SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/30/2025 7:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Power of the Word”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 2:9
Message of the verse: “for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.”
I begin the rest of this section talking first of all
about John Bunyan’s famous work, Pilgrim’s
Progress, a book that he wrote while in prison in Bedford, England. He was in this jail or prison for preaching
the gospel and he used his time wisely while there. However for several centuries that book was
second in sales only to the Bible. “Bunyan’s
cell window faced a high stone wall” writes John MacArthur, “that surrounded
the prison, making it impossible to see into or out of his cell. On many days, however, he would preach loudly
enough for his voice to be heard on the outside of the wall, where hundreds of
listeners, believers and unbelievers, eagerly awaited his proclamation of God’s
Word, which was unconfined by stone walls or iron bars.” This certainly goes along with what Paul was
writing to Timothy as seen in the highlighted portion of verse nine above.
In this closing section of his commentary on this verse MacArthur writes about three different events to show that “the word of God is not imprisoned.”
Second he writes “Before the Communist conquest in the
late 1940’s and early 1950’s, there were more than 700,000 Christians in
China. During the subsequent ‘cultural
revolution,’ at least 30 million Chinese were slaughtered, including most of
the Christians. Yet, after more than
forty years of brutal oppression, imprisonment, and executions, the church of
Jesus Christ in that vast country has a current membership of an estimated 30
million to 100 million. Although written
copies of Scripture are still scarce, the truth of God’s Word endures in their
hearts. Its power cannot be bound. The more it is assailed, the more it
prevails.”
Lastly MacArthur writes what went on in the Scottish
Reformation. “Andrew Melville was the
successor of John Knox in the Scottish Reformation. On one occasion, a certain official had him
arrested and said, ‘There will never be quietness in this country till half a
dozen of you be hanged or banished [from] the country.’ With perfect composure, Melville fearlessly
replied, ‘It is the same to me whether I rot in the air or in the ground. The earth is the Lord’s; my fatherland is wherever
well-doing is. I have been ready to give
my life, when it was not half as well worn, at the pleasure of my God. I lived out of your country ten years as well
as in it. Yet God be glorified, it will
not lie in your power to hang nor exile His truth!’”
I am sure that there many more of these kind of stories
that can be told. Remember that there
are only two kinds of people living in this world, the ones who God has saved
and the ones that have turned down the truth of the Gospel. The question is which one are you and if you
are what will you do to make sure that the Word of God is told to others who
are not believers.
Spiritual meaning for my Life Today: I
realize that the word of
God is not imprisoned, and it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit of God
will use these Spiritual Diaries that I have been writing for many years to get
to people who need to hear the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then
that they would tell others about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s story of
redemption through His blood.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I
trust that the Lord will keep my life pure so that I can tell others about the
saving knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in places where the Holy Spirit
takes it through these blogs that He has led me to write.
1/30/2025 7:42 AM
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