SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 05-28-03
My
Worship Time Focus: Pleasing to God
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Hebrews 11:5-6
1. Message of the verse: “5 By faith Enoch was translated--not to see
death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his
translation he had been testified to--that he had pleased God well, 6 and apart
from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth him who is coming
to God to believe that He is, and to those seeking Him He becometh a
rewarder.” (Young’s Literal
Translation) “It was by faith that Enoch
was taken up to heaven without dying—‘suddenly he disappeared because God took
him.’ But before he was taken up, he was
approved as pleasing to God. So, you
see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe
that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (NLT)
In the
story of Able in yesterday’s diary his brother killed him because he was
faithful to God, and in today’s story of Enoch he was taken away to be with God
without dying because he was faithful and pleasing to God. Many students of the Bible believe that this
is a picture of the Rapture of the Church spoken of in 1Thes. 4:13-18. I like the Young’s translation of this verse
because it leaves out the word God in the first part of the verse and simply
says “impossible to please well.” It
surely refers to God, but the word for God is not in the Greek text. Verse six says that who ever wants to be
pleas God must believe that He is, but it goes on to say a bit more on how we
are to please God, and that is that we must make a consecrated effort to
sincerely seek Him. In the book of James
chapter two, and verses nineteen, and twenty, James says that it takes more
than just know that there is a God to be pleasing to Him, and the reason he
gives for this argument is that the Devil and his demons too, believe that
there is a God. “You believe that God is
one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish
fellow, that faith without works is useless?”
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: There is no doubt that God has had a
wonderful impact on my life since He saved me in January of 1974. I knew little about who He truly was before
He save me, but I did believe that he existed for many years before that
wonderful event. In one of the
translations the end of verse says that we are to diligently seek God, and that
is what I want to do with my life is to take the time to truly find out about
God by reading and studying His Word each day, speaking and listening to God
through prayer, and to do better in memorizing and meditating on His Word as I
go through my day.
The Word of God was indeed refreshing to me as I read it
this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment