SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/6/2018 9:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Right
Passion
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 15:36a
Message of the verse: “And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us return…”
We have just spent a considerable amount of time looking
at what is called “The Jerusalem Counsel” which actually interrupted what the
church at Antioch was doing. However
that counsel is one of the most important doctrines we can find in the Word of
God, for in it we see that Satan was trying to stop the progress of the infant
church, but as mentioned earlier Jesus said in Mt. 16:18 “I also say to you
that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of
Hades will not overpower it.” I want to
say that our Pastor and many others went to visit Israel and one of the places
was a place where it is believed Jesus said what He said in this verse. There was a cave in back of this place that
was supposable filled with demons during the time of Christ and for some reason
it was called a gate, so once you learn about this you can better understand
why Jesus said what He said and why He said it there. I guess this proves that the Bible does come
alive when one visits Israel.
At any rate the battle was over that the legalists had
started and the outcome was that a person was saved by grace alone through
Christ alone, and nothing need be added to a person when they become a
believer, however when you read the following verses you will see that truth
stated, and then another truth comes up for people after they are saved: “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.” I have repeated verse ten in many of my
Spiritual Diaries stating that the good works that I do for the cause of Christ
God prepared beforehand, that is in eternity past so that Christ would receive
the glory when I accomplish them in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now as we begin to look at are partial verse we see that
it begins with “and after some days,” and this indicates that there was a
indeterminate period of time during which Paul and Barnabas continued to stay
at Antioch where they were teaching and preaching the Word of God, along with
others who came from Jerusalem with them.
Paul must have become very close to Silas during this time and probably
appreciated what he was preaching and teaching those in the church at
Antioch. I have to believe that this
would have been a good time to be alive and listen to all the wonderful
preaching that was going on at this early Gentile New Testament church.
We then read “Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us return,” and
that is as far as we go in this section as far as what our verse says. It is certain that they were not bored and
this was the reason that they wanted to leave this powerful preaching of the
Word, but perhaps the teaching was what caused gave them the desire to return
to the field, for Jesus stated that the fields are white for harvest and they
wanted to get back out to the ripe field in order to harvest more people for
the cause of Christ. I am sure that this
must have been hard to say this because of helping minister to what was
probably a large church would have been a great challenge for these men, and I
have to say that it is still a difficult feat to do in today’s world as I
belong to a rather large church, but not a huge church. Paul had many spiritual gifts, and he used
all of them well, but he writes to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 9:16 “I am under
compulsion; for woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.” It was Paul’s desire to continue to preach the
Gospel in many different places, and perhaps his highest goal was to preach in
Rome for that is what he wrote to the Romans that he desired to go there and
preach, and yet after that he still wanted to visit Spain and preach there, so
we cannot positively say that Rome was his highest goal, but his highest goal
was to please the Lord who saved him, and by getting out the gospel to all the
known world at that time, and by talking to kings and other high ranking
officials in government was a part of what the Holy Spirit had told Annanias
soon after Paul was saved was what I believe was the predetermined plan that
God had for Paul as we see in Ephesians 2:10, a verse that Paul wrote.
John MacArthur concludes this section: “Paul’s passionate
concern for those without Christ found an echo in the heart of J. Hudson
Taylor, the nineteenth-century English missionary to China. He wrote:
‘I have a stronger desire
than ever to go to China. That land is
ever in my thoughts. Think of it—360
million souls, without God or hope in the world! Think of more than twelve millions of our
fellow creatures dying every year without any of the consolations of the
Gospel. Barnsley including the Common
has only 15,000 inhabitants. Imagine
what it would be if all these were to die in twelve months! Yet in China year by year, hundreds are dying, for every man, woman
and child in Barnsley. Poor, neglected
China! Scarcely anyone cares about it.
(Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor.’”
I have to say that I read the book where this quote came from and it is a very powerful book to read. MacArthur goes on: “Such passion cannot be learned by studying evangelistic methodology. It comes from knowing and loving Christ so deeply that some of His love for lost sinners becomes our own. And knowing Christ comes from studying His Word. It is through that study that ‘we all, with unveiled face beholding as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is certainly
my desire to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and mind, and my prayer
is that as I study His Word that that love will continue to grow.
My Steps of Faith for Today: That I would better understand that love of
Christ each and every day.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “By saying that the least of
those in the kingdom of God was greater even than John (Luke 7:28).”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘The half of my
goods I give to the poor’?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/6/2018 10:37 AM
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