SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2024 8:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Remember Your Calling”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Message of the verses: “according to the
power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was
granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 10 but now has been revealed by
the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel,”
Today I begin a new section from Paul’s letter to
his son in the Lord, Timothy. Paul’s
desire for Timothy is to, in my words be revived in the Lord, something that I
have been writing about and praying about for a very long time. Timothy was
timid, and Paul’s desire for him was to put it the words of my late mother “buck
up,” something she use to say to me from time to time when I was acting timid,
like Timothy was doing.
MacArthur
begins this section by writing “A fourth means for guarding against being ashamed of Christ is
simply to remember our holy calling from our heavenly Father, who, as Paul has
just declared, shares His divine power with His children.”
I
really can’t get over how the Lord put into my heart to study this second
letter that Paul wrote to Timothy as there is much that I have seen so far in
this letter that speaks volumes to my heart, and for that I am thankful.
MacArthur
states that these few verses are a study of Soteriology, the doctrine of
salvation, in miniature. It was not that
Paul was teaching Timothy new truths, but simply reminding him of the cardinal,
well-known truths of the gospel, and these truths should motivate all believers
to faithfulness, to courageous witness and also living for Christ. I am in the process of going over and
reposting my Spiritual Diaries from the book of Nehemiah and it was in the late
summer of 2011 that I began that study while my wife and I were living in
Kauai, an island belonging to the state of Hawaii. It was a time of change for my wife and I as
we had lived on Kauai for eight months as I was doing work for my
brother-in-law and now it was time to go back home to Ohio. It was a time when I had just began to post
my Spiritual Diaries onto my blogs as I first began with the book of Ezra and
then moved onto Nehemiah. I remember
something that Dr. Warren Wiersbe wrote in many of his “Be Books” which were is
study of the books of the Bible that he wrote commentaries on. He quoted an old Scottish Christian who said “The
Christian Life is a Series of New Beginnings.”
I was gone through a new beginning back then in late summer of 2011, and
it seems that that is what is happening to me at this point of my life, and I
am blessed that the Lord has me once again studying Nehemiah as I go over what
I wrote 13 years ago and also beginning to study 2 Timothy as it seems the Lord
is once again causing me to have another “New Beginning.”
MacArthur
adds “Remembering these truths and placing our confidence in God who has given
them enables us to ‘walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all
respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God; strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for the
attaining of all steadfastness and patience’ (Col. 1:10-11).”
Now
it is because of the power of God that we can say with Paul, “I can do all
things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). We can also testify with Peter that we “are
protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).
The truth is that the all powerful God has saved us has equally sufficient
power to keep us. That is a truth that I
think believers sometimes forget, nevertheless it is true. If we were “reconciled
to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Remembering that Jesus Christ through His
Holy Spirit is in control of my life and has the right to do with me whatever
He desires in order to bring glory to Him.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
I trust the Lord to care for some things
that are going on with my wife, some medical issues that are causing her
troubles, things we don’t really know at this time what they are.
12/13/2024 9:12 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment