get churches started. I know
missionaries who had gone to medical school to become great doctors where they
could have stayed in this country and made a lot of money, and yet they yielded
to the call of the Holy Spirit to leave all and then go to the mission field
where the Lord was calling them.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The Lord had laid
upon my heart to use the Spiritual Diaries that I have been writing for many
years to put them onto the internet in the form of blogs. It took me a while to do this as I have been
writing these since sometime in 1993, but I don’t have all of them on my
computer. I am thankful to the Lord for
allowing me to do this for the cause of Christ and pray each day for those who
the Spirit of God has called to read them to be blessed by God, and for those
who do not know Christ I also pray that that will be taken care of and when we
all get to heaven we will be able to talk about this.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will continue to use the
Spiritual Diaries that I write each day to bring glory to my Lord and Savior.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Festus” (Acts 24:27).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who wrote Lamentations?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/19/2018 10:58 AM
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