MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/13/2026
9:43 AM
My Worship
Time Focus: PT-2 “The Message”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Luke 4:16-21
Message of the verses: “And He came to
Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom,
He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to
read. 17And the scroll of
Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the
scroll and found the place where it was written:
18“THE SPIRIT OF THE
LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE
ANOINTED ME TO BRING GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR.
HE HAS
SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO CAPTIVES,
AND
RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO
SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
19TO PROCLAIM THE
FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” 20And He rolled up the
scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the
eyes of all the people in the synagogue were
intently directed at Him. 21Now He began to
say to them, “Today this Scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.’”
I will continue with MacArthur’s
commentary from where I left off last evening.
“As stood up to read, the book
(scroll) of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him by the chazzan. It evidently was not unrolled to any
text, so Jesus opened the book and found the place where it was
written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me
to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set
free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” He read from two passages in Isaiah, 61:1-2
and 58:6. What Jesus read was, as His
hearers were well aware, messianic prophecy.
The phrase the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me reflects the reality
again that Messiah would be empowered by the Holy Spirit (cf. the expositions
of 3:22; 4:1, 14 earlier in this volume).
He would be anointed by the Spirit , set apart, and empowered for
special service, as Isaiah 11:2 reveals: ‘The Spirit of the Lord will rest on
Him [Messiah; cf. v.1], the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and the strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord’
(cf. 48:16).
“Verse 18 succinctly summarizes the
Messiah’s ministry. Four metaphors
depict the desperate condition of needy sinners whom God speaks to rescue from
hell. Though the religious in this world
may imagine themselves to be rich, free, healthy, and unhindered, until
receiving the salvation that Christ brings, they are in reality poor,
prisoners, blind, and oppressed. Those
metaphors graphically depict their utter lack of any spiritual resources to
extricate themselves from their deadly dilemma.
Only through the Messiah’s work of salvation can they be rescued from
eternal punishment in hell.”
Now I am going to add something here
that I believe goes along with what we have been writing about from above. It is a parable that Jesus told in Luke
18:9-14.
“9 ¶ He also told this parable to some who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
10 "Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed
thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off,
would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a
sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’”
MacArthur then goes on: “First, Messiah would preach the gospel to
the poor. The good news of the
gospel is that the spiritually impoverished can find salvation. Ptochos (poor)
derives from a verb that means, ‘to cringe,’ ‘to shrink back,’ or ‘to
cower.’ It conveys the idea of a beggar
cringing in the shadows, cowering in shame.
In contrast to another Greek word, penes, which describes the
working poor, ptochos describes those in extreme depravation who are
reduced to begging, such as the beggar Lazarus (16:20). In spiritual terms, the poor are those
who recognize that they have nothing by which to commend themselves to God (cf.
6:20; Matt. 5:3).”
(cf. 6:20; Matt. 5:3)
20 ¶ And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples,
and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
“3 ¶ "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“They
acknowledge their moral bankruptcy, that all their righteousness deeds are
nothing but a filthy garment (Isa. 64:6).
Messiah can only
bring salvation to those who acknowledge that they are spiritually destitute
and that only God can supply their needs.” In other words you have to realize that you
are sick so you can seek out a doctor, and Jesus is who you must seek after you
realize that you are a sinful person who on his own can do nothing.
“Spiritual poverty is not an act; it
is not false piety or humility, but genuine.
The spiritually poor are ‘humble and contrite of spirit’ (Isa. 66:2);
they are ‘brokenhearted’ and ‘crushed in spirit’ (Ps. 34:18). Possessing a ‘broken spirit’ and a ‘broken
and contrite heart’ (Ps. 51:17), they are like the repentant tax collector, who
was ‘unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast,
saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’’(Luke 18:13).” I don’t read ahead in MacArthur’s commentary
and so I can see that we were on the same page with the reference of the tax
collector. He goes on “It is such
people, Jesus declared, whom God justifies (v. 14). In contrast the Lord rebuked the members of
the Laodicean church for thinking that
they were ‘rich, and [had] become wealthy, and [had] need of
nothing,’ while in reality they were
‘wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked’ (Rev. 3:17).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I remember very well when the Lord saved me,
January 26, 1974, and I was truly a sinful person who could not say a sentence
without swearing. It was on July 5, 1969
that I was drafted into the US army, during the Vietnam war, and I knew it was
my duty to go but did not really want to.
During my physical they found albumin in my urine and made me go to my
doctor to find out about it. He just
said the same thing that it was in my body.
After reporting to Ft. Benning I found out I had a medical hold and my
prayer to the Lord was actually a deal that if He got me out of the army I
would stop my constant swearing. Well
three days after getting there I was to go home because of the albumin in my
urine. After reporting back to Ford
Motor Company they asked me why I was
back so soon. I told them and they
tested me again, but it was all gone, never to have it again. My deal with God did not last too long. I want to visit a friend in Orlando Florida
who gave me some tapes by Hal Lindsey and it was through those end times tape
message that the Lord saved me. How do I
know that the Lord saved me? Well that
deal I made with the Lord about stop swearing He took that away and I have not
sworn again. Praise the Lord who saved
me and then put me to work writing Spiritual Diaries that He is using as His
Spirit sends them around the world through the internet.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I am trusting the Lord to guide my wife to a
place where they can get rid of her cancer.
5/13/2026
10:55 AM
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