SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/30/2025 8:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “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:”
It is my desire to finish this
section in today’s SD. I am sometimes
amazed how much John MacArthur gets out of a single verse, but as one looks at
this verse one can see the importance of it.
In my other book of the Bible that I am writing about, Jude, which is a
very short epistle MacArthur has 15 messages on it; again I am amazed how much
he gets from the Word of God.
I begin with a quotation from John
MacArthur this morning: “When the French
sculptor created the magnificent Statue of Liberty as a gift from his own
country to the United States, there were no airplanes or helicopters. Yet he made that statue in such complete
detail that even the top of its head was perfectly sculpted. Little did that artist know that one day tens
of thousands of people a year would fly over the statue and be able to
appreciate the full excellency of his work.
It was such concern for excellency that motivated Paul’s ministry, a
concern which he desired his beloved Timothy to share.”
As I think about Paul’s letter to
Timothy I have to believe that millions of people have read what he wrote
almost 2000 years ago, and I know that this was all in the plan of God, as
through His Holy Spirit many millions have been blessed by this last letter of
Paul that is found in the Word of God.
That is how great God is, and how God used all of the authors of the
Word of God who wrote the different 66 books of the Word of God. Humaningly speaking without the Holy Spirit
inspiring all those books it would not ever have happened. “How Great Thou Art.”
MacArthur explains “Epiphaneia (appearing) literally means ‘a
shining forth’ and was used by the ancient Greeks of the supposed appearance of
a pagan god to men. William Barclay
notes that it also was used of Roman emperors.
‘His accession to the throne of the Empire was his epiphaneia; and in particular—and this is the background of Paul’s
thought here—it was used of a visit by the Emperor to any province or
town. The emperor’s appearance in any
place was his epiphaneia. Obviously when the Emperor was due to visit
any place, everything was put in perfect order.’ (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon [Philadelphia: Westminster,
1957], 233).
“In the New Testament, the noun epiphaneia is found only in the letters of
Paul. He uses it once of Christ’s
incarnation (2 Tim. 1:10) and once of His coming to destroy Antichrist at
the end of the Great Tribulation (2 Thess. 2:8). In all four of the other instances, he uses
it of Christ’s taking His saints to be with Himself at the Rapture (Here; in 1
Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:8; and Titus 2:13).
“This particular judgment also will
have a special relation to Christ’s earthly kingdom, His thousand-year reign,
which will begin after the Great Tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon and
ultimately merge into the eternal state.
At that time, the Lord’s resurrected, raptured and rewarded saints will
return with Him to establish His millennial kingdom. ‘ He who overcomes,’ He promises, I will
grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down
with My Father on His throne’ (Rev. 3:21).
When they stand before the Lamb on His heavenly throne, the four
creatures and the twenty-four elders will sing, ‘And Thou hast made them to be
a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth’ (Rev.
5:10).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
Every since I became a born-again believer in Jesus Christ over 50 years
ago I can say that I have looked forward to being alive when the Rapture takes
place. The Rapture event ends the church
age, and all believers in the church age, from the first of them found in the 2nd
chapter of Acts all the way to the Rapture will be a part of going to be with
the Lord in the air. I truly look
forward to it!
My Steps of Faith for Today: It
is my great joy to write my Spiritual Diaries each day so that those around the
world who the Spirit leads to read them will become believers, grow in their
faith, and then tell others about the grace of God in order to come to know Him
as their Savior and Lord. It will be wonderful
experiences to one day meet those in heaven who have read these Spiritual Diaries,
and I look forward to that day, which perhaps is not that far away now.
6/30/2025 9:39
AM
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