PT-1 "Praise" (Acts 16:25-29)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2018 9:48 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  PT-1 “Praise”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 16:25-29

            Message of the verses:  “25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" 29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas,”

            We looked at a definition of what joy is in an earlier SD, and as I read over this passage I have to think that although this may not be a definition of joy, it certainly does show us exactly what joy is.  In the book of Hebrews chapter 12 we read “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Jesus gave us all the example of joy, and now we see Paul and Silas also demonstrating joy.  We find Paul and Silas not able to sleep because of the beatings they had just received, and we also find them in the center of this prison with their feet in stocks, having their legs spread wide apart.  They were obviously in great pain, and yet we see them singing hymns of praise to the Lord.  Now because of their situation the other prisoners were listening to them.  I can totally understand why these prisoners were listening to them, and it is because of their circumstances, and I am sure that the prisoners knew what had happened to them, and yet they found Paul and Silas singing praises to the Lord.  As I think about this I can’t help but think that probably most if not all of their fellow prisoners were idol worshipers, and because of that these prisoners would never sing to their idols if something similar happened to them because they would have thought that they had done something to offend their gods and therefore would not want to sing to them. 

            I think of Elijah as he is on Mt. Carmel surrounded by idol worshipers who were calling on their gods to bring fire down from heaven to set fire their sacrifices to them.  Elijah was actually teasing them saying that perhaps their gods were sleeping or perhaps they had to go to the bathroom.  These men were cutting themselves in order to get their gods attention, and yet nothing happened.  Elijah poured a great amount of water on his sacrifice and the Lord answered him by having fire come down from heaven licking up the water and burning his sacrifice.  We see the difference between idols and the Living God that Elijah worshiped, and therefore the difference between the idols that these men in the prison worshipped and the Lord Jesus Christ that Paul and Silas were praising and worshiping in a very difficult time in their lives, and these prisoners noticed this.

            John MacArthur writes the following:

“How could the two missionaries praise God under such conditions?  They understood what many Christians seem to forget—praising God does not depend on circumstances.  ‘Rejoice in the Lord always,’ wrote Paul to the Philippian church (Phil. 4:4; cf. 1 Thess. 5:16, 18).  Christians do not rejoice in their circumstances; not even Paul did that.  He knew what it was to experience affliction so severe that he was ‘burdened excessively’ and ‘despaired even of life’ (2 Cor. 1:8).  Christians rejoice in the glorious truth that the sovereign God controls every circumstance of life.  They ‘know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who live God, to those who are called according to His purpose’ (Rom. 8:28).  When trials come, believers can take comfort in the truth expressed by Peter in 1 Peter 5:10: ‘After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.’  Like Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 they can say:

‘16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.’

He adds in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

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.’”

            In our next SD we will begin by looking at the key to having joy in every circumstance.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to believe that the Lord is talking to my heart about having joy in every circumstance, something that I have studied before, but probably never truly understood, and so I am thankful to the Lord for His teaching through these Spiritual Diaries and also from our Pastor teaching us about joy as he preaches through the book of Philippians.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord as we see the downward spiral of my wife’s father.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Those of the house of Chloe” (1 Corinthians 1:11).

Today’s Bible question:  “In the parable of the pounds, how many pounds did the first servant’s pound gain?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/26/2018 10:23 AM

PT-2 "Persecution" (Acts 16:19-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2018 8:59 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “Persecution”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:19-24

            Message of the verses:  “19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." 22 The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”

            As we begin this SD we see the charges that were brought against Paul and Silas “"These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews.”  What I notice in this section is the highlighted part “being Jews.”  I remember that when we began this section of Paul and his missionary team going into Philippi that there were not enough Jewish men in that city to form a Synagogue, and this kind of makes me wonder if the Jews were really not welcomed there.  At any rate what we see here is Anti-Semitism.  John MacArthur writes that this “was not a modern phenomenon but has its orgins in antiquity.  At about this time, Emperor Claudius issued an order expelling the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2).  This anti-Semitism may explain why only Paul and Silas were apprehended, since Luke was a Gentile and Timothy a half-Gentile.”

            The charges that were brought against Paul and Silas were technically true, “proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.’”  The law being discussed, although rarely enforced, was that Romans could not practice any religion that was not sanctioned by the state.  That may be the charge, and it may be technically true, but the real reason for the charges had to do with money, and the men who were taking advantage of this demon-possessed woman must have had friends in high places to get done what we see happening here.  One thing for sure is that Paul and Silas and the rest of the missionary team were not causing mass confusion in the city of Philippi.  Like I said it is all about the money, and so even though the charges of causing mass confusion were false the reaction stirred up the crowd and they mindlessly “rose up together against” these two missionaries.

            We know what a mob can do to a weak leader as Pilate was a weak leader, who caused the crowd to sway what he really wanted and should have done in the case of Jesus, and so it was the same with Paul and Silas as the next thing we see is they were stripped and beaten with rods.  Two things caused this money and hatred for the Jews.  The magistrates had the “policemen” beat Paul and Silas with rods that they carried, which ironically were the symbol of Roman law and justice.  According to 2 Corinthians 11:25 Paul had been beaten with rods three times and this was probably the first time, however I am not positive as not everyone is mentioned in Scripture.

            We see that they were beaten many blows, and then they were thrown into prison after this merciless unlawful beating, as they were both Roman citizens which we will talk about later.  After being beaten and thrown into prison we can be sure that the one in charge of the prison was not going to take any chance to have them escape, and so he put them into the safest place, in the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.  They were as safe as they could be as far as not getting out on their own.  However the authorities at Philippi were soon to learn that no prison can hold those whom God wants released.

            We have mentioned that this was a satanic inspired persecution, and this persecution did not affect Paul and Silas as they thought it would, as we will see in our next section which will be called Praise.  When Paul wrote to the Philippians later on the theme of the letter was joy.  I mentioned that our Pastor is just beginning a series on this letter to the Philippians and his definition, as he calls it is an ongoing definition as later on in the series there may be things added to it, but so far this is what he has come up with in his description of joy:  “Joy is a positive emotion that is rooted in our confidence that our good God is in sovereign control of the circumstances of our lives for our good and His glory, enabling us to praise Him!”  We will see that Paul and Silas certainly had this kind of joy as they were beaten and unlawfully put into prison.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to have the kind of joy that Paul and Silas had during this period of time in his life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to listen to the series on Joy from our Pastor in order to learn more about joy so that I can be better at living it out in my life each day.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Timbrel” (Exodus 15:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who reported the Corinthian contentions to Paul?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/25/2018 10:00 AM

 

 

PT-1 "Persecution" (Acts 16:19-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2018 9:51 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “Persecution”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:19-24

            Message of the verses:  “19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." 22 The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”

            As we begin to look at verse nineteen we see that the masters over this woman had no compassion over the fact that she had had the demon removed from her and were now a normal person, and so this actually shows the cruelty of the institution of slavery.  Slavery can be a cruel thing as long at the masters over the slaves are cruel people.  During the days of the Roman Empire there were many slaves who were doctors or teachers and their masters did not treat them cruelly.  If one is a slave of Jesus Christ then there is nothing wrong with that and everything right with that, but the masters over this woman were cruel, looking only for the money that she had made for them.  There is another story that is similar to this one and that is from Mark chapter five where we see Jesus casting many demons out of a person and then He allows the demons to go into the pigs that immediately went into the lake and drowned.  After that the people there saw that the man was completely normal, and yet they asked Jesus to leave their town, not really caring about the man, only about their loss of money due to the pigs drowning. We read the following in 1 Timothy 6:9-10 “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

            John MacArthur writes “Enraged at the loss of the income she provided, the girl’s masters ‘seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities.’  That was an interesting turn of events for Paul, who before his conversion had made a career of ‘dragging off man and women’ to ‘put them in prison’ (Acts 8:3).  The agora (market place) was the central public square.  It functioned not only as a marketplace, but also

‘as the social center of the city.  Here the unemployed waited for suitable work, the sick were healed, and the magistrates judged court cases.  In those days, a plaintiff could drag a defendant into court and ask the judge to pass a verdict (James 2:6).  The owners of the slave girl were acting according to Roman law when they laid their hands on Paul and Silas and put their grievance before the city authorities. (Simon J. Kistemaker, New Testament Commentary:  Acts).’

            One more point and that is that Luke, the author of Acts further describes the authorities as “the chief Magistrates.”  “(Stategos; praetor in Latin), Every Roman colony was governed by two of these men, as was the case at Philippi.” (MacArthur)

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Being a slave of Jesus Christ is what all of us believers are and that is actually the best, and the total opposite of being a slave to sin.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to find the best place for my father-in-law to live out the rest of his life.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Leviticus.”

Today’s Bible question:  “What musical instrument did Miriam use after the Red Sea crossing?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/24/2018 10:18 AM

 

PT-2 "Intro to Acts 16:19-40)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/23/2018 9:57 AM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  PT-2 Intro to Acts 16:19-40

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:19-40

            Message of the verses:  “19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." 22 The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

    25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" 29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.

    35 Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, "Release those men." 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace." 37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out." 38 The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39 and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. 40 They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.”

            We have been looking at some verses that show that God truly does bring about good things to those who seemingly have gone through some very difficult times.  We talked about Joseph and how his brothers sold him into slavery, but God used Joseph to save his family from starving as it was God’s will that they come to Egypt.  We also talked about the Lord Jesus Christ, as His example is the best found in all of Scripture.  Jesus died a horrible death, and yet God used it to save all the people that He had chosen before the foundation of the world, save them from the horrors of hell, and will bring all of them into heaven to be with Him forever.

            We will look again at the killing of Stephen which was a terrible thing to have happen, and yet after that killing and the persecution that went on the church began to expand and to grow “19 So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”

            We bring these entire things up because in this 16^th chapter of Acts we something similar that happened.  As I have read over this section of Scripture many, many times I am still in awe of how Paul and Silas preached and sang praises to the Lord after being severely beaten in an unlawful manner. 

            Remember that Paul and his missionary team were led by the Lord through a vision to come into Europe and the very first person saved in Europe was a woman named Lydia, the liberated woman, and then we talked about the demon-possessed woman who Paul cast the demon out, and as a result of him doing this her “owners” were going to lose a lot money and the result of that was Paul and Silas being beaten and put into prison.  Philippi became the first “beachhead” in Europe for the gospel to move forward.  As I look at Europe today along with our own country I see that we need more beachheads for the gospel to be brought up by the Spirit of God.

            John MacArthur concludes his introductory comments: 

“Satan was quick to react, first attempting to infiltrate the young fellowship with a demon-possessed medium.  When Paul’s miraculous power thwarted that attempt, Satan tried to destroy the church through persecution.  Those are always his two avenues of attack: infiltration-attacking the church from within; and persecution, attacking it from without.  Verses 19-40 record the failure of Satan’s attack through persecution, marvelous turning of persecution into triumph unfolds in five sequential stages:  persecution, praise, preaching, provision and protection.”

            So we see our outline in these five ways, and Lord willing, we will begin to look at the persecution in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will give us grace to determine how we are to take care of my wife’s father in the days to come.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Miriam” (Exodus 15:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which book contains the record of legislation given at Sinai that was not set forth in the laws and regulations found in Exodus?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/23/2018 10:29 AM

 

PT-1 "Intro to Acts 16:19-40

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/22/2018 5:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 Intro to Acts 16:19-40

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:19-40

            Message of the verses:  “19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans." 22 The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.   25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" 29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. 35 Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, "Release those men." 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace." 37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out." 38 The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39 and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. 40 They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.”

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary “Turning Persecution into Production.”  As we read through this section we can understand why he chose this name for this chapter as there is unwarranted persecution found, and yet we also see production as we read towards the end of this 16^th chapter of Acts. 

            As I look at these verses it reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter eight and verse twenty-eight:  “28  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  John MacArthur writes “A very reassuring aspect of God’s sovereign rule over the universe is His ability to bring good results out of bad circumstances.  That is especially true when His people undergo persecution.” 

            I now want to quote Genesis 45:5-8 “5  "Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. 8 “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”  This passage speaks of how the bad thing that happened to Joseph was turned into a good thing for the children of Jacob, God causing something seemingly bad to be worked out for good and for His glory.

            We will look now at what is the most heinous crime ever committed and that was the murder of God’s Son, and yet out of that evil act God brought salvation.  Peter speaks of this in his sermon that we looked at very early in our study of Acts.  “22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know- 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

            We will continue to look at other examples in our next SD from this section of verse.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “In Shunem” (2 Kings 4:8-10).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was the sister of Moses?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/22/2018 5:27 PM

PT-2 "The Enslaved Woman" (Acts 16:16-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/21/2018 11:15 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 The Enslaved Woman

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:16-18

            Message of the verses:  “16 It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." 18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.”

            John MacArthur speaks about what this woman was saying in verse seventeen:  “This was a subtle and dangerous attack, a bold attempt to infiltrate a deadly tare among the wheat, because what the demon-possessed girl was saying was absolutely true.  The demon even used biblical terminology.  The term ‘Most High God’ was an Old Testament designation of the God of Israel (Ps. 78:35; Dan. 5:18).  She also spoke of ‘the way of salvation.’”  We know that Satan is the father of lies as Jesus said in the 8^th chapter of John, but he will even use the truth when it benefits himself.  Some of Satan’s most effective and diabolical work is done in the name of Jesus Christ, as he will often use a little truth in order to ensnare people in a false religious system.  Perhaps many of the people who were following the missionaries as they were preaching and teaching thought that this woman was one of them, but we know that she was not because of the narrative written by Luke.  If this were the case then she would have been in a position to do harm to the cause of Christ.

            When Jesus was on earth He never wanted publicity from Satan as seen in Mark 1:34 “And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”  Luke 4:41 “Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.”  Paul did not want publicity from Satan either and so as this woman kept on saying what she was saying about Paul and his team, Paul finally had enough of it as he became “greatly annoyed.”  I suppose that one of the reasons that he ended this woman’s talking as she was was because he probably felt sorry for her, for after all she was a demon-possessed woman.  Paul under the authority of being an apostle of Jesus Christ cast the demon from this woman, and the demon left that very moment.  There was nothing gradual about it as once Paul says, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” that is when it happened, he left her, he had no choice.

            Some think that they have authority to do this kind of thing today, but what believers need to do is to keep their spiritual armor on as seen in Ephesians 6:10 and following.

            MacArthur concludes his commentary on these two women by writing:  “These two women typify all of humanity.  Everyone is either liberated by Jesus Christ or enslaved by Satan.  The only path to freedom is that followed by Lydia—of seeking God, listening to the gospel, and having a heart opened to respond by the Lord.  Those who do so will not be disappointed, for the Lord Himself promises in Jeremiah 29:13, ‘You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Remember to always begin the day by putting on my spiritual armor.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to bring about what He wants us to do as far as care for my wife’s father.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Joshua” (Joshua 4:5).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did the woman live who built a chamber for Elisha?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/21/2018 11:40 AM 

PT-1 "The Enslaved Woman" (Acts 16:16-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/20/2018 9:26 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus: PT-1 “The Enslaved Woman”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 16:16-18

            Message of the verses:  “16 It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." 18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.”

            We have been studying about the birth of the churches for a number of months now and one thing that we have seen after a church was successfully started was that there would be some kind of satanic attack on that church.  We saw this in Samaria from the 8^th chapter of Acts and also in Cyprus in the 13^th chapter of Acts.  What this is, a clash between light and darkness and one of the things that we should remember is that the Lord Jesus Christ said that He would build His church, remember that promise as Jesus Christ will never fail in the building of His church, not in Philippi or any other places where His church is found.  I know that in many cases that churches cease to survive, but there will always be a church in this world up until the time when the Lord will come in the clouds above the earth and call His church home to be with Him.

            Yesterday I was talking to our Pastor who took some time to answer a couple of questions that I had concerning my Sunday school lesson.  He began a new series in our morning service.  He will spend the next four months or so in the book of Philippians and began last week by talking about the very verses that I was going over last Sunday morning from Acts chapter 16.  I mentioned to him what I learned as to why Paul and his team went to the river, which is because that is where the Jewish people would hold their prayer and worship time since there was no Synagogue.  He then told me about something their guide from Israel stated to him while they were there last month, and that was that around the temple site there were many little places that held water for cleansing purposes for people to be cleansed before entering the temple, and there were also found near Synagogues, and so the reason that Jewish people worshiped near a water supply when there was no Synagogue was because of this need for cleansing, and that is why Paul and his team continually would go to the river to teach and to preach.  Now while they were there doing this they encountered this “enslaved woman” as seen in our verses for today.

            Speaking of the kind of spirit this woman had John MacArthur writes “The Greek text literally reads ‘a python spirit.’  That designation derives from Greek mythology, in which the Python was a snake that guarded the famous oracle at Delphi.  Eventually, the Python was killed by Apollo, the god of prophecy.  Since it was believed that Apollo spoke through the oracle at Delphi, the term ‘python’ came to refer to anyone in contact with Apollo.  In modern terms, she was a medium in contact with demons.  Luke notes that the demon-possessed girl ‘was bringing her masters much profit by fortunetelling.’  Such people were believed to be able to predict the future, a valuable commodity by the Greco-Roman culture.

‘Greeks and Romans put great stock on augury and divination.  No commander would set out on a major military campaign nor would an emperor make an important decree without first consulting an oracle to see how things might turn out.  A slave girl with a clairvoyant gift was thus a veritable gold mine for her owners. (John B. Polhill).’”

            Now as I read through this commentary about this woman I cannot help but think of Hitler who was sought these kinds of things from the occult to help him, and also we know that the Antichrist will also use the occult as it is believed that he will actually be possessed by Satan.

            I think it best that we conclude this section in our next SD.  I have been trying to keep the length of my Spiritual Diaries to be less than what they use to be in order for those who follow my blogs to not have to spend so much time reading them. 

            Spiritual meaning my life today:  Believers need to be looking out for the ways that Satan tries to tear churches apart, mostly by causing division among church members.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to pray for unity in our church.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Will sup with him and he with me.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/20/2018 10:06 AM 

PT-5 "The Liberated Woman" (Acts 16:11-15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/19/2018 8:39 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-5 “The Liberated Woman”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:11-15

            Message of the verses:  “11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12  and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.”

            We begin by commenting on verse fifteen, the last verse in our section, and this will be the last SD on the liberated woman.  We have to believe that Paul gave out the gospel message in a very clear and precise way so that the Holy Spirit of God can do His work, and in this case with Lydia.  This is very important as a person has to understand that they are sinners because they are born sinners as all people are, and that God will not allow sinners who have not been washed in the blood of the Lamb to enter into His heaven.  A person must also understand that they can do nothing on their own in order to be saved, as according to Ephesians 2:9 “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  We cannot help God on our own to be saved, we must completely trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ which He did on the cross to save us.  So we must understand we are sinners, realize we can do nothing on our own to be accepted by God, then confess we are sinners, trust Christ completely for our salvation as we believe He died for our sins, and then receive Christ into our lives.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians “1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4).”

            We move on looking at verse fifteen seeing that Lydia and her household were immediately baptized, and this was the way that people did it in the early church.  Now as far as saying “her household” which is similar to what happened to the jailor in 16:33 we realize that her households had to believe in the gospel just as Lydia and the jailor did.  What we have in these two cases is the beginning of the Philippian church.  One more thing to note and that is that baptism does not save us; it is just a picture of what Christ did for us.  As a person goes under the waters of baptism it is a picture of Christ dying and being buried, and then as they are raised up out of the water it is a picture of Christ’s resurrection.  Baptism in a true believer’s life always happens after salvation occurs, and not before. 

            I have quoted Ephesians 2:8-10 in many of my Spiritual diaries as it shows the order of what happens to a person who is saved and we can see this order in the life of Lydia.  “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Notice that Paul is saying that this is what happened to the Ephesians, seen in verse eight.  Then he goes on to say that salvation is not a result of works, but then in verse ten he states that a person will do good works after they are saved, and I believe that God planned these good works for a person in eternity past.  So as we look at what happened to Lydia in our verses from Acts we see that God opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message of salvation, and then she was baptized, and now we see in the last part of verse fifteen the good works that she was doing “"If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.’”  We see the good work of hospitality from Lydia, and every believer, according to Romans 12:13; Heb. 13:2; and 1 Pet. 4:9 is required to do this work of hospitality.  I have to say that this gift is especially seen in the lives of woman in the Bible and by doing this work Lydia shows that she truly is a liberated woman, a woman who has been liberated by the Lord Jesus Christ.  What a blessing this was to her and to her family and to those that she will eventually meet and tell her story so others can be saved.

            In our next SD we will take a short look at the woman who was enslaved, which will not take nearly as much time as it did to look at Lydia, the liberated woman.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to do the works that the Lord has planned for me to do in eternity past, as I seek the Lord to find out what He desires me to do.  I know that one of those things it to tell others about how they can experience the same salvation that Lydia experienced, and I look forward to seeing her in heaven one day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord as my wife and I go to look at another nursing home that we may want her father to go to, trust the Lord’s guiding and to give us wisdom.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4).

Today’s Bible question:  Complete Revelation 3:20 “’Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and”

Answer in our next SD.

4/19/2018 9:16 AM

 

PT-4 "The Liberated Woman" (Acts 16:11-15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/18/2018 8:16 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-4 “The Liberated Woman”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:11-15

            Message of the verses:  “11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.”

            We have been looking at the different aspects of how Lydia became a believer, and so we want to pick up on that in our SD for today.  I want to mention that also in our last SD we ended up looking at a couple of series of verses that talked about people not listening to what is talked about when the Gospel is presented, however Lydia was not like those people who were not listening to the gospel message.  Lydia listened with faith to the saving message of the gospel.  I can remember when I was listening to the message of the gospel as at the end of each message that was on the prophetic end times the message of the gospel was clearly taught and so I listened to it and the Lord opened my heart just like He opened Lydia’s heart to receive that message into my heart.  I know from experience and also from different places in the Scriptures that God is sovereign in salvation.  I can say for sure that God had prepared me through different things that happened in my life to listen to the gospel, but when it came down to the time when He saved me that was the last thing on my mind, but not on the mind of God.

            John MacArthur writes “Remembering God’s sovereignty in salvation is the foundation of a proper perspective on evangelism.  Salvation does not depend on clever evangelistic strategies, or the skill of the preacher, or a masterful presentation.  It is not a human work at all; it is God’s work.  ‘I planted,’ Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.  So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.’  (1 Cor. 3:6-7).

            “In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, Paul described his evangelistic approach to the Corinthians:

‘1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’”

            Paul would later say that he was all things to all people, and even though he was an accomplished scholar, Paul adapted to who his audience was in handling the Scriptures to be able to tell others about Christ.  I just received a letter from a missionary friend of mine who talked about going up into the hill country of the nation that he lives in to talk to a certain tribe about the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  The letter began rather humorous as he states that he had the use “the Moses rod,” in order to help him get up the hills as they were rather steep and he is getting older.  He then goes on to tell of the leader of these people who he states was very much against Christianity.  My friend asked the man if he would just come and hear him speak a couple of times and after hearing him speak this leader came up to him and told him that he wanted to be saved and wanted to be baptized.  The story did bring tears to my heart reading about this man who wanted nothing to do with Christ, and yet God opened up his cold hard heart to receive Christ as his Savior.  Yes God is the One who opens hearts to receive the message of the gospel, and all we have to do is to be willing to tell the message of the gospel and then allow God to do His work through His Holy Spirit.

            We will conclude this SD by giving a quote from A. W. Tozer that comes from John MacArthur’s commentary as he talks about the fact that in our day there are many who foolishly act as though God were wholly dependent on them to reach the lost.

“Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help.  We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world; but as said the Lady Julian, ‘I saw truly that God doeth all-things, be it never so little.’  The God who worketh all things surely needs no help and no helpers.

“Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God.  An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support.  I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. (The Knowledge of the Holy [New York: Harper & Row, 1975], 41)”

            Message of the verses:  I am thankful, and will always be thankful for the call that the Holy Spirit gave me for salvation on 01-26-1974.  I will always look back at those messages that the Lord caused me to listen to that special week in Florida, and am thankful for the life that I have had in Christ ever since.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to use the Spiritual Diaries that I write each day to be used by the Holy Spirit to call people to Christ and the salvation He has provided for those who will receive Him as their Savior.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Turned water to blood” (Exodus 7:17).

Today’s Bible question:  “What will the scoffer say in the last days?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/18/2018 9:09 AM

 

PT-3 "The Liberated Woman" (Acts 16:11-15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/17/2018 8:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-3 “The Liberated Woman”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:11-15

            Message of the verses:  11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.”

            We want to continue to look at verse fourteen in our SD for today.  We have already written about where Lydia was from and now want to take a moment to look at what she did for a living.  She was a seller of purple fabrics.  In the day when this was written purple dye either came from the glands of the murex shellfish or it came from the roots of the madder plant, and no matter which place it came from it was very costly.  During this day and age only royalty was wealthy enough to purchase things that make of purple.  With all of this said we must assume that Lydia had a very profitable business, as when we look forward to verse fifteen we see that she had a house large enough to have all the missionaries stay in it.

            As we continue to look at verse fourteen we begin to see how Lydia became a believer in Jesus Christ as we will look at what John MacArthur says that “three sequential aspects of it.  The first thing we see in verse fourteen was that she was a worshiper of God, and so we can conclude that her heart was a seeking heart.  From our study in Revelation, as we looked at the seven churches we found that many in the seven cities worshiped idols, so Lydia may have been an idol worshiper and then decided to begin to look at the Living God and worship Him.  Her case is similar to when we looked at Cornelius in Acts chapter ten, the one that Peter came to his house to tell him about Jesus.

            We see that seeking God, like Cornelius did was her first step in becoming truly liberated.  How did she seek God?  Well I can say that according to Romans 3:11, which says “There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God; (Phillips).  God is the One who has to draw people to Himself, and that is what He did for Lydia.  Let us look at another verse, this time from the gospel of John and see what Jesus said:  “"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

            John MacArthur writes:  “Her conversion, and those of Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch, illustrate an important principle.  An often-asked question about evangelism concerns the fate of those who never hear the gospel.  Lydia’s conversion shows that God will reveal the fullness of the gospel to those whom He causes to honestly seek Him.  In John 6:37, Jesus said, ‘All that the Father gives Me shall come to me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.’  God will never turn away the seeking heart.”

            The next thing we look at is that Lydia was not only seeking, but she was “also was listening,” and what she was listening to was the gospel message being proclaimed by Paul.  I suppose that there are far too many people who listen to the gospel message, but are not really hearing and understanding it.  We saw an example of this from Acts chapter nine when Saul of Tarsus heart the message, but those around him “did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking.”

            I want to conclude this SD with a couple of sections from the Lord Jesus Christ who was condemning those who heard without listening.  The first is from Matthew 13:11-17, and then from John 8:43-45.

“11 Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ’YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

“43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”

            We will continue looking at Lydia’s conversion in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that it is good that when I give out the truth of the Gospel message that I make sure the one I am talking to understands it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will continue to work out the details of moving my father-in-law to his new room.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Apocrypha”

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the first plague that God placed on Egypt?”
Answer in our next SD.

4/17/2018 9:32 AM

PT-2 "The Liberated Woman" (Acts 16:11-15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2018 10:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-2 “The Liberated Woman”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:11-15

            Message of the verses:  “11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.”

            In our last SD we got our missionaries to Philippi that is Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke the writer of the book of Acts who has now joined the others on this 2^nd missionary trip.  We see in verse twelve that they “were staying in this city for some days,” and then in verse thirteen we see that “on the Sabbath day went outside the gate to a riverside, where” they “were supposing that there would be a place of prayer.”  Paul usually would go to a Synagogue to talk to those there about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but there was no Synagogue there as there were not ten Jewish men in that city as it does take ten men to begin a Synagogue.  John MacArthur states that because there was no Synagogue there that people would go to a body of water to pray.  In this case they were going to a river to pray, and so Paul, knowing this went there on the Sabbath day. 

            There indeed must have been a small collection of Jewish men in this city as it seems that only women were found by the river, as they did not have a man to open up the Scriptures to them.  Perhaps these women were looking for a traveling Rabbi to come and preach to them, and if that was the case then today would be a good day for them as Paul and the rest of the missionaries would be there.

            I have been thinking about how women have had a very important role in the gospel.  Here we find Paul seeing a vision and then coming to Europe as a result of the vision, who by the way was the vision of a man.  So God has chosen a woman to be the first person to here and to understand the gospel, and thus be saved.  When Jesus was on planet earth the first person that He told that He was the long awaited Messiah was the woman at the well as seen in the 4^th chapter of John, so now we see something similar here in Europe.

            I think that it is a shame that many have thought of Paul as a male chauvinist, but nothing could be further from the truth as there are many women mentioned in Paul’s letters, especially at the end of them where he will name people that he wants to say hi to.

            Let us look once again at verse 14 “14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.”  We first see that the name of this woman was Lydia, and that she was from the city of Thyatira.  When we studied the book of Revelation we learned that Thyatira was one of the cities that are mentioned there as they received one of the letters.  All seven of those cities were in Asia Minor which is modern day Turkey.  I just want to mention that today in Turkey it is against the law to tell others about the gospel.  They have really fallen very far from when they received the letter of Revelation.  As a matter of fact they are putting on trial today a missionary who was preaching the gospel there and he could actually be killed because of what he did.

            In our next SD we will continue looking at this rather long 14^th verse as there is much more in it.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that of all the people that I have had the privilege of leading to the Lord that most if not all have been women.  It seems that the women that I meet are interested in the end times, which is usually who the Lord brings into my life to talk about.  I have to say that my wife was the first one.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I continue to trust the Lord to work out several situations that are going on in my life at this time, that He will give me, and in this case my family, wisdom to understand what He wants us to.  There is also a issue with my preparation for my Sunday school class that I am looking for wisdom from the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Gehazi” (2 Kings 5:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “What writings are regarded as inspired scripture in the theology of the Roman Catholic Church but not in the Protestant and Jewish Churches?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/16/2018 10:51 AM