SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2025 9:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “A Forbearing Answer”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 4:4
Message of the verse: “And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
This morning I desire to finish this section, and actually it will finish this seventh chapter from John MacArthur’s commentary on the first four verses of Jonah chapter four. Chapter four is a very depressing chapter to me, but I can see from this chapter that there is no evidence of God disciplining Jonah, but there is evidence that the Lord may have taught something to Jonah that we may never know about.
Two Sunday’s ago in our morning church service was the beginning of a conference that ran from Sunday school that morning to the Wednesday evening service. The man who was speaking throughout most of this time was the president of a Bible college from Iowa. He spoke in part of his message about different characters in the Bible who were believers. He thought that some of these characters would not receive many rewards from the Lord. Now when the rapture happens it only involves the Church, the Old Testament believers will be resurrected later on, so I have to say that I am not sure when the saints of the Old Testament will receive any rewards, but I do believe that they will be a part of the Millennial Kingdom as when I read in the Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel that he speaks of David having a great leadership part of the Millennial kingdom. Any how the point he was making was that people like Lot and others would not be rewarded very much because of how they lived their lives while here on earth. As I was thinking about this, and I have to say that I am not one to judge others, that is up to the Lord, but what we see from the book of Jonah which we have been looking at for a while now, that perhaps he will be one who will not be rewarded a lot. I have to say that when he was preaching his sermon and was talking about different people who he did not think that they would get a great reward that I was a little be uncomfortable about it, but as one reads the Bible about some of these saints that one has to wonder about their rewards. I don’t really want to pick on Lot, but for a very long time in my early walk with the Lord I did not think that he was really a believer, but then I read the following “2Pe 2:7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.”
John MacArthur finishes this section with the following paragraph: “Throughout this passage (Jonah 4:1-4), the prophet’s repugnant reaction serves as a dramatic foil to magnify the marvelous grace of God. The natural response of fallen human beings is a desire to see their enemies suffer, while selfishly seeking mercy for themselves. That was Jonah’s arrogant attitude. What a contrast to the benevolent response of the Lord. Unlike His sinful servant, God displayed patience, love, kindness, and mercy—not only toward the Ninevites, but also toward Jonah. In this way, the glorious Person and saving purposes of Yahweh are vividly displayed, shining brightly in contrast to the depraved darkness of Jonah’s self-centeredness and pride.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things that I had a problem with from that sermon a couple of weeks ago was it seemed like this man was judging some of the saints that he mentioned, and although when one reads about different characters like Lot and even Jonah one can come to the conclusion that they were not all that pleasing to the Lord, but they surely were all believers. It is my desire to through the Word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit to use the gifts that God has given me to do the things that He wants me to do. I know that I have faults like all believers, but I must rely on the Lord to teach me through His Word and to confess any sins that I have done, and trust the Lord through His Spirit to led me where He wants me to go and do the things that He has plans for me to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To remember what I learned from my older SD that I put onto my other blog this morning from Psalm 119 as it taught me things that I needed to remember.
11/19/2025 9:27 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment