SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/1/2018 6:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“Giving”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
20:1b-2a
Message of the
verses: “he departed to go to
Macedonia. And when he had gone through
those districts”
We have been talking about Paul going to collect money
for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and doing this was very important to Paul as
I mentioned briefly in our last SD that Paul wanted to see the Jews and the
Gentiles in the church to become one because the Lord Jesus Christ died for
both and the prejudices between them need to end because they were all one in
Christ. Paul had a great love for all of
the saints, and we know that he had gotten over any prejudices that he had
before he had become a believer. One of
the things that believers are to do is to remember the poor and help them out
when they could which is what Paul wanted the Gentile churches to do for not
only was there a famine in Jerusalem, but there was also persecution going on
for those poor saints.
When we get to the 24th chapter of Acts we
will see Paul getting to Jerusalem after being warned by many saints not to go
there, but Paul had a mission to bring the money to those who were in need in
Jerusalem. After being there for a few
days the Jews tried to kill Paul because they believed that he was doing things
contrary to the Law of Moses, which of course was not true.
John MacArthur writes about Paul’s great love for the
church as “it was expressed by sacrificial giving. The apostle John expressed the inseparable
link between giving and loving in 1 John 3:16-18:
‘16 We know love by this,
that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need
and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18
Little children, let us
not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.’”
As we think about Paul’s love for the churches we know
that it was genuine for Paul had a very difficult life, that is if you think
about it in human ways, for we read the following things that Paul reluctantly
wrote about himself in 2 Corinthians 11:22-33. “22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they
Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they
servants of Christ?-I
speak as if insane-I more so; in far more labors, in far more
imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five
times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten
with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day
I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from
rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the
Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea,
dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through
many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and
exposure. 28 Apart from
such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the
churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin
without my intense concern? 30 If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my
weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever,
knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king
was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 33 and I was let
down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands.” When one thinks about what Paul went through
they have to come to the conclusion that it was because of his love for the
church that he did the things that he did which was actually a fulfillment of
what God told Ananias in Acts 9:13-16: “13
But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man,
how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority
from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Lord
said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name
before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him
how much he must suffer for My name’s sake."
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “David” (2 Samuel 5:19).
Today’s Bible question: “Where did the author of Ecclesiastes say he
was king?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/1/2018 6:49 AM
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