SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/20/2018 11:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Guard the Flock”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
20:29-31
Message of the verses: “29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.”
The first thing I want to say is that this is the second
time that I have attempted to do this Spiritual Diary as I mistakenly deleted
the first one which I have to say was a bit upsetting to me. I wanted to point out that I believe that I
wrote that the troubles from the Ephesian church came from the inside, but
after looking at verse 29 we see that there was also outside trouble.
This SD will mostly be a quote from a man named Charles
Jefferson who is quoted in John MacArthur’s commentary as he describes the
importance of the shepherd’s vigilance:
“The Eastern shepherd was, first of all, a watchman. He had a watchtower. It was his business to keep a wide-open eye,
constantly searching the horizon for the possible approach of foes. He was bound to be circumspect and
attentive. Vigilance was a cardinal
virtue. An alert wakefulness was for him
a necessity. He could not indulge in
fits of drowsiness, for the foe was always near. Only by his alertness could the enemy be
circumvented. There were many kinds of
enemies, all of them terrible, each in a different way. At certain seasons of the year there were
floods. Streams became quickly swollen
and overflowed their banks. Swift action
was necessary in order to escape destruction.
There were enemies of more subtle kind—animals, rapacious and
treacherous: lions, bears, hyenas, jackals, wolves. There were enemies in the air; huge birds of
prey were always soaring aloft ready to swoop down upon a lamb or kid. And then, most dangerous of all, were the
human birds and beasts of prey—robbers, bandits, men who made a business of
robbing sheepfolds and murdering shepherds.
That Eastern world was full of perils.
It teemed with forces hostile to the shepherd and his flock.
“When Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Habakkuk talk about
shepherds, they call them watchmen set to warn and save.
“Many a minister fails as a pastor because he is not
vigilant. He allows his church to be
torn to pieces because he is half asleep.
He took it for granted that there were no wolves, no birds of prey, no
robbers, and while he was drowsing the enemy arrived. False ideas, destructive interpretations,
demoralizing teachings came into his group, and he never knew it. He was interested, perhaps, in literary
research; he was absorbed in the discussion contained in the last theological
quarterly, and ideas had been lodged in the heads of a group of his leading
members. There are errors which are as
fierce as wolves and pitiless as hyenas; they tear faith and hope and love to
pieces and leave churches, once prosperous, mangled and half dead.” (The
Minister as Shepherd [Hong Kong:
Living Books for All, 1980], 41-42, 43-44)
Paul who was truly a faithful shepherd made it a point to warn his flock, and I suppose that means all his flocks. Paul says that “night and day for a period of three years” that he “did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” John MacArthur writes “Admonish is from noutheteo, which refers to giving counsel with a warning involved (cf. Col. 1:28).” “28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
I have to say that as a believer in Jesus Christ I have
had a desire to “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).” That is why I named my blogs 2 Timothy
2:15. I make it a practice to listen to
sermons that are preached and desire to learn from them, but if I hear
something that does not go along with the Word of God I will take the time to
lovingly talk to who it is that is preaching and confront them about this. While living in Hawaii and going to a church
while there the praise team sang a song that was not Biblically correct. There were different Pastors who attended
there and none of them said anything about it.
I spoke to one of the members of the praise team who said that when she
looked the song up on the internet there was a word that was changed, and that
word made the song not measuring up with Scripture. As believers we all have to be on alert, and
to do that we must fulfill what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Three” (Genesis 6:16).
Today’s Bible
question: “In whose name did Peter heal
the lame man at the temple?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/20/2018 11:59 AM
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