SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2022 10:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Terror of the Father”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
17:5-6
Message of the verses: “5 While he was
still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice
out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am
well-pleased; listen to Him!" 6 And when the disciples heard this,
they fell on their faces and were much afraid.”
I think at times that I really don’t have the right
respect for God that I should. I am
reading a book about this and have been convicted that I need more reverence for
God. As we look at these verses we can
see that even at the voice of God the disciples “fell on their faces and were
much afraid.” When we look at the words “much
afraid” in the NASB, and then look at it in the NASB95 the word is changed to terrified. I looked up the meaning of this word and that
is a very good translation of what the Greek word means. I have thought about what would happen to me
if I meet the Lord this side of heaven, and I think terrified would be what I
would experience, terrified because of the awesomeness of His person. I look at the first chapter of the book of
Revelation and in that chapter this is what we read about the Apostle John when
he sees the glorified Christ, and remember this is who in John’s gospel we see
John resting his head on our Lord’s shoulder at the Last Supper. “17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a
dead man” (Rev. 1:17a). Isaiah had a similar
experience, and so did the father of Samson along with his wife as after they
knew who it was that they were talking to they both thought that they would
soon die. Well let me get back to
finishing up on these verses as I just had to write what I wrote before
continuing our look at these verses.
I
guess it is entirely possible that the voice of the Lord who was speaking was
talking directly to Peter when He said “Listen to Me.” He may have been saying in effect “If My Son
tells you he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die, believe Him. If He tells you He will be raised up on the
third day, believe Him. If He tells you
to take up your own cross and follow Him, that is what you are to do. If He says He will come again in glory, then
believe Him and live accordingly.”
Peter
and his companions knew at this time that they were standing in the presence of
God as I was talking about in the first paragraph. John MacArthur writes “As would be expected, when
the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid. Peter was probably so utterly traumatized
that he promptly forgot about his presumptuous suggestion to build the three
tabernacles.”
MacArthur
goes on: “The combined awareness of the
Lord’s grace and His majesty, His love and His justice, His friendship and His
lordship should cause a kind of spiritual tension in every believer. On the one hand he rejoices in his loving
fellowship with the Lord because of His gracious kindness, and on the other
hand he has reverential fear as he contemplates His awesome holiness and
righteousness. As the believer walks in
obedience to God, he experiences the comfort of His presence. But as he walks in disobedience, he should
feel the terror of that same presence.
Proverbs declares that spiritual wisdom begins with the fear of God
(Prov. 9:10).” I feel good when
MacArthur aggress with me.
The
truth is that sinful men in the presence of God always want to hide. This is seen in the very first chapters of
the Bible as we see that when the Lord created Adam and Eve that they had
perfect fellowship with Him, but then after they sinned they hid from the Lord
as seen in Genesis 3:8 “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” I mentioned Isaiah in the first paragraph and
so let’s look at Isaiah 6:5 “Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’” Now as Isaiah stood in the presence of
perfect holiness, the sense of his own utter sinfulness overwhelmed him. One of my favorite characters in the Old
Testament is Daniel and in Daniel 8:15-17 we read “15 When I, Daniel, had seen
the vision, I sought to understand it; and behold, standing before me was one
who looked like a man. 16 And I heard the voice of a man between the banks
of Ulai, and he called out and said, "Gabriel, give this man an
understanding of the vision." 17 So
he came near to where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face; but
he said to me, "Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the
time of the end.’”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: The fear of the Lord is something that I
continue to learn about, and I am thankful for the Lord’s teaching me about
this, and pray He will continue to do so.
My Steps of Faith for Today: As I continue to read the book that I am
reading, my prayer is that the Spirit of God will continue to teach me about
the Lord.
10/24/2022 10:52 AM
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