EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2026
6:47 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: “The
Paradox of True Discipleship”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
“Luke
9:24-25”
Message of the verses: “For whoever wishes to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save
it. For what is a man profited if he
gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?”
John MacArthur explains “Jesus further elaborated on
the principle He had just given by noting paradoxically that whoever wishes
to save his life will in fact lose it, but whoever loses his life for My
sake, he is the one who will save it. The
only way for lost sinners to be saved from eternal punishment in hell is to
experience the abandonment of everything for Christ.
“This clear call must have been a
regular part of our Lord’s preaching.
Later in His ministry, He declared, ‘Whoever seeks to keep his life will
lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it’ (Luke 17:33). Earlier, as recorded in Matthew 10:39, He
said, ‘He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for
My sake will find it.’ John 12:25 states that during Passion Week He repeated
this call: ‘He who loves his life loses
it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.’ Clearly, the message is that those who focus
on self-love, self-esteem, and fulfilling all their desires, dreams, and
ambitions in this life, even with a superficial interest in Jesus, will lose
their eternal soul (cf. Matt. 7:21-23).”
(cf. Matt. 7:21-23)
“21 ¶ "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my
Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many
will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them,, ‘I never
knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
“But those
who abandon their self0interests, deny themselves, hate their sinful condition,
and give themselves wholly to Jesus Christ will be saved.
“An important point to note is that
Jesus was not investing all forms of self-denial with any inherent
nobility. He was not saying that those
who give their lives for social, political, or even religious causes will
benefit spiritually from doing so. The
self-denial the Lord called for was specifically, He said, for My sake.
“Elaborating on his point, Jesus asked the rhetorical
question, For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses
or forfeits himself? Expressing the
ultimate hyperbole, the Lord said in effect, ‘Assume for the sake of argument
that you could possess the whole world—all that your passions hunger for, your
eyes covet, and your pride demands (cf. 1 John 2:16).”
(cf. 1 John 2:16)
“16 For all that is in the world—the desires of
the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father
but is from the world.”
“What
would that profit you if you forfeited your eternal soul?’ The obvious answer
is ‘nothing.’ Nothing in the world is of
comparable value to a person’s eternal soul.”
10/24/2026
7:10 PM
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