SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 8/1/2025 9:40 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-2“The Future: The
Crown, with Which He Will Be Rewarded”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 4:8
Message
of the verse: “In
the future 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. (4:8)
I realize that I
did not get too far in looking at these verses, but as mentioned there are
times when I have to write other things, things that come to my mind as I am
studying the Word of God, and that is what happened in yesterday’s SD. Today we turn the calendar over to the month
of August and that means that the summer time is moving way too fast for
me. I live in the state of Ohio, near
Cleveland, Ohio, and Cleveland gets the second least amount of sunshine in our
country, only Seattle, Washington gets less than Cleveland, and I have to say that
it can get depressing here especially from October until May each year because
of the lack of sunshine.
I
begin this SD by talking about the words “Laid
up,” as they carry the idea of being safely stored and carefully
guarded. Now a certain part of their
heavenly treasure is stored up in advance by believers themselves. Matthew 6:20 is a good verse to look at now: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or
steal” is what Jesus said in this verse which comes from “The Sermon on the
Mount.” Now in his first letter to
Timothy Paul counsels Timothy to instruct the people in his congregation “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready
to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the
future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed” (1 Tim.
6:18-19).
One
of the things that did not happen to Paul was to meet the Lord Jesus Christ
while He was on planet earth ministering in Israel, however Paul doubtless had
heard of his Lord’s promise “Blessed are
you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil
against your falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward
in heaven is great” (Matt. 5:11-12), and this too comes from the Sermon on
the Mount. Christ also said that His
Father will reward those who give, pray, and fast in secret—that is, sincerely
rather than for the notice and praise of men (Matt. 6:4, 6, 18), more from His
Sermon on the Mount.
John
MacArthur writes “No writer of Scripture more forcefully proclaimed the truth
that salvation is entirely by God’s grace working through our faith than did
the apostle Paul. Yet no other writer of
Scripture more joyously anticipated the reward he one day would receive from
the hand of the Lord who had saved and sustained him by grace. He continually pressed ‘on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus. (Phil. 3:14).”
I want to write
about rewards for must a moment at the end of this SD. We are saved by grace through faith, nothing
we can do on our own to earn that salvation.
Once we are saved the Lord, through the Holy Spirit causes us to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and gives us gifts in
order to do the work that the Lord has planned for us to do. When we get to heaven there will be what we
could call a reward’s ceremony. This happens after the rapture but before the
millennial kingdom, which is during the tribulation period on earth. When a believer receives rewards for doing
that the Lord has called them to do then believers will throw down those
rewards at the feet of Jesus for without what Jesus did for us there would be
no rewards to give to Him.
8/1/2025 9:54 AM
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