SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2025 7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Seriousness of His Commission”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 4:1
Message of the
verse: “1
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:”
This
morning I continue looking at this first verse of the 4th chapter of
2 Timothy, and as already noted, this particular judgment will be the bema seat
judgment of all believers, both the living and the
dead, after Christ Jesus takes them to be with Himself at the Rapture (1 Thess.
4:13-18). I have to say again that when
the Lord Jesus Christ, through His Holy Spirit was beginning to work seriously
in my life the Rapture was one of those things that He used to bring me to
Himself, to save me from my sins. I had
never heard about the Rapture before that winter day in Casselberry Florida
where I was listening to Hal Lindsey’s sermons which had to do with his very
famous book “The Late Great Planet Earth.”
Let us take a moment and look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “13 But we do
not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that
you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have
fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that
we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede
those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall
always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.” I have to say that this is a perfect way to
bring comfort to a person who is a believer, and I suppose that this section
has been used at the funerals of many, many believers who have passed away, and
the hope they have is that when the Rapture happens that they will be the first
ones who meet the Lord in the air, as those believers who are alive will then
soon follow.
Now
the apostle exults a few verses later that “there is laid up for me the crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that
day; and not only to me , but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim.
4:8). It was in light of that same
judgment and reward that, in his previous letter, the Apostle Paul admonished
Timothy to “keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:14).
Now in his letter to his fellow believer, Titus which was written
perhaps a year before he wrote 2 Timothy, Paul wrote, “For the grace of God has
appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and
worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great “God
and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:11-13).
John MacArthur writes “A preacher’s ultimate
accountability is not to a board, a local church, a denomination, or any other
human institution, no matter how doctrinally sound and godly it may be, but to
the Lord, who has called and empowered him and who one day will judge him. Paul both preached and lived in the light of
that truth. He could therefore ask
Galatian believers rhetorically, ‘Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of
God? Or am I a bond-servant of Christ’
(Gal. 1:10). For the sake of example, a faithful minister is
concerned about the things in his life and ministry that others can see. But he is supremely concerned about the
things that only the Lord can see. And
probably more often than not, the quality of the things that only God can see
will eventually become evident in the quality of the things that men can see.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: I have never in my life said that I was a
Pastor, but those things that are highlighted in yellow above surely can fit
into my life, as it can in all believers’ lives.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord through His Holy Spirit to
write the things in my Spiritual Diaries that are always the truth, and then
use that truth in the lives of those who read them. I never ever want to hurt anyone’s walk with
the Lord by writing lies, only the TRUTH.
6/29/2025 8:23 AM
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