SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/10/2020
10:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2-Verbal
Insults
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
5:10-12
Message of the verses: “10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing
right, for the Kingdom of Heaven
is theirs. 11 “God blesses you
when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of
evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great
reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted
in the same way” (NLT).
I remarked that I had to think about
what was coming next as I ended our last SD and I have decided to just quote
what John MacArthur has to say next in his commentary on this sub-section as I
think that people today are kind of caught up in what he is talking about here.
“God does not call His people to be
sanctified celebrities, using their worldly reputations in a self-style effort
to bring Him glory, using their power to supplement His power and their wisdom
to enhance His gospel. We can mark it
down as a cardinal principle that to the extent the world a Christian cause or
person—or that a Christian causes or person embraces the world—to that extent
that cause or person has compromised the gospel and scriptural standards.” I suppose that one of the first things that I
think about when it comes to these types of people is movie stars who claim
that they are believers and then go out and are in “R” rated moves using all
kinds of foul language.
Think about if Paul would have capitalized
on his human credentials he could have drawn greater crowds perhaps and
certainly have received a greater welcome wherever he went. Think about him being alive today and doing
this. He would be the number one man on
FB and Twitter. However God certainly did not call him to do those types of
things and Paul surely knew it, but my thoughts are that he may have been
tempted to do these kind of things as we read about his thorn in the flesh in 2
Corinthians that God used to keep him humble.
Paul writes to the Philippians the following about all his accolades “7 But whatever things were gain to me, those
things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count
all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but
rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” (Phil.
3:7-8).
Paul’s marks of authenticity that
Paul carried as an Apostle and a minister of Jesus Christ were his credentials
as a servant and also a sufferer as he describes in 2 Cor. 11:23-27 “23 Are they servants of Christ?-I speak
as if insane-I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten
times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from
the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once
I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in
the deep. 26 I have been on
frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my
countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the
wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been
in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst,
often without food, in cold and exposure.”
Jesus said that all of this would happen to Paul after He saved him as
seen in Acts chapter nine.
What
did Paul actually boast about? 5 On
behalf of such a man I will boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except
in regard to my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:5). Paul was a Christian who totally relied upon
the power of the Holy Spirit when he was preaching and as he wrote in 1
Corinthians 2:1 he did not “determine to know nothing among you except Jesus
Christ and Him crucified.” Paul goes on
to talk more about this in verses 2-5 “2 For I determined to know nothing among
you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in
fear and in much trembling, 4 and my
message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest
on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
MacArthur
concludes “We live in a day when the church, more than ever before, is engaged
in self-glorification and an attempt to gain worldly recognition that must be
repulsive to God. When the church tries
to use the things of the world to do the work of heaven, it only succeeds in
hiding heaven from the world. And when
the world is pleased with the church, we can be sure that God is not. We can be equally sure that when we are
pleasing to God, we will not be pleasing to the system of Satan.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The things that I am learning about in this
last Beatitude are very difficult to deal with, but also very true as is all of
the Word of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord to give me His grace each
day in order to do the things that He has called me to do on that day.
6/10/2020 11:30 AM
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