Baptist City Blog

A Christian's Responsibility

Ezekiel 3:21

"Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul."

One of the greatest things lacking in Christianity today is responsibility. Too many Christians want a Christianity that is nothing more than a religious penance that they pay once a week by going to church, and the rest of the week doing what they want. Christianity is far more than a penance. Because you are saved, you have a responsibility to others.

Displeased with Yourself

Daniel 6:14

"Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him."

If you have a heart for God, there will be many times when you are displeased with yourself. The Apostle Paul was displeased with himself in Romans 7, as he tells about his battle to overcome his besetting sin. Because we live in a body of flesh, we will fight sin until the day we die, and the sin we commit should cause us to be displeased with ourselves.

Maintaining Hope in Difficult Times

Lamentations 3:21

"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope."

The lamentation above was written in difficult times. God's people were removed from their homeland to dwell among the enemy. The enemy had caused them to work so they could drink water. The had to purchase the wood that they cut down for their own homes. Their time was consumed with work. They had no one to deliver them. They saw their leaders killed before their very eyes. Certainly, these were difficult times for God's people.

Whom Do I Believe?

Jeremiah 43:2

"Then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there:"

Sometimes you have to try and choose who to believe between two people. In the spiritual realm, this is a common occurrence because of the constant compromise of preachers and institutions alike. Trying to choose between one who says something and another who says the opposite is very hard.

Unaccustomed to Work

Jeremiah 31:18

"I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God."

Recently, I was talking to an employer who relayed to me that they had mistakenly hired someone who didn't seem to have a good work ethic. They said when they came into their place of employment that the person they hired always seemed to not have anything to do. They told me that they went to the person and asked them why they were not working when there was so much to do. They then began to show this new employee all the tasks that were undone. This employer was truly amazed how this person was unaccustomed to work.

Bible Thoughts by Terry Hedderman

Sunday, 5/25/14 Ps 37:30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. Maybe many who think they live a righteous life don’t. (What do you talk about?) Ps 36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Maybe if we’d talk more about the sweet little things that God does for us (and delight in them, like a wife delights in the surprise bouquet at work), we’d draw more people to Him because they’d see that He is not a Heavenly Bully waiting to whack them for any little misstep.

Spiritual Vertigo

Jeremiah 7:24

"But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward."

There is a phenomena in flying called vertigo. Vertigo is a feeling of not knowing whether you are flying up or down. It is a feeling that happens when a pilot flies an airplane in the clouds by sight or feeling. What happens is the pilot will have a feeling that the plane is going a certain direction when in reality the plane is not making that movement. The pilot then reacts and corrects what his feelings tell him is happening, only to cause the plane to go into a different direction than what they are truly flying. In some cases this can be deadly. It all happens because the pilot took his eyes off the instruments and started flying the plane by his feelings.

Ignorant of the LORD's Way

Jeremiah 5:4

"Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God."

One of the reasons Israel and Judah ended up facing God's judgment is because someone did not take the time to teach them the LORD's way. God makes an indicting statement about His children in Jeremiah 4:22 when He says, "For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." You will notice that someone had taught them about sin. Someone took the time to teach the next generation how to do evil and supposedly get away with it. Yet, nobody took the time to be sure they knew the way of the LORD.

Fowl up

Fowl Up

Last month, a truck crashed in Sioux City, IA, and the load of turkeys it was transporting perished in the accident. Sad story. Enter peta, who wants to mark the passing of the turkeys by erecting a ten-foot memorial to them. I kid you not. As reported by The Sioux City Journal, peta staffer Alex Moore explained that the memorial would “remind commuters that the best way to prevent tragedies such as this one is to go vegan, because turkeys shouldn’t have to make terrifying trips to slaughterhouses at all.” That, or miniature car seats. My question: why isn’t peta memorializing the bunnies, armadillos, groundhogs, possums, and squirrels wiped out on highways every day? Why only turkeys? Seems species-ist.

From the June 2014 Limbaugh Letter

Wasted Lessons

Nahum 1:14

"And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile."

Life is full of lessons. These lessons can come from the experiences of others, from history or from your own life. Whatever you do, you should never waste these lessons, for when they are wasted then you must learn the hard way.