SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/7/2021 10:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Two Ways”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 7:13-14
Message of the verses: “13 “Enter through
the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to
destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the
road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
John
MacArthur says “We can pay nothing for salvation, yet coming to Jesus Christ
costs everything we have. ‘If anyone
comes to Me,’ Jesus says, ‘and does not hate his own father and mother and wife
and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be
My disciple. Whoever does not carry his
own cross [a willingness even to die if necessary] and come after Me cannot be
My disciple’ (Luke 14:26).” After this
Jesus goes on to show the seriousness of deciding to follow Christ, as we
continue to look at Luke’s gospel: “For
which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and
calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?...Or what king,
when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and
take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the
one coming against him with twenty thousand?’” (Luke 14:28 & 31).
Now
everyone who says yes to Christ has to say no to the things of the world, and
the reason is because to be in Christ is to rely on His power and not our own
power, and also to be willing to forsake our own way for His. What this can cause is persecution, ridicule,
and tribulation. In our Lords last instructions
to His disciples, Jesus several times reminded the disciples of the price they
would pay for following Him, and to see this we will look at John 15:19-20 “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.” Let us
also look at John 16:22 and then 33: “"Therefore
you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.” “33 “These things I have
spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have
tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.’”
One
thing is for sure and that is when we identify ourselves with Jesus Christ we
declare war on the devil, and he declares war on us. The devil whom we formerly served now becomes
our great enemy, and the ideas and ways we once held dear now become our great
temptations and pitfalls.
MacArthur
concludes: “With the warnings about
suffering the Lord also gives promises that our hearts will rejoice (John
16:22b) and that we are to take courage because He has overcome the world
(16:33b). But He promises to enable us
to prevail over those times of suffering, not to escape them.”
2/7/2021 10:58 PM
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