6/11/2008 8:39 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Worshiping only the Lord
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Exodus 20:4-6
Message of the verses: “4
‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5
"You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on
the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to
those who love Me and keep My commandments.’”
Idols
are something that takes the place of God, something one gives devotion, love,
and time to when they should be giving all of that to the Lord. The children of Israel
began to worship idols from the generation after the generation that entered
the Promised Land, and did that off and on until God removed them from the land
in two different stages, Israel
in 722 BC, and Judah
In
verse five the statement from God is that He is a Jealous God. God is not jealous of other gods, for He is
the only One True God, and knows that an idol is not a god at all. God is jealous for his children, knowing that
when they begin to worship false so-called gods that their lives could be
ruined because of it. God deserves all
praise and worship for the reason that He created all that is created and
therefore deserves the love, devotion, praise and worship of all things. When Jesus was on the earth and a storm
needed calming the storm obeyed the voice of Jesus it did not keep blowing, but
it obeyed Him. When Jesus cursed a fig
tree it died it obeyed the voice of Jesus.
When God enabled Balaam’s donkey to speak to him she spoke the words to
him that God wanted her to speak to him, she obeyed the Lord. On the other hand people do not always obey
the Lord and therefore it causes pain and suffering in their lives because they
disobey the Lord and thus the Lord is jealous of them or jealous for them
because they are bring a lot of suffering into their lives that is unnecessary.
The
statement in verse five that says, “visiting the iniquity of the of the fathers
on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me”
has been to me a very misunderstood statement and so I will quote a statement
from Dr. Wiersbe’s book to help clear this matter up for me. “God doesn’t punish the children and the
grandchildren for somebody else’s sins (24:16; Ezek. 18:4), but the sad
consequences of ancestral sins can be passed from generation to generation and
innocent children suffer because of what their parents or grandparents have
done. In
Bible times, it wasn’t unusual for four generations to live in the same
extended family and thus have greater opportunity to influence and affect one
another.”
“At
the same time, the godliness of ancestors can help to bring blessing to
succeeding generations.” He goes on to
speak about Abraham’s descendents and also the descendents of David having good
upbringing and so bring glory to the Lord.
Verse six brings this point across.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have always known that sports has at times
interfered with my worship of the Lord, as I spend more time watching sports
that doing devotions or praying. I guess
TV in general is something that has gotten on my way of worshiping the
Lord. When I do something to the extreme
it makes my life out of balance and that is not good. This is something that needs to be worked on
by me. This is the negative, but there
are positives in my worshiping the Lord such as reading and studying God’s work
and reading good Christian books to help me with my walk with the Lord and
having a better prayer life that I used to.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Be
yoked up with the Lord Jesus Christ today.
2. Give
myself to the Lord for worship and service today.
3. Continue
to work on learning contentment in my life.
4. Seeking
a way to escape temptations by God’s power.
Memory verse for the week: Colossians 4:12-13
12.
Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave
of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in
his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of
God.
13.
For I testify of him that he has a deep concern
for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis
6/11/2008 9:31 AM
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