SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/9/2018
10:10 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3 “Toward God—Service”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 20:19
Message of the
verses: “19 serving the Lord with
all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the
plots of the Jews;”
In our last SD we ended by saying that we would begin
this SD by talking about three things that moved Paul to tears. The first thing that brought tears to him was
that he grieved over the state of the lost.
Romans 9:2-3 says “2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my
heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ
for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” I think that Paul’s grief was over the
lostness of the Jewish people, and he would go on to talk about all of the
benefits that they had including the fact that God chose them to write the
Scriptures, and also that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ came through the
Jewish people.
Next Paul cried over weak, struggling, sinning Christians
as seen in what he wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 2:4 “ For out of much affliction and anguish of
heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful,
but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.” The church at Corinth as a church that experienced
many problems, and I suppose that one of the reasons is the environment that
they lived in, as it was a very sinful place to live.
The third thing that made Paul cry was the terrible,
sinister threat posed by false teachers that he will speak about to the
Ephesian church leaders in verses 29-30 of this 20th chapter of
Acts: “29 “I know that after my
departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and
from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw
away the disciples after them.” Paul’s
prediction would certainly come true as many years later the Lord Jesus Christ
in the second chapter of Revelation would say that the church at Ephesus had
lost their first love, which was the first thing in a downward spiral that is
seen in four more of the churches that He wrote to. Paul also wrote to the Philippian church in
Phil. 3:18 “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ.” In the United States of America we have many
who are enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ as seen by the great division
found in our country today, a division that is divided between right and wrong.
John MacArthur concludes “But the tears of a servant of
God are not in vain. The psalmist wrote
in Psalm 126:6, ‘He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.’ To those with caring, compassionate hearts,
who faithfully spread the precious seed of the Word, God promises a rich
spiritual reward.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There is a man
who lives behind us who just saw his wife die of cancer a few weeks ago. It is my desire to sow the seeds of salvation
in his heart in order to help him go through the process of mourning, and to
one day be with the Lord in heaven.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to help me prepare my Sunday
school lesson for this up-coming week.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Adam” (Genesis 3:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “In what country was Eglon
king?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/9/2018 10:30 AM
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