SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/15/2025 9:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“Difficult Experiences”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
3:11-13
Message of the verses: “11 persecutions, and
sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra;
what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12
Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But
evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and
being deceived.”
I begin this SD by saying that I did not get too far
into these verses because something came up that I thought was very important
for me to write, and so we will actually be beginning from the beginning in
today’s SD.
I talked about how persecution that Paul went through
made him stronger and stronger in giving out the message of the gospel to wherever
he went, and now Paul was encouraging his son in the faith to learn from this,
something that I believe that Timothy did learn.
MacArthur writes “Diogmos
(persecutions) is from the verb dioko,
which has the literal meaning of putting to flight. Because of their refusal to compromise or
cease proclaiming the gospel, both Paul and Timothy often had been put to
flight as fugitives from the persecutions of both Jews and pagans.” One can read through the last chapters of the
book of Acts to see how this played out.
The first half of the book of Acts is mostly about Peter and the things
that he did for the cause of Christ while the second half moves into the life
of Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul, and his ministry to the
Gentiles with his three missionary journeys and then his imprisonment and
finally his trip to Rome.
Now
before Paul was converted to Christianity Paul was a persecutor of the church
as mentioned earlier. Let us look at
some verses from Acts 9:1-2 to see this:
“1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and
murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked
for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging
to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
Now we will move forward much later into Paul’s life
where while under trial for preaching the gospel he said the following in Acts
22:4 “"I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men
and women into prisons.”
Paul went from being the persecutor to the persecuted, which began after his conversion seen in the 9th chapter of Acts. MacArthur writes “Soon after his conversion, while he was preaching the gospel in Damascus and probably after his three years in Arabia (Gal. 1:17), ‘the Jews plotted together to do away with him’ (Acts 9:23). From that day on, persecution was an almost constant companion. In Pisidian Antioch, where many Jews believed the gospel, others there ‘were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming’ (Acts 13:45). Many years before he wrote the second letter to Timothy, Paul could say of his own sufferings, as compared to certain Christian leaders who boasted ‘according to the flesh,…’
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 (2 Cor. 11:22-27).
“Besides suffering ‘from such external
things,’ he also suffered because of ‘the daily pressure upon [him] of concern
for all the churches’ (v. 28).”
With that I conclude this second section from these
verses and Lord willing I will pick it up tomorrow as in that SD I will begin
to talk more about Timothy.
Spiritual
Meaning for My life Today: The Bible tells us that after suffering then
joy will come and this is seen to be true in most if not all of the characters
in the Word of God.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to trust the Lord to guide my wife
and me to show us where she can get the best care for her cancer treatment.
5/15/2025 10:32 AM
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