SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/15/2025 10:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5
“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 by talking about the parable
of the soils, as Jesus identifies false believers whose non-saving faith is
very short lived with “the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is
the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of
riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matt. 13:22). Those are the kind of temporary professing
Christians of whom Peter speaks: “If
after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are
overcome, the last state has become worst for them than the first” (2 Peter
2:20).
John
MacArthur writes “The worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches” of
which Jesus spoke are among the affairs of everyday life that can keep an
unbeliever from receiving Christ and can keep believers from faithfully serving
Him. Just as the dutiful soldier places
his life willingly on the line in service of his country, so the faithful
Christian will willingly ‘deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
[Christ]’ (Matt. 16:24). He will say
with Paul, ‘I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in
order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the
Lord Jesus’ (Acts 20:24).”
Now we move onto the third mark of a good soldier
which is a genuine desire to please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Now before I once again quote from the
MacArthur commentary I has to write something that to me is ironic. I have mentioned this in earlier SD’s but for
those who read this one, they may not have looked at the one I wrote about some
of the things that led me to become a believer in Jesus Christ. I mentioned that it was on July 5, 1966 I was
inducted into U.S Army, something that I was willing to do, but not looking
forward to. There was a war going on and
many of my age group who were in the service were being killed, and so it was
kind of freighting to me, and I suppose others to. I was kind of a “religious” young man but not
at all following the Lord, however I did ask the Lord to get me out of the army
if that was possible. Three days later that
prayer was answered, and the deal I made with the Lord was that I would not
swear anymore, which I stopped for a couple of weeks. I would go home serving my country in the
army as a soldier for 27 days. It was on
January 26, 1974 that the Lord inducted me into His service as a soldier of the
Lord, something that I did not know at the time. To me this is ironic as one might see as I
was reluctant to serve in the US army but now am serving as a soldier in the
army of the Lord.
MacArthur
goes on to write In the same way, but of far greater importance, a Christian’s
deepest desire is to please the Lord Jesus Christ, his commander in chief, the
one who enlisted him. It is impossible
to serve two commanders in chief, just as it is impossible to serve two masters
(Matt. 6:24). The faithful Christian’s
fondest hope is to be rewarded for loyal service and to hear his Master say, ‘Well
done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with an few things, I will put
you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master’ (Matt. 25:21).”
All
who are born into this world are born as unbelieving sinners, and I know that
is a hard statement to believe and to understand the truth of it. When Adam sinned, he sinned with his eyes
wide open, as Eve was tempted by Satan and that is why she sinned. The result was that the sin-nature would be
passed on by the man, and that is the reason that the Lord Jesus Christ when He
became the God Man had to be born without the sin nature and that is the reason
for the virgin birth, as Jesus was fathered by the Holy Spirit of God to the
virgin Mary. Don’t ask me to explain how
all of that came about, but the Bible says it did and that is all I need to
know. This means that the Lord Jesus
Christ was the only Person who was born without a sin nature. Now with that hopefully explained I can go on
to write that because of our sinfulness the strong desire to pleas other people
is an integral characteristic of fallen man.
Now even Christians want to be men-pleasers. MacArthur writes “Many Christians succumb to
that temptation and become more concerned about pleasing their fellow workers,
their neighbors, and their friends than about pleasing the Lord. And for the same reason, many pastors fall
into the trap of wanting to please their congregations or their communities
more than to pleas the Lord. That the desire
inevitably leads to moral and spiritual decline, because pleasing the world,
including worldly Christians, demands compromise of God’s truth, God’s
standards, and the situation of the Ephesian church some years after Paul wrote
this letter to Timothy (who was pasturing in Ephesus), we know that forsaking
Christa s our first love is possible even when our doctrine is sound and we
toil and persevere for Him (see Rev. 2:2-4).
When that happens, we must ‘remember therefore from where [we] have
fallen, and repent’ (v. 5). We must remind
ourselves of Paul’s sobering testimony: If
I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ’
(Gal. 1:10). When Christ is our first
love, we will ‘have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing
to Him’ (2 Cor. 5:9; 1 Thess. 2:4).”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today:
I desire to have Christ first place in my life and as a soldier of His to serve
Him with all my heart.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Part of serving the Lord is to also serve
others in His name, and not only today but every day I desire keep my eyes out
for how I can serve the Lord by serving others.
1/15/2025 10:52 AM
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