SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/7/2018
9:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Right
Priority”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 15:36b
Message of the
verses: “… and visit the brethren in
every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”
As I read the comments that John MacArthur wrote on this
section I realize that he was talking about people in the 20th and
21st century. He was
comparing how Paul evangelized with the way our modern day evangelists do
it. Modern day evangelist go into a
city, a city that they have their people go into to make sure that all is ready
when they get there and then he goes into that city and preaches for a number
of days, and then after preaching for a number of days he leaves town and
prepares to go to other cities. The
problem that I have always had with this is the after many hundreds or even
thousands have made a commitment to Jesus Christ that they are left with a
church, even though there will be churches there to try and fit these people
into their church life. Some of these churches
are not even Bible believing churches, and therein lies the problem.
We see in this last half of verse 36 that Paul and
Barnabas wanted to go back to the churches that they started and make sure that
they were doing well, that they were growing in their walk with the Lord. Paul was not only an evangelist, but he was a
missionary, a missionary who as long as he was able, he stayed with the new
converts in order to begin a church and then disciple them as the Lord Jesus
Christ said to do before He went back to heaven. I think of the church in Thessalonica where
Paul was only there for a very short time, perhaps as little as six weeks and
was forced to leave town, and yet he did send one of his workers, I believe it
was Timothy, back there to make sure
that the church was doing well. And Paul
always prayed for each of the churches that he began.
John MacArthur writes “What motivated Paul, apart from
his desire for their maturity, to revisit the converts from the first missionary
journey? First, he loved them as his
spiritual children. He expressed that
love to the Philippians when he wrote, ‘God is my witness, how I long for you
all with the affection of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 1:8). He told the Thessalonians, ‘We, brethren,
having been bereft of you for a short while—in person, not in spirit—we are all
the more eager with great desire to see your face’ (1 Thess. 2:17).”
MacArthur speaks of a second reason for wanting to
revisit those churches from their first missionary journey: It was “Paul’s commitment to the most
effective evangelistic strategy of all—building mature believers, not spiritual
infants, who are capable of reproducing.
Paul’s commitment to maturing believers mirrored that of our Lord, who
sent most of His time with only twelve men.
Paul knew that, as an apostle, he was given to the church
‘12 for the equipping of the saints for the work
of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure
of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.’
Paul expressed his
philosophy of ministry in Colossians 1:28, where he wrote, ‘We proclaim Him,
admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may
present every man complete in Christ.’
He was no hit-and-run evangelist.
During his ministry at Ephesus, ‘night and day for a period of three years
[he] did not cease to admonish each one with tears’ (Acts 20:31).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to
continue to work on the ministry that the Lord has given to me, that of writing
Spiritual Diaries, and putting them onto the internet by using my blogs, and to
continue to teach Sunday school as long as the Lord desires me to do so.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will give me the grace
to continue teach on Daniel’s prayer in the ninth chapter of his book for our
lesson tomorrow.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Zacchaeus” (Luke 19:8).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did Paul go after
leaving Athens?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/7/2018 10:16 AM
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