SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/6/2015 8:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Jesus Gives His Command to Thyatira
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 2:24-25
Message of the
verses: “24 ’But I say to you, the rest
who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep
things of Satan, as they call them-I place no other burden on you. 25
’Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.”
In our last SD we saw what the Glorified Christ who knows
all things and sees all things said He would do to those who were following the
sins of Jezebel that they would be judged for their sin, but now we see the
Lord addressing those who have not followed this false teaching and He gives
comfort to them. John MacArthur points
out a passage in the book of Malachi in which God also gave comfort to those he
was ministering to. Malachi is the last
book in the Old Testament and he ministers to those who had returned from the
captivity in Babylon. He writes “16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and
heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who
fear the LORD and who esteem His name. 17 “They will be Mine," says the
LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will
spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."”
Next we see that Christ defines the believers as those “who have not known the deep things of Satan,
as they call them.” Those who
were following Jezebel believed that they could plunge into the deep things of
Satan, things like false theology, impurity, licentious, and then come and
worship the Lord as if nothing was wrong with that. This was similar to the Jews during the last
days of their kingdom as described in the OT prophets of Jeremiah and
Ezekiel. The Jews had idols that they
worshiped on the “high places” and then they would come down to the temple and
worship the Lord as if nothing was wrong with that. As I studied the attributes of God one of
them is that God is a Jealous God, and I have mentioned that the kind of
Jealousy that God has is not selfish like the kind we humans have. God deserves to receive all worship and when
that does not happen those who are worshiping false gods, it is sin for God
will not share His glory with anyone, which is what those in this church were
doing, they were sharing God’s glory with the deep things of Satan and it is no
wonder that Jesus Christ comes down on them for that. This kind of thing reminds me of what Paul
wrote to the Romans in a number of chapters you will find Paul asking a
rhetorical question and then give the answer in the strongest not found in the
Greek language. You can look at the
third chapter of Romans for examples of this.
Here are two examples of what I am talking about: “Ro
6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we
are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Ro 7:7
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the
contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would
not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT
COVET."”
Christ tells those who have not followed those deeper
things of Satan, following the practice of Jezebel, that He will place no other
burden on them. He also tells them to
hold fast to what you have until I come.
John MacArthur writes “The use of the strong word krateo (hold fast) indicates that it would not be easy. The coming of Christ as it related to the
Thyatira church was His coming to them in judgment. But in a wider sense, all believers are to
‘cling to what is good’ (Rom. 1:29) until Christ’s return.”
We have one shorter lesson from this church of Thyatira
and then we will have completed the first two chapters of the book of
Revelation. Chapter three has three more
churches to look at and two of these last three churches sink down deeper into
sin and doing wrong and one is one of the best churches we will study.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: When I put on the
spiritual armor each morning I read a number of times from the 6th
chapter of Ephesians “Stand Firm,”
and this is what the Lord is saying to those believers in the church at
Thyatira and this is what I want to do too.
I am not saying that I do not want to grow more in the Lord, but I am
saying that I do not want to go backwards, I want to hold on to what I have.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To love the Lord with all of my heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand and apply the love that the
Lord has for me in my everyday life.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:9-10.
9 For he who lacks
these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification
from his former sins. 10 Therefore,
brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about your calling and
choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Abraham.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘let her gleam even
among the sheaves, and reproach her not’?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/6/2015 9:14 AM
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