SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/9/2021 10:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
“The Barriers of Personal Comfort”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
8:18-20
Message of the verses: “18 Now when Jesus
saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the
sea. 19 Then a scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow
You wherever You go." 20 Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes and
the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay
His head." 21 Another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit me
first to go and bury my father." 22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow
Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’”
We
have been talking about the, what may seem as a strange statement, that Jesus
told to the scribe who said that he would follow Him where ever You go. What was the purpose of that statement that
Jesus gave to this scribe? Jesus wanted
the scribe to take stock of the genuineness of his commitment that he had just
made to Jesus. Was it a spur of the
moment statement, or had he thought through it for some time and was ready to
give whatever it took to be a follower of Jesus? MacArthur writes “Impressive words of
affirmation are easy to make, especially when one does not know the cost of
commitment involved. The Lord knew that
the initial declared faith of many of His followers was shallow and superficial.” I want to look at some verses from the 2nd
chapter of John that go along with what we are talking about here. “23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was
doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part,
was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need
anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man” (John
2:23-25). We can see that the Lord had no faith in their
faith because He knew it was not genuine, He knew that because He is God and
knows all things. Following Jesus can
mean at times suffering for the cause of Christ. I want to look at another passage from the
ninth chapter of Acts as this chapter is about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus,
who became the apostle Paul. “10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus
named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And
he said, "Here I am, Lord." 11 And the Lord said to him,
"Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of
Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named
Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his
sight." 13 But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about
this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has
authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 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.’” As true believers in Jesus Christ there may
be times when we have to suffer for the cause of Christ. I just read as a part of my devotions this
morning the 11th chapter of Hebrews which talks about faith, and
talks about suffering of the OT saints.
If you have time read through that chapter soon.
It
seems that we have been looking at several different Scriptural references that
help us understand what is going on in our verses and now we want to look at
another set of verses from a parable that Jesus told in the 13th
chapter of Matthew. Before we look at
that I want to say that in the 12th chapter of Matthew the Jews were
accusing Jesus of doing His miracles in the power of Satan to which Jesus spoke
to them about what we call the “unpardonable sin.” It could only happen when Jesus was on the
earth so don’t let anyone tell you different.
Jesus did His miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit which came upon
Him at His baptism and these Jews were saying they were done by Satan’s power
going against the power of the Holy Spirit so in Matthew chapter 13 we see that
Jesus has pretty much given up on the Jews and begins to teach in parables of
which the first one is the parable of the sower which we will now look at parts
of it. 1 That day Jesus went out of the
house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got
into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. 3 And
He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went
out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the
birds came and ate them up. 5 “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did
not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth
of soil. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they
had no root, they withered away. 7 “Others fell among the thorns, and the
thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil and yielded
a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears,
let him hear.’” “18 “Hear then the
parable of the sower. 19 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does
not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been
sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. 20 “The
one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the
word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in
himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution
arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 “And the one on whom
seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the
worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it
becomes unfruitful. 23 “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil,
this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit
and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matt.
13:1-9, 18-23), As we can see there is
only one portion of where the seeds are sown that they grow up and produce a
large crop, the other seeds that were sown were produced nothing. The scribe was a part of the seeds sown that
produced nothing.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: My
personal comfort is surely not the most important thing in my life, but
bringing glory to God is foremost in my life, even though at times I times I
fail to do that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire for the Spirit of God to continue to
show me more about revival so that I can pass it along to those in our revival
prayer group. I also pray that the group
will grow as the Spirit brings more people into it.
4/9/2021 10:36 AM
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