Baptist City Blog

Monday, 1/11/16  Acts 17:21, For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. We have too many Athenians in our churches today: people who want to hear truth, but definitely do not want to enact the truth or change their behavior. Are you guilty? (I am...)          ¹To bake a cake, change a tire, install a ceiling fan there must certain ingredients or parts, and they must be used/put together in a certain order and at the appropriate time. (A 2^nd coat a paint can’t be applied immediately after the first coat; bread dough must be allowed to rise before baking.) Pro 20:5, Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a  man of understanding will draw it out.  ²Leaders, by nature of their position and talents, or age/longevity/experience generally are observant thinkers and problem solvers.  ³Parents, coaches, preachers, Bible teachers: you may have all of the right answers that someone needs, but if they aren’t willing to listen, you must be quiet and wait. Love them as they are so that the door remains open, but say nothing.  ⁴Or, they may be willing to listen, but not be ready today to handle the truth you know. (Ex: sex education for a 5^th grader...not wise.)  ⁵Even if the adult is your own child or former student, we older ones must realize and keep in the front of our minds that they are far more of a peer than a subordinate, so greater tact and diplomacy, and yes, self-control is needed.

Tuesday, 1/12/16  Job 10:1, My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. Hurting people say a lot of “wacko” statements. We’ve gotta give them A LOT of leeway and mercy. When we’re the hurting one, we must exercise more oral discipline.           Rom 2:21, Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?  ¹I am a sinner. One who’s been born again and forgiven, but I still am a horrible sinner. Can we agree on that? And, you are too. (For some, this truth will be a revelation, and for some to actually accept that down deep would be a miracle, but I digress.)  ²However, I carry a perfect Book and endeavor to teach and preach from that Book.  So, it should not be a blinding revelation that I do not practice what I preach to the degree that my God, myself, or an observer think that I should. (Nor do you, whatever you hold to be truthful and right: you violate your own standards at times.) If the truth be told, if you came to my house and looked at my video library or browsing history or heard every joke I say...you could very well shake your head and cluck your tongue and say, "Bro. H.!! I can't believe you do/watch/listen to/said that!!!"  And, if I came to your life, I could do the same thing:  "You struggle with that? Come on, I taught you about that back in school!! I got over that sin 6 months after I got saved...Come on...you know better!!!"  ³Leaders must realize that their advice/guidance must be sought for or asked for or it will be rejected. The old adage goes, “Unsought advice is seldom heeded and often resented.”  ⁴A follower is tacitly asking for advice if they come to your church or choose to sit in your class, or even, if a teenager chooses to remain in your home. (It is extreme, but the teen could run away.) However, care must be taken so as to not kill the patient before the cure is effective: "measured doses" is the key.  ⁵To give your advice at a time or place where it is not desired is to be a pompous bully, and will probably cost you the opportunity to effect any long-term changes/growth.  ⁶Followers, you need to learn the truth of #4, and realize what you are doing by entering a certain venue. If you come to a church or a class or even to someone’s FB page, to some degree, you’re asking for their input, so getting offended is rude on your part.  ⁷To sum it all up, most of us (me especially) are often FAR too free to offer up our opinions, and, on the receiving end, we are FAR too quick to get offended if someone gives theirs to us. (If someone with some wisdom wants to share it with me, I should be smart enough to listen, even if the setting or timing may not be appropriate. [Adult children, teenagers...listen to your parents.])  ⁸Ultimately, I can choose to ignore what someone says, and I may, but that doesn’t give me the right to rebuke them for sharing it.

Wednesday, 1/13/16, 2 Thess 3:4, And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you. How much confidence does your pastor or SS teacher have in your level of obedience or wanting to obey?             Ps 2:2-5, The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. For those of you who don’t care what God thinks about your life: it would be a lot more pleasant to deal with His complaints against you while He is laughing at your folly, or holding you in derision (mocking, making fun of the mess you caused) rather than wait until He steps up His game to wrath and sore displeasure. ‘Just saying...

Thursday, 1/14/16  What did you have for breakfast this morning or supper last night? (Answer...) OK, what did you read in the Bible this morning or last night? (Do you remember?) Sadly most of us pay more attention to our physical meals than spiritual ones.             2 Kings 22:19-20, Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the inhabitants thereof that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes , and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers.  Josiah died at age 39. Get this: as a reward for having a tender heart, this man’s life was taken early, which may have involved an illness and pain before he finally passed away. We’d say he died “way before his time.”  Lesson: all “negatives” are not necessarily negative.

Friday, 1/15/16  Ps 85:6, Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? A sign of spiritual life and vigor is the degree of joy and happiness IN the Christian life that you’re experiencing. Do you en-joy God and godly things, or tolerate them, or, even worse, just go through the motions “just cuz”?            Ps 6:1, O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Maybe a good sign of a proper view of God is when you are afraid that He’s angry at you and not just frustrated or depressed that He’s angry at you...followed by an appeal to His mercy (v2) so as to make you right. Maybe there’s a reason that we’re commanded to fear God dozens of times in the Bible; maybe He chose the right word...

Saturday, 1/16/16  Pro 12:15, The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. The fool thinks he knows it all and that’s sufficient. The wise accepts that he may be wrong or deficient in knowledge. Which is more descriptive of you?              Pro 12:1, Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish. How good of a student are you? How easy is it to preach to you? Do you enjoy SS and church and learning new truths, even if they are a rebuke to your current lifestyle? This says that if you don’t, you don’t love knowledge and are like an animal (brutish).

Sunday, 1/17/16  Ps 89:1a, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever. How about starting forever today? Take a picture of a hymn with your phone and make it your wallpaper and sing it all day.           Ps 9:8, And [the Lord] shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. Mr. Leader, sir, do you just righteously, or simply expeditiously, or, according to “what works,” or “how I was taught,” or according to your own philosophies? Judge the way that God does (with righteousness and uprightness, i.e. Biblical principles) as if He were in your shoes.  HWJJ: “How would Jesus Judge?”

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- A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you will never go anywhere until you change it.

- If your God is mighty enough to ignite the sun, could it be that He is mighty enough to light your path?

- Our sorrows are all, like ourselves, mortal. There are no immortal sorrows for immortal souls. They come, but blessed be God, they also go. Like birds of the air, they fly over our heads. But they cannot make their abode in our souls. We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow.

- Chastisement is designed for our good, to promote our highest interests. Look beyond the rod to the All-wise hand that wields it!

- “Care” is not a word that expressions emotion; it’s a action that meets a need.

- Reconciliation is the ministry given to each of us, so how can we be reconcilers until we first are willing to be reconciled with those who have hurt or disappointed us?

- Do not feel guilty if you are unable to make giant leaps of faith. The Christian life is never called a leap. It is called a walk. Just keep walking even if your steps seem small compared to others.

- Why are football players always more eager to get back into the game after being injured than Christians are to get back into the race after they have been.

- Divisions are caused when we ask others for their opinions when what we really wanted was their agreement. 

- Critics see the dirt in my past, but not the seeds God planted in that dirt.

- Don't get mad at a rose when the thorn pricks you. The thorn was there when you were enjoying its beauty. And don't get angry with a friend who disappoints you. The flaw was there when you were enjoying their virtues.

- Be humble. Just because you have never died does not mean you will not someday die and just because you have not fallen does not mean you will not someday fall.

- It is more important that you read your Bible today that to read it through in a year. Have you read yours yet today?

- You join a church for the same reason you join a gym. It is not so that you can build your life around it, but so you can be strengthened to live a better life outside of it. Many Christians mistake the church for life.

- You will not drown in your afflictions, but you may get a good bath and come up cleaner.

- When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend upon education, we get what education can do; when we depend upon man, we get what man can do; but when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.

- I don't do what feels good. I do what needs doing (most of the time). Feelings are irrelevant.

- The test of love is not loving them who crown you king, but loving them who crucify you.

- "I don't have to go to church every Sunday to be saved."   "I don't have to come home every night to be married."   "I don't have to go to work every day to be employed."   Of course, you don't have to.

- Grace loudly proclaims, "Your cannot out sin God's love," and then gently whispers, "Why would you want to continue trying to?"

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- “Potentate”  This name/title for Jesus has never come across my radar until just now while I was reading 1 Timothy - it's in 6:15. Interesting!

- As a kid I would get grounded TO my room, or FROM certain activities or privileges. I always wondered, “who made up this grounding thing". Well, it looks like God did...and the punishment can be pretty harsh sometimes. I mean, the LORD said, [You're grounded] “...until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness." He told them why, too. I guess we should just do what God asks us to. Num 14:33-34, “And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.”

- Bible thoughts! Psalm 12:6, The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. If there's Anyone Who's Word we can trust, it's definitely God's!!!!

- Pro 14:11, The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish. The house was where people met together. The tabernacle was where people met together with God. One is family worship, the other is God worship.

- 1 Cor 15:33, Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. What we say does matter! Our talk reflects what’s inside.

- Rev 15:4, Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. There’s coming a day when our Lord will be given His rightful place, but not before great tribulation and awful suffering.

- Ps 113:9, He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord. We have virtually destroyed the dignity of ladies and also motherhood in our nation. She is special to God and her bearing and rearing of children is the highest place of honor.