Baptist City Blog

- Tuesday, 2/1/22  Psalm 119:59, I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. If our society believes one thing, it is that it’s always someone else’s fault. Whether it is in fact true, it

doesn’t matter: I can’t control others but I can control me. WE must correct OUR course...or WE will wreck.                               Would you like to learn the Bible? Do you really want to know it? Most who regularly read my posts (or who get the daily text with a different thought...ask for it), would give a resounding, “Yes.” However, His school’s classroom doesn’t have fruit breaks and nap times.  Do you REALLY want to know God’s Word? Psalm 119:68 & 71, Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

- Wednesday, 2/2/22  Psalm 119:68, Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. He is and He does. We aren’t and we don’t. We need to learn His wishes, His directions, His reasonings. We need to contrast our corrupt-ness with His purity...and forsake our way of living and thinking for His.                           2 Kings 17:9, And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. What secrets are you keeping from man that are displeasing to God? Come clean with the One Who knows how dirty you truly are.

- Thursday, 2/3/22  2 Timothy 1:3, I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience... Paul had hurt many people, yet his conscience was pure. If you’ve confessed the sin, you’re forgiven. If you’ve worked on changing, you’re a better person. Quit keeping in the forefront and feeling bad for what God has washed away. It’s done: you did it! It can’t be undone. Now get over it and do today’s job.                           Hebrews 3:13, But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest ANY of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. “Any” means even the best among us could get hardened. Self-eval time: is your heart as tender, more tender, or less tender then it was a year ago? Two years? Five? Do you see more sin in yourself and the need to repent? (The closer to the Light, the more the dirt is noticed.) Does God frequently speak to you through the Word, preaching, or an inner voice or has it been awhile since He did? (If He’s been ignored enough, He tends to shy away.) Are you more or less thankful and more or less quick to express that thankfulness? “Any” could get “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” any...even you and I.

- Friday, 2/4/22  Psalm 119:82, Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? While many of us have felt the direct comfort of God, He most often uses another. We each must be aware that those whose path we cross may be looking for the comfort of God and He may want to use us to deliver it.                               Proverbs 1:1-4, The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. (Why should we live in the Book of Proverbs? What good are they?) To know wisdom and instruction (they give plain instructions/how to’s); to perceive the words of understanding (they enable us to pick up on how valuable another’s words are); to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity (acquiring wisdom helps us acquire other equally valuable traits); to give subtilty to the simple (wisdom irons out the kinks in our lives), to the young man knowledge and discretion (it helps us avoid common pitfalls). Read the entire book each month, and pay more and more attention to it.

- Saturday, 2/5/22  Proverbs 1:23, Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. We all screw up; we all need to admit it and quit it. The question is: how much does it take to turn us? The still small inner voice? A reproof? A chastisement? A calamity?                                  1 Chronicles 12:33, ...such as went forth to battle, expert in war...which could keep rank: they were not of double heart. Twice in 6 verses it is said of different groups that they could keep rank. Face it, most of us are Indians, not chiefs, and, to be the best Indian we can be, we must know what is expected of us; faithfully do that which is expected of us; we must perform as part of a larger group, which means honing our interpersonal skills and maybe, to some degree, being content with just being “a face in the crowd.” These men were experts in war because they followed the leader and didn’t make it all about them, but rather, made it about the group.

- Sunday, 2/6/22  Psalm 119:115, Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God. There’s no doubt that the psalmist was sold out to God. However, as the wicked surrounded him, he voiced the commitment that was in his heart. Verbalize things: it provide another layer of protection.                         Psalm 9:2, I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. Good times wax greater and wane faster. Heartaches come...and sometimes go. But “Jesus Christ is the same...” how does it go?? “...yesterday, to day, and forever.” To rejoice is a choice made possible by what we think about.

- Monday, 2/7/22  Reputation can be an awesome thing. Psalm 9:16, The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. What is your reputation? Or mine? At work? At home? At church? In Heaven?                                   Psalm 9:13, Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death... Deliverance isn’t just cuz God loves His children. It comes with a purpose. V14, That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. God expects public praise. (Maybe He is seemingly being slow to rescue us THIS time, cuz it didn’t work out well for Him LAST time...)