SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2025 8:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Reproving Scripture”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
3:16c
Message of the verse: “for reproof”
On my other Blog post this morning I was going over the
first six verses of Psalm 50, and in those verses they too were talking about
God’s judgment for sin, similar to what we are looking at from 2 Timothy 3:16c.
John MacArthur writes that “Scripture has the negative ministry of tearing down and destroying that which is sinful and false as well as of building up the improving that which is righteous and true. Just as in medicine, infection and contamination must be excised before healing can begin. Paul told the Ephesian elders, ‘I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of all men….Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears’ (Acts 20:26, 31).
“Reproving the wrong doing of his people is as much
a pastor’s responsibility as helping build them up in righteousness. At the beginning of the next chapter of this
letter, Paul wrote, ‘I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ
Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His
kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke,
exhort, with great patience and instruction’ (2 Tim. 4:1-2). The first two of
those three admonitions are negative, the first one being the verb form of mos (reprove). God’s minister, like God’s Word must reprove
sin and falsehood.
I am wondering what exactly Paul means when he
writes ‘be ready in season and out of season.”
The following comes from the MacArthur study Bible: ‘in season and out
of season. The faithful preacher must
proclaim the Word when it is popular and/or convenient, and when it is not;
when it seems suitable to do so, and when it seems not. The dictates of popular culture, tradition,
reputation, acceptance, or esteem in the community (or in the church) must
never alter the true preacher’s commitment to proclaim God’s Word.” It seems that in our country today that this
part of this verse seems to be that in many places it is not popular to preach
the word, but nevertheless it should be done.
“Scripture is the divine plumb line by which every
thought, principle, act, and belief is to be measured. Paul reminded the Corinthian church what he
doubtless had taught them many times. “We
are not like many,’ he said, ‘peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity,
as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God….We have renounced the
things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the
word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every
man’s conscience in the sight of God’ (2 Cor. 2:17; 4:2). Luke commended God-fearing Jews in Berea
because they ‘were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they
received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see
whether these things were so’ (Acts 17:11).
As every preacher and teacher should be, Paul and Silas were not
offended but were greatly pleased that everything they said was measured
against God’s Word.” That is certainly
the way it should be because God’s Word is perfect, as there are never any
mistakes in His Word nor could there ever be any mistakes in His Word because
God is perfect, and that means that God is worthy of our worship, all of the
time.
Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today: I have to
say that it is the Word of God which has sustained me through these last few
months as my dear wife was diagnosed with “female” cancer and six weeks and two
days ago she had surgery to remove those parts that had cancer. One of the things that I have been thinking
about since her diagnose comes from Psalm 139:16 which says “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one
of them.” I have talked with some Pastor’s
about this verse and they agree with what I am thinking about this verse and
that is that God is in charge of when we were born and when we will go to be
with Him, and my hope has always been to go to be with the Lord alive when the
rapture happens. I have come to the conclusion
that because God is all knowing that this is no problem for Him to know when a
person is born and when that person dies.
In thinking about that and my wife’s cancer it has made a difference as
to how we will continue to do things that will help her to get rid of it as we
have changed her diet long before her surgery, and are looking for homeopathic
doctors to help with this. In the end
all of us will go exactly when the Lord has planned for it, and the most
important thing in everyone’s life is whether or not they know the Lord Jesus
Christ as their Savior and Lord so that when a person dies they will then go
directly to be with the Lord and be with Him forever. If you are not sure that you are a believer
then the first thing is to confess that you are a sinner, and as a sinner in
need of a Savior, Jesus Christ. Confess
that you are as sinner, and then ask the Lord to save you from your sins, and
once that happens say to the Lord that because of your new-birth that you want
to serve Him all the rest of your life.
It may seem simple but what Jesus Christ did on the cross is far from
simple as He took on his body all of the sins that have ever been or will be
committed so that you can now come to Him for salvation, believing He did that
for You.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I trust the Lord through His Holy Spirit that He will use what I have
written to bring salvation to those that as He has planned in eternity past to
do this.
6/12/2025 9:29
AM
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