SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/8/2018
7:40 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Right
Personnel
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 15:37-16:3a
Message of the
verses: “37 Barnabas wanted to take
John, called Mark, along with them also. 38 But Paul kept insisting that they
should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone
with them to the work. 39 And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that
they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed
away to Cyprus. 40 But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the
brethren to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he was traveling through Syria and
Cilicia, strengthening the churches. 1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra.
And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a
believer, but his father was a Greek, 2 and he was well spoken of by the
brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted this man to go with him;”
First thing I want to say is that we will not get through
looking at these verses in one SD, and the second thing is that I was very much
looking forward to this section of the book of Acts to see what really happened
to Paul and Barnabas because of their disagreement of not taking John Mark and
also that we will not see Barnabas’ name again in the book of Acts.
John MacArthur begins this section by writing “God uses
the right people, the people of His choosing, for the tasks He plans for
them. To that end, He can and does use
even the most negative circumstances to produce the most positive results. He did so in the case detailed in this text.” No I must say that I do not disagree one bit
with this quote written by John MacArthur, and I have to say that what he wrote
were some of the very thoughts that I have thought about when confronting this
in my own mind, but I still have some questions to be answered. I have thought about what I am going to say
for a long time and one of these days I will take the time to ask my Pastor or
some other person that I know that may have an idea how to answer it. My question fits into this section we are
looking at. I am having a difficult time
in figuring out if there is a difference between the will of God and the plan
of God. Perhaps it was the will of God
that Barnabas and Paul continue to work together, yet it was in His plan that
Paul and Silas work together in order to work out his plans that He has. I realize that this question may seem strange
to some, and yet I am still uncertain if there is a difference. We move on.
There is a difference between the NASB-95 version and the
NASB as far as what verse 37 says, and we will look at the NASB first since the
NASB-95 is at the top of the page. “37
And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them also.” John MacArthur states “The imperfect tense of
the Greek verb translated ‘was desirous’ shows that Barnabas was
persistent. Equality adamant. ‘Paul kept insisting that they should not
take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to
the word.’” Since it is Sunday I will
end this SD with the following statements.
There was a difference between Paul and Barnabas, as it seems that Paul
was more tough, more of a battle-hardened solider of Christ, while Barnabas was
the one who encouraged people and thus he wanted to give Barnabas another
chance. I have a few things to say about
John Mark and that is that Barnabas must have worked very well with him along
with later on in his life Peter and Paul also worked with him as he turned out
very well, so it seems to me that the split that took place worked out well as
I am confident that it was God’s will that this happened.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Corinth” (Acts 18:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who stole the heart of the men
of Israel from David?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/8/2018 8:05 PM
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