SPIRITUAL
DIARY
Date: 02-05-04
My
Worship Time Focus: Serve the Lord with Christian love
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 1Peter 4:8-11
Message
of the verse:
8 Above all, keep fervent in your
love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be
hospitable to one another without complaint.
10 As each one has received a
special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is
speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is
serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be
glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen. (NASB95) “8 Most
important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a
multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who
need a meal or a place to stay. 10 God has given gifts to each of you from his
great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can
flow through you. 11 Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as
though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do
it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given
glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him
forever and ever. Amen. (NLT)
In
this rather long section Peter teaches about Christian love, and that Christian should be fervent, it should
be forgiving, it should be practical, and it should result in service.
In
verse 8 he uses the words, “fervent love for one another.” This word means to stretch out, to go to the
limit, and it can be used of a person’s prayer life. “The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
(James 5:16b) This verse goes on
to speak of this fervent love covering sin, and this does not mean that
believers overlook sin in someone’s life, but to be forgiving. It does not mean that an unrepentant Church
member should not have to confess his sin.
Believers are to love as God loves, and sometimes we need tough love.
Believers are to be forgiving, and that is the second kind of love Peter is
writing about in this section, also found in verse 8.
Verse
9 gives the teaching on the practical love.
Christians should be hospitable, they should be willing to share their
homes with others. My wife and I have done
this on more than one occasion, and it has always been very enjoyable for us.
Peter says that believers should be hospitable without complaint.
The
last two verses deals with speak about the service that goes along with
Christian love. When Jesus was being
tempted in the wilderness by Satan one of the things He said to him to rebuke
the temptation he was tempting Him with was, "Away from me, Satan! For it
is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" Jesus said we should worship the Lord and we
should serve the Lord, and so one of the ways to worship the Lord is to serve
Him, and in verses 10 and 11 Peter writes about ways to worship the Lord
through service. In these two verses one
can see different spiritual gifts, and there are other places in the Bible that
speak of spiritual gifts. 1Corthians 12
and Romans 12, along with Eph. 4 are the main portions of Scripture where these
gifts are identified. There has much
that has been written about these spiritual gifts, and I’m sure that not all of
it is true. I believe that the Bible
teaches that every believer has at least one gift, and that these gifts are to
be used to build up the Church. There
are speak gifts and serving gifts, and again all of these gifts are to be used
for the edification of the Church.
Before the Bible was complete there were people like Peter and James,
and John, and others who have written down the New Testament that is available
to read today. There is no one alive
today that can speak or write down the Word of God, because the Bible is now
complete. With that said, God continues
to use people to teach the Word of God, and men to preach the Word of God so
that the Holy Spirit can use their teaching and preaching to work in the hearts
of those who hear it.
Peter
finishes verse eleven by giving glory to God through Jesus Christ, because it
is God who is to receive the glory, and it is Jesus Christ who provided
salvation so that we can give the glory to God.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: What I am reminded of is that God
should indeed receive all of the glory for the things He has done, things that
He does through me. He deserves all of
the glory.
The Word of God was challenging
to my heart today, and at the same time refreshing to me.
My
Steps of Faith Today: As this sickness seems to linger along longer that I
would have thought it would I must confess that I should be praying about it
more and trust the Lord to use even this to bring glory to Himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment