SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2020 9:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “False Accusations”
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.’”
Whenever
a person becomes a true born-again believer they are put into the body of
Christ at that very moment. Knowing this
truth that we are in Christ when a believer is hated, maligned, or afflicted as
a believer the actual real animosity is not against that believer, but against
the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from
studying the Word of God that Satan’s great enemy is Christ and he opposes us
because we belong to Christ. MacArthur
adds “When we are despised and attacked by the world, the real target is the
righteousness for which we stand and which we exemplify.” We continue to notice that the Beatitudes are
about righteousness as certainly is the case in this last one. A believer can easily escape persecution by
simply not living a righteous life as we saw earlier when we looked at the life
of Lot. There are times in a believer’s
life when they don’t take a stand for Jesus Christ and perhaps one of the most
common is having an unbelieving boss who wants you to do something wrong and
you do it. MacArthur writes “The world
will accept us if we are willing to put some distance between ourselves and the
Lord’s righteousness.”
As
Jesus’ ministry was close to coming to an end He would repeatedly and plainly
warn His disciples about this truth as seen in John 15:18-21 “18 “If the world
hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you
were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20
“Remember the word that I said to you, ’A slave is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they
will keep yours also. 21 “But
all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One
who sent Me.”
It
took many thousands of years of history before the world saw a perfect
Man. During that time it was easy to
look at a sinful man who was suppose to be a righteous man and see his failures
that putting him down for those failures.
Satan is good at pointing the finger as we can see in the early chapters
of the book of Job, and things have not changed today as he accuses us before
the Father in heaven, but we have an Advocate in heaven, Jesus Christ. When Christ came into the world a perfect Man
was seen and then all excuses for smugness and self-confidence vanished. One would think that the world would rejoice
when Christ came, but that was not the case as His life showed them that they
needed a Savior, but did not want One.
So the Crucified the Son of Glory, but thinking that was the end of Him,
God raised Him from the dead, and now all who truly have faith in Him for
salvation are a part of His body. Jesus
said that it was good for Him to go away, and the reason was that those who
would become a part of the body of Christ now are in every country telling
others of the good news of the gospel.
John
MacArthur writes “Aristides the Just was banished from ancient Athens. When a stranger asked an Athenian why
Aristides was voted out of citizenship he replied, ‘Because we became tired of
his always being just.’ A people who
prided themselves in civility and justice chafed when something or someone was too just.”
In
the history of the apostles we know that they lived a righteous life and for
their reward they were all persecuted and killed. History says that Peter was crucified upside
down because he did not feel he was worthy of dying like Christ did. I have also read that his wife was crucified
at the same time. Paul was beheaded
during the time of Nero who killed many believers. I have also read that John was boiled in oil,
but lived and so they sent him to Patmos where Jesus used him to write the last
book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.
I am certainly glade he wrote Revelation.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: To pursue living a righteous life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to continue to teach me contentment,
humility and to continue to have joy as
I study His Word each day.
6/12/2020 9:36 AM
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