EVENING
SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/24/2025 8:30 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Remain”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Jude 20-21
Message of the verses: “20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God,
waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”
I
begin this evening SD by stating that for all of us who are Christians to
exercise discernment and protect ourselves from being led astray, we must
remain on the path of sanctification.
Now remember from earlier SD’s that there are three parts to sanctification. First we are sanctified when we become a
believer, next we continue to be sanctified as we grow in our faith. Lastly we will be completely sanctified when
we go to heaven, and I am talking about going to heaven at the rapture, as the
dead will rise first and then we who are alive will go a split second
afterwards, and then we will be with the Lord forever, and that is the time
when we are completely sanctified. Now
back to our verses for this evening, and I will now quote from John MacArthur’s
commentary “Doing so involves first building
ourselves up on our most holy faith. We must become doctrinally strong if we would
recognize error and effectively fight the battle for truth. The present, active participle translated building yourselves up has an
imperatival sense—meaning it is not optional.
Metaphorically, the idea of building up refers to personal edification
and spiritual growth, and it implies the establishment of the firm foundation
of sound doctrine. As in verse 3, the most holy faith is the objective body
of biblical truth.
“Practically
speaking, edification centers on studying the Word of God and learning to apply
it. In Acts 20:32 Paul tells the
Ephesian elders, ‘I commend you to God
and to the word of His grace, which is able build you up and to give you the
inheritance among all those who are sanctified.’ All the ministries of the church should
result in edification (Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 14:12, 26; Eph. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:11; cf.
1 Cor. 8:1). God gave the church
apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers to proclaim His Word,
which results in ‘the building up of the
body of Christ’ (Eph. 4:11-12; cf. Col. 2:6-7). Peter wrote that believers should desire the
Word for spiritual growth, just as babies desire milk for their physical
nourishment (1 Peter 2:2). Along those same lines, the apostle John wrote that
the spiritually strong believers, those capable of successfully waging
effective warfare for the truth, are those in whom the Word of God abides (1
John 2:14).”
I really don’t want to stop here, but it is
Sunday evening, and I am tired from the day’s events so I think it is best to
end here and then to finish this SD tomorrow, Lord willing.
8/24/2025 8:52 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment