SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/20/2023 12:45 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The Poverty of the Rich”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 19:23-26
Message of the verses: “23 And Jesus said
to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven. 24 "And again I say to you, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God." 25 And when the disciples heard this, they were
very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And looking
upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but
with God all things are possible.’”
I think that it is best that before we consider what
Jesus meant by saying that it is impossible, we must consider some reasons why
it is difficult to enter into the kingdom of heaven. First thing is that the rich tend to have
false security in their riches, and this is because wealth can provide for all
physical needs and a great many things beyond needs, the wealthy are inclined
to rely on their money to buy whatever they want, so they see little reason to
depend on the Lord. MacArthur adds “That
is one reason there are ‘not many wise,…mighty,…noble; but God has chosen the
foolish,…weak,…base,…despised’ (1 Cor. 1:26-28). The poor, on the other hand, became the
special objects of and responders to our Lord’s teaching (Luke 4:18).”
It
has been a few years ago that I taught through the book of Revelation in our
Sunday school class and even more years when I studied Revelation using my
Spiritual Diaries, in fact I put my studies of Revelation on my blogs two
times. I have to say that when I became
a believe back in 1974 that the Lord used end time prophecy to draw me to
Himself. Ok why am I talking about
Revelation when we are studying the 19th chapter of Matthew? Well I want to talk about one of the cities
that the Lord wrote letters to which is found in the end of the 3rd
chapter of Revelation, a city called Laodicea.
Jesus was very hard on that city.
Let me just quote what He said to them.
“14
"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and
true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your
deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So
because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit (vomit) you out
of My mouth. 17 ‘Because
you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by
fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe
yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and
eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I
reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at
the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in
to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant
to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with
My Father on His throne. 22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
says to the churches.’’”
It was in the year 60 A.D. that Laodicea was
destroyed by and earthquake and so the Roman government told the leaders that
they would give them money to rebuild the city.
The leaders stated that they did not want money from the government of
Rome as they would take care of it by themselves, which is what they did. Nowfast forward to 90 A. D. which is probably
the year that the church of Laodicea received this letter from the Lord and
perhaps you can see why this church was arrogant thinking that they need
nothing. This church follows the name of
what the Lord is telling His disciples in Matthew 19:23-26, that is “The
Poverty of the Rich.” These people
thought they were in need of nothing because they were rich, and Jesus tells
them that because of their richness they were spiritually very poor, in fact
Jesus has nothing good to say to this church, one of only two churches He wrote
to in Revelation 2-3. I believe that the
churches in Revelation chapters 2-3 are in prophetic order that is that
they all go downhill in their spirituality. It was in the early 1900’s that
the major churches spirituality is that of Laodicea. This is the what many of
the churches in our country and world are like today, that is “The Poverty of
Riches.” Not all churches are like this
as I also believe that each church listed in Revelation 2-3 are seen in the
world today.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Spiritual richness is head and shoulders
about physical riches.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Last night in our annual business meeting for
our church the man in charge of the budget showed a series of slides and one of
them showed that the majority of people in our church gave only $2000.00 for
the entire year. I think that this
totaled less than $30,000 for the year.
Our budget is over a million dollars a year and so the majority is truly
not holding up their own weight as far as giving. I will not say where our giving was as
husband and wife but to say it was certainly not in the majority. I believe that the Lord owns everything and
that we are stewards of what He has entrusted us with.
3/20/2023 1:19 PM
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