SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/21/2017 8:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1The
Explanation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 2:16-21
Message of the verses: “16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 17 ’AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ’THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; 18 EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy. 19 ’AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. 20 ’THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. 21 ’AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”
“28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out
of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. And
on my servants and on my handmaids in those days will I pour out of my
Spirit. And I will shew wonders in heaven, and upon the earth, blood, and fire,
and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord come. And it shall come to
pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved: for
in mount Sion and in Jerusalem shall the saved one be as the Lord has said, and
they that have glad tidings preached to them, whom the Lord has called.”
This is
from the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew,
and this one has been translated into English.
You can see that at the end of this section there are more words than
what is spoken of by Peter as he ends with the word “saved.” I believe that the end of this will take
place just before the return of our Lord at the end of the tribulation period.
When the
OT speaks of the term “last days” it speaks of the coming of Messiah and also
we find in the Old Testament two different times that the Messiah will
come. In one He is described as the
suffering Servant, and the other time
when He comes He will set up His kingdom as described in Old Testament passages
along with the book of Revelation. There is a rather large time gap between
these two comings, and the hope of all believers is that the Lord will come to
take His bride, the church back to heaven with Him and after that the last
seven years of Daniel’s prophecy found in Daniel chapter nine will be
fulfilled.
So, as
believers we are now living in the last days since the Lord Jesus Christ has
already come to earth to pay four our sins and now is in heaven praying for us,
but will soon come again to take us home to be with Him forever.
John
MacArthur writes “Obviously, however, not all the components of Joel’s prophecy
are prefigured in the church age. It is
not until the ‘Spirit’ is poured out ‘upon all mankind’ in the kingdom, Peter
says, that ‘your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.’ It is then, God says, that ‘even upon My
bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit
and they shall prophesy.’ It is only ‘in
those days’ (the millennial kingdom) that such extensive prophesying will take
place. The nature of the prophesying,
dreams, and visions that will take place remains a mystery. Prophecy was exercised in the early church
(cf. Acts 21:8-11) and continues in a nonrevelatory sense through this age. “
As
mentioned earlier not all of this prophecy will take place in the church age as
things like “wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth” happen at
Pentecost. In the past we have learned
about “The Day of the Lord,” as it is mentioned in several places in both the
Old Testament and New Testament and this term speaks of judgment when God acts
in judgment. I have found that “Day of
the Lord” is found 26 times in the Bible, with 21 in the Old Testament and 5 in
the New Testament.
You also
may remember that in many cases when this term is used in the Old Testament
that the prophet who spoke of it was teaching that there would come judgment
upon the nation of Israel and it would happen rather soon, but it also was a
picture of what will happen in the ultimate Day of the Lord which will take
place during the tribulation period when our Lord Jesus Christ takes back
planet earth from our enemy Satan. When
one looks at Revelation 4-5 they will see a scroll and in that scroll there are
three sets of seven judgments, the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments. This scroll is the title deed to planet earth
which was taken away by Satan when he got Adam and Eve to sin, and not will be
taken back and given to the Lord. In our
next SD we will look at some verses from the book of Revelation which goes
along with Joel’s prophecy, along with verses from Matthew and Luke’s gospels.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is nice to be reminded that soon the Lord
will return to the clouds above the earth to take His bride back to heaven with
Him.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust that the Lord will give me
the grace I need each day do the things He wants me to do for the cause of
Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Dorcas or Tabitha” (Acts 9:36-41),
Today’s Bible question:
“Quote the shortest verse in the Bible.”
Answer in our next SD.
7/21/2017 9:33 AM
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