SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2018
7:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Courage of Conviction Pays Any Price”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 21:7-14
Message of the
verses: “7 When we had finished the
voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and after greeting the brethren, we
stayed with them for a day. 8 On the
next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the
evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him. 9 Now this man had
four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. 10 As we were staying there for
some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and
bound his own feet and hands, and said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says:
’In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and
deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’" 12 When we had heard this,
we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13
Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?
For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus." 14 And since he would not be persuaded, we fell
silent, remarking, "The will of the Lord be done!"”
As we begin this last SD on these verses we see that
those who were trying to convince Paul not to go to Jerusalem gave up after
what Paul stated in verse thirteen. I
want to focus in on the last statement from verse 14 “The will of the Lord be
done!” I suppose that we may conclude
that this was a statement showing that they had given up and so that is why
they made this statement, but it was not a fatalistic resignation but it was
complete trust in God’s sovereign and perfect will. “18 So Samuel told him everything and hid
nothing from him. And he said, "It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good
to Him’ (1 Samuel 3:18).” “Saying,
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will,
but thine, be done (Luke 22:42).” What
these people were doing was committing Paul into the care of the Lord.
I want to for a moment think about what may have happened
if Paul had not gone up to Jerusalem.
Well I can say that Paul would not have had time to write the letters
that we find in the New Testament if he had not gone up to Jerusalem. It was Paul’s desire to go to Rome, and if he
had not gone up to Jerusalem then he probably would have had to pay his own way
to get there. Paul witnessed to
different kings and people who ranked in high places while in prison there, and
if he had not gone up to Jerusalem then that would not have happened. As we continue to look at the rest of the
book of Acts, none of the things that we will read about would have happened if
Paul would not have been convinced by the Spirit of God to go to Jerusalem.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The serpent” (Genesis 3:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “What country destroyed Jerusalem?”
Answer in our next SD. 7/29/2018 7:36 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment