SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/31/2023 8:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Perils”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 24:21-28
Message of the verses: “21 for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has
not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. 22 “And
unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for
the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. 23 “Then if anyone says to
you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him.
24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs
and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25 “Behold, I have
told you in advance. 26 “If therefore they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the
wilderness,’ do not go forth, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do
not believe them. 27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east, and
flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 “Wherever
the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
This will be the last Spiritual Diary posted for the
year of our Lord 2023, and I have to say a couple of things, perhaps
three. It will be a short one; it will
be just an introduction to these verses as there are two sub-sections that I
will begin to look at, Lord willing tomorrow.
The third thing I want to mention is that I have been posting my
Spiritual Diaries onto my two blogs since my wife and I were living in Kauai in
2011 and I believe that the Lord has called me to write what I have learned
from my constant study of His Word and put into Spiritual Diaries for a very
long time, somewhere in the early 2000’s.
I had studied the Word before that but hand not used the format of Spiritual
Diaries. Over the first 12 plus years of
putting my Spiritual Diaries onto a blog the Lord certainly has blessed as
people from around the world have looked at them, and that is all because of
God’s Holy Spirit doing this. This being
the last day of 2023 I can say that this year there have been more Spiritual
Diaries than in the first eleven and a half years, and for that I am in awe,
thankful that the Lord through His Holy Spirit has done this. With that said I want to now quote John MacArthur’s
introduction to his section of verses in Matthew 24:21-28.
“Jesus
identifies three more signs of His return, signs that will occur immediately
after the abomination of desolation and that will warrant fast flight into the
mountains. Those signs will be: severe calamity
(vv.16-22), subtle confusion (vv. 23-20-27); and sinful corruption (v. 28).”
I
am not sure why he put verses 16-22 here in the first set of verses when in his
commentary “Severe Calamity” looks at verses 21-22. Perhaps it was a typo or something else that
we will discover later on.
I
want to wish all readers of this SD a very Happy New Year.
12/31/2023 8:29 AM
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