SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/9/2017 10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Wrong View of Self”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 8:9-11
Message of the verses: “ 9 Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; 10 and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, "This man is what is called the Great Power of God." 11 And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.”
Let us first of all this morning look at Acts 13:6 “When
they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician,
a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus.” I quote this verse to show that being a so
called magician was not all that uncommon during this time of history. Simon probably thought that he was able to do
things on his own power and this made him even more of a problem which makes it
not surprising that the Samaritans “were giving him attention because he had
for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.” We know that the Samaritans believed in God
and were looking forward to the Messiah and perhaps they thought that Simon was
him.
Perhaps when we turn on our TV sets and look at these
so-called “faith healers” that they are not too far from being people like
Simon, except they do not have the power that he had and they are only looking
out for the income they receive.
Simon thought himself to be a kind of “god” and so it would be difficult for him to realize that he was in need of a Savior. The problem with him and the problem that many people today have is pride. Let us look at Proverbs 6:16-19 “16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. We are looking at seven things that are described as “deadly sins,” and when you look at Proverbs 16:18 you see “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.” I think that pride can surely be added to this list of the seven deadly sins. James also speaks of this problem with pride “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.’”
I have told a story, a true story that I heard of a
couple of men I use to work with. The
story is about two married men who were cheating on their wives. The one had been married for a long time and
the other not so long, only months. The
one who was only married for months had just bought a new house, a big house as
his wife had a good job too. The other
man had children and lived in a smaller house.
The wife of the man with the big house went out of town and so these two
men decided to bring a couple of girls to his new house while his wife was out
of town. They decided to take some
pictures of these girls and at that time you had to take the film into the drug
store to get them printed out. These men
were full of pride thinking that there sin would not find them out. The man’s wife comes home from her trip and
stops in the drugstore and was asked if she wanted to pick up her
pictures. The wife looked at the
pictures and her husband who had been sleeping in this large expensive house
ended up sleeping in his car as the wife through him out. The other man had a copy of these pictures
too and hid them in the coat lining of his jacket. His son put on his jacket to wear and felt
something in the back of the jacket. The
pictures were discovered and the marriage was over for him too. Surely your sin will find you out, especially
if because of your pride you think that you can get away with something that no
one will find out.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jezebel” (1 Kings 21:5-14).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which book is the story of a
Moabite girl?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/9/2017 10:39 AM
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