4/18/2011 7:40:24 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Trusting the Lord
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Kings 5:13-15a
Message of the verses: “13
Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father,
had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?
How much more then, when he says to you, ’Wash, and be clean’?" 14 So he went down and dipped himself seven
times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was
restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
“15 ¶ When he returned to the man
of God with all his company, and came and stood before him, he said,
"Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.”
This
is the second servant that had an effect on Naaman, for the first one was the
little girl who was from Israel who suggested that he go to see the prophet in
the first place, and no another servant speaks to Naaman, and it is for sure
that this servant like the first was speaking to Naaman what the Lord wanted
him to know.
As
stated before this was not only to be a healing of the physical, but this was
to be new life given to Naaman who after he was cleansed from the leprosy he
would be, in the language of the NT “born again.”
I
would suppose that I have not thought a lot about the salvation of the OT
saints like those of the NT saints and actually there is little or no
difference between the two. I believe
that the Bible teaches that in eternity past God the Father choose those who
would come to salvation, and then the Son of God, Jesus Christ paid the penalty
for those that the Father chose, and it was the third Person of the Godhead,
the Holy Spirit who gave the necessary effectual to those who the Father called
and who Christ died for. Those who were
saved or born-again in the OT, like Naaman who trust that the Lord would
provide the Messiah to take away their sins.
Perhaps not all of the OT saints knew how all of this was going to work,
but none the less they put their trust in God to save them and that was what
needed to happen. The statement that I
made about the process of salvation is not what all people who are saved
believe, but none the less over the years that I have been a NT believer, I
believe that God has made this clear to me.
This has taken my years of study to come to this conclusion and frankly
this is the only way that it all makes perfect sense to me. I realize that John MacArthur has had a lot
to do with all of this, as he has opened up the Scriptures to me so that I can
understand this, and because of this I know that I did not have anything to do
with my salvation other than receive it as a gift from the hand of a loving
God. It was a simple act of faith like
Naaman took when his servant said that he should take the simple act of faith
and wash in the Jordan River seven times, the perfect number or complete number
of God. Naaman came up from the seventh
washing a new person as that 14th verse said “and he was
clean.” The next thing he did was to
give testimony and glory to the God who saved him, saying that He was the One
True God, and there was no other gods before Him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Again I have to think of the verse that has
been running through my mind for the last few weeks: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk in Him (Col. 2:6). It
was by grace through faith that Naaman was saved as it was the same for me and
it was by grace through faith that he began his walk with the Lord by giving
glory to his Redeemer in 15a. I have to
be a channel to which the Lord flows through me to accomplish what He desires
me to do. I am to keep this channel
clean so God can use me to do what He wants me to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Be a clean vessel so that God can use me, and
remember that all temptation begins in the mind so I need to protect my mind.
2.
Because I am in a war I am in need of the spiritual
armor so that I can stand.
3.
Continue to learn contentment. 4/18/2011 8:17:11 AM
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