SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2020 9:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Being Salt”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:13
Message of the
verse: “13
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can
it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be
thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
I
mentioned that I would give what John MacArthur’s comments were on what Jesus
was talking about in this SD. He
believes that the primary characteristic Jesus emphasizes is that of
preservation. To understand this we must
look at what Believers are to do while on planet earth, and that is to having a
preserving influence in the world as they retard moral and spiritual
spoilage. I have to say that there is a
lot of that going on in our world today, which means that the church has a lot
of work to do in order to retard all of the moral and spiritual spoilage that
is going on. MacArthur writes “When the
church is taken out of the world in the rapture, Satan’s perverse and wicked
power will be unleashed in an unprecedented way (see 2 Thess. 2:7-12). Evil will go wild and demons will be almost unbridled. Once God’s people are removed it will take
only seven years for the world to descend to the very pits of hellishness (see
Dan. 9:27; Rev. 6-19).” Let me say that
Revelation chapters 6-19 are the chapters that describe the “Tribulation”
period on earth where three out of four people who are in this period will die,
so this is what MacArthur is speaking about when the church is gone from the
earth. Yes, people will be saved,
perhaps more than at any time in the history of the world, but many of them
will die for their faith, being killed by those who hate God. Let us look at 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 “7 For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he
is taken out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord
will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of
His coming; 9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and
false wonders, 10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who
perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 11
For this reason God will
send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took
pleasure in wickedness.” I want for just
a moment to talk about what Paul states in verses 11 and 12 as I have been
mulling this over in my mind for some weeks not. The question is that, especially in the
United States even unbelievers have heard of the rapture of the church and when
that event happens I was wondering how those unbelievers who heard the truth
about the rapture would not help but understand what just happened when
billions of people on the earth disappear.
My thoughts came to what is seen in verses 11-12, and that is that once
this happens those whom the Lord will call to salvation will believe, realizing
that if they would have accepted Christ as their Savior and Lord that they
would be in heaven at that time. However
those who reject what just happened will believe the lie that will be taught
after this event by the antichrist. My
thoughts are that the lie that will be stated is that aliens came and took all
of the troublemakers off the earth. Ok
back to being salt after we look at Daniel 9:27 “"And he will make a firm covenant with
the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to
sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come
one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed,
is poured out on the one who makes desolate.’”
(The “he” is speaking of the antichrist.)
Right
now we believers are in the world being salt.
John MacArthur quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and with that quotation we
will end this SD. “Most competent historians
are agreed in saying that what undoubtedly saved [England] from a revolution
such as that experienced in France at the end of the eighteenth century was
nothing but the Evangelical Revival.
This was not because anything was done directly, but because masses of
individuals had become Christians and were living this better life and had this
higher outlook. The whole political
situation was affected, and the great Acts of Parliament which were passed in
the last century were mostly due to the fact that there were such large numbers
of individual Christians found in the land.”
Oh that this would happen in our country today.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Being salt in this world may not seem like I
am doing much, but in the end when I get to heaven perhaps I will see that
being salt did effect both believers and unbelievers alike.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It surely is my desire to be salt in a very
tasteless world.
6/26/2020 9:47 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment