SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 06-19-03
My
Worship Time Focus: See Both SD’s
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Hebrews 11:32b
1. Message of the verse: “32 ¶ And what shall I more say? For the time
will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel
and the prophets:” (ASB) “Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories
of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson Jephthah, Davie, Samuel, and all the
prophets.” (NLT)
I will try
and finish this verse today, but there is a story of faith to tell about all of
these that are mentioned, and even at the end where the writer talks about the
faith of all the prophets, and it does not stop there, for one could tell
stories of all of the Apostles in the early days of the Church. I some how believe that this chapter of faith
will be well documented when we all get to heaven, as all believers in Christ
have been given an opportunity to demonstrate faith in the Lord.
Barak
demonstrated faith in the Lord even though he had to get help from a
prophetess, and some of the credit went to her, but the Lord did receive glory
from Barak. When thinking about Samson one often thinks of all the trouble that
he got himself into because a problem with lust, but he did however believe the
Word of the Lord and acted upon it in great faith. Jephthah has an interesting story in the book
of Judges, and in that story I believe that he may have made a foolish vow by
saying that he would sacrifice his daughter if the Lord would answer his prayer
to defeat the sons of Ammon in the land.
The Lord gave him the victory, and as far as the sacrifice of his
daughter some believe that she remained a virgin for the rest of her days.
David and
Samuel are two men whom the Lord did much through, and who both demonstrated
much faith in the Lord. There is far too
much written about them in the Scriptures to mention all of the ways that they
demonstrated faith in the Word of the Lord.
2.Spiritual meaning for my life today: As stated above I believe that this story of
faith is still being made in the lives of the believer in Christ today, and
will be spoken of in heaven someday. It
is important that I learn from these people that are mentioned in this chapter
to see what they did that was so pleasing to the Lord that He had them all
mentioned in this great chapter of faith.
It is important for me to learn that these people were not perfect, yet
when they fell they picked themselves up and demonstrated faith in the Lord;
they believed His Word in spite of circumstances or consequences.
The Word of God was very inspiring to my heart as I read it
this morning.
My
Steps of Faith Today: I
want to continue to stand upon the promises that pertain to the storm that the
Lord has put me, along with others into.
God will never leave me nor forsake me.
God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him,
to those who are called according to His purpose.
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 40:1-17
SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 06/19/2003
My
Worship Time Focus:
Various Heroes of Faith
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Hebrews 11:32b
Message
of the verses: “32 And what more
shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets.”
I
have to admit that in trying to change the fonts on the original SD for this
date I mistakenly deleted it and so I thought that I would try and look at this
verse again to see what the Lord has for me from it. I can say that in his commentary for this
section of Hebrews that Dr. Warren Wiersbe entitles the section “Various heroes
of faith” and it covers verses 32-40, so we will just focus in on the last part
of verse 32 which speaks of a total of six named OT characters and also
includes the prophets, so there is much to speak of when it comes to this
verse. In the last SD on this verse we spoke of the faith of Gideon, so we will
look at some of these other characters that are mentioned in the rest of verse
32.
Dr.
Wiersbe begins this section of his commentary with an important statement, a
statement that we can all learn from: “Faith
can operate in the life of any person who will dare to listen to God’s Word and
surrender to God’s will.” I have to say that
it is a difficult thing to surrender to the Lord, to just say like Isaiah said
in the sixth chapter of his book: “5 Then
I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the
LORD of hosts." 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal
in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my
mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your
iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven." 8 Then I heard the voice
of the Lord, saying,
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I.
Send me!"” (Isaiah 6:5-8)
This was a very bold thing that Isaiah did, that is surrendering to the
Lord and have the Lord do through him what He wanted done, and if I am not
mistaken we find a statement in the 11th chapter of Hebrews that
tells us what finally happened to Isaiah:
“37 They were stoned, they
were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the
sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
ill-treated (Hebrews 11:37).” I have
heard that the portion that I have highlighted in this verse is what happened
to Isaiah. In our church service this morning there were three candidates for
missionary service that gave their testimony, both of when the Lord saved them
and also when they said to the Lord “I surrender to Your will for my life, and
I will go where you want me to go.” This
is a great step of faith and as we look back at the statement that Dr. Wiersbe
made at the beginning of this paragraph we can see what he is talking
about. The men listed in the 32nd
verse of the 11th chapter did just that, as they surrendered their
lives to the Lord.
I
will try and give you the references of where you can read about some of these
men from the Old Testament. Gideon’s
story can be seen in Judges 6:11-7:25.
Barak is the judge who won a resounding victory over Sisera and that is
found in Judges 4:1-5:31. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Both Gideon and Barak are encouragements to us who falter in our faith.”
We
read of the fascination story of Jephthah in Judges 11:1-12:7. In this story some think that he sacrificed
his daughter, but this is very unlikely, as he probably dedicated her to the
Lord as seen in the 27th chapter of Leviticus, for the type of
dedication.
Now
as far as Samuel and David their stories are told in the books of 1st
and 2nd Samuel, along with 1st and 2nd
Chronicles for more on the life of David.
It is interesting to me that the writer of Hebrews did not speak more on
the lives of David and Samuel or for that matter the prophets, but I have made
the statement that I believe that the 11th chapter of the book of
Hebrews is a chapter that is not finished, but will be finished when we get to
heaven.
7/19/2015 9:25 PM
PS: I found the other SD so now there are two of
them.
No comments:
Post a Comment