Baptist City Blog

- Tuesday, 11/7/17  Psalm 40:10a, I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart... A blunt question: does this describe you? Your heart is righteous, but how long has it been since you tried to get someone saved? Since you said the words, “If you died today, do you know...”? This week: rectify things.                               Colossians 1:4, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints... We all know truths about others: some of the truth is good, and some is bad. Someone had told Paul of the good of these church folks. Are you more likely to vocalize good truth or bad truth about other believers? Or, do you just talk about the weather, work, or sports? It’s a daily choice: to truthfully speak well, to truthfully speak evil, or to speak frivolously.

 

- Wednesday, 11/8/17  WOW!!!! Seven sweet promises of blessing and protection in 3 verses!! Here’s just the first. Psalm 41:1a, Blessed is he that considereth the poor. Read V1-3 and find all 7!! What a gracious God!!                           Is it my job or the Lord’s?  Ephesian 4:31, Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.... Here, Paul says to allow these negatives to be put away from you. In other words, another [the Lord] does it.  Colossians 3:8, But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Here, Paul says I am to put them off. So is me or the Lord?? Both. Until He changes my heart and works a fundamental change, I am to work on it myself: apologize, repent, change actions, incorporate safeguards, etc.

 

- Thursday, 11/9/17  Psalm 63:1a, O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee... There really is no context here, so we should probably seek God early in the day, early in an endeavor, early in a problem, early in a new phase of life. He will be found if we will seek.                                 Psalm 56:3-4, What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Note that faith and the Bible are mentioned together. There is no faith apart from the Bible. The Bible creates faith. So, if your faith is weak, feed it with an increase in Bible reading, memorization, meditation, hearing preaching. Listen to it as you commute. Take the “No Bible? No Breakfast!” pledge: vow that you’ll read at least a chapter before any food crosses your lips. If you need a custom designed Bible reading schedule, I have several, or, better yet, can teach you how to design your own. (You’ll adhere to it better when it’s “yours and yours alone.”)

 

- Friday, 11/10/17  Psalm 63:5, My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips... The title of this Psalm says it was written in the wilderness (problems), yet he expressed confidence in the final outcome of his situation. This convicted me: our dark days WILL end.                                2 Corinthians 7:1, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The verse says we are able to “perfect holiness.” I guess we have a LOT more ground to conquer before we rest on how wonderful we are...

 

- Saturday, 11/11/17  Psalm 66:12, Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. Troubles WILL come, but stay with the Lord and let Him bring you THROUGH them to the wealthy spot.                                  Psalm 63:7, Because thou HAST been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings WILL I rejoice. Maybe our biggest problem is forgetting what He did for us before so as to prompt our faith that the circumstances that we face today and tomorrow WILL be OK. Remember and reflect on previous victories so as to endure the current struggles. The key to going forward successfully is looking back sincerely.

 

- Sunday, 11/12/17  Mark 3:1-4, ...a man [with] a withered hand. And they watched him...that they might accuse him. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? Jesus equated not doing good with doing evil. Have you done any evil recently?                               Deuteronomy 13:5, And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt... God takes the destruction of another’s faith VERY SERIOUSLY. Be very careful about legitimate, true criticism of a leader or other believer who has done wrongly. It’s not to be a topic for casual conversation. When in doubt, don’t say it. Sins happen: don’t compound an already bad situation.

 

- Monday, 11/13/17  Psalm 68:19, Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. “Yo!! The Delivery Man and His truck are outside!! Is anyone available to receive this shipment from Him?”                              In 1 Kings 10, God totally highlights the awesomeness of Solomon and his kingdom: his wisdom, his servants, his wealth, his accomplishments. But Chapter 11 begins with these words: But king Solomon loved many strange women... Lesson: no amount of God allows or excuses or hides any amount of bad. God demands holiness: from His “superstars” as well as His everyday servants. How could you “up your game” to better fit His mold?

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- If you did not pray this morning it is because you think you can make it OK without God.

 

- If you’re prayerful in nothing today, expect to be anxious in everything.

 

- We are better off telling the Lord, "Thy will be done" than for Him to say, "OK, have it your way.

 

- Ps 25:17, The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. It’s good to know that we are not the only ones to get down and discouraged and heavily burdened.

 

- Acts 17:2a, And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them... Good habits should be put into practice no matter when or where we are.

 

- Ps 24:4, He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully: he shall receive the blessings of the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. God’s blessings are determined by our conduct.

 

- Ps 28:7, The Lord is my strength and my shield: my heart trusted in him, and i am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise him. I wonder if we spend as much time praising Him after He helps us as we did praying and asking for help beforehand.

 

- Pro 12:1, Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish. One’s level of true wisdom and understanding is reflected in his attitude toward instruction and reproof, especially, to the preaching and teaching of God’s word.

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- Influencers use grace. Intimidators use threats.

 

- Satan uses small hurts to build impenetrable walls.

 

- When people knock us down we tend to hate or resent them after we get back up. We knocked Jesus dead, but He got up loving us just the same. Oh, to be like Him.

 

- Not everyone will appreciate your kindnesses today but be kind anyway.

 

- Joy is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you.

 

- Christian liberty does not give me the right to do as I please but the ability to do as He pleases.

 

- Warning: The most serious and dangerous error often is that which contains the largest amount of truth.

 

- Forgiveness comes in two forms, active and passive. Sometimes we passively forgive someone which means we forgive them but we do not demonstrate it. God forgives us actively by the extreme demonstration of his love. True forgiveness ought to be evidenced in the actions we perform to not only forgive within ourselves but to aggressively demonstrate it to those we have forgiven.

 

- See the worst sins of others as ones that you are quite capable of committing.

 

- If you are looking at your past for a long time, then you are walking backwards.

 

- Speak the truth in love today. Truth without love is harsh. Love without truth is hazardous.