SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2017 9:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Be Committed to Fellowship
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:23
Message of the verses: “23
When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all
that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.”
It is noteworthy to
see that Peter and John went to tell their companions all that had happened to
them, the things that happened to them in the Sanhedrin. The question is to whom did they go and
see. I think that it was not only to the
other apostles that they went to, although they were a part of whom they went
to see, and it was not all of those who had been saved for that number was over
5,000 by this time. It was probably the
same people we saw in the first part of Acts, the ones who had met in the upper
room for prayer, the core group of the church is probably who they went to see. Peter and John needed comfort and people who
would be praying for them as this first persecution came upon them and that is
why they went to be with their close Christian family.
John MacArthur writes
“A primary benefit of persecution is that it results in greater
solidarity. Persecuted believers
naturally draw together for mutual support.
Acts 4:32-35 describes the unity that resulted from this initial
outbreak of opposition. Perhaps one
reason for the disunity in today’s church is the lack of external
pressure. And the false unity being
attempted through compromise and indifference toward true doctrine only
compounds the problem by moving the church every further from the true unity
that comes out of confrontation by the truth.
If we confronted the world system more aggressively, the resulting
opposition would drive us closer together and enrich our mutual
dependence. That real unity marked the
early believers.”
I have to say at this
point in my life that I attend a local church that has been around for over 180
years. I first started attending this
church in August of 2010 right after the death of the church’s pastor. The church that I attended for over 32 years
had gone through a church split and was about to go through another and the pastor
was not someone that I wanted to sit under any longer. I was not the only one as many of the older
believers were seeking other churches to attend. One of the things that I first noticed was
that although the pastor had just died it seemed to me as business as usual
from the teaching of God’s Word from the pulpit. I told many people that this experience for
me was like being out in the desert for a very long time and then coming to an
oasis to find refreshing water to drink.
I am in no way saying
that this is a perfect church, there are none, but I am saying that the Word of
God is preached Sunday mornings, and evenings and also on Wednesday evenings
along with a prayer time.
As I settled into this
church and became a member and started to get involved in things like teaching Sunday
school and other things one of the things that I began to pray about was that
our church would continue to experience unity among those who attend there and
especially in the leadership of the church which makes up the of the five
pastors along with the many deacons. One
of the things that I did was express this to the man who is the head deacon and
he told me that although there was no disunity in our church, he was praying
for continued unity which is something that I am praying for too. Our enemy never stops trying to bring
disunity to churches and from the looks of our country today he is being
successful, thus the need for prayer even though things are good with unity at
this time.
Church Swindoll has
written a wonderful book on this subject as he wrote a commentary on the book
of Nehemiah entitled “Hand Me Another Brick.”
Our deacons are reading this book at this time as they will begin to go
over it in the near future and for this I am thankful.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“Egypt” (Exodus 14:8).
Today’s Bible question: “Who
were Abraham’s brothers?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/28/2017 10:25 AM
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