SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2018
9:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Blessing of Converts
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 18:5b-8
Message of the
verses: “Paul began devoting himself completely to the word,
solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6 But when they
resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your
blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the
Gentiles." 7 Then he left there and went to the house of a man named
Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. 8
Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his
household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being
baptized.”
One may wonder what it was that Paul was able to stop his
leather making job in order to began to do what is described in these
verses. “9 and when I was present with you and was in
need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia
they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a
burden to you, and will continue to do so (2 Cor. 11:9).” “15 You yourselves also know, Philippians,
that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church
shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone (Phil.
4:15).” I believe that these two verses
answer this question.
I truly like what the last part of verse five has to say
that Paul began to devote himself completely to the word, and as a result of
this then Paul was able once again, as he always did during his missionary
journeys turned to the Jews to tell them about Christ. The results were pretty much the same as it
seems that not many, if any of the Jews, had an interest in what the OT Scriptures
had to say about their Messiah, and so they rejected their Messiah in a similar
way that those Jews in Jerusalem did when Christ came to them.
Jesus spoke of throwing pears before swine’s in Matthew
7:6 “"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls
before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you
to pieces.” Paul saw the futility in
doing this and so he went to the Gentiles after he shook out his garment which
was a traditional dramatic Jewish gesture of rejection. Paul then Paul said to them “"Your blood
be on your own heads! I am clean.”
We see then that Paul did go to the Gentiles “7 Then he
left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of
God, whose house was next to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the leader of the
synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the
Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.” It was because of the rejection of the Gospel
by the Jews that Paul went to the Gentiles and there he would find those ready
to receive Christ as their Savior, thus this was a blessing to the Lord, to
Paul and also to those who received Christ as their Savior. We see in verse eight another blessing and
that was many of the Corinthians believed and were then baptized, the step that
people take after they believe. Baptism
pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the word
actually is a transliteration from the Greek, and the word means to dip, and so
these people were not baptized by sprinkling them, but by putting them under
the water and bringing them back up out of the water as the word indicates.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: First of all I am
not sure why I forgot to do my Spiritual Diaries yesterday, but when I woke up
this morning I realized that I did not do them and so I pick up where I left
off on Saturday. What spoke to my heart
today was the last part of verse five “Paul began devoting himself completely to the word,”
as this has been going on in my heart for a few days and not I realize that
this is what I must do a better job at so that the Word of God can care for important
issues that I am facing.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Do a better job in my study of God’s Word and
then apply it to issues that I am facing.
Answer to our last Bible
question: “Bethlehem” (Ruth 1:19).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was the son of Eunice and
grandson of Lois?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/28/2018 10:06 AM
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