SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2021 10:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Right Attitudes”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:2a
Message of the
verse: “The
first, Simon, who is called Peter,”
We have been looking at a third element
in Peter’s training from our Lord, and we looked at four different steps in
this process in our SD from yesterday and not want to begin with number five in
today’s SD.
Fifth, Peter needed to learn love,
and I suppose that is something that we all need to learn more about. The thing that caused Peter to deny the Lord
was a lack of genuine love, and it was about that love that our Lord pressed
him three times, something that we have gone over, but not with this in
view. It was the Holy Spirit that led
Peter and John to minister together in the early years of the church, and Peter
no doubt learned many lessons in true love from John, as John knew much about
love as can be seen in his NT writings.
MacArthur writes “Jesus’ washing the
disciples’ feet not only was and example of humility but of the source of
humility—love. Service to others, no
matter how costly or demeaning is neither humble nor godly if done from any
motive but love (1 Cor. 13:3). Peter
records the lesson he learned: ‘Above
all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude
of sins’ (1Pet. 4:8).”
We
now move on to number six and that is that Peter needed to learn courage. We have talked about what the Lord said to
Peter about how he would die in order to bring glory to the Lord, and this
would be great suffering on his part, but it also pointed to the need of great
courage. As we move through the book of
Acts, particularly the first 12 chapters which are mostly about Peter’s leading
of the church we find that Peter no longer was fearful like he was in the
priests courtyard the night of Christ arrest and eventual crucifixion. Here is an example of his boldness found in
Acts 4:10-12 as Peter is speaking to the rulers of Israel “9 if we are on trial today for a benefit done to
a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you
crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this
man stands here before you in good health. 11 “He is the STONE WHICH WAS
REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone.
12 “And there is salvation
in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given
among men by which we must be saved.’”
This certainly took great courage, and that came from the filling of God’s
Holy Spirit as Jesus promised. This story from Acts continues in verses 19-20
as Peter continues to talk to these rulers:
“19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is
right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the
judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”
More
from MacArthur: “Peter often learned his
lessons slowly, but he learned them well.
He took the initiative to seek someone to replace Judas among the
apostles (Acts 1:15-17), became the first spokesman of the church at Pentecost
(2:14), was the first to defend the gospel before the Sanhedrin (4:8), was the
first to enact church discipline (in dealing with the deceit of Ananias and
Sapphira, 5:3-9), confronted Simon the magician when he attempted to pervert
God’s power to his own advantage (8: 18-23), healed Aeneas and raised Dorcas
from the dead (9:34, 40), was the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles
(Acts 10), and wrote two marvelous epistles in which he humbly included all the
lessons Jesus had patiently taught him.
“Peter
was a man God touched with His grace in a special way. As a ‘wandering heart’ that God finally
captured and claimed for Himself, Peter would have sung joyfully the words of
Robert Robinson’s beloved hymn ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing’:
O to
grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m
constrained to be!
Let Thy
goodness, like a fetter,
Blind my
wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to
wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to
leave the God I love;
Take my
heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it
for thy courts above.”
It
is reported in father Eusebius’ book Ecclesiastical
History that Peter had a cruel death as he was to watch the crucifixion of
his wife as Eusebius writes that Peter stood at the foot of his wife’s cross
and kept repeating to her, ‘Remember the Lord.
Remember the Lord.’ After she died, it is said he pleaded to be
crucified upside down, because he was unworthy to die as his Lord had died.
One
of my favorite verses is the very last verse found in the very last book Peter
wrote and his life can be summed up in these last words “but grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory,
both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the
day of eternity. Amen.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: “but grow in
the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be
the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
8/5/2021 10:49 AM
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