SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2024 8:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Alertness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:37-42
Message of the verses: “37 “For the coming
of the Son of Man will be just
like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and
took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 “Then there
will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 “Two
women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be
left. 42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is
coming.”
I want to begin this Spiritual Diary with a reminder
once again, and that is that chapters 24-25 of Matthew are all about the
tribulation period. I can remember when
I first became a believer and I was listening to Hal Lindsey’s tapes and reading
his books on the end times and he stated that this section had to happen before
the rapture of the church, but I am afraid that he was wrong about the timing
of this section of Scripture, as it is in the tribulation period, the 70th
week of Daniel’s prophecy found in chapter nine of Daniel.
Now
I have highlighted the words “just like” found in verse 37 and I believe that this means that
the time of Noah, just before he and his family go into the ark are similar to
the time before the Lord will return from heaven to set up His kingdom, similar
in many ways. John MacArthur in his
commentary writes about something that happened in Matthew 16:1-3 “1 The
Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them
a sign from heaven.
2 But He replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be
fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 "And in the morning, ‘There will
be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to
discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?” I think that the highlighted portions of
these verses make the point that I want to make here and that is that these
Pharisees had seen many, many signs that Jesus did to prove that He was the Son
of God, their Messiah, and yet did not want to understand this truth because
Jesus did not fit into their profile of who the Messiah was. People during Noah’s day watched Noah and his
sons build a boat in the middle of dry ground for 120 years (people lived much
longer then), and yet turned their backs on the truth that it was going to rain
on the earth, something that had never happened before. During the times of the tribulation period
there will be many strange things that will happen that if people wanted to
understand what they are could have listened to the 144,000 Jewish evangelist,
of listen to the two witnesses in Jerusalem, or even listened to an angel who
preached the gospel from the skies above, yet they too will turn their backs on
these signs which very well could cost them their opportunity to receive Christ
and live for eternity in heaven, as opposed to eternity in Hell, the lake of
fire.
The
Jews of Jesus’ day not only did not listen to Jesus, the very Son of God, their
promised Messiah, but they put Him to death.
I have mentioned a song in earlier SD’s a song that was written by Paul
Anka for Frank Sinatra entitled “I Did I My Way.” The song speaks of Sinatra doing things his
way, and the problem with the son is that Sinatra did things his way, which is
the problem with many people in the world today. It was the problem with the people of Noah’s
day, and with the Jewish leaders in the time when Christ was on earth, and will
happen with many millions of people during the tribulation period. As you read this Spiritual Diary and think
about doing things your way, stop and think that your way may be the wrong way,
and I am speaking of how to get into the kingdom of heaven. It was a little over 50 years ago that I
heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and through the working of the Word of God
and the power of the Holy Spirit decided to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior,
not doing things my way but doing things God’s way. I can look back on those 50 years from the
advantage of looking back and know beyond a shadow of doubt that that was the
best decision that I have ever made in my life and it affected not only my life
but the life of my wife of over 50 years, it affected the lives of my children
who had not yet been born as they too received Jesus Christ as their
Savior. It affected the lives of our
seven grand-children who also have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and so
I have to say that if I did things my way none of these wonderful things in my
life would have ever happened, and I can thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
for making all of this possible. The
lyrics in that song had these words in it “regrets I’ve had a few, but then to
few to mention,” and I have to say that I have had problems in my life,
problems that the Lord has allowed to bring my closer to Him, and the Lord was
by my side in all of them and is faithful to keeping me close to Him.
2/3/2024 9:13 AM
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