SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/18/2021 10:29 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “The Hatred” (By Family)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 10:21
Message of the verse: “21 “And brother
will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children
will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.”
We will be looking at the main section “The Heated”
and have something to say about that, but then will move onto the first
sub-section “By Family” as the main part of our Spiritual Diary for today.
“Persecution
of believers is also expressed through the hatred of families who betray their
own members and through the hatred of society in general” (MacArthur).
By Family
We have been looking at persecution in this section
from Matthew chapter ten and in that we see our Lord say that believers are
promised that they may even be persecuted by their own families. During this time of instruction our Lord said
“For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” He then quoted from Micah 7:6
as He warned that “a man’s enemies will be the members of his household” (Matt.
10:35-36). In Mark 13:12 which is a
chapter about the tribulation period, which probably took place about a year
after what Jesus was saying in Matthew chapter ten Jesus repeated the same
warning. We have been saying that what
Jesus is saying in Matthew chapter ten has a telescope affect and thus as we
read about the tribulation in Mark 13 it is no wonder that Jesus repeats
Himself.
During
the second and third centuries, during the Roman persecutions there were an
untold number of believers who were betrayed to civil authorities by a brother,
a father, or even a child. That was a
tragic practice, but has been repeated many times, and it is not unknown even
in our own days that we are living in; in fact I would say that it is growing
in greater numbers.
I
have mentioned that in certain “religious” cultures when a person becomes a
true believer a funeral service will be held for them indicating that they are
dead to their family. Satan is behind
all of the false religions in the world and so we find in those religions that
if a person becomes a born-again believer in Jesus Christ that they should die,
or at least be removed from the house they are living in. “Stronger than natural love are the love that
is of God and the hatred that is of Satan” (MacArthur).
MacArthur
concludes: “Speaking of the end times,
perhaps the kingdom age, Zechariah prophesied:
‘"And it will come about that if anyone still prophesies, then his
father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall not live,
for you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD’; and his father and mother
who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.’ It may be that one day believing parents will
kill their children who are false prophets.”
It is my opinion that this could happen during the kingdom age.
10/18/2021 10:49 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment