SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/10/2024 8:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Accept Your Suffering”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 1:8a
Message of the verses: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel”
Today we begin a new section from the letter that Paul
wrote to Timothy, and I certainly am interested in looking at this section just
because of what is in this part of verse eight and also because of the title
that MacArthur gives to this section.
We begin this SD by stating that we are looking at a
third means for guarding against being ashamed of Christ, which is accepting
the consequences of being faithful, and I know that this may sound a bit
strange, but nevertheless it is true.
Consequently, Paul advised Timothy to prepare himself for
misunderstanding, animosity, and rejection.
As I was listening to the sermon from John MacArthur that goes along
with this section he mentioned that when he first became the Pastor of the
church where he has been serving for over fifty years that he mentioned to his
father, who was also a Pastor that he had not had to go through suffering since
he began that ministry. His father told
him to be patient that it would come, and it did come as he mentioned different
times that suffering had happened to him.
I am not saying physical suffering, but suffering in other ways for the
cause of Christ like different difficulties that came through lawsuits and things
like that.
I
also remember a story in a book written by David Jeremiah who was suffering
with some kind of health issue where he had to have a bone marrow transfer
which brought to him a great deal of pain.
He mentioned that a friend came into visit him while at the Mayo Clinic
in Minnesota and read to him a portion of Scripture from 2nd
Corinthians 11:22-33 “22 Are they Hebrews? So am I.
Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are
they servants of Christ? — I speak as if insane — I more
so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number,
often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was
shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been
on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers
from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city,
dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27
I have been in labor and
hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without
food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is
the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak
without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? 30 If I have to boast, I will boast of what
pertains to my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is
blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch under
Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 33
and I was let down in a basket through a
window in the wall, and so escaped his hands.” In this section Paul was defending his
Apostleship as some of the Corinthians did not believe that he was an Apostle
of Christ, and so he wrote about all the suffering that he went through for the
cause of Christ, suffering that if he were not a true follower of Christ would
not have happened to him.
John MacArthur writes “Therefore refers to the divinely bestowed gift and resources Paul has just mentioned in the two previous verses. ‘In light of those immeasurable blessings,’ the apostle was saying, ‘you have no reason to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner. Do not be afraid to name the name of Christ or to be known as my friend and fellow minister.’”
Paul
probably wrote this letter to Timothy sometime around 66 A.D. and that was a
time of great troubles for true believers in Jesus Christ. If my memory serves me correct there was a
madman named Nero who set the city of Rome on fire and then blamed the
Christians for doing it and so Christians were under great persecution because
of that and that is the time when Paul was again arrested, and the time when he
would be executed for the cause of Christ.
It was at this time that Paul wrote to his son in the Lord Timothy who
was having times of being timid for the cause of Christ and Paul wants to make
sure that this will not last as he was the one the Paul chose to continue in
his ministry so this letter is to help Timothy to be a good soldier for Jesus
Christ.
During
this time as mentioned to be associated with the Lord, ore with Paul, His
prisoner, could be costly in the extreme.
It is interesting and significant that the apostle did not consider
himself primarily to be a prisoner of Rome but he considered himself to be a
prisoner of Jesus Christ who had sovereign control of his life. “From now on let no
one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus” (Gal.
6:17). This verse from Galatians goes
along with the verses from 2 Corinthians 11 that are seen above.
Spiritual meaning for My Life Today: I have been thinking this morning about a
verse from the end of the 7th chapter of the book of Romans, a
chapter where Paul has much to say about some things that in my opinion were
troubling to his mind and actions. At the
end of that chapter he writes of a dilemma which he will go on to continue to
write about in chapter eight, but chapter eight gives the answer to his dilemma. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me
free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God,
but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.1Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to go from being wretched at times to
remember that there is now no condemnation for me because I am in Christ Jesus.
12/10/2024 9:22 AM
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