SPIRITIUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2011 8:59:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The Goodness of God”
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Nehemiah 9:23-30
Message of the verses: “23 “You
made their sons numerous as the stars of heaven, And You brought them into the
land Which You had told their fathers to enter and possess. 24 “So their sons
entered and possessed the land. And You subdued before them the inhabitants of
the land, the Canaanites, And You gave them into their hand, with their kings
and the peoples of the land, To do with them as they desired. 25 "They
captured fortified cities and a fertile land. They took possession of houses
full of every good thing, Hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, Fruit trees
in abundance. So they ate, were filled and grew fat, And reveled in Your great
goodness. 26 “But
they became disobedient and rebelled against You, And cast Your law behind
their backs And killed Your prophets who had admonished them So that they might
return to You, And they committed great blasphemies. 27 "Therefore You delivered them into the
hand of their oppressors who oppressed them, But when they cried to You in the
time of their distress, You heard from heaven, and according to Your great compassion You gave
them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors. 28 “But as soon as they had
rest, they did evil again before You; Therefore You abandoned them to the hand
of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. When they cried again to You,
You heard from heaven, And many times You rescued them according to Your compassion, 29 And
admonished them in order to turn them back to Your law. Yet they acted
arrogantly and did not
listen to Your commandments but sinned against Your ordinances, By which
if a man observes them he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and
stiffened their neck, and would not listen. 30 “However, You bore with them for
many years, And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, Yet they
would not give ear. Therefore
You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.”
This
is the third and last sub-point from this second main point “The goodness of
God,” and Dr. Wiersbe entitles this sub-point “Chastening the nation.” All one has to do is to read through the OT
books of history to see that God finally had to chasten Israel to the point
that He removed them from the land that He had given them. As stated before this is like the condensed
version of this account and it is found in several places in the OT and one
place in the NT, while it is alluded to in different places in the NT, like
some of Paul’s writings.
When
one first reads over these verses they may wonder where the goodness of God is
found in them, but it is because of the great love of God that He will
discipline His children. You can also
see the unfaithfulness of God’s people and the faithfulness of God in this
section. You can also see that God’s
plans will not be stopped by the sinfulness of man, for God does have a plan
for His people, all of His people, and nothing will ever stop that plan from
coming to be fulfilled. That is one of
the greatest things that I see God doing, that is having a plan, yet having
Satan, his demons, and unregenerated man against His plan, and yet because of
the great wisdom of God, He uses all of this to accomplish His plans. That is truly amazing to me.
Why
was it that Israel fell so many times and had to be disciplined by the Lord so
many times? I think that the answer lies
in them becoming successful without the Lord and thus they became complacent in
their life of sin, not realizing that the Lord would soon discipline them
because of their sin, and then after that realizing their need for repentance, then
the cycle would start over again.
Thomas
Carlyle said this “For every one hundred men who can stand adversity, there is
only one who can stand prosperity.” John
Steinbeck wrote “If you want to destroy a nation, give it too much—make it
greedy, miserable, and sick.” There are
churches today that think that they are rich, and yet they are poor, and
churches that look like they are poor, yet they are rich. All one has to do is read about these types
of churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelations.
Now
when we think about the statement that Thomas Carlyle writes we must think
about the Apostle Paul and what he writes to the Philippian church, and one
must remember that Paul was in prison when he wrote this and the reason that he
was in prison was really unjustified, and can be read about in Acts chapter
21. Paul was certainly the one man out
of a hundred men who could stand prosperity along with having nothing. Paul is surely one of my heroes and it is
because of what I am writing about here that he is one of my heroes. I want to look at this section in
Philippians, and in this section is my life verse, a verse that the Lord has
brought to my attention about six years ago and has not let me forget it, for
in this one verse one can find a great secret in living the Christian life, yet
it is a learning process that will take many years to learn, that great secret
is contentment, and Paul learned it. “10
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your
concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.
11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever
circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also
know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret
of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. I would suppose that when one reads these
verses one will wonder how it was that Paul learned this secret, and yet this
too is found in his writings. Paul
explained this to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11:22-33.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have been reminded of the faithfulness of
the Lord in this lesson today. I have
been reminded of the goodness of God, along with the wisdom of God, and I have
been reminded of something that I have been learning for a number of years and
that is to continue to learn contentment and I truly needed to be reminded of
that today.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
The truth of Psalm 119:67.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
9/3/2011 9:53:44 AM
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