Monday, January 13, 2025

PT-3 "The Soldier" (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/13/2025 10:36 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                  Focus: PT-3 “The Soldier”

 

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

 

            Message of the verses:  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.”

 

            I want to begin this SD with a quote from John MacArthur, who by the way is having some difficult health issues, so please take time to pray for him.  This quote explains some things that I certainly know that are true.  “It is difficult for Christians in most of the Western world to understand what serious spiritual warfare and suffering for Christ mean.  The secular environment in our society is becoming more and more hostile to Christianity and to religion in general.  But we are not faced with loss of job, imprisonment, and execution because of our faith.  With few exceptions, being a Christian will not keep a student out of college or a worker from getting a good job.  But the more faithful a Christian becomes and the more the Lord blesses his work, the more Satan will put roadblocks, hardships, and rejection in the way, the more evident the spiritual warfare will become, and the more frequent and obvious the hardship will become.

 

            “A soldier in active service does not have a 9 to 5 job, or even a long 60- or 70hour workweek.  He is a soldier 24 hours a day, every day of the year.  His body, his heart, his skills, his time—all that he is—belong to the military in which he serves.  Even when on leave, he is subject to recall at any time, without notice and for any reason.  And whenever ordered into dangerous duty, he is expected to put his very life on the line without question or hesitation.”

 

            The commentary that I am getting these quotes from was printed in 1995, and many, many things have happened in our country and around the world since it was written.  I think of what happened after the 2020 election in our country where thousands of innocent people were put into jail for just showing up to a protest over the cheating of an election.  Many are still in jail, but Lord willing soon to be removed.  I think of a young man that I watch on the TV most every day, Yair Pinto is his name and he was a soldier in the army of Israel as they were attacked on October 7, 2023 and many are still being held.  This war has been going on for over 400 days and Israel has been surrounded by their enemies, but the Lord is faithful in causing many of their enemies to be eliminated, which Yair shows on his YOUTUBE channel “Boots on the Ground.”  I have been an avid student of what will happen in the end times and many of the things that are happening in the Middle East certainly are written about in the pages of the Bible especially the prophetic sections.  I have never been a date setter as to when these events will happen but I do watch the Middle East as this is the key to what and when it will happen, especially what is going on in Israel.  The description a soldier as we have been looking at is certainly a picture of the soldiers in Israel today, as they are probably the best fighting force anywhere in the world as they have to be because of how Satan is using many around to world to be a part of this war that is going on.  God is in total control and as Yair says most every day from his show “Boots on the Ground” that God is on the side of Israel and will not forsake them.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  God will always keep His promises, and I am especially thinking of Israel at this time, as I pray for them each and every day.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I believe that the Lord is speaking to my heart about not being fearful and once again has led me to make sure that I am putting on my Spiritual Armor every day.

 

1/13/2025 11:01 AM  

 

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