SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/2/2020
9:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Calling James and John”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
4:21-22
Message of the verses: “21 And going
on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and
John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets;
and He called them. 22 And they immediately left the boat and their father, and
followed Him.”
In
our last SD we stated that in this SD today we would talk about the qualities
that make a good fisherman, and I would suppose that the quality that is needed
the most is patience, and this is surely true for the evangelist too. Patience for a fisherman is needed to find a
good school of fish, and this means that they have to learn to wait to find
this school of fish. Next a fisherman
must have perseverance as it is not simply a matter of waiting patiently in one
place, hoping some fish will eventually show up. The fisherman must go from place to place,
and there are times when he will return over and over until the fish are
found. Third, fishermen must have good
instinct for going to the right place and in the case of the fisherman using a
net he has to know the right time to drop the net as poor timing has lost many
a catch both of fish and men. Then there
is a forth quality and that is one must have courage. Since we are talking about fishermen on the
Sea of Galilee we know that because of the location of it that there can be
storms come up very fast and they can be very dangerous so it also takes
courage to fish there.
MacArthur
adds: “A good fisherman also keeps
himself out of sight as much as possible.
It is very easy for ourselves to get in the way of our witnessing,
causing people to turn away. A good soul-winner
keeps himself out of the picture as much as possible.
“When
Jesus called the disciples to commit themselves to evangelism, He also
committed Himself to train them and empower them. Following the Lord’s example, the church not
only must call its members to evangelize, but must continually train and
encourage them in that calling. The Lord
not only empowers His disciples to witness but empowers them to train others to
witness. In other words, He empowers His
disciples to disciple, just as He promised in the Great Commission. ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven
and on earth. God therefore and make disciples
of all the nations’ (Matt. 28:18-19).”
As
we look at Jesus training of His disciples we see that according to Mark 6:7-11
that He first sent them out two-by-two on brief missions, instructing them
about what they should and should not do and say. Then after three years of training and also
teaching in short-term missions assignments He finally left them permanently on
their own. However they were never
really on their own because He would henceforth not only be with them but He
would be in them in the Person of the Holy Spirit as seen in Matthew 28:20 and
also John 16:13-15.
MacArthur
goes on to write: “Both in Jesus’
teaching and in His example we can see principles that every soul-winner must
emulate. First of all, Jesus was available. It seems incredible that the Son of God, who
had so very little time to teach and train the slow-learning disciples, would
be so open to those who came to Him for comfort or healing. He never turned down a request for help.
“Second,
Jesus showed no favoritism. The poor and
outcast could approach Him as easily as the wealthy and powerful. The influential Jairus and the powerful Roman
centurion had no advantage over the Samaritan woman of Sychar or the woman
taken in adultery.
“Third,
Jesus was totally sensitive to the needs of those around Him. He always recognized an open heart, a
repentant sinner. Even when the crowd
pressed around Him, He noticed the woman who touched the hem of His
garment. ‘Jesus turning and seeing her
said, ‘Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.’ And at once the woman was made well’ (Matt.
9:20-22). When we are sensitive to
Christ’s Spirit, He will make us sensitive to others, and will lead us to them
or them to us.” Now I will attempt to summarize
qualities four through six as we conclude this section.
Fourthly
the one thing that Jesus would do was to secure a public profession or hear a
testimony. This can be seen with the man
He delivered from demons in Mark 5:19, and also from the woman at the well in
Sychar found in John 4:28-29.
Fifth
we see that Jesus always showed love in tenderness to those that He sought to
win, and we have mentioned the woman at the well, and to look at John chapter
four one can see this in Jesus’ life.
That story of this woman was actually the first convert other than His
disciples found in the Word of God.
Lastly,
Jesus always took time. Remember it
takes time to catch fish and Jesus surely illustrated this in His soul
winning. It is true that some believers
are so busy that they don’t take time to witness to the lost. Jesus’ life was always busy, and yet He took
time to be there to speak to others about the need to become a believer. Jesus was never in a hurry, but then He was
never late to do what His Father had planned for Him to do.
Lord
willing we will begin our next SD on this subject of the calling of Jesus’
disciples with the response that they had.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I believe that one of the things that Jesus
will teach me is patience. I know that it
is said that if one prays for patience that trouble will come to slow you down
so you can learn patience. I also know
that because of my study about how Satan works that there have been troubles to
come into my life and God has seen me through them.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is still
my desire, and it will probably always will be my desire to continue to learn
humility and also to find joy as I study the Word of God each day.
3/2/2020 9:52 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment