SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2020
11:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Persecution”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference:
Matthew 5:10-12
Message of the verses: “10 “Blessed are
those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and
persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice
and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
In
our SD for today we begin a rather long section entitled “The Persecution,” but
at this time I don’t know how long it will take to get through it, but the most
important thing is that after we are done we will better understand this
section.
Now
“those who have been persecuted” are the citizens of the kingdom, actually
those who live out the previous seven beatitudes. I have mentioned that the eight beatitudes
are in order and not we get to the last one, which certainly is the most
difficult to live out when persecution happens, but also one of the most
important of these eight beatitudes.
MacArthur writes “To the degree that they fulfill the first seven they
may experience the eight.”
I
remember that when I first became a believer in 1974 that I use to listen to
Hal Lindsey a lot and one of the things that have to do with this eight
beatitude that he talked about was that he felt even back in 1974 that
persecution would someday come to our country. I had a patch on the back of my
back pack which said “One Way” and in one of his messages he stated that people
of our culture were even beginning to be upset by “One Way,” of course meaning
that there is only one way to get to heaven and that was through Jesus
Christ. All the way back in 1974 I have
believed that persecution would come to this nation and as we look around at
what is happening in our nation today we can see that persecution is only one
election of the wrong party away.
Paul
writes to Timothy in 2 Tim. 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in
Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Before
Paul wrote this he mentions the following in verse eleven: “persecutions, and sufferings, such as
happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I
endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!” Paul actually gives a much longer account of
his sufferings in 2 Corinthians chapter twelve.
If we go back to the ninth chapter of Acts we will see what God told
Ananias about Paul’s future sufferings and persecutions. “15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he
is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings
and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My
name’s sake’ Acts 9:15-16).”
There
is a pretty sad story of a man who accepted a new job in which he had to work
with especially profane people. After he
got home his wife asked him how the new job went and he said that it went
terrific became no one knew that he was a Christian. I had a similar story in my many years
working in one of the largest foundries in our country. I worked there for 35 years and after nine
years I became a Christian. People right
away knew that I was different because the Lord had cleaned up my mouth for
swearing most every sentence I said to now swearing at all. I tried to live out my faith and after a
while people knew that I was truly different and had numerous opportunities to
tell others of my faith as I continued working at what I would call a very
worldly place.
When
a person lives for Christ he is living in opposition to Satan in his world and
in his system. I have just placed an
older SD on my other blog which compared Abraham and Lot. There was a tremendous amount of difference
between the two men and I have to say that if Peter had not said that Lot was a
believer I don’t think many people would have realized that he was. Abraham was in the world but not of the
world, while Lot was in the world and pretty much of the world.
We
will conclude with a short quote from John MacArthur: “Christlikeness in us will produce the same
results as Christlikeness did in the apostles, in the rest of the early church,
and in believers throughout history.
Christ living in His people today produces the same reaction from the
world that Christ Himself produced when He lived on earth as man.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Living like what I have learned from the
first seven beatitudes is the way that I am to live, and to do that I need the
Spirit of God working in my heart.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me the desire to always
live for Him even though at times it could cost me some difficult things.
6/3/2020 11:44 AM
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