SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/5/2020
9:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Proper
Mourning”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:4
Message of the
verse: “4 ‘Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’”
It is my desire to finish this last
portion about proper mourning by looking at some more verses from the Word of
God to help us better understands what proper mourning is all about.
We begin with Jeremiah 9:1 “Oh that
my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and
night For the slain of the daughter of my people!” Jeremiah was in anguish about the sin of the
people of Israel as we can see from this verse and many more why Jeremiah is
called the “weeping prophet.”
In
the 20th chapter of the book of Acts Paul is visiting the elders
from the Ephesian church and in his heart he knows that they will fail in their
walk with the Lord which is actually seen in the letter that our Lord sends to
them in the 2nd chapter of the book of Revelation as indeed this
church had lost is first love. Paul
talks about what was on his heart in this 20th chapter of Acts: "Therefore be on the alert, remembering
that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each
one with tears” (vs. 31). “38 grieving especially over the
word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And
they were accompanying him to the ship” (vs. 38).”
In
the gospel of Mark we see the earnest love of a father which caused him to be
grief-stricken over his demon-possessed son, which is still seen when he brings
his son to Jesus. He first brought him
to the disciples as Jesus along with James, John, and Peter were on the mount
of transfiguration, and when they came down that was the scene they came into. We have one of the rather famous verses in
Mark 9:24 as the man says to Jesus “I do believe; help my unbelief.” The man was surely showing proper mourning
over his son.
This
next verse was the background for a book that Joseph Stowell wrote “Why it’s
Hard to Love Jesus.” The story is about
a sin-sick woman who came to see Jesus while He was at the home of a Pharisee and
Jesus says to this woman in Luke 7:47 “"For this reason I say to you, her
sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is
forgiven little, loves little.’”
John
MacArthur concludes this section by writing “Immeasurable divine love caused
our Lord to weep at the death of Lazarus (John 11:35) and over the sinning
people of Jerusalem, whom He wanted to gather into His care as a mother hen
gathers her chicks (Matt. 23:37).”
4/5/2020 10:09 AM
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