SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/25/2022 12:01 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “They
are Taught by the Lord”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
16:5-12
Message of the verses: “““5 And the
disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread. 6 And Jesus
said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
Sadducees." 7 And they began to discuss among themselves, saying, "It
is because we took no bread." 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said,
"You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you
have no bread? 9 “Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the
five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? 10 “Or the seven loaves of the
four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up? 11 “How is it that you
do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." 12 Then they understood that
He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.”
We begin with an important quotation from John
MacArthur: “As the believer studies God’s
Word and allows God’s Spirit to interpret and apply it, he is divinely enabled
to understand even the deep things of God.
Though utterly blind in his natural mind and spirit, by God’s gracious
provision he is given knowledge and understanding of the most important truths
in the universe. As with the two
disciples to whom Jesus appeared on the Emmaus road, a Christian’s heart should
burn with wonder and glory as the Lord makes His truth come alive (Luke 24:32).” I just have to say that that passage is truly
one of my favorite passages in the New Testament.
In his commentary MacArthur tells of a blind French girl
who became a believer by reading the Bible of Mark in Braille. She would read the Bible so much that the
fingers on her hands got so bad that she was not able to read the Word any
more. Her fingers had to be peeled off,
but after that she could not use them as there was no more feeling in
them. She then picked up the book to
kiss it goodbye and found that her lips were even more sensitive than her
fingers. This is a person who truly
loved the Lord and His Word, as God will always find a way to feed the heart
that hungers for His truth.
MacArthur concludes this section with another story. I guess it is story time for this SD today,
but they are good stories.
“The famous American revolutionary hero Ethan Allen was
an avowed atheist and wrote a book denying the deity of Christ. When his devout Christian wife died the
daughter was torn between the ways of her parents. Some years after her mother died, the
daughter was also struck with a terminal illness. As she lay dying, she said to her father, ‘You
will bury me by the side of Mother, for that was her dying request. But Father, you and Mother have never agreed
on religion. Mother often spoke to me of
the blessed Savior who died for us all, and she used to pray for both you and
me that the Savior might be our Friend and that we might all see Him when He
sits enthroned in His glory.’ Looking
desperately into her father’s eyes, she pleaded, ‘I don’t feel I can go into
death alone. Tell me whom I shall
follow, your or mother? Shall I reject
Christ as you’ve taught me, or shall I accept Him, as Mother wanted me to do?’ Deeply moved and heartbroken, her father
replied, ‘My child, cling to your Mother’s Savior. She was right. And I, too, shall try to follow you to that
blessed place.’
“Only through Christ are the blind made to see.”
I want to give you a heads up on our next section as I
have listened to the sermon in which that chapter was written on and there are
some things in that all important chapter that I was surprised to learn and
look forward to going over in the commentary.
8/25/2022 12:20 PM
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