MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/26/2026
9:59 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: “Jesus Is
Merciful”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
5:10b-11
Message of the verses: “Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from
now on you will be catching men.” When
they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.”
This morning I will be looking at the last section in
chapter 26 of John MacArthur’s first commentary on the gospel of Luke, and I
think that he has written four books on his commentary of Luke, so that means
once we get through chapter five of Luke, which ends this first commentary,
that we will have three more books to look at.
They go like this Book on, Luke 1-5; book 2, Luke 6-10; book three,
11-17; book 4, 18-24.
He begins his commentary on this
section by writing “In the terror of the recognition of his sinfulness, Peter
wanted to send the Lord away, but Jesus wanted to draw Peter closer. The very point at which the sinner feels the
most alienation is the point at which the Savior seeks reconciliation. In Psalm 51:17 David wrote, ‘The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not
despise.’” Just a reminder that this Psalm, along with Psalm 32 were written by
David after his sin with Bathsheba, where afterwards David made sure that her
husband was killed so he could marry her.
One more thing we see in the Word of God that it speaks of this sin as
David sinned, but when he numbered the tribes of Israel for his own pride was
involved in that we see that the Bible says David sinned greatly. Ok back to MacArthur’s comments “Through the
prophet Isaiah God declared, ‘For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives
forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with
the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and
to revive the heart of the contrite’’(Isa. 57:15; cf. 66:2).” Isaiah 66:2 “2 All these things my hand has made, and so all
these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will
look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Back to MacArthur’s commentary: “At their
moment of deepest alienation when, overwhelmed by their sinfulness, Peter,
James, and John sought to flee, Jesus reached out to pull them to Himself. This is the glorious moment of their
repentance. He did the same with Isaiah
who, in the presence of God, cursed his own sinfulness and deemed himself unworthy
to be in the presence of the Holy One.
But the Lord sought to cleans him and use him as His instrument (Isa.
6:5-9).”
(Isa. 6:5-9)
“5 ¶ And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost;
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having
in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said:
"Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your
sin atoned for." 8 And I heard the
voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for
us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me." 9 ¶
And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "’Keep on hearing,
but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’”
“Seeking to calm and reassure him, Jesus
said to Simon, “Do not fear.” There
was no need for him and his companions to be terrified. There is a proper, healthy fear of God,
expressed for instance in Deuteronomy 13:4: ‘You shall follow the Lord your God
and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve
Him and cling to Him.’ That reverential
fear is different from the terror of the demons or the sinner, who fears the
judgment of God and seeks to flee from His presence (cf. Rev. 6:15-17); it is
the fear of love, awe, and adoration that causes the believer to cling to the ‘Father
of mercies’ (2 Cor. 1:3) and serve and obey Him (cf. Deut. 10:12-13; 1 Sam. 12:24). The proper fear of the Lord results in wisdom
(Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10) and worship (Ps. 2:11).
(cf. Rev. 6:15-17)
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great
ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and
free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks,
"Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne,
and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for
the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
“Mercy would take them from cowering
in fear to catching men (zogreo) which literally means, ‘to
capture alive.’ They had spent their
lives catching fish for the purpose of killing them; now they would spend the
rest of their lives catching men to give them life. Isaiah feared he would be destroyed, but
instead was called to preach (Isa. 6:8-11).
John feared that he would be destroyed, but instead was called to write
(Rev. 1:19).”
(Rev. 1:19)
“19 Write therefore the things that you have
seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.”
“Divine
grace and mercy moved Peter, James, and John from cringing fear of judgment to
evangelizing the lost, laying the groundwork for the great commission.
“This was Jesus’ formal and
permanent call of these three men to full-time discipleship, so when they
had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him (cf.
vv. 27, 28; 9:23, 49, 57, 59, 61; 18:22, 28, 43). At the very pinnacle of their earthly
careers, having just made the greatest catch of fish ever seen on that lake,
they abandoned their boats, turned their backs on their fishing business, left
everything, and followed Jesus (cf. Luke 9:23-25).”
(cf. Luke 9:23-25)
“23 And he said to all, "If anyone would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
24 For whoever would save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the
whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
“Those who recognize their sinful unworthiness and
embrace Jesus as the truthful, omniscient, omnipotent, holy, and merciful God
are the ones He reconciles to Himself.
He forgives their sin, takes away their fear of judgment that sin
causes, and commissions them to the great task of evangelization, of catching
men alive for the kingdom of God.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my life today: Evangelization is one of the reasons that I
spend time studying, and writing my Spiritual Diaries each and everyday. It is my desire when I get to heaven,
hopefully alive at the rapture of the Church, that I will meet many people who surrendered
their lives to Jesus Christ, as their Savior and Lord after the Holy Spirit
uses some of these Spiritual Diaries to call them to the Lord. That surely will be a great day!
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting that the Lord will show us the way
to get help for Sandy’s cancer as we now have two options, along with some new
meds that I pray will help her.
5/26/2026
10:52 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment