PT-3 "The Answer" (John 8:14-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/4/2016 9:59 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  PT-3 The Answer

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:14-19

            Message of the verses:  “14 Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. 16  "But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. 17  "Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. 18 “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me." 19 So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.’”

            We have been looking at the first support of the credibility of Jesus’ testimony, which was His origin as seen in verse fourteen, and now we will look at the second support which is His divine nature which is shared with His Father.  “But even if I do judge My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.”  The Jews obliviously believed that when Jesus was talking about the Father that He was speaking about God, and since they only believed in One God, and not understanding that there is only one God, but this one God is seen in three persons.  I know it is hard, no not hard, but impossible to understand the trinity, but never the less it is true as there is One God seen in Three Persons.  Richard Strauss writes the following about God in three Persons:  “But the Scripture reveals that there are, in that one divine essence, three eternal distinctions.  Those distinctions seem best described as persons, known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  All three have identical attributes, however, and therefore they are one—not merely one in purpose, but one is substance.  To possess all the exact same attributes is to be one in essential nature.  Three persons with identical sovereignty, for example, would be one sovereign.  Three persons with identical omnipotence would be one omnipotent being.  We humans may have characteristics similar to others, but not identical to them.  If we were absolutely identical to another person in every way, the two of us would actually be one.  The three persons of the Godhead possess identical attributes.  They are one in substance and one in essence, and therefore they are one God.”

            Now because Jesus is claiming that He was one with the Father in judgment Jesus is claiming that He has essential equality with Him, and I hope the quote from Strauss has helped all of us better understand this.  Of course this brought outrage to the Jews who surely thought that this was blasphemy, something they would eventually kill Jesus for claiming.

            John MacArthur writes “As a final vindication that His self-witness was true, Jesus rebutted the Pharisees’ false allegation that He was His only witness (v. 13).  In the law to which they and appealed and which was binding on them ‘ it has been written that the testimony of two men is true’ (Deut. 17:6; 19:15).  Reinforcing the very claim that most outraged His enemies, the Lord then provided those two witnesses, declaring, ‘I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sen Me testifies about Me.’  In perfect agreement, the Father and Son bear witness to the truth of Jesus’ claims (cf. v. 29 and the discussion of 5:31-32, 37-38).  He called on God as witness to the validity of His claim, since ‘if Jesus really stands in the relationship to God in which He says He does, then no mere man is a in a position to bear witness.  No human witness can authenticate a divine relationship’ (Morris, The Gospel According to John, 443).”

            As we conclude this section we can see that predictably the Jews did not understand the truth of what Jesus is saying and then asked “Where is Your Father,” for they believed that Jesus’ father was Joseph but if they would have investigated they could have found out the truth as seen in what Luke wrote in his gospel of Jesus.  Jesus answered them “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”  The only way that we can know the Father is to know the Son for Jesus would eventually say to Philip "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ’Show us the Father’?”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to better know God through the study of His Word, and when I study about Jesus in the gospels then I know more about God.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Work harder on my memory verses so that I can think more about them and meditate on them to understand them better.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Corinthians 12:7-9a “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8. Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  9a. And He said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness,’”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “By placing a scarlet thread in the window” (Joshua 1:18-21).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did John the Baptist eat in the wilderness?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/4/2016 10:43 AM    

God Removes Lawlessness PT-1 (Zech. 5:1-4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2016 11:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-1God Removes Lawlessness

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 5:1-4

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. 2 And he said to me, "What do you see?" And I answered, "I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits." 3 Then he said to me, "This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. 4  "I will make it go forth," declares the LORD of hosts, "and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.’”

            We will be looking at the first sub-point under the first main point which Dr. Wiersbe entitles “The Cleansing of the Land.”  I first want to look at an endnote that has to do with what we read in the third verse and has to do with how the translators translated the phrase “over the face of the whole land,” as seen in the NASB95 version:  “The Hebrew word eretz can mean either ‘land’ or ‘earth’ depending on the context, and sometimes it isn’t easy to determine which is meant.  In Zechariah 4:14, eretz is obviously ‘earth,’ for our God is ‘lord of the whole earth.’  The NIV translates eretz ‘land’ in 5:3 and 6, meaning the land of Israel; while the KJV and NKJV use ‘earth,’ meaning the whole world.  I prefer the NIV translation since these visions deal especially with the sins of the Jewish nation against the Law of God.”

            Zechariah begins by saying that he sees another vision, a vision of a flying scroll and there is once again a conversation between Zechariah and the interpreter angel.  The flying scroll is very large, fifteen feet by thirty feet and there is writing on both sides of it.  One side has the third commandment from Exodus 20:7 on it “"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”  And on the other side we see the eighth commandment “"You shall not steal (Ex. 20:15). 

            This scroll represents the Law of God and when one breaks the Law of God a curse is then given to them “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM’ 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM’ (Gal. 3:10-12).”  Now we know that no one can completely keep the Law of God, and thank God for His grace and for His mercy and for sending His Son to perfectly keep the Law and die in our place so when we accept His forgiveness God no longer sees our sinfulness, but sees the righteousness of His Son who died for us.  The Law was not given to save us, but to show us God’s righteousness.

            We probably wonder why it is that the Lord only chose two of the Ten Commandments to put on this large flying scroll.  Perhaps the remnant that Zechariah is a part of had problems keeping these two commandments.  Both Haggai and Malachi write of the problems of sin that the remnant had.  See Haggai 1:1-11 and also Malachi 3:7-15.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “But there is another reason.  The third commandment is the central commandment on the first table of the Law, and the eight commandment is the central commandment on the second table of the law, so these two commandments represent the whole law.  ‘But whoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all’ (James 2:10).”

            We will continue looking at this part of the vision in our next SD.

6/3/2016 11:34 PM

              

PT-2 The Answer (John 8:14-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2016 9:11 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  PT-2 The Answer

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:14-19

            Message of the verses:  “14 Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. 16  "But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. 17  "Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. 18 “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me." 19 So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also."”

            As we go through these “arguments” that the Pharisees bring against our Lord we can see that they are not as smart about the Law as they think that they are.  I have highlighted the words “the flesh” and Jesus said to them that this is how you are judging.  The Pharisees were involved in a “false religion” but what they were reading as far as the Word of God was true, but their problem is that they were not believers and therefore could not understand what they were reading.  Jesus answer in response to their statement of single testimony, which is what they got out of the Law, was “Even if I testify about myself, My testimony is true.”  Of course it is true for He is God come in the flesh and it is impossible for Him to lie or to sin, but they, in their flesh, did not understand this.  We have to get over thinking that these Pharisees were living and teaching the truth, for they were not and that is why our Lord was on them, because they were teaching false “religion” to the people and they were the ones who were making out as far as racking in the money from their false religion like what is going on today with false teachers.

            John MacArthur writes “The demand for two or three witnesses was a means for establishing the truth in a court of law.  What Jesus said was the truth in utter perfection, since God is true (Rom. 3:4; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18).  Still, He gave His enemies three evidences to support His self-testimony as the truth, each related to His deity—the very thing that scandalized them the most.”  We will look at the first evidence in our SD for today and then it is my desire to look at the last two in our next SD.

            The first evidence was the fact of His divine origin and His destiny.  Now as we read through this and other sections from John’s gospel we see that the Pharisees were ignorant of both His origin and His destiny.  Because of these two evidences Jesus was qualified to testify about Himself, however they were not.  “For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.”  We see both of these evidences in this short statement.  Let us look at John 16:28 “"I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father."”  MacArthur writes “His self-knowledge and divine omniscience (cf. 2:25; 16:30; 21:17) thoroughly confirmed His testimony.”

            The Pharisees did not know where He came from or where He was going to return to for they did not take the time to find out about where Jesus was born and how it was that He ended up in Nazareth, and as they read and studied their Law them missed all of the prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ.  I have a older book that was written by Hal Lindsey entitled “The Promise” and in that book he teamed up with an artist who painted pictures of some of the different prophecies that took place in the life, death, burial, an resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He writes the following in this book “Prophecy itself is not unique to the Bible.  Hundreds of psychics and religious seers have made predictions of the future during their lifetimes and some have had a degree of accuracy.  But what is unique to the Bible is that it has been 100 percent accurate in every prophecy fulfilled to date.

            “I realize that’s an enormous statement to make and unfortunately the limited space here won’t permit me to take theses hundreds of Biblical prophecies and demonstrate their accurate fulfillment.  I have selected, however, about 36 of the more than 300 predictions in the Old Testament which relate to its most important prophetic theme, the promise of a Messiah-deliverer who would be sent by God to create the Kingdom of God on earth, restore the Jews to their land and bring all men and nations into an earthly and eternal peace.” 

            Now the Pharisees had the same Scriptures that Lindsey writes about in this book, and yet because of their greed from power and money and their pride, and most of all because of “their flesh” they missed these prophecies about Jesus Christ. 

            We have already mentioned His next statement “You judge according to the flesh,” and will not write any more about this statement but will move on to the next statement “I am not judging anyone.”  MacArthur writes “He may have meant that He did not judge according to the flesh (superficially, externally) like the Pharisees did…Or the Lord may have meant that He did not judge anyone yet, since ‘God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.’  In the future, however, Jesus will judge, ‘For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son’ (5:22; cf. v. 27; 9:39; Matt. 16:27; 25:31-46; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1).”  As we studied the book of Revelation last year we saw that the three different sets of seven judgments came from the Lord as He was purging the earth with these judgments.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I read through the gospel of John I see the great courage that Jesus demonstrated when coming up against the evil that He faced and this shows me that I too can do the same as the Lord leads me to do so.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to trust the Lord to give me the right words to say this coming Sunday as I talk about the class that I am to teach beginning the following Sunday.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Corinthians 12:7-9a “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8. Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  9. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Israel.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Rehab mark her house so she would be protected when Jericho was captured?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/3/2016 10:09 AM      

First Intro to Zechariah chapter Five

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/2/2016 11:41 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro. To Zech 5

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 5

            Message of the verses:  In this Spiritual Diary we will briefly take a look at the introduction to the fifth chapter of the book of Zechariah as we look at what John MacArthur calls “The Endo of Sinners and Sin.”  Warren Wiersbe writes the following in his commentary for the introduction to this 5^th chapter:  “The Previous vision ended with the interpreting angel calling Israel’s God ‘the Lord of the whole earth’ (4:14), a title that is also used in Psalm 95:7 and Isaiah 54:5.  Zechariah’s purpose in writing is to tell us about the future of the Jews and Jerusalem, but the future of the whole world is involved in the future of the Jews, for God called Israel to bring blessing or cursing to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 12:1-3).

            “The prophet describes three key events that give evidence that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is indeed ‘the Lord of the whole earth.”  Now the first evidence he entitles “The cleansing of the land” and that section covers Zechariah 5:1-11.  Next we will look at “God judges the nations” from Zechariah 6:1-8, and then “God crowns His King-priest” from Zechariah 6:9-15.”

            We will spend time looking at these main points that Dr. Wiersbe has in his commentary on the fifth and sixth chapters of Zechariah and then we will do as we did for chapters 3-4 and look at some of the things that John MacArthur brings up in his two sermons from these two chapters.  I think that this is the best way to do this and hopefully we will have a good understanding of these two chapters once we finish looking at them.

6/2/2016 11:56 PM

PT-1 of The Answer (John 8:14-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/2/2016 8:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  The Answer PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  John 8:14-19

            Message of the verses:  “14 Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. 16  "But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. 17  "Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. 18 “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me." 19 So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also."”

            We will once again look at the commentary of Warren Wiersbe for the verses here and then will probably take two more days to discuss these verses further as we look at the commentary from John MacArthur then to help us understand what Jesus is saying here in His answer to the Pharisees.

            “One of the key words in this section is witness; it is used seven times.  Jesus made it clear that their witness was not dependable because their judgment was faulty.  They judged on the basis of externals, mere human judgment, but He judged on the basis of spiritual knowledge.  The way they judged the woman taken in adultery proved that they neither understood the Law nor their own sinful hearts.

            “Since they wanted to use the Law to condemn the woman and trap the Savior, Jesus also used the Law to answer them.  He quoted a principle found in Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15, as well as Numbers 35:30, that the testimony of two men was required to validate a judgment.  Jesus had those two testimonies: He gave witness and so did His Father.  We have seen from John 5:37-47 that the witness of the Father is found in the Word of God.

            “How tragic that these experts in the Law did not even know their own Messiah as He stood before them!  They claimed to know the Law of God, but they did not know the God of the Law.  They did not have His Word abiding in their hearts (John 5:42).  They did not know the Father, and therefore did not know the Son.

            “Jesus never really answered their question “Where is Thy Father?’  The word father is used twenty-one times in this chapter, so Jesus did not avoid the issue but faced it honestly.  He knew that their ‘father’ was not God—but the devil!  These men were religious, and yet they were the children of the devil!

            “Their further attempts to arrest Jesus were again thwarted by the Father, for it was not yet our Lord’s hour when He should give His life.  When the servant of God is in the will of God, he can have courage and peace as he does his duty.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have some friends who minister in Turkey and in our world today Turkey is no friend of Jews or Christians and I suppose it would be easy for them to just leave, but as I look at this last “Warren Wiersbe statement” I can understand why they have faith to stay there.  Living the Christian life in a place where it is full of darkness takes much faith in the Lord and as our country and world get darker my prayer is that the Lord will give me the courage and strength to remain faithful to Him and to the cause of Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).”  It is my desire to rightly divide the Word of God to see the things in it that He desires me to see and to live in the truth that is found there.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Corinthians 12:7-9a 7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8. Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  9. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness,’”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Sarah” (Genesis 12:8).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which state was known as the northern kingdom?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/2/2016 9:03 AM

           

The Person of the Vision (Zech. 4:14b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/1/2016 10:40 PM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  The Person of the Vision

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 4:14

            Message of the verses:  “14 Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.’”  “Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” (ESV)

            What we are going to look at is the last part of this verse which speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, “That stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”  MacArthur writes “It identifies Christ with His reign in the world.  Messiah is the source, the channel of blessing flowing through the Spirit of God to the people and then radiating back His glorious reality.  And He is none other than the Lord of the whole earth.”

            In the fourth chapter of the book of Micah we see a chapter that speaks of the end times, starting with the very first verse and going to the thirteenth verse which is the last verse in that chapter.  Now in that last verse we see the same description of Jesus Christ as seen in this fourteenth verse from chapter four of Zechariah:  “13 “Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, For your horn I will make iron And your hoofs I will make bronze, That you may pulverize many peoples, That you may devote to the LORD their unjust gain And their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.”  So the Lord of all the earth is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

            I now want to quote anothersection from John MacArthur’s sermon that has in it something very interesting we need to know:  “So the Lord of the whole earth is really the key to the whole thing. It's the messianic Christ that pervades this thing. Sometimes in the Hebrew figures and in the Hebrew thinking there will be a dramatic change in thought and we don't always pick it up. It seems very clear that initially these two olive trees are the priestly and kingly offices of Christ, but then there seems to be an introduction of thought altogether when in verse 14 it describes these anointed ones as those standing by the Lord of the whole earth, almost as if they are persons. This same transition can be seen explicitly in Revelation 11:4 because there you have a description of two witnesses who will come in the time of the tribulation and they will announce to the world that the king-priest is coming to take His kingdom and they are described in the 11^thChapter of Revelation and the 4^thverse in these words: "The two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth."

            “Now there's an obvious parallel in the terminology of Zechariah 4:14 and Revelation 11:4, and so it may be that both are the same. That what you have here in 4:14 of Zechariah is a prophecy not only of Messiah as king-priest, but of two very specific witnesses who will declare that truth during the time of the tribulation. And as you certainly know if you've studied the book of Revelation, from Revelation Chapter 6 through 19 is the record of how the Messiah, the king-priest becomes the Lord of the whole earth. So there is an interesting connection.

            “Now summing up very simply Zechariah has a vision. His vision sees Zerubbabel completing the temple and the people restored. But far beyond that he sees the nation restored, the nation having been redeemed brought back to the place of being a witness as they're energized by the flow of the power of the Spirit of God to radiate the truth of the very Messiah, who is the source of their blessing.”

            Ok we have a little review of this chapter from this last paragraph from MacArthur’s sermon to help us remember what we have been studying in this fourth chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy.

            I have always heard that the two witnesses from Revelation chapter eleven were seen in this fourth chapter of the book of Zechariah, and as I read and listened to the sermon by John MacArthur it becomes clearer to me and for that I am thankful. 

            It has not been too long ago that we studied the book of Revelation as we looked at it for most of last year (2015) and when we looked at it we found out that God is once again dealing with the nation of Israel and in the seventh chapter we saw that Israel was going to began once again to be witness to what God was doing during these last seven years of the history on earth as we know it, for the millennial kingdom will not be anything like what we live in now.  We see in this seventh chapter the witness of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and then in the eleventh chapter we see the witness of these two men spoken of in Zechariah chapter four, so God is using these two events to witness to the whole world as to what is going to happen during these seven years of great trouble.  I have to say that after I studied the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel and learned that Daniel was praying about something that he knew was going to happen that even today I include these 144,000 Jewish evangelists in my prayers most every day, that God would even now, prepare their hearts for service even though they don’t know at this time what they will be doing in the end times.  However it will happen for God says it will.

6/1/2016 11:10 PM

The Accusation (John 8:13)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/1/2016 8:18 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  The Accusation

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  John 8:13

            Message of the verses:  “13 So the Pharisees said to Him, "You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.’”

            First we want to go back to John 5:31 “"If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true.”  This perhaps is why the Pharisees said what they said to Jesus.  The Pharisees also could have been referring to what the OT Law has to say about this as every fact in a legal matter had to be established by the testimony of more than one witness as seen in verses like Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15, and we can also compare Matthew 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; and Hebrews 10:28).  Do you think that the Pharisees for one moment may have though that what Jesus said was true?  I doubt it as it was their agenda to get rid of Jesus because he was spoiling their party so to speak as they did not want anyone getting in their way as the pedaled their poison.

            We have looked in earlier Spiritual Diaries about those who could testify of Jesus claims as we looked at John the Baptist testimony, and also the twelve disciples, along with the Samaritan woman, we will also see that Martha and Mary, along with their brother Lazarus too.  John MacArthur writes “Thus, there is no contradiction between Jesus’ statements here and in 5:31; He was not, as the Pharisees alleged, the only witness who could verify His claims.”

            The problem with the Pharisees exists today with people who are so far in the darkness that when a little light is given to them they refuse to accept it or look for more light.  I mentioned a story about a woman from Cambodia who had just a little light that actually saved her life.  The story takes place during what is called the “killing fields of Cambodia” when the communists were randomly killing as many Cambodians as possible in the cities and then in the countryside.  A number of them came to this woman’s village and told them to come out of their huts and dig a large hole.  Some fled and were killed others dug the hole and then were ordered to stand around it waiting to be killed.  The only thing this woman knew was that she heard about the God who died on the cross, that was all of the light she had.  As these people were standing around this hole waiting to be killed she cried out to the God who died on the cross and then they waited, and waited and after a while they opened their eyes and all of the soldiers were gone.  Some months or perhaps years later missionaries came to this village to tell them about Jesus Christ, God who died on the cross.  Her reaction to them was “What took you so long?”  She had a little light and believed and more was given to her.  These Pharisees had the very Light and yet rejected it and would die in their sins.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I see that one of the great problems of the Pharisees was pride, and pride can be a problem with me at times and it needs to be replaced with humility.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Do not be prideful, but be humble.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Corinthians 12:7-9a “7 Because of the surprising greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself.  8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  9 And He said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness,’”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:32).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was Abraham’s wife?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/1/2016 8:45 AM