SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/7/2023 9:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The
Declaration To True Spiritual Leaders”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
23:8-12
Message of the verses: “8 “But do not be
called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 “And do not call anyone
on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 “And
do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 11 “But
the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 “And whoever exalts himself
shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”
What
we have here is a major division in John MacArthur’s commentary as in this
section he gives what is in fact the opposite of what Jesus just spoke about
the scribes and the Pharisees and then gives us what the declaration to true
spiritual leaders is.
Now
before I get into the short things that MacArthur has to say in this
introduction I want to talk about the first part of verse nine, and will
probably have more to say about it in our next SD. I have mentioned in earlier Spiritual Diaries
that around 18 years or so ago we got some new neighbors and I had the
privilege to lead a fairly large number of this family to the Lord. They were all catholic but were still very
much interested in the gospel, especially the end time’s part of God’s
Word. At that time the “Left Behind”
books had just come out and so our neighbor next door began to read these
books. Her mother lived a block away and
it seemed that there was competition as to who could go through this series of
books the fasted. At any rate as stated
a large number from this family confessed Christ as their Savior. I have not seen any of them for a long time,
and therefore do not know what they are doing.
At any rate we had some Bible Studies and were talking about the
Catholic religion and I mentioned that there was a verse in Matthew that said
it was wrong to call anyone father. I
did not really know where it was at the time, but as we began to look for this
verse Beth, my next door neighbor found it.
I have to say that that time in my life was one of the best spiritually
and it had to do with how many people were being led to the Lord. It was a very bad time in my life as far as
financial times, but God is faithful and things began to turn around in that
area too. My wife and I moved to Aruba
and lived there for six months working on a job there. God is surely faithful in caring for us at
that time and our time in Aruba was very rich in spiritual blessings as I was
able to actually preach a couple of times at the church we were attending there
in Aruba. I still keep touch once in a
while with the friends that we made there.
I loved living in that small island of Aruba, as the people were very
friendly there and were interested in spiritual things.
Now
I want to quote the very short paragraph that John MacArthur writes as he
begins this next section in his commentary.
“Contrary to the proud and ostentatious practices of the scribes and
Pharisees, Jesus declared, true spiritual leaders are to avoid elevated titles
and be willing to accept lowly service.”
It was “to avoid elevated titles” that has caught my attention in this
section, something we will look more at in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I just want to say that the Lord has
given me many wonderful spiritual memories since He saved me almost 50 years
ago. It is always good to serve the
Lord.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: It is my
desire to continue to serve the Lord in the ways that He has called me to serve
Him.
10/7/2023 10:12 AM
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