SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/6/2021 9:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “A Disciple Confesses the Lord”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:32-33
Message of the verses: “32 “Everyone
therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My
Father who is in heaven. 33 “But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also
deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
Recently we have looked at disciples are to emulate
the Lord, and also not fear the world as seen in Matthew 10:24-31, and now we
are learning that a true disciple openly confesses the Lord before the world.
MacArthur
writes “In his book I Love Idi Amin,
Festo Kivengere, a leading evangelical minister in Uganda, tells the history of
persecution and martyrdom of Christians in that country. In 1885 three Christian boys, ranging in age
from eleven to fifteen, were forced to give their lives for Christ because they
would not renounce their faith in Him.
The king was adamantly opposed to Christianity and ordered the boys’ execution
if they did not recant. At the place of
execution the boys asked that the following message be given to the king: ‘Tell his majesty that he has put our bodies
in the fire but we won’t be long in the fire.
Soon we will be with Jesus, which is much better. But ask him to repent and change his mind or
he will land in a place of eternal fire.’
As they stood bound and awaiting death, they sang a song that soon
became greatly loved by Christians in that country as ‘The Martyrs’ Song.’ One verse testifies,
O that I
had wings like the angels,
I would
fly away and be with Jesus.
“The
youngest of the boys, named Yusufu, said, ‘Please don’t cut off my arms. I will not struggle in the fire that takes me
to Jesus.’ Because of the boy’s
testimony that day, forty adults trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, and
indirectly countless more converts were won to the Lord over a period of many
years. By 1887 a large number of other
Christians were martyred, many of them inspired by the fearless, loving
testimony of those three boys. None of
those martyrs knew much theology or much about the Bible, because most of them
were illiterate and all of them were relatively new believers. But they had a deep love for Jesus that they
refused to hide, no matter what the cost.
As is nearly always the case, those who died were replaced severalfold
by new converts who came to Christ because of their testimony.”
That
is all we will be looking at today, but these stories that MacArthur has
written on in the last few Spiritual Diaries that I have written mean a lot to
me, knowing that what we as believers are a part of is very real. Now today I am going to watch my grandson
play soccer in the middle of our state of Ohio for a championship game for
Christian schools. Looking forward to
this very much, and one reason is because the team he is playing for is very
close to each other became they are close to the Lord.
11/6/2021 10:29 AM
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