EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/21/2025 9:13 PM
My Worship Tim Focus:
PT-1“Sacrificial Love for Those
Faithful to the Truth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 3 John 1-8
Message of the verses: “1 The elder to the
beloved Gaius, whom I love
in truth. 2 Beloved,
I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your
soul prospers. 3 For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is,
how you are walking in truth.
4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. 5 Beloved, you are
acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when
they are strangers; 6 and they have testified to your love before the church.
You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7 For
they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support
such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.
I mentioned in the first SD on 3 John that there was
something I learned from listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on these verses
that I would mentioned later, and what I learned can be seen in the highlighted
verse, verse 8. I will tell you what he
said that surprised me and that is that as one looks at verse eight they will
see that this was actually the beginning of sending missionaries out into the
field to do work for the cause of Christ.
I have mentioned a few times that one of the men in my Sunday school
class is the retired president of Baptist Mid Missions a missionary agency that
actually began in our church, First Baptist Church, Elyria, Ohio. Our church actually began before the civil
war in our country. Here is the
following that came from my Google search:
“First Baptist Church of Elyria, Ohio, began in 1836.
Daniel Wait came to Elyria that year to preach the gospel, and services were
initially held in the courthouse. Later, they moved to the "old yellow school house," where the
courthouse now stands.”
Our Church, First Baptist Church, Elyria,
Ohio was also responsible for the beginnings of Baptist Mid Missions. The following also came from my Google search: “Baptist Mid-Missions was founded in 1920 in
Elyria, Ohio. It started as a mission agency within the First Baptist Church of Elyria,
with the mission to send missionaries and support evangelism and church
planting. The organization was originally called The General Council of
Co-operating Baptist Missions of North America, Inc.” Dr. Gary Anderson is the former president of
Baptist Mid Missions who attends the Sunday school class I teach, and he was
the longest serving president of Baptist Mid Missions. He has been retired from that position for a
number of years, and now the president is our former Pastor from First Baptist
Church, Elyria, and Dr. Patrick Odle who has been there since 2020 I believe.
The reason that I write this is
because missionary service is very important to my wife and I. I was the president of the missionary committee
in the church that I attended before we came to First Baptist, Elyria. My wife was also involved in missionary
service in that church as she knew all of the missionaries that we
supported. I suppose that by writing my
Spiritual Diaries and putting them onto the internet through my two blogs could
be a kind of missionary work, something that I love to do as it certainly keeps
me studying the Bible each day.
We can see that the word love is
seen two times in this section from 3 John and truth is seen five times, so
truth and love have a lot to do with what John wrote, not only in this epistle
but also in the other two he wrote too.
MacArthur writes about truth “It is called to give hospitality, but
especially to those who were faithful teachers of the gospel truth (cf. 2 John
10-11).”
He then writes about what went on in
the writings of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:22-33, as Paul records the
sufferings that he went through for the cause of Christ. I will quote those verses as I end this SD,
but before I do that I want to remind you of what the Lord said would happened
to Paul found in Acts chapter nine: 15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen
instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons
of Israel; 16 for I will show
him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake." 17 So Ananias
departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said,
"Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which
you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled
with the Holy Spirit.’” Now don’t think that Paul had to suffer
because he was persecuting Christians before the Lord saved him, for that is
not the case. Now we will look at the
verses in 2 Corinthians which tells us how much Paul did suffer for the cause
of Christ: “22 Are they Hebrews? So am
I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are
they servants of Christ? — I speak as if insane — I more
so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number,
often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was
shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been
on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers
from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city,
dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27
I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in
hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such
external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all
the churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without
my intense concern? 30 If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my
weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever,
knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king
was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 33 and I was let
down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands.”
5/21/2025 10:00 PM
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