Baptist City Blog

Sunday, 3/8/15  Ps 143:1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. A reminder:  ¹Any answers to prayer are 100% because of His goodness and 0% because of our merit.  ²He has no favorites or pets.  ³Also, notice “in thy righteousness.”  He cannot answer outside of His character.              Attention everyone in a leadership position!!! The Commander is about to speak.  Ps 82:3 Defend the poor and the fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. School teachers, principals, youth directors, coaches, bus captains...do you ACTIVELY and AGGRESSIVELY stand up for the kids who are always getting picked on? Even the ones you don’t like personally? That “stupid” one; that “goof ball,” the one who seems to have been custom made to get picked on; the one whose actions “call for” someone to “put him in his place”...that kid is a child of the same Heavenly Father as you, and He has put you in a position and charged you to protect His kids. SMH....  (BTW, to those that I, no doubt, offended back at HBHS: please forgive me. Message me personally, and I’ll apologize to you directly.)

Monday, 3/9/15  Ps 143:9 Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me. To where do you flee? Distractions? Diversions? Work? Alcohol? Porn? Friends? The TV? Food? Music? ‘just asking...              Ps 81:8-9 (Read carefully) Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; there shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. Notice, He said, “If you’ll hearken (which means to listen and obey) to Me, you won’t have strange gods.” Dear Christian: Quit trying to quit sin!!! Quit trying to stop doing thus-n-so. Simply start doing more of what you’re supposed to, and the sin will be crowded out. Do more good instead of stopping more bad. Nature abhors a vacuum. We don’t empty the sin out of our lives and then put in good; we put in good and replace the bad. The whole key is to fall in love with a Person!! A real, live, Person!! The same way you’d get closer to a human is how you get closer to God...you know how to do that.

Tuesday, 3/10/15  Ps 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Just like a good marriage has several different components, so does a successful Christian life.  (After all, it’s a relationship with a Person.) So...how is your praise life?           Exo 6:9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage. Yes, people in trouble need teaching from the Bible to correct the cause of their problems, but perhaps, dear leaders, you may need to relieve some of the burdens before they’ll be able to listen...even if the burdens are self-inflicted.              Re: public debating of the Bible on FB.  1) None of are the final word on ANY verse.  2) Logic and humility says we should be ready and willing to be corrected.  3) In Acts 18, Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and corrected his doctrine. However, Paul corrected Peter publicly in Galatians 2. Since none of us hold an office as lofty as Paul, we probably ought to use tact and diplomacy.  Practical applications:  ¹You don’t have to respond to every question or challenge thrown at you. Jesus ignored many questions...go look.  ²You have the option to delete what you feel are wrong or inflammatory comments from your posts.

Wednesday, 3/11/15  Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord... ¹Not all problems are from God. ²He does approve whatever comes at you.  ³He has a purpose in your problems. God doesn’t allow random things into your life. ⁴Look for His purpose: teaching? Correction? Strengthening? Tenderizing?             Jon 1:17 ...a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  Matt 12:40 ...3 days and 3 nights in the whale’s belly...  Was it a “fish” or “whale”? Every freshmen in high school knows that they aren’t the same, and that whales are mammals. So, is the Bible scientifically wrong?  No, remember that the scientific classifications that are in use today were formulated in the 17 & 1800s. God says a whale is a fish. No contradiction. No “bad science” in the Bible. (Similarly, the rules of English grammar came about after the KJB.)

Thursday, 3/12/15  Exo 15:13b ...thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Keep in mind that God’s destination for you, in this life, His child, is His holy habitation, not your comfort or earthly habitation.         Ps 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.  Observations:  ¹Sometimes we get the blues, and don’t know the reason why.  ²Everyone goes through times of discouragement and depression.  ³While there are exceptions, 99.9% of the time, our moods will cycle back around.  ⁴We can help ourselves by retraining our brain toward the positives we have from God and redirecting our energies away from ourselves.

Friday, 3/13/15  Are you deep in the valley and considering quitting because you just don’t have the strength to go on? (Been there, many times.) Pro 10:29a The way of the Lord is strength to the upright. God’ll help you: if your road is to hard, detour to His road.                Exo 18:16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws. Rendering a proper judgment is good, but explain your spiritual reasoning so your followers can gain wisdom for their next predicament, or for when you’re not around.

Saturday, 3/14/15  Pro 10:21a The lips of the righteous feed many. Who eats at your lips’ table? How healthy of a menu do you serve? Are you open 16 hours/day, 7 days a week, or just from 9:45-10:25 on Sunday mornings?            Ps 44:23-24 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression. Can you hear the panic in the psalmist’s voice here? Did you ever put a 2 year old in a room by themselves and leave them for a half-hour, and get frustrated at their separation anxiety? The reactions are the same. We think of ourselves as mature, reasoning adults: God says we’re just children...

2 Sam 12:13a And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. The tender heart of King David and his willingness to listen to preaching and be convicted reveal his greatness as a man after God’s own heart.

Ps 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. More sinners will be saved with tears and a broken heart than all the SW methods and plans. No tears...no SW success.

Acts 20:35b It is more blessed to give than to receive. The joy and blessing of giving is so far greater than that of receiving that they’re not even close in comparison.

2 Sam 12:7a And Nathan said to David: Thou art the man. Thank God for bold, fearless, honest men of God who preach the truth of God with conviction as Nathan did. May He give us more of them.

Don't follow your heart unless you want to arrive at things that are desperately wicked (Jer 17:9).

Church sign:  “The key to Heaven was hung on a nail.”

Pro 10:22 The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Seeking God’s blessings pays well without sorrow or regrets.

2 Sam 13:3 But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man. We need to be very selective and cautious about close friends and associations of our family. Trust no one until proven trustworthy.

"Unbelievers must choose between Heaven and Hell. Christians must choose between Heaven and Earth."
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