SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/31/2024 8:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to 2 Timothy 2:1-7
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
2:1-7
Message of the verses: “1 You therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 The things which you
have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful
men who will be able to teach others also. 3 Suffer hardship with me, as
a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier in active service entangles
himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who
enlisted him as a soldier. 5 Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not
win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hard-working
farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. 7 Consider what
I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
Today is the last day of 2024 and so that means that
I have two more Spiritual Diaries to complete before the day is over. This has been a difficult year in some
respects, but the thing that always comforts me is to know that God is in
complete control of all things that have happened in 2024, and will be also in
complete control of what happens in 2025, and my prayer is that 2025 will be
the year when my Lord and Savior Jesus Christs returns for His bride in what is
called the Rapture of the Church. I so
look forward to that wonderful event so that the entire Church will go to meet
the Lord in the air and thus ever be with the Lord throughout eternity.
Well
I begin looking at the second verse of Paul’s letter to his son in the faith,
Timothy, which is the very last New Testament letter that Paul writes. 2 Timothy is a special letter to me as from
its content I have named my blogs “15 Study to show yourself approved to God, a
workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2
Timothy 2:15). I look forward to study
this verse more in depth in a few weeks, as this verse has been so very important
to me for a very long time.
John
MacArthur begins his commentary on these verses with a story: “Some years ago, two teenagers were
discovered n an attic room chained to their beds, where they had been confined
since early childhood. They were totally
disoriented and almost animalistic in behavior.
They had been undernourished and unloved, and, as would be expected,
were underdeveloped in every way—physically, emotionally, socially, and
mentally. They were the product of child
abuse at its most malevolent extreme.”
He thing goes on to make the point that he wants to make after writing
about these children.
“Equally
tragic is the condition of many children of God today who are undernourished spiritually
and consequently, are underdeveloped, confused, disoriented, and immature in
the things of the Lord. There are more popular
preachers today than at any time in church history, but few powerful ones. There also are more popular churches, but few
powerful ones. There also are more
popular churches, but few powerful ones. There is much activity, but little spiritual
fruit; much talk about Christianity, but little conviction; high moral proclamations,
but little accountability; doctrinal creeds, but much compromise.”
I
guess that the obvious question is who is a fault for this problem. I think that it is fair to say that in the
great majority of cases, that weak churches are the result of weak leadership,
especially weak pastoral leadership.
Spiritual weakness makes both leaders and congregations subject to
almost every religious fad, no matter how frivolous. I might add the importance of 2 Timothy 2:15
here as it is so very important to study the Word of God each and every day of
your life, to ask that the Holy Spirit open your spiritual eyes so that you can
understand what He is teaching you as you study the Word of God each day. Have a plan to study the Word, a plan to not
only read it but to study it so that the Spirit of God can teach you and led
you in the direction that He desires you to go.
If you do that and then you find yourself in a church with weak pastors
and teachers then you can do the obvious thing and find a church where you can
be fed and even perhaps feed others from what the Spirit of God is teaching
you.
MacArthur
goes on to write “Like an undernourished and anemic physical body, they have
little resistance to disorders and maladies that weaken them still
further. And because they have no resources
but their own smallest difficulty is distressing. Because they have so little understanding of
and confidence in the Word of God, they turn to psychological bandages and
worldly solutions. They have little
defense against Satan and are easy prey for false teachers. They are spiritual ‘children tossed here and
there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of
men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming’ (Eph. 4:14; cf. Heb 13:9). Because they have left ‘the
elementary teaching about the Christ,’ and failed to ‘press on to maturity’
(Heb. 6:1), they may even find themselves ‘paying attention to deceitful spirits
and doctrines of demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: One of the problems that I experience in my
walk with the Lord is a problem with my mind and I suppose that is a problem
with many believers today and also for a long time before. However the mind has many ways of being
distracted today than any other time in history, and the reason is because of
modern technologies.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Keep my mind focused on the things of God and
not on the things of the world.
12/31/2024 9:24 AM
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