SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2018
8:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Fellowship of God
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 18:9-11
Message of the
verses: “9 And the Lord said to Paul
in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking
and do not be silent; 10 for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order
to harm you, for I have many people in this city." 11 And he settled there
a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”
When we began this section I had made a comment that the
Lord was going to give Paul some rest after such difficult times, times when he
had been run out of towns just when he began to get a church together, but
persecution came about and he then had to flee, finally to Athens where after
preaching there were only a few that had accepted Christ. Paul must have been down and disappointed,
but now as we see in our verses for today the Lord assures him that he will be
able to stay put for a while in Corinth, which was a place where he needed to
be for a while because of the kind of city this was.
John MacArthur points out that the vision that Paul
received in verse nine is one of six visions that are recorded in the book of
Acts. They are found in Acts 9:12;
16:9-10; 22:17-18; 23:11; 27:23-24, along with the one found in 18:9.
MacArthur points out that this supernatural vision
provided four reasons for Paul not to give up proclaiming the gospel in that
city. We will look at these four reasons
as we continue looking at these three verses.
First of all we see that God commanded it specifically
when we read in the last part of verse nine “but go on speaking.”
Second we see that God reminded Paul in verse ten “for I
am with you” something that I am sure that Paul knew. I realize that there are times in my prayer
life and in the prayer lives of others to ask God to be with me, and yet we
know that as a believer that the Holy Spirit is living in us and is always with
us, and yet I suppose there are times when we need assurance to this fact and
that is why we pray this way. Another
reason to pray this way could be that we truly need God in a specific way in
our lives and so we ask that God would be with us in this specific way as we go
through a difficult situation. Paul was
familiar with what happened to Joshua as he was about to take over the ministry
of Moses, and as we think about that for a moment we know that this must have
been a very difficult time for Joshua, and I am sure that he needed a message
from the Lord which he did receive in Joshua 1:5 and nine where we read: “No man will be able to stand before you all
the days of your life. Just as I have
been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you…Have I
not commanded you? Be strong and courageous!
Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever
you go.”
Paul knew with the powerful
presence that was aiding his ministry that he could accomplish whatever it was
that God wanted him to accomplish, something that Joshua found out too along
with many other leaders from the nation of Israel. We can read from his last letter which he
wrote to Timothy these words “16 At my
first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted
against them. 17 But the
Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the
proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear;
and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from
every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be
the glory forever and ever. Amen.” We
will look at a few more verses that go along these lines: “20
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20).” “10 ’Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not
anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I
will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand’ (Isaiah
41:10).” “17 “Now, gird up your loins
and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before
them, or I will dismay you before them. 18 “Now behold, I have made you today
as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the
whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the
people of the land. 19 “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome
you, for I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD (Jeremiah
1:17-19).”
The third promise comes also from verse ten “no man will
attack you in order to harm you.” I am
sure that this must have brought great comfort to Paul as he had been attacked
many times in the past. John MacArthur
writes that “Those under God’s protection are invulnerable (cf. Isa. 54:17;
Rev. 11:5).” We will look now at these
verses: “17 “No weapon that is formed
against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you
will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their
vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.” “5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire
flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm
them, he must be killed in this way.”
The fourth and last reason that God gave Paul to keep
preaching was that He had “many people in the city.” Yes we are talking about God’s sovereignty
here as God the Father is saying here that in eternity past I chose certain
people who will belong to my Son, and my Son will come to earth to purchase
these people who will become His bride, and I have many of them here in Corinth
and I want you to keep on preaching so that the Holy Spirit will give an
effectual call to these once they have heard the message of salvation. John MacArthur writes “The truth of election
expressed in verse 10 balances the truth of human responsibility in verse
6. As always, Scripture presents those
two inscrutable truths without attempting to harmonize them. Both are true, and there is no real
contradiction between them.”
God had renewed Paul’s strength through these promises
and so we read that Paul settled in Corinth for another year and six months,
teaching the word of God among them.
This was a strategic location and Paul obeyed the call of the vision
that God had given to him. It was during
that period writes MacArthur that “a certain incident provided the final source
of God’s encouragement to Paul.” The
final source of encouragement that Paul had is what we will look at next as we
wrap up this section from Acts 18:1-17 which is “The frustration of his
enemies.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: How is it that I
as a believer knew that it was of the Lord to write my Spiritual Diaries and
then eventually put them onto my blogs?
I can assure you that it was not from a vision like Paul received here
in verse nine. However there were
certain circumstances that did occur in my life as I was encouraged by my
daughter and also a godly woman from our former church to do this and so one
day, July 3, 2011 after finishing up my study of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles that
I decided that I would take a step of faith and publish my Spiritual Diaries
onto a blog. I knew very little about
how to do this, only that my daughter and son-in-law had published a blog on
the events leading up to adopting their first son, and so I searched the
internet and found how to do this not knowing what the Lord would do with this,
but determined to follow through and publish what the Lord was teaching me as I
studied His Word each day, or mostly each day.
I am thankful to the Lord for allowing me to do this, and continue to
pray that the Lord will use these Spiritual Diaries to bring people to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ, to cause believers to grow in grace, to bring
revival to believers who are in need of revival, to ask the Spirit of God to
continue to send these Spiritual Diaries around the world each day, and also I
pray that the Lord will use these Spiritual Diaries on the last day of the
church age to bring thousands to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in a
similar way that He did on the first day of the church when thousands of people
heard the message of the gospel in their own language.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord to answer my prayers
concerning these Spiritual Diaries.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Timothy” (2 Timothy 1:1-5).
Today’s Bible
question: “How many years did Israel’s
monarchy last before being divided into two kingdoms?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/29/2018 9:27 AM
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