SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/1/2021 10:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Vindication by God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
10:26-27
Message of the verses: “26 “Therefore do
not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and
hidden that will not be known. 27 “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in
the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon
the housetops.”
We
ended up our SD yesterday with a quotation from John MacArthur talking about
secret societies that a person has to get into in order to know the secrets
that they have. This is the opposite of
what Jesus is teaching in these verses.
How do we best understand the truths of the Word of God? Well we have to first of all be a true
born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and then we have to study the Word of God
as we read it in order for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the truths found
in it. The next things we have to do is
to attend church and sit under a Bible believing Pastor, and Sunday school teacher. Now comes for the difficult part, at least it
is for me and that is to meditate, and pray over God’s Word in solitude and in
the company of fellow believers, God opens up His truth to the believer’s
hearts as we do this and the result is that we are to share what God has taught
us by doing all of these things with others, unlike those secret societies we
talked about yesterday. As we are told
in our verses for today we are to proclaim these truths upon the housetops.
MacArthur
writes: “During New Testament times,
Jewish rabbis would often train their students to speak by standing beside them
and whispering in their ears. What the
student heard whispered, he would then speak aloud. What the Lord has, in effect, whispered in
our ears through His Word, we are to speak aloud to the world, holding nothing
back. What the Lord has made known to us;
we are to make known to others.”
I
believe that we understand the differences between shouting from the housetops
in our time than when Jesus was on the earth as the rooftops that were in our
Lord’s times, and perhaps still in different parts of the world, were flat and
people would go up there for meals and to keep cool in the cooler parts of the
day.
“Making
God’s truth known includes teaching the so-called hard sayings of Scripture,
writes John MacArthur. “We are not to be
needlessly offensive, and never offensive in our approach or attitude. But when the fullness of God’s revelation is
taught, the world will invariably be offended, because it will stand
accused. Fallen man does not like to hear
that he is fallen; sinful man does not like to face the reality that he is
sinful; rebellious man does not like to be told that he is God’s enemy. Those are truths that Jesus and the apostles
never refused to proclaim, and it was because they boldly taught such truths
that the world rejected and persecuted them.”
In our Church service yesterday our Pastor spoke from 1 Timothy 2:9-15,
a portion of Scripture that 50 or so years ago was not a problem for most
people to listen to. However because of
the women’s movement this portion of Scripture has come under attack because
the women don’t understand what Paul was really talking about. My point here is that it is a tough portion
of Scripture, but because it is in the Word of God it needs to be taught. Another tough portion of Scripture is from
the book that I am teaching in our Sunday school class, and that is the book of
Hebrews. I have had a few people up and
leave our class because they did not like what I was saying in some of the tougher
parts of Hebrews. These things bother me
is all I have to say about that.
When
you go to a church where you are only taught the positive things from the Word
of God, like God is love, but don’t teach that God is also just and God will
judge sinners if they don’t come to understand the truth of needing to come to
the Lord Jesus Christ and confess their sins and then believe that He is the
only One who can save them if they just believe what He has done for them and
open up their hearts and receive Him as Savior and Lord.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Learning the tough things from Scripture is
difficult and perhaps has the need of mediating on them, something that has
been hard for me to do, but something needed to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord is in complete control of
what is going on in our country, and that whatever happens will bring glory to
the Lord even though I may not totally understand it now.
11/1/2021 11:14 AM
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