Baptist City Blog

Sunday, 12/28/14  Pray about spiritual duties: Ps 119:18-Bible reading; Luke 11:1-prayer; Eph 6:19-SW; 1 Thes 4:3-holiness/sanctification; Eph 6:6-pray to do what God wants, what He wishes, even what I think He might enjoy; Gal 5:13-a servant’s heart; Matt 22:37-40 Love for God and others.               Why are Christians supposed to read their Bibles?  Really!?! Honest question!?  Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. “Hope” refers to things that are not seen now, but are expected. Maybe you’re lacking some needed spiritual components because you refuse to go to “the factory” where they’re made...                1 Sam 30:10 ...for 200 abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor. The other 400 and David kept going AND fought another battle. Were these 200 weaker? Older? Maybe their resolve was less? Or, consider this possibility: they could have kept going, but simply gave in to their bodies’ complaints. Lesson:  99% of the time, you can take more than you think you can; you can go 1 more day; you can endure another round. Others need you to do so; you need you to do so.

Monday, 12/29/14  Hindrances to prayer: not praying...DUH!!; ignoring the Bible (Pro 28:9); a husband’s wrong marital relations (1 Pet 3:7); sin, harbored in our hearts (Ps 66, Isa 1, 59, Jer 7, et al); unforgiveness (Matt 6): We know that a grudge against a brother will be brought up by the Lord, so we prefer our hurt feelings to His Help...forgive as Christ has forgiven you.             Jer 4:1a If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me. Basic doctrine but a common mistake:  when we wander off into sin, backslide, ignore the ways and things of God, we must return to GOD: His plan, His ways, His book, His body. If all we do is “return to church” or “turn over a new leaf” or “clean up our act” it won’t last. Christianity is a relationship with Christ; it is NOT the religion of Christ.  (Read that again.)               2 Sam 1:10 So I stood upon [Saul], and slew him... Saul was killed by an Amelikite man: one of the same people that God has ordered him to exterminate in 1 Sam 15:3. You can laugh off God’s classifications of sin; you can justify your rebelliousness; you can mock the old time preachers; you can say, "Oh, those verses don't really mean THAT..."...but your sin is gonna KILL you if you don’t kill it first.

Tuesday, 12/30/14  Josh 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. I’ve given you 17 thoughts re: prayer: now, what are you going to DO about prayer in 2015? I challenge you to make some concrete changes.      1 Sam 30:6 ...for the people spake of stoning [David], because the soul of all the people was grieved... They were going to kill their leader, the one who’d done so much for them because of their grief. Do not, do not, do not EVER make a major decision when emotionally distressed.

Wednesday, 12/31/14  Pro 26:17 He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. If you see or know of 2 friends of yours fighting: STAY OUT OF IT!! Love them both, but don’t take sides. Don’t be drawn into criticizing one of them. RUN FAST!!                   Ps 1:6 For the Lord knoweth the way (manner of life) of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.  ¹You can fool others into believing you’re something you’re not, but God knows the truth.  ²It’s possible to be righteous in our standing before God, but to live our lives without Him (ungodly).  ³A life without Him is a wasted life.  ⁴Keep in mind that you will live on millions of years in the future, but what you do during these 60-70-80 years will greatly impact that future.

Thursday, 1/1/15  Ps 84:4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Making much of the house of God (church) facilitates praise, which stills, or calms, our anxious spirit.            Luke 2:30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Notice: Simeon didn’t see a church or a baptism or a good deed or a reformed life. When he saw “[God’s] salvation” he was looking at Jesus only. Some of you who read these thoughts are trusting in what a church taught them, but you need to realize that since a church is composed of sinful people, what a church says is often wrong. I had to come to grips that 22 years of instruction by Catholic priests was 99.99% unscriptural. Salvation is in NO church (not even mine); it is in NO ritual (baptism or communion); it is in NO reformation of your life; it is in NO good deed.  Salvation is realizing that you’re a sinner who totally and justly deserves an eternity in Hell, but one who realizes that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died and rose again to pay the full price for your sins. Then, the deal is complete when you quit trusting anything else, or in addition to, Jesus, but simply rely upon Him and Him alone. Dear church goer...have you been saved SCRIPTURALLY? By the way, if you say that He saved you but you need to live right to stay saved...I’m very fearful for you...that’s a pretty small god/savior that you have. My God/Saviour keeps me saved according to a hundred different scriptures, but John 3:16 is sufficient. Message me if you’re not TOTALLY positive that you have a guaranteed home in Heaven. My neices/nephews...sisters-in-law...nursing peers? I’m thinking of you right now...  Message me NOW.

Friday, 1/2/15  Jer 15:16  Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Is the word of God a frequent source of joy in your life? I don’t dread my Bible time by any means, but I need to up my game re: my attitude toward the Bible. How ‘bout you?            Hos 4:1 Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Does God have a bone to pick with your “land”? Check v2: By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

Saturday, 1/3/15  Ps 86:11b-12 ...unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. Do you long for the day when you are given a glorified body with a united heart totally focused on holiness and the things of God? Or, is God going to have to “drag you kicking and screaming out of” this life?              Ps 5:11b-12a ...let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield. Notice the “for.” As with all aspects of the Christian life, we’re to joy by faith. Realize,  ¹He’s working.  ²His work/products are good.  ³All scores will be settled and all inequities balanced in time.  ⁴So, get happy and show it.                    Many Christians struggle with temptations: they seem to be all around them and almost omnipotent. Is that you? Matt 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation... God’s solution: prayer and common sense awareness. Have you gone to any of the church’s prayer meetings? Have you asked anyone to pray with you before the services or during the invitation? Do you do what you can to avoid the temptations? Like removing DVDs from your house or putting a content monitor on your internet? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Help your flesh obey the Lord.

Judg 8:35 Neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubabel, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel. How soon we forget and fail to honor those to whom we owe so much for their leadership and spiritual victories of the past. As a nation, church, and individuals, it si wicked, slothful, and selfish.

1 Sam 8:1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Great leaders want to choose who replaces them, but their choices are not always best, nor God’s choice.

Luke 8:25 And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this? For he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him. It’s tragic that those closest to Him didn’t really know Who and What He was. I wonder often if we really know?

Ps 78:38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many times he turned his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath, for he remembered that they were but flesh. Thank God for His restraint and mercy toward America. I pray in 2015 we will come to our senses and turn back to Him.