SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2018 9:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Humility”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 14:8-18
Message of the verses: “8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, 10 said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he leaped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us." 12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM. 16 "In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." 18 Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.”
I think that is good from time to time to be reminded
that the person who wrote this book of Acts is Dr. Luke, and as you read
through his gospel and the book of Acts you can see things from a medical point
of view that you do not see in the other gospels. Luke can also describe a sea voyage very well
too, as we will see later on. Luke
describes the medical condition of this man in our verses we are looking at as
a man who could not only walk, but a man who has never walked because of his
congenitally crippled condition. I know
the word “congenitally” very well as my son was born with different
congenitally conditions which required a number of surgeries.
John MacArthur points out that this man was in a habit of
listening to Paul whenever he spoke and the reason we know this is because the
imperfect tense of the verb translated “listening” indicates. So we may conclude that Paul and Barnabas
were speaking frequently to the people of Lystra. Now we know that there was a miracle done
here and we know that the Holy Spirit used Paul to understand that this man had
the faith to be made well, and we also know that by the healing of this man
people there could understand that the message that Paul and Barnabas was
telling them must be true. Another thing
I want to look at again is that people today do not have this gift of healing as
the apostles and others had in the early church, this is something we have gone
over and so I won’t go into details of why this is true, but I do want to quote
a number of paragraphs from John MacArthur’s commentary that I feel will be
helpful.
“Although today’s believers
do not possess miraculous healing power as Paul did, the principle is
instructive—God’s power is absolutely necessary if His work is to be
accomplished (Eph. 6:10; 1 Peter 4:11).
The power ‘to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think’
(Eph. 3:20) comes to all believers at salvation. The power of the Holy Spirit is released in
believers’ lives as they walk moment by moment in obedience to the truth. That enables them to be used as agents
through whom no physical healing occurs, but rather the transformation of the
soul in salvation and sanctification.
“Along with power and
results in service for Christ comes the temptation of pride. It is often difficult to acknowledge that the
results stem from God’s power, not human ingenuity and ability.
“Peter wrote of the
centrality of humility in 1 Peter 5:5-6:
‘5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.’
“James echoed those thoughts
in James 4:6, 10: ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the
humble…Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.’ Humility is the supreme spiritual virtue
because it gives God His rightful place.
Paul’s understanding of the reality of humility is best seen in his
words to the Corinthians:
‘9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor. 12:9-10).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Humility is the
theme of this section of Scripture, and when we look at the life of Paul we see
a wonderful example of humility as we have been learning today from the
different verses we looked at, especially those in 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul
is talking about going to heaven and receiving a thorn in the flesh in order
for him to be humble. Perhaps when we
read the end of this chapter we will see the time when Paul was in heaven as it
will reveal Paul being stoned. I suppose
that many believers struggle with humility as they are doing things for the
Lord, things that I believe that God has planned for them to do (Eph. 2:10),
and the Holy Spirit enables them to do in order for God to receive glory.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To remember the things that I do for the Lord
are done to give glory to Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Emeralds, sapphire, diamonds”
(Exodus 28:15-18).
Today’s Bible
question: “The love of what is the root
of all evil?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/14/2018 10:04 AM
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