PT-1 “The Urgency of his Commission” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/07/2025 9:48 AM

 My Worship Time                                              Focus: PT-1 “The Urgency of his Commission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  2 Timothy 4:3-4)

 

            Message of the verses:  “3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

 

            I begin this SD by saying that the time has come, not will come, but come.  Why do I say that?  Well I am a firm believer that when I read the book of Revelation, chapters 2-3 where we see that Christ talks to seven churches that we in existence during the early Church age, about 90 A.D.  He has things to say to each of them as one goes through His using John to write to them, and there are only two of the seven churches where He has no rebuke for them, the rest He has rebuke for them.  Now I believe that the churches are in order as to when the prominent church will be dominant in the world.  I will say that I believe that all of the churches will be around through the entire church age, but there will be a dominant one during different time periods in the church age.  In his book “There’s A New World Coming” written by Hal Lindsey he goes into detail as far as the dates of when each of these churches will be dominant in the world, and when I wrote my Spiritual Diaries on the book of Revelation, two different times I mentioned these dates.  The one that I want to write about today is the last one and I will quote what the Lord says to this church here:  14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"  Now notice Christ describes Himself in verse 14, and then in verses 15-16 He speaks about their deeds, neither hot nor cold, and when we read I will spit you out of My mouth, He is saying that “you make Me sick and so I will vomit you out of My mouth.  Verse  17 He talks about their condition being you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.  In verse 18 He tells them what they can do to make themselves better off “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”  In verse 19 we can see that there are a few who love Him.  Now verse 20 is a very important verse as we read:  “‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”  Now there is a famous painting of Jesus knocking at the door of this church and when one looks at it there is no doorknob on the side where Jesus is knocking as they only way He can come in is that they open the door, and I believe that this is relevant not only to this church but to all sinners as they will have to open the door of their hearts in order for Jesus to come into their life and save them.  In verse 21 we see the results of those who allow Him to come into their life.  Now verse 22 is a verse that is repeated to all of the churches.  Now it is my belief that we are in the Laodicean church age and have been for a very long time, and so as I look at the focus of this section “The Urgency of His Commission” I believe that is so very true in the time we are living in and we will look at this as we study what Paul is writing to Timothy in this section beginning, Lord willing, tomorrow morning.

 

            There are times when I write my Spiritual Diaries that it seems that the Lord wants me to kind of go off in writing about something that is important, but kind of goes off script of the verses that I am looking at and this is one of those times, as I think that this is very important for me to do from time to time.  Now pay close attention to what I have written about from Revelation 3:20, and if you hear the Spirit of God calling you to open the door of your heart to receive Christ as your Savior and Lord by all means say to Him “I know that I am a sinner, and I know that I can do nothing on my own, but I know that if I invite You into my heart that You will save me, and then I can walk with You for the rest of eternity, doing the things that the Spirit of God leads me to do.  Yes there will be ups and downs in your walk with the Lord, and so when you sin be quick to confess to the Lord as 1 John 1:9 says, and then after doing that you will again have sweet fellowship with Him, doing the things that He has called you to do.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:   Always be telling others how they can be saved as I did in this SD.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord in doing what I believe He has gifted me to do, and that is to write my Spiritual Diaries each day so that the Spirit of God can use them in the lives of those who read them, to the glory of God.

 

7/8/2025 10:17 AM

 

PT-2 "Loved" (Jude 1 c)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/07/2025 6:57 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                           Focus PT-2“Loved”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                            Reference: Jude 1c

 

            Message of the verse:  “beloved in God the Father,”

 

            The first thing I want to do is to see what the apostle John wrote about God’s love for believers, and I can say that John is a great example of having his life turned around after walking with Jesus for three years as at one time John wanted to bring down judgment from heaven on some foes that were harming Israel, and now he is called the apostle of love.  Let us look at 1 John 3:1 “1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”  Now let us look at what the expression rendered how great” is in the Greek.  This is from potapos, which originally meant, “From what country?”  I know that this may seem a bit strange.  This describes divine love as something that is alien to human beings and outside their natural realm of understanding—and other worldly kind of love—as if it were a concept from a foreign culture or unknown race, and I guess that if you think about where God is from and even though He is everywhere, we can see from Scriptures that He is in heaven and so this does make sense to me.  MacArthur writes “People do not usually love strangers; and they especially do not love their enemies (cf. Matt. 5:43-48).  Yet, God chose to love elect sinners even when they were defiant sinners (Eph. 2:1-10; cf. John 15:13, 16; Rom. 5:8; 1 Tim. 1:12-16; 1 John 4:19).

 

            “In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus further described the kind of love that His Father has for His children:

 

22 "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.’”

 

All believers did nothing to gain His affection (and, in fact, did everything to invite His wrath), the Father loves redeemed sinners with the same love that He has for His Son.  It is a love that is infinite, eternal, and completely secure.  John wrote his Gospel that He ‘loved his own…He loved them to the end’ (13:1), meaning to perfection as well as forever.  In fact nothing will ever separate believers from it, as Paul declares in Romans 8:38-39):

 

38  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

            The other day I picked up a book that I have on my bookshelf that was written by Joseph M. Stowell, and when he wrote this he was the president of the Moody Bible Institute.  The title of the book is “Why it’s hard to love Jesus,” and this was updated and revised edition of his book “Loving Christ.”  It was written in 2003 and as I picked it up and began to slowly read it at night before going to sleep I got to thinking that it goes along with what I am studying in Jude at this time.  The first chapter speaks of the Pharisees and how believers act like the Pharisees during the time of Jesus.  I know that sounds kind of difficult to believe, but he presents a good case.  He is an excellent writer and I have great respect for him.  My former Pastor who is now with the Lord knew Stowell’s father and actually called him and asked him to pray about the decision as to whether or not his son should take this job at Moody.  I am going to quote from the end of the first chapter of his book which he entitles “The Eclipse of Devotion: The Pharisee in all of Us.”  He makes a convincing argument in this chapter.  The chapter is about what happened in Luke chapter 7:36-50, something most believers have read and reread.  It is about a Pharisee who invites Jesus to dinner and then a sinful woman who I believe was a prostitute came into where they were eating and began to cry and used her tears to wash the feet of Jesus.  She also had an expensive bottle of perfume and put that on Jesus as well,  This is not the same woman, Mary who did this to Jesus before He was about to be crucified.  Now of course this strict Pharisee became upset, but Jesus turned the tables on him showing that this woman loved Jesus more than he did.  Take some time to read these verses.  Now I about to quote from Stowell’s book, at the end of this first chapter where he quotes a man named A. M. Hunter who observes that “the new thing in Christianity is not the doctrine that God saves sinners.  Now Jew would have denied that.  It is the assertion that God loves them and saves them as sinners.”

 

            Stowell goes on to write:  “That helps explain why Luke included the story of Simon and the sinning woman.  He wanted us to see ourselves somewhere in that scene.  It’s easy to feel good about ourselves because we have faithfully conformed to what we believe to be are God’s ways.  It’s harder to look at our Christian life from God’s perspective.

 

            “Granted, you’re not Pharisee.  I know you desire to serve Christ with an honest passionate love.  More important, God knows that.  What I’m advocating is honest reflection about the ways you choose to demonstrate that love for Him and awareness of how quickly we slip from duty to devotion. Are you relying merely on externals to show your love for Christ?  Are you ever tempted to think that your goodness is a performance of obligation?  Has your goodness become a habit rather than a loving response to grace?  Do you believe being good is enough to please God?  Do you ever feel a twinge of jealousy toward those more revered than you?  Is there hypocrisy or duplicity in your life?  Have you ever noticed pride lurking in the shadows of your heart but failed to confront it?

 

            “Any ‘guilty as charged’ response to these questions should alert you to the possibility that you’ve left your first love—you’ve been co-opted by a system instead of being overwhelmed by the Savior.

            “One thing for sure; the ‘sinning woman’ in Luke 7 has a courageous and heartfelt love for Jesus that touched Him deeply.  She, not Simon, shows us the way to the joy of loving Christ.”

 

7/7/2025 7:48 PM

 

 

 

PT-4 “The Scope of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/07/2025 9:48 AM

 My Worship Time                                               Focus: PT-4 “The Scope of His Commission”  

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2b

            Message of the verse:  “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

            I ended yesterday’s SD by writing the following paragraph that was quoted from John MacArthur’s commentary:  “He goes on to write “The preacher’s continuing responsibility is to expose, reprove, and rebuke sin.  Sin is that which totally separates unbelievers from God and which temporarily separates believers from close fellowship with their Lord.  Paul therefore counseled believers in Ephesus, ‘Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them’ (Eph. 5:11).”

            With that said I will move on to write that Paul had warned Titus about those sinners will infiltrate the church:  “10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain… 13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,” (Titus 1:10-11, 13).

 

            Now in my study of Jude, which is also on these blog posts, he writes most of his letter to those in the church he is writing to about how unbelievers have crept into the church acting like believers, and I am not certain if Paul is writing to Titus about those who are doing this or if these people he is writing about are believers who are not doing the things of the Lord like they should be and causing trouble for Titus.  At any rate both types of people can infiltrate churches and this is of the Devil and it causes much trouble in churches and needs to be addressed.

 

            With that said sin must be addressed among believers as well, for if it is not then trouble can actually cause division and even end up in finishing the word of the church as there has been many times when churches split, and that is not a good thing, for I have been in a church that I joined four years after I became a believer and it ran smoothly until after the second Pastor left and then great trouble came in with the man who was chosen which caused me to leave that church after being there for 32 years.  It was a very difficult time for me and my wife.

 

            Paul addressed this problem in his first letter to Timothy where he writes “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning” (1 Timothy 5:20).

 

            John MacArthur then writes “Paul next gives Timothy the positive imperative to exhort, which is from parakaleo, a common New Testament word that can range in meaning from simply calling out to someone to admonishing, which is clearly the meaning in this context.  It also carries the idea of encouragement.  After having reproved and rebuked disobedient believers under his care, the faithful preacher is then to come alongside them in love and encourage them to spiritual change.”  I believe that there is an example of this in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians as in his first letter to them he writes about a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife, now that is not talking about his physical mother, but another woman his father had married.  Paul was rebuking that church because they did nothing about it, thinking that they were suppose to allow that sin in their church.  This man was eventually thrown out of the church, but later on in Paul’s second letter to Corinth is shows that the man had repented and the church was not allowing him to fellowship with them, and Paul rebukes them again telling them because he had repented that they should then bring him back into their fellowship and not keep on neglecting him because he had repented.

 

            Paul had this kind of spirit in his ministry when he pastured those under his care.  As he reminded believers in Thessalonica, “You know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:11-12): cf. Col. 1:28).  MacArthur writes “Later in the letter he counseled those believers to do as he had done, saying, ‘We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men” (1 Thess. 5:14).”

 

            MacArthur then goes on to write “Not only are the things a preacher says and does important but also the way he says them and does them.  He is to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with patience.  Makrothume (patience) means literally to ‘abide under’ and therefore is often translated ‘endurance’ (see, e. g., Luke 21:19; 2 Cor. 6:4; James 1:3) or ‘perseverance’ (see, e. g., James 1:12; 2 Cor. 12:12).  But here Paul is speaking specifically of patience with people, with members of a flock who may have been persistently stubborn and were resisting their pastor’s admonitions.  But the shepherd is not to become exasperated or angry, remembering that he himself is firmly but lovingly and patiently held accountable by the Great Shepherd, our supreme example of patience.  Paul cautioned believers in Rome, ‘Do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?’ (Rom. 2:3-4).  If the perfect Son of God is so kind, forbearing, and patient with sinners, how much are His people obliged to have those attributes?”

 

            In the last word at the end of our verse we see the word “instruction” (didache) in the Greek and it is foundational to preaching, reproving, rebuking, and exhortation.  It is only through careful teaching of the Word that those tasks can be successfully carried out by one who is a pastor.  An unbeliever will not be convicted of his sin and come to salvation apart from some instruction from the Word of God about his lostness, his condition and his need for saving faith in Jesus Christ. Nor will a believer be convinced of his sin and brought to repentance and restoration apart from the work of the Word in his heart.

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “It is not by a preacher’s personal authority or persuasiveness—no matter how well he knows Scripture or how highly he is gifted—but solely by the authority and power of Scripture itself, illuminated and applied by the Holy Spirit, that any ministry or Christian service can be spiritually effective and pleasing to the Lord.  In 4:2 Paul essentially reiterates what he has just declared, namely that ‘all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work’ (3:16-17).”

 

Spiritual Meaning for My life Today:  It is all about the Word of God, and that means that I am to study it, to read it, and through the aid of the Holy Spirit follow it.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will continue to work in my life to bring glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as I continue to share what He is teaching me.

 

7/7/2025 10:40 AM  

 

 

 

PT-1 Loved" (Jude 1c)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/06/2025 4:44 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                                    Focus “Loved”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference: Jude 1c

 

            Message of the verse:  “beloved in God the Father,”

 

            I guess this is more of an afternoon Spiritual Diary, and today we get to talk about the truth that Jude was “beloved in God the Father,” something that all believers can say, and that is because God chose to save believers because He loved them, and that is great news.  This is based totally on His sovereign pleasure and for reasons beyond human comprehension.  Let us now look at some verses that go along with that:

Romans 9:11-13 “11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

Romans 10:20 “20 But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’”

1 Cor. 1:26-29 “26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the

foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God.”

James 2:5 “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”

 

            I continue, the Father purposed to set His love on certain sinners and redeem them, and this truth can be find in Matt. 11:27; Romans 8:28-30; and Ephesians 1:4) (I will leave it up to you to look at these verses as they are familiar.  Even when they were rebels, God chose them to be His children and the beneficiaries of Christ’s death.  As Paul told the Romans, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8; look also at John 3:16; 13:1 and 1 John 4:10, 19).

 

            I thought that I would finish this section this evening, but I don’t think that will happen, but what I am going to do now is quote a paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary to finish this SD.

 

            “Beloved translates a perfect passive participle derived from the familiar verb agapao. The perfect tense indicates that God placed His love on believers in eternity past (Eph. 1:4-5), with results that continue in the present and into the future.  Out of His uninfluenced and selective love, the Father determined who would believe from before the foundation of the world (cf. Acts 13:48; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9).  That love required that He also give His Son to die on the cross in their stead, paying the penalty for their sin (Isa. 53:5-6; Mark 10:45; John 3:16; 1 Peter 2:24).  Out of His love, he sent the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin, draw them to saving faith, and regenerate their sinful hearts (John 3:3-8; 6:37, 44; Rom. 3:25-26; 8:1; 1 Cor. 6:11; Titus 3:5, 7).  And it is out of His love that God continues to secure and protect His children—promising them a relationship with Him that will last for all eternity (cf. John 14:1-4; Eph 1:13-14; 5:27; 1 Peter 1:3-4).”

 

7/6/2025 5:07 PM

PT-3 “The Scope of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/06/2025 7:18 AM

 My Worship Time                                               Focus: PT-3 “The Scope of His Commission”  

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2b

            Message of the verse:  “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

            I want to begin where I left off in my last SD on this verse in order to keep the flow of things going:  “Of the next three commands—reprove, rebuke, and exhort—the first two are negative, and the third positive.”

            MacArthur writes “Reprove and rebuke are closely related in meaning and are the third and fourth imperatives in this passage.  Paul has just declared that all Scripture is ‘profitable for…reproof’ (3:16).  As noted in the previous commentary chapter, elegmos (reproof) carries the idea of correcting misbehavior or false doctrine.  Reproving may have more to do with affecting the mind, with helping a person understand that what he believes or is doing is wrong.  Rebuke, on the other hand, may have to do with the heart, with bringing a person under conviction of guilt.  To reprove is to refute error and misconduct with careful biblical argument; to rebuke is to bring the erring person to repentance.  The first discloses the sinfulness of sin, whereas the second discloses the sinfulness of the sinner.”

            Now as we look at the first call of the gospel we can see it reflects this reproof by calling for men to repent from sin.  This happened as John the Baptist was preparing the way for the Messiah, and he declared “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matt. 3:2).  John not only preached against sin in general but against particular sins of particular people.  ‘When Herod the tetrarch was reproved by him [John the Baptist] on account Herodias, his brother’s wife, and on account of all the wicked things which Herod had done, he added this also to them all, that he locked John up in prison’ (Luke 3:19-20).

            In a similar way that John began his ministry; our Lord Jesus Christ began His public ministry by calling sinners to repentance.  It was after Jesus was baptized by John and then spending forty days and nights in the wilderness as He was being tempted by Satan there that “from that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matt. 4:17).  Although Jesus mentioned God’s love on several occasions, He never preached a message on that theme.  However He did preach countless messages on God’s condemnation of sin, on His judgment of sinners, and on the sinner’s need for repentance.  The unrepentant sinner has absolutely no hope in the love of God, because God’s love is inseparable from His holiness and His justice.  The truth is that if a person refuses to be cleansed of his sin by God’s grace, that person has no prospect of being accepted into heaven by His love.  I would say that that sentence is something that one needs to think over, for many will tell you of God’s love, but not so many will tell you about God’s justice, and that may be the first thing one needs to do when witnessing to a person, and then after that speak of God’s love so that person can be saved from their sins. 

            MacArthur writes “Immediately after Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, his hearers ‘were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’’ (Acts 2:37-38).”

            He goes on to write “The preacher’s continuing responsibility is to expose, reprove, and rebuke sin.  Sin is that which totally separates unbelievers from God and which temporarily separates believers from close fellowship with their Lord.  Paul therefore counseled believers in Ephesus, ‘Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them’ (Eph. 5:11).”

Spiritual Meaning for My life Today:  It is a great reminder that was brought up in this last paragraph that MacArthur wrote in his commentary.  Confessing to be a sinner and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as you Lord and Savior is not the only time of confessing that you need to do, but whenever you sin confess that to the Lord so you can have great fellowship with Him.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Follow the truths from the above paragraph, and say close to the Lord, for after all He did it all for me to be saved.

7/6/2025 7:54 AM

 

“Called” (Jude 1b)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/05/2025 6:07 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                                    Focus “Called”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference: Jude 1b

 

            Message of the verse:  “To those who are the called,”

 

            The first thing that I want to do is to see how called translates the adjectival pronoun kletos, and this is related to the familiar verb kaleo, “to call.”  Now it is the main word in the sentence which has two perfect passive participles (describing believers) in opposition to it, which is how John MacArthur describes it. He goes on to explain “Even as the English translation suggests, the word conveys the idea of being personally chosen or selected. God has called believers to Himself; has set them apart and chosen them as His children.”  Now may I add that it took me a fairly long time to believe this, but I don’t think that anyone will ever truly understand it until we get to heaven. 

 

            MacArthur goes on to write this important paragraph:  “Jude here is not speaking about God’s general invitation to sinners (Isa. 45:22; 55:6; Ezek. 33:11; Matt. 11:28; 22:14; 23:37; Luke 14:16-24; John 7:37; Rev. 22:17)—a call which often goes unheeded and rejected (cf. Matt. 12:14; Luke 4:16-19, 28-30; Acts 4:13-18; 5:17-18, 26-28, 33-40; 7:54-58; 2 Cor. 2:15-16).  Rather he is speaking of God’s special, internal call through which he awakens the human will and imparts spiritual life—enabling once-dead sinners to embrace the gospel by faith (cf. John 5:21; Acts 16:14; Eph. 2:5).  It is what Christ referred to when He said, ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him’ (John 6:44; cf. v. 65).  Paul also referred to the effectual call of believers when he wrote Timothy.

 

8 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 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. (2 Tim. 1:8-9; cf. Rom. 1:6-7; 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:1-2, 9, 24; 1 Tim. 6:12; 1 Peter 3:9; Rev. 17:14)

 

            I will continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary and then at the end of that quotation write some things that I have learned about this “effectual calling.”

 

            “In His sovereign wisdom, God chose believers based solely on His gracious purpose in Christ from before time began.  His call was not rooted in anything He saw in them—not even their foreseen faith…Rather, His call was motivated by His own glory and good pleasure, that His mercy might be eternally put on display (Rom. 9:23-24).”  “23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”  MacArthur goes on “Believers, then, are those who are divinely elected to salvation.  They did not earn God’s choice; nor can they lose it or have it taken away (cf. John 6:37-40; 10:17-30; Rom. 8:28-30, 38-39).  Thus, they can rest in the security of God’s gracious call, even in the most dangerous conflict with false teaching.”

 

            I know that I have told the story of when the Holy Spirit gave me an effectual call for salvation in other SD’s.  I have mentioned that when I was around ten years old that I went fishing with some older friends of mine, and because I wanted to impress them I began to swear, and, when I was with friends of mine from that time on I continued to swear.  Even when I told the Lord that if He would get me out of the army, which I was drafted in 59 years ago today, and He did get me out of the army on a medical discharge, a problem I only had for the time I was being prepared to go to the army until I got out of the army 23 days after entering it.  The point is that after a few weeks I started to swear again, really forgetting about what I told the Lord.  This was in 1966 and then after getting married, having a daughter, and then getting a divorce and then getting married again I went to visit a friend of mine in Florida in January of 1974.  I went alone and had impure motives when I got there, but my friend gave me some sermons on tape to listen to by Hal Lindsey about how the world was going to end, something I was frightened about for a very long time. On January 26^th the Lord saved me as I was given what MacArthur was writing about getting an effectual call through the Holy Spirit.  All I can say is that I have sworn only three times in 52 years, which showed me that God is the one who stopped my swearing that I tried to stop back in 1966 while in the army.

 

            The Bible says that because of Adam and Eve’s sin that all of their offspring, which is everybody ever born are born with a sin nature, and that is why we sin.  I don’t suppose that you have had to teach your children to do wrong, as they do that because they were born with a sin nature.  We are spiritually dead when we are born and so that is why in order to be saved the Holy Spirit has to give us an effectual call for salvation, and then we are given a new nature in order to follow what the Lord has called us to do for the cause of Christ.  This is the call that MacArthur is writing about in this section of his commentary from Jude 1b.

 

7/5/2025 7:03 PM

 

 

 

 

PT-2 “The Scope of His Commission” (2 Tim. 4:2b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/05/2025 9:20 AM

 My Worship Time                                               Focus: PT-2 “The Scope of His Commission”  

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2b

            Message of the verse:  “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

            I want to begin this SD with a quotation from John MacArthur who is quoting Charles Spurgeon who wrote “What in a Christian minister is the most essential quality for securing success in winning souls for Christ?...earnestness.  And if I were asked a second or third time, I should not vary the answer…. Success is proportionate to the preacher’s earnestness” ([Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 1955], 305).

            So the question is how do we get and sustain “earnestness”?  I would say that one has to continue to study the Word of God, and to fellowship with Him in prayer, and then also submission to His Holy Spirit can keep alive a sense of exhilarating eagerness to preach, and I suppose in my ministry, which is not actually preaching, but to continue writing my Spiritual Diaries each and every day of the week.  Now apart from the Word and from prayer the most gifted and orthodox preaching will grow spiritually stale, for the preacher for the hearers.  I can see this can happen in the ministry that the Lord has given me and there are times when it seems that there are ups and downs in my doing this ministry for the Lord, as without the reading and studying of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in my life things can go downhill for a while.  I suppose that when this happens that the Lord has a way of getting my attention, and at times it is through physical problems with me or a member of my family, but then I must remember what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  John MacArthur then writes “In the book just cited, Spurgeon said ‘He, who at the end of twenty years ministry among the same people is  more alive than ever, is a great debtor to the  quickening Spirit’ (Lectures, 309).”

            Now I realize that in this section of 2 Timothy that Paul is writing to Timothy about his active role as a minister of the gospel, and as I study MacArthur’s commentary on this, that is what he is writing about, about preachers, and I have stated that I am not a preacher in the sense that Paul or Timothy is, but I can take things from this section to compare with what I am doing for the cause of Christ by writing Spiritual Diaries, which is my prayer that the Lord will use them to first of all bring Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ by having the Holy Spirit of God give effectual calls to some who read them in order to bring them to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.  It is also my prayer each day that the Spirit of God will use these Spiritual Diaries to cause believers to grow in the Lord and to bring revival to me and to those who read them. It is also in my prayer each day that the Spirit of God will send them around the world to accomplish these things I pray about and then one more prayer request and that is if it is in the Lord’s will that the Spirit of God will give the last effectual call in the church age to someone who is reading one of these Spiritual Diaries, and that prayer request is always prayed if it is in the will of the Lord.

            John MacArthur then writes “The faithful preacher t be ready in season and out of season, when it is convenient and when it is not, when it is immediately satisfying and when it is not, when from a human perspective it seems suitable and when it does not.  His proclaiming God’s Word must not be dictated by popular culture and propriety, by tradition, by esteem in the community (or even in the church), but solely by the mandate of the Lord.”

            Now as we look at the next three commands which are reprove, rebuke, and exhort, we can see that the first two are negative, and the third is positive.

            Now to expound on these three commands will take some time and so I think that I will begin to work on them in the next SD so I can keep them in order and even though it will take a couple of days to finish looking at them I will begin them in the next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I remember reading in Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s commentaries a number of times that when a believer is presented with a crisis that as long as he excepts that challenge as coming from the Lord and turns to Him to learn what it is He is trying to teach him, and not just turn away from the Lord, that the Lord will use that challenge to cause that person to grow in the Lord.  I have a number of challenges that are happening in my life at this time, and the greatest is that my wife had surgery for cancer on the last day of April.  It seems that all was removed, but our lifestyle has been changed a lot because of this as her diet has had to be changed in order to help to make sure that if there is any remaining cancer that this will help her to fight it.  I am also facing a challenge with my own health, which is something that I have dealt with most of my life, but it seems more difficult at this time.  IBS has always been a challenge for me and it is giving me a good fight at this time. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to trust the Lord with these issues and pray for relief in both problems, and pray that we will handle them in a way that will bring glory to the Lord.

7/5/2025 10:03 AM

 

“Jude’s Audience” (Jude 1b-2)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/04/2025 10:19 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                  Focus:  “Jude’s Audience”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Jude 1b-2

 

            Message of the verses:  “To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:  May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

 

            What I have for the “focus” part of this SD is actually just the introduction to what we will be looking at as there is different sub-section after this introduction.  So what I am saying is that this will be a very short SD, as Lord willing I will begin to look at the first sub-section in my next SD.  I think that the best thing I can do is to quote this introduction from John MacArthur’s commentary so that we all will get a better idea of what is to follow.

 

            “Jude’s salutation clearly outlines that he was writing to genuine believers.  His greeting emphasizes the reassuring truth that as believers contend with growing apostasy, they remain safe and secure in the sovereign purpose of God.  Like Peter, who confronted his readers with two Old “Testament examples of God’s protection and deliverance (Noah and Lot), Jude encouraged his audience to trust God even in the midst of intense spiritual battle.  In Fact, he listed four reasons for believers to rest in God and not fear—namely, because they are called, love, kept, and blessed by him.”  These are what we will be looking at as we go through this section, as it is my desire to do these perhaps one a night as some are longer than others.  It is also my desire to, once we get through these first three verses of Jude to then take some time to quote from John MacArthur’s second sermon on Jude.  I mentioned that he actually has fifteen sermons on this short letter written by Jude and that tells me that there are some very important things we will be able to learn from this letter. 

 

            I have fond memories of going through this second to last book of the Bible, and one of them comes from the first Pastor that I ever sat under after becoming a believer.  You see, and I mentioned this in earlier SD’s that after I became a believer back on January 26, 1974 that I did not attend a church for four years, and I suppose the reason was that I did not receive Christ while in a church service, but by listening to cassette tapes by Hal Lindsey while visiting a friend in January of 1974.  I guess that I thought that there were no a lot of good churches around after I became a believer, but I found out that I was wrong.  After becoming a believer in Florida the first thing that I did was visit a Christian book store and I bought for $6.95 a Living Bible, which is a paraphrased Bible.  Later on while attending my first church for 32 years a man whose mother had just died gave me her Living Bible, and I still have it.  I wore the first one out. 

 

            So the first place when I got home to Cleveland Ohio was to visit a Christian Book store and I met a man who owned it and we are still friends for close to 50 years.  I began a Bible study in his store taught by tapes from Hal Lindsey, and it was a very good time in my life.  Four years later after attending a Moody Bible Institute’s Founders Week in Chicago I came home from that and I started to go to Grace Baptist Church in Westlake, Ohio where we stayed for 32 years, and then moved on to First Baptist Church, Elyria, Ohio, a church that is over 180 years old.  All I got to say is through it all God was leading me, and still does each and every day, and for that I am thankful.

 

7/4/2025 10:43 PM   

 

PT-1 “The Scope of His Commission” (2 Timothy 4:2b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/03/2025 9:33 AM

 My Worship Time                                                Focus: PT-1 “The Scope of His Commission”  

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  2 Timothy 4:2b

            Message of the verse:  “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

            Now in order to be an effective, a faithful preacher one must understand the scope of his commission, and as we will see Paul will summarize it here in this section and in this verse.

            An effective Pastor must be like any effective worker, as he must be ready.  Being ready is the second command Paul uses in verse 2 and this translates ephistemi, which has a broad range of meanings according to John MacArthur, as determined by tense, mood, and voice. I certainly have to admit that I don’t understand a lot about the Greek language, and am thankful that I can read these types of things from MacArthur’s commentaries and thus pass them on in my Spiritual Diaries.  MacArthur writes “It often connotes suddenness, as in Luke 2:9 (‘suddenly stood before’) and in Acts 12:7 (‘suddenly appeared’; cf. 1 Thess. 5:3); or forcefulness, as in Luke 20:1 (‘confronted’) and Acts 4:1; 6:12; 23:27 (‘came upon’).  In the aorist active imperative, as here, the word carries the complementary ideas of urgency, preparedness, and readiness.  It could be used of a soldier who is ready to go into battle on a moment’s notice or a guard who keeps continually alert for any threat of infiltration or attack by the enemy.”

            Now that MacArthur as given us some great examples we now want to look at this as the verse speaks of a faithful preacher is to be ready as it carries similar meanings of gravity and vigilance.  He should feel like Jeremiah who felt under divine compulsion to prophesy.  Here is an example of this from Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”  This can be compared with Jeremiah 5:14 “Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire And this people wood, and it will consume them.”

            Seeing how this is a holiday in our country I will make this SD a bit shorter, and will end it by quoting two paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary.

            “While Paul stayed in Caesarea for a few days on his way back to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey, the prophet Agabus ‘took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’’…the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem.’  But Paul’s immediate reply was, ‘what are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?  For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 21:11-13).

            “Such a sense of readiness and willingness to serve the Lord at any cost and at any time not only should characterize every faithful preacher but also every faithful Christian.  Peter exhorted his readers, most of whom were suffering severe persecution from Rome, ‘Sanctify Christ as Lord in you r hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence’ (1 Peter 3:15).  Writing to believers in the church where Timothy now was ministering, Paul implored, ‘Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil’ (Eph. 5:15-16).”

            Lord willing I will pick up where I have left off in tomorrow morning’s SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to continue to trust the Lord each and every day in order to be doing the things that He has called me to do for the cause of Christ, to continue learning from His Word and obeying what I learn for the cause of Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to guide my wife as she seeks homeopathic care for any remaining cancer that may be in her body.  I am thankful she is getting stronger after her major surgery which happened on the 29^th of April.  I am thankful that the Lord is in control of this situation and it is our hope that all of this will bring glory to the Lord.

7/4/2025 11:00 AM