SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/29/2011 9:21:58 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: His Apathy
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Ester 3:15b
Message of the verse: “and
while the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in confusion.”
In
today’s SD we look at the last reason why Haman was such a dangerous man, and
it is because of his apathy. (Emotional
emptiness Inability to feel normal or passionate human feelings or to respond
emotionally) (Encarta Dictionary) (North
American)
This
section of Scripture reminds me of looking at movies based on World War II,
especially those based on the European theater when you can see so many Jews
being killed for only being Jewish, and then you see the German soldiers eating
and drinking like nothing was wrong. “Schindler’s List” is a movie produced by
Steven Spielberg that tells the story of how the Germans were killing the Jews
in WW II and although it has some rather graphic scenes in it one can surely
see the apathy of those who were killing the Jews.
We
see in the last part of verse fifteen two men, one who seems to have no idea
what is going on, and one who is on a mission from Hell. After the law is given these two men sit down
to have a drink, and I am sure in the case of Haman it was to celebrate his
seeming victory, but in fact in three months he will be the one who is killed
by the man who does not seem to know what is going on. God had two people waiting in the wings to do
His will, Ester and Mordecia.
In
his commentary on this verse Dr. Wiersbe quotes Helen Keller who wrote,
“Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for
the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.” He also tells the story of J. Hudson Taylor
who was a great missionary to china in the late 1800’s and how he had gone into
a church where the believers were feasting and fellowshipping, and there was
really nothing wrong with that, but he was unsettled with it and was pondering
what the Lord had for him to do, and so he went for a walk on the beach. One of the phrases that he had written in his
book that got to the heart of Warren Wiersbe was “unable to bear the sight of rejoicing multitudes in the
house of God.” As stated above
there is nothing wrong with this provided that the hearts of these people in
the house of God had a good attitude of doing the will of God which has in it
winning the lost. Dr. Wiersbe writes “but rejoicing must never be a
substitute for responsibility.”
The
parable of the “Good Samaritan” in Luke 10:25-37 speaks of apathy, for there
were two “religious” people who saw the plight of the wounded man and walked
right by, but the “disrespected” Samaritan
stopped and helped the man and cared for him until he was well again at his own
cost.
The
problem that is seen here is that apathy is not just found in unbelievers who
want to go out and destroy the Jews, for it can be found in believers who do
not remember what it is to be lost, and therefore do little to tell others of
the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ.
They are content in great fellowship with their friends when there is a
world of lost people around them who need to hear the go good news of the
Gospel.
I
have a friend of mine who has coined the phrase “Divine Connection,” and I like
that phrase and have had some divine connections that have happened to me on
different occasions. A family moved in
next door to us a few years back and I had the privilege to leading a pretty
large number of them to the Lord, start a Bible Study with them where others
came to know the Lord, and then took a few months to disciple them in the
fundamentals of the faith. This was
surely a divine connection as it was the Lord who set all of this up and all I
had to do was follow the leading of His Spirit.
It was in the summer when the first of them received Christ and then in
the fall we had a Bible Study where more came to know the Lord. One night about a week before Thanksgiving I
woke up around 4:00 AM and could not go back to sleep. This was a moment unlike any other in my life
when the Spirit of God was speaking to my heart about those who had just been
saved. He seemed to say to my heart that
it was Him who had done this and that this was the greatest miracle that can
happen. I began to cry over the fact
that these people were now part of God’s kingdom and I have never looked at the
salvation of a soul like I did before. I
must admit that there was a form of apathy in me before that morning, and I
thank the Lord that He spoke to me then.
I
must say what is on my heart at this time and that is that I believe in divine
connections as there have been more such times since the very special
year. I don’t think that we as believers
need to have a guilty conscience about not witnessing to the lost, unless we
are not willing to do so, but I do believe that we need to pray that God would
send us these divine connections and when they come be willing to step out by
faith to tell them of the hope that we have within us. Pray that God will lay someone on your heart
that He will save, and that He will allow you to be a part of it.
Last
year I had a painful experience with a kidney stone and went to a doctor to
have it “blasted.” He did a terrible job
of it and so I ended up in the hospital to have it removed another way. The doctor that was going to do this
procedure was a man whom I had a burden for him to know the Lord, as I had him
before but due to some insurance issues could not go to see him. I truly believe that this was a divine
connection, even though it was a very painful thing that I went through in
order to see this doctor again. While
going to see him for a visit after the procedure I took the time to write him a
long letter about how I came to know the Lord and how He changed my life. I also bought for him a small mp3 player with
some messages on it from the 9th chapter of Daniel. I pray for him a lot and hope to see him
soon, as we have been out of state for eight months. When I think about the pain that I went
through to be able to tell him the good news of the Gospel I know that it was
all worth it.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to have a heart for the lost and I
pray that the Lord will continue to send me more divine connections in order to
tell them the greatest story ever told.
When apathy seems to try and slip into my life I pray that the Lord will
remind me of that wonderful morning when He showed me the beauty of seeing a
soul saved.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Pray for more
divine connections.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
3.
Pray that our Bible Study that begins tomorrow will
bring glory to the Lord.
9/29/2011 10:53:27 AM
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