SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2021 8:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1“Man’s Lost Condition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:36b
Message of the
verse: “because
they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
In today’s SD we will begin to look
at Jesus’ second motive for ministry and that was the knowledge of man’s lost
condition. Jesus came to seek and to
save those who were lost. Jesus saw the
people around Him in the reality of their need, and He was moved by their diseases
and sickness, and so according to verse 35 He healed every kind of their
diseases and sickness. However He was
moved even more deeply by the needs that most of the multitude did not even realize
that they had and that was to be freed from their bondage to sin. Every person who has ever been born from the
seed of man is in bondage to sin. Jesus
was never fooled by their religious fronts and their spiritual facades as He
saw their hearts, and He knew that inwardly that “they were distressed and
downcast.”
John MacArthur writes “Skullo (to be ‘distressed’) has the root
meaning of flaying or skinning, and the derived meanings of being harassed or
severely troubled. It often connoted the
ideas of being battered, bruised, mangled, ripped apart, worn out, and
exhausted. Jesus saw the multitudes as
being inwardly devastated by their sinful and hopeless condition.”
He goes on to talk about the Greek
word rhipto translated “(to be
downcast) has the basic meaning of being thrown down prostrate and utterly
helpless, as from drunkenness or a mortal wound. The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) uses the
word of Sisera as he ‘was lying dead with a tent peg in his temple’ (Judges
4:22). Jesus saw the ‘downcast’
multitudes as ‘sheep without a shepherd’ to protect and care for them. They were helpless and defenseless,
spiritually battered, thrown down, and without leadership or supply.”
We don’t have to look to far to see
who were the problem makers that were the ones who were suppose to be leading
these people as they were the false shepherds from the scribes and the
Pharisees as it was these very “shepherds” who were largely responsible for the
people’s confusion and of their helplessness.
It runs in my mind that Ezekiel wrote about “false shepherds” in his
book, speaking of the false shepherds of Israel. Jesus talked about this when He was talking
about the blind leading the blind, and so both would fall into a hole, and that
was not only true in His day, but true today.
I recently had an experience with this when I attended a funeral and as
I listened to this so-called church leader it made my blood boil and really
wondered about where the one she was talking about was. She seemed to look at me a lot during the
service and all I can say is that I am happy, for her sake, that she could not
read my mind. The shepherds of Jesus’
day and of our day were responsible for the people’s confusion and for their
hopelessness. These religious leaders
gave them no spiritual pastures, nor did they feed them, give them any drink,
or bind up their wounds. As mentioned
they were the blind leading the blind.
These children of Israel were spiritually brutalized by these uncaring,
unloving leaders who should have been meeting their spiritual needs, but in
fact were unable to do so and so consequently, the people had been left weary,
desolate, and forlorn. In Matthew 10:6
Jesus calls them “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” God’s chosen people
who had been left to perish.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: It is my
great desire to always tell the truth as I write these Spiritual Diaries, and
the truth is only found in the Word of God, not always in some religious places
like churches in our world today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am
trusting the Lord for a good time as I play golf with a number of missionaries
today.
7/7/2021 8:59
AM
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