Friday, October 25, 2024

PT-2 "Assurance to Spiritual Fathers" (1 John 2:13a, 14a)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/25/2024 8:18 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-2 “Assurance to Spiritual Fathers”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  1 John 2:13a, 14a

 

            Message of the verses:  “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning….I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.”

 

            I was really hoping to finish this section, and chapter yesterday, but it was a very long and tiring day, but a good day so with that said I will get it done this evening.  My October schedule for a person who is retired has been very full and tiring, but a lot of things have been good thing to do.

 

            Now I have been talking about spiritual growth and maturity for some time now from my study in 1 John.  There are stages of growth that John writes about in this section and the only way believers can progress on the continuum of spiritual growth from children, to young men, to fathers is through the life-giving, life transforming application of the Word of God in their lives.  Let us at 2Timothy 2:15 to help us better understand this.  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (KJV).  I have really never had trouble in reading and studying the Word of God, but I do fall short on the memorization and meditation on the Word of God, something that I know I should do much better at.  By reading, studying, memorizing, meditating on, and applying the Bible’s truth in every situation, then Christians are transformed into the image of God.  “18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

 

            MacArthur writes “As they continue to grow in their sanctification, the goal of all believers must be to become spiritual fathers, characterized by an intimate communion with God.  In His high priestly prayer for the apostles and all believers, Christ prayed,

 

19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22  "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26  and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.’

 

“Jesus desired that believers would know God not in a superficial way, nor in an academic sense only, but with supernatural intimacy, made possible only by lifetime obedience to Him and His Word.

 

            “John’s description of the stages of spiritual growth also challenges believers to ‘excel still more’ (1 Thes. 4:10) in their Christian walks.  Spiritual children must move beyond their initial delight in the Father’s love to a sound knowledge of biblical truth.  Young men must not rest in their knowledge of biblical truth, but press on to know deeply the God from whom all truth comes and to whom all truth points.  And even fathers must continue to expand and deepen their knowledge of the eternal God.  As long as saints live on this earth, they are bound to obey the mandate to ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (2 Pet. 3:18a).” 

 

            2 Peter 3:18 is the very last words that Peter wrote, and shortly after that he and his wife were crucified by the Romans.  Peter had to watch his wife be crucified first and then he desired to be crucified upside-down because he did not want to be crucified like His Lord Jesus Christ was.

 

            The next section we will be looking at, Lord willing, is entitled “The Love God Hates” and this will cover 1 John 2:15-17, and I will quote those verses now and then again in the next SD.

 

“15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

 

10/25/2024 8:47 PM

 

 

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