SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2018
10:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Conviction”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
19:17-19
Message of the
verses: “17 This became known to
all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all
and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. 18 Many also of those who
had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. 19 And
many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began
burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
I have to say that this section was actually fulfilled
about 25 years ago with my son. He was
having a very depressed summer when he was 15 years old, and one of the
problems was the music that he was listening to, and so after much talking to
him he came to work with me, and because I worked in a very large foundry there
was always some kind of fire going on and so he threw all of his CD’s into what
is called a cupola and burned them up.
The depression got better after this, not right away, but it did get
better.
These verses took place after these would-be exorcists’
fate as their fate “became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus. The result of this was that “fear fell upon
them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.” Now when Luke talks about the name of Jesus
he is talking about everything about who Jesus is, the fact that He came from
heaven, born as a child to a virgin mother, Mary, that He grew up in subjection
to His mother and step-father, that at the age of 30 began His ministry, which
began at His baptism. He followed what
His Father had planned for Him to do through the power and strength of the Holy
Spirit, including dying on a cross for the forgiveness of all who would believe
in Him. He rose from the dead, and after
40 days he went back to heaven sitting at the right had of His Father where He
makes intercession for His children, all those who have been born again into
His family.
The people in Ephesus knew that they should not be having
anything to do with these kinds of pagan occult practices and so “many also of
those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.” MacArthur adds “Thus they displayed the
turning from sin that marks genuine repentance.
Praxeis (‘practice’) here
refers to their secret magic spells, which were generally believed to be
rendered useless if they were divulged.
They turned from their magic as the Thessalonians turned from their
idols (1 Thes. 1:9).”
It was because of their conviction that what they were
doing was wrong, and we will see that what they did was something that cost
them much in money, but in the end because of their genuine repentance they
knew that it was right to do this. “And
many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began
burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
It is good to know that they did this in public so all knew what they
were doing.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “It fell and great was the
fall of it” (Matthew 7”26-27).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between you and me’?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/16/2018 10:40 AM
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