SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/7/2024 10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Obedience”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
28:19-20a
Message of the verses: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;”
Before I continue looking at these verses I want to
say that it is my belief that the Lord desires for me to study the book of “Second
Timothy” and I just received the commentary from John MacArthur and I desire to
begin that study right after I finish my study on the book of Matthew, which
will soon be five years since I began that study. God is good, all the time.
One may know that the Great Commission is a command in
order to bring unbelievers throughout the world to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ, and the term the Lord uses in this commissioning is to make disciples. I have to say that one of the goals that I
have in writing Spiritual Diaries and putting them onto the internet is so that
unbelievers can read them, so that the Holy Spirit of God will use what I write
in order to convict them of being a sinner and then give them an effectual call
so that they will become believers in Jesus Christ, as this is what the Great
Commission is all about. MacArthur
writes “A true convert is a disciple, a person who has accepted and submitted
himself to Jesus Christ, whatever that may mean or demand. The truly converted person is filled with the
Holy Spirit and given a new nature that yearns to obey and worship the Lord who
has saved him. Even when he is
disobedient, he knows he is living against the grain of his new nature, which
is to honor and please the Lord. He
loves righteousness and hates sin, including his own.” I might add “especially his own.”
We
can perhaps begin to sum up Jesus command that is therefore for those who are
His disciples to become His instruments for making disciples of all
nations. While Jesus was on earth His
earthly ministry was to make disciples for Himself, and that is the ministry of
His people too. Those who truly follow
Jesus Christ become actually “fishers of men” as seen in Matthew 4:19. Those
who become His disciples are themselves to become disciple makers. The mission f the early church was to make
disciples. Let us look at a couple of
verses which speak of this: “46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with
gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the
people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being
saved” (Acts 2:46-47). “After they had
preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to
Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,” (Acts 14:21). Looking at these verses we can see that this
is still Christ’s mission for His church, and will continue to be until He
comes to take us to be with Him at the rapture of the church.
MacArthur
writes “Jesus’ command for His followers to make disciples was given only once,
climactically, at the very end of His earthly ministry. Some might ask, ‘If it was so critical, why
did Jesus mention it only once?’ The
reason, no doubt, is that the motivation for reaching others for Christ is
innate to the redeemed life. One might
as well ask why God’s command for man to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ (Gen. 1:28)
was given only once. In each case,
reproduction in kind is natural to life.
The call to make disciples is stated only once because it is natural for
the new creation to be reproductive. It
would beg the issue to repeat what is so basic.
“The
specific requirements Jesus gives for making disciples involve three
participles: going (rendered her as go),
baptizing and teaching.”
Now
I want to begin looking at these requirements in my next SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I think about what I just wrote here about
reproducing, and the two commands that God gave, one for people to have
offspring, and the other for believers’ desire to tell others how they too, can
become believers my thoughts went to a subject that is trying to destroy our
country and that is abortion. The
killing of innocent babies in the womb, a despicable practice which certainly
goes against the command that God gave in Genesis 1:28. Telling others about the gospel is, as stated
is the natural thing to do, something that has caused a person to understand
that they are sinners and can do nothing on their own about it and then come to
the realization that Jesus paid it all, makes them so very happy that they want
to tell others about it so they can experience the same wonderful thing
too.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to tell others of that
wonderful experience that I had in becoming a true believer in Jesus Christ
over 50 years ago, which was January 26, 1974.
11/7/2024 10:45 AM
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