MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/21/2026
8:51 AM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “The Principle of True
Discipleship”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
9:23
Message of the verse: “And He was saying to them all, “If
anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross
daily and follow Me.”
This morning we begin to look at
this very critical verse from the gospel of Luke, and will probably only get
part way through it and have to finish it in this evenings SD.
There is good news, actually the
best news anyone can have, and that is the good news Jesus preached is the
truth that God offers forgiveness of all sin and the gift of eternal life to
those who genuinely follow Him in faith.
This calls for the total abandonment of self; as Paul wrote to the
Galatians in Gal. 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Now while listening to John
MacArthur’s sermons on this section of Luke’s gospel he talks a lot about “easy-believism”
which is rampant in the church today.
Now the Bible speaks of becoming a Christian as difficult. MacArthur writes “In Matthew 7:13-14 the Lord
used the analogy of two gates to depict the choice facing every
individual. The first is a wide gate,
which is easy to enter. It opens into a
broad, easily traversed path. That easy
way, however, leads to eternal destruction (v. 13). The other gate is small and constricted, and
the path is open into a narrow and difficult.
Yet that difficult way is the only one that leads to eternal life.” Now I will quote Matthew 7:13-14.
(Matthew 7:13-14.)
“13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate
is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by
it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow
and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
“Later ‘someone said to Him, ‘Lord,
are there just a few who are being saved?’’ (Luke 13:23). Christ’s reply reinforced the point He had
made earlier in Matthew 7: ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many,
I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able’ (v-24). In Matthew 11:12 Jesus again stated the difficulty
of entering the kingdom, noting that ‘from the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force’
(cf. Luke 16:16), while Peter asked rhetorically, ‘If it is with difficulty
that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the
sinner?’ (1 Peter 4:18).”
(cf. Luke 16:16)
“16 "The Law and the Prophets were until
John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone
forces his way into it.”
(1 Peter 4:18)
“18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what
will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
“You will
seek Me and find Me,’ God declared, only ‘when you search for Me with all your
heart’ (Jer. 29:13).”
(Jer. 29:13)
“13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek
me with all your heart.”
“Sinners
struggle mightily to come to true self-rejection, hatred of sin, and submission
to Christ. And such a struggle ending in
salvation is nothing less than energized by the power of the Holy Spirit
operating in the sovereign purpose of God.
“What makes the narrow gate so
difficult to get through is the necessity for self-denial. Rejecting the Lord’s call for him to forsake
all and follow Him, the rich young ruler, as noted above, ‘was saddened, and he
went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property’ (Mark 10:22). Refusing Christ’s call for extreme and
absolute commitment to Him, ‘many of His disciples withdrew and were not
walking with Him anymore’ (John 6:66).
“Because of the necessity for
self-denial, Jesus challenged His would-be followers to consider what it might
cost them to come to Him:
For which
one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and
calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and
is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This
man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not
first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men
to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away,
he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. (Luke 14:28-32)
Then He
applied the illustrations to His hearers:
‘So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his
own possessions’ (v. 33). The Lord was
not, of course, teaching that salvation comes by impoverishing oneself. The self-denial in view is not merely of
material things, but of anything that merits salvation (Rom. 7:18) or is more
important to a person than God.”
(Rom. 7:18)
“18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the
ability to carry it out.”
His point
is that coming to Him involves full submission to His lordship and willingness
to abandon whatever He asks for His purpose.
That is the point of the parables of the treasure hidden in the field,
and the pearl of great price in which the treasure and the pearl were only
acquired when the man sold everything (Matt. 13:44-46).”
(Matt. 13:44-46)
“44 ¶ "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes
and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
merchant in search of fine pearls, 46
who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he and bought
it.”
“The
sinner is to understand the priceless value of eternal life and eagerly be rid
of anything that would be a barrier to that everlasting joy.
“As noted, the gospel is so contrary
to fallen mankind’s self-love, selfishness, and stubborn self-will that no one
can come to faith in Christ apart from the convicting and regenerating work of
the Spirit. The unregenerate, being dead
in their sins, live lives totally controlled by personal desire driven by the
lusts of the flesh (Eph. 2:1-3).
(Eph. 2:1-3)
“1 ¶ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
“By nature.
They love the darkness of sin and hate the light of the truth (John 3:19-20),
and are blinded by Satan so they cannot see that light (2 Cor. 4:4).”
(John 3:19-20)
“19 And this is the judgment: the light has come
into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because
their works were evil. 20 For everyone who
does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his
works should be exposed.”
(2 Cor. 4:4)
“4 In their case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
“Only when
the Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin (John 16:8-11), draws them to Christ
(John 6:44, 65) and gives them life (John 3:3-7) can salvation take place.”
(John 16:8-11)
“8 And when he comes, he will convict the world
concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe
in me; 10 concerning righteousness,
because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of
this world is judged.”
(John 6:44, 65)
“44 No one can come to me unless the Father who
sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
“65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no
one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
(John 3:3-7)
“3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born again he cannot see the of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter a second
time into
his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus
answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6
That which is born of the flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to
you, ‘You must be born again.’
“Having ‘summoned the crowd with His
disciples’ (Mark 8:34), Jesus began giving to them all this important
teaching on genuine discipleship. A true
commitment to Christ involves self-denial, cross bearing, and obedience.”
(Mark 8:34)
“34 And calling the crowd to him with his
disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my life today: What I have to say does not
actually go with what I have studied in this section, other than trusting the
Lord. I have been wrestling with an
issue for a while, and struggling with it more lately. I have a friend who desires to go into
missionary work and because of a lack of funds I have been trying to help
her. It is my desire to pay for some
tests that I believe she needs so that she can have more energy to do her
tasks.
10/21/2026
10:02 AM
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