SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/1/2024 8:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Submission”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
29:18b
Message of the verses: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
In today’s SD I want to write about the third element for
effective fulfillment of the church’s mission, which is another attitude, the
implied attitude of submission. Now the
focus of Jesus’ declaration here is on His sovereign lordship, but it is in
context it also clearly relates to the believer’s response to His rule. I have to say that when I first became a
believer it took me a while for the Lord to teach me a number of things, and I
believe the first important truth was that Jesus Christ is God come in the
flesh. Later on He taught me that Jesus
Christ is both LORD and Savior, He is my LORD and my Savior and He deserves all
glory because of who He is.
MacArthur writes “Before the Lord states the Great commission;
He establishes His divine authority to command it. It is because of His sovereign power that His
followers are to have the attitude of complete, humble submission to His will”
As we have been looking at this 28th chapter
of Matthew’s gospel we have been also looking at the time line of what happened
after Jesus rose from the dead, and in order to do that it is necessary to look
at the other gospel writers in their books which also tells of things that the
Lord did after He arose from the dead. I
am learning that this 28th chapter of Matthew’s gospel has some very
important writings in it, actually more important than I knew before, and for
that I am thankful to take the time to better account myself with this last
chapter in Matthew’s gospel.
MacArthur writes “Exousia
(authority) refers to the freedom and right to speak and act as one
pleases. In relation to God, that
freedom and right are absolute and unlimited.
The all is both reinforced and delineated by the phrase in heaven and
earth. The sovereign authority given
Jesus by His heavenly Father (see Matt. 11:27) is absolute and universal.” Now I wish to quote Matthew 11:27 “"All things have been handed over to Me by My Father;
and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father
except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
In
light of what we are learning about the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ let me
talk for a moment about the very important election that will happen on the 5th
of November in the USA. "It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He
removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge
to men of understanding” (Daniel 2:21). This verse and others show us that it is God who
chooses the rulers and leaders of the nations.
God is sovereign and there are many times that we will not figure out
what He is doing and why He is doing things until afterwards when we look back
on what happened. I think of events that
happened in WWII, and how so many Jewish people were killed by the Germans, and
then on May 5, 1948 Israel became a nation on the very spot that God gave to
them thousands of years ago. God’s
purposes are not always seen, but God is sovereign and so we who know Him
through His Son must trust Him even though it is hard, very hard at times.
I have written in earlier SD’s that I
don’t believe that the USA will play a vital role in the end time. My thoughts
are as many others that we will be destroyed from within, or be destroyed in
war, or my favorite is that the rapture will come which will take all true
believers from around the world to be with the Lord, and this certainly will
change how the world is ruled, for the antichrist will come into power and the
events of the last seven years of history for planet earth will begin as seen
in Revelation chapters six through nineteen.
Bottom line is that as I pray for
this upcoming election, my prayer is that God will have mercy on our country,
also more important is that the Holy Spirit will bring about a great spiritual
revival not only in our country, but around the world before the rapture will
take place.
There are three major prayers given
in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel which took place after the Jewish
people were allowed to go back to their land after Babylon had destroyed their
land including the temple that Solomon built.
Take some time to read over these three chapters as seen in the
following chapters: “Ezra also contains one of the great intercessory prayers of
the Bible (Ezra
9:5–15; see Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 9 for others). His leadership
proved crucial to the Jews' spiritual advancement.”
Lord willing I will
continue this section on submission in my next SD.
Spiritual meaning for
my life today: Learning submission
to the Lord can be a challenge to me at times even though I know that He loves
me and will never do anything to me that is not good for me.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I trust that the Lord will give my wife and I
a very smooth trip today and tomorrow as we go and watch our daughter coach her
volleyball team in a championship series about three hours from where we live.
11/1/2024 9:01 AM
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