SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2018
9:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Toward
Himself—Sacrifice
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
20:22-24
Message of the
verses: “22 "And now, behold,
bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to
me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. 24 "But I do not consider my life of any
account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry
which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the
grace of God.”
We see in this section that Paul did not really know what
it was that was going to happen to him when he got to Jerusalem, but he knew
that this was what the Lord wanted him to do even though he knew that there
were not going to be good things that will happen to him. John MacArthur writes that the word “bond” “is
commonly used to refer to physical binding with chains or ropes. It is used figuratively to speak of the
powerful tie of the marriage bond (Rom. 7:2; 1 Cor. 7:27, 39).” I have to say at this point because I know
what will happen to Paul in Jerusalem, and we will get to that later on, that
one of the things that will happen to Paul is that he will have time to write
some of his letters to the churches that we now have in our Bibles, and that is
a fulfillment of Romans 8:28 in that God was working all things out for good
even though at this time for Paul they may not have seemed good.
We see that Paul knew that there was trouble ahead
because of the Holy Spirit telling others that trouble was coming, and yet
Paul, like Jesus, went right ahead doing what he knew that the Lord wanted him
to do.
As we look at the sacrificial spirit that Paul has from
verse 24 “"But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself,
so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord
Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God,” we know that
Paul’s life was not really his own as it was the Lord’s. Paul had one thing on his mind and that was
to finish the work that the Lord had for him to do while on planet earth and that
work was to tell others about Jesus Christ.
John MacArthur writes:
“It must be noted that the
message the apostle preached and all preachers echo is called ‘the gospel of
the grace of God.’ The clear emphasis is
on grace, the unmerited favor of God by which He forgives undeserving sinners
the totality of their sins and freely, mercifully gives them the complete
righteousness of Jesus Christ.”
MacArthur goes on to write
the following at the end of his 16th chapter in his second half
commentary on the book of Acts:
“I should be the goal of all
Christians to complete successfully the ministry God has given them. To do so requires that they maintain a proper
perspective on their ministry as it relates to God, believers, unbelievers, and
themselves. To do less is unworthy of
the Lord who graciously called them into His service.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I truly believe
that the ministry that God has given me at this time is to continue to write my
Spiritual Diaries and put them onto my blogs, praying that God will use them to
bring glory to my Lord Jesus Christ in a way where souls will be saved,
believers will grow, and believers who are in need of revival will receive
revival, and also that the Lord through His Spirit will continually send them
around this world to accomplish the task of bring glory to my Lord Jesus
Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord as uses these Spiritual
Diaries to bring glory to Himself in a wonderful way.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Revelation.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What happened to the children
who called Elisha ‘Bald Head’?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/12/2018 9:36 AM
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