Baptist City Blog

- Tuesday, 6/26/18  Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Notice: it refers to the child becoming old...it doesn’t say the 20 or 30-something will see the wisdom of the way... Be patient as your kids learn the lessons you didn’t get til just a few years ago.
                            John 13:7, Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Just a reminder that some lessons that the Lord teaches aren’t revealed until the actual classroom session is over. “Time-released teaching.” Sometimes we leave school knowing more than we think we know.

 

- Wednesday, 6/27/18  Deuteronomy 18:2, Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them. Maybe the Lord denies a prayer request of ours because He gives Himself instead. Read the verse again.                             John 13:38-14:1, Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. If we must say something that is negative, harsh, hurtful, or cutting, be sure to try to undo the pain that the words caused ASAP. In other words, stop the bleeding from the cut that you HAD to make to get out the infection.

 

- Thursday, 6/28/18  John 13:8a, Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Even the leading Christian of his day set boundaries and told God not to cross them...maybe you and I aren’t so different and as bad as we think (or the Devil tells us) that we are.                            Psalm 81:13, Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. A perpetual battle for all believers, but especially us in this “microwave society,” is impatience. God has a different timetable than we do (along with different goals and methods.) Notice: He said that IF the people would’ve obeyed (our part of the equation), He would’ve SOON solved their problem...not immediately. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him,” Psalm 37:7.

 

- Friday, 6/29/18  John 13:14, If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. If you had to, could you tell me when you last willingly (and silently and sweetly) did a job that you were frankly overqualified and/or frankly, too good to do?                                    Proverbs 23:19, Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. The wise dad is about to give some crucial advice to his son on how to avoid a wandering heart? What do the next 16 verses deal with? The dangers of alcohol and immorality. It’s still sound advice for the 21^st century. Millennials!! Heads up! (And all of us who’re older and younger than the millennials, too!) God is STILL for sexual purity and abstinence. If He changes, He’ll make a general announcement to you.                                   John 20:14, And when [weeping Mary] had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Grief and disappointment caused this saint to not discern her dear Lord Who was near to her. The is so often true today for us and others.  ¹Be aware of this tendency in you and others.  ²Get sufficient rest when stressed.  ³Allow yourself and others time to heal.  ⁴Give yourself a break: you WILL be more likely to fail in these times.  ⁵Give others who’re grieving MUCH LATITUDE. Don’t condemn them. Don’t take to heart their hurtful words and actions.  ⁶Don’t make any decisions when your decision maker is broken.

 

- Saturday, 6/30/18  Proverbs 23:9, Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Notice, there are some that we’re not to teach the Bible to. Introspective question: is there a chance that an advisor wants to tell you or I something but because of this verse and our past actions, won’t?                            Proverbs 24:30-32, I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. If the Devil cannot destroy a life by a direct, blunt, frontal assault, he is just as comfortable and adept at a battle of attrition:  “Little by little, inch by inch” is a formula that works equally well for success or failure.

 

- Sunday, 7/1/18  Luke 6:13, And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;  Are you striving, hoping to make the cut for the next level? Are you content with simply being saved, or do you wish to become a disciple? Then, “one sent out”?                         Matthew 9:19, And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. It’s a good habit to be going where Jesus is. You and I must ask ourselves if we are truly following Him, or are simply playing Christianity. He’s going to church; He’s after the lost; goes to the fallen; He’s busy with people and not money; He’s into the Bible, prayer, love, and forgiveness. Again, are we? Or, ask this: if a partial Rapture took all of the accoutrements of Christianity out of our daily lives, would there be much of an effect?

 

- Monday, 7/2/18  Job 19:2, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? I wonder if anyone whom I thought I was helping ever felt this way? We’re to restore the fallen; comfort the afflicted. Let God do any chastening. We’re to love our fellow sheep...not vie for “assistant shepherd.”                          John 15 is the chapter that deals with vines and purging/pruning and bringing forth fruit and so forth. We often think of ourselves getting pruned and refined and so forth. However, notice: John 15:1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Jesus is the Vine and the Father the Gardener. So the purging and refining and molding and shaping that is so painful in our lives...Jesus had to go through it too. He doesn’t ask us to undergo what He has not already done. He was “touched with our infirmity” and so, it was just as distasteful for Him.

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- Pro 26:21, As coals are to burning coals, and wood to a fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. A man with a hot temper and a contentious spirit will cause trouble and strife without provocation or reasonable cause.

 

- Pro 27:20, Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. The dangers of allowing around fleshly desires to control our wants cannot be overemphasized. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to control our wants.

 

- Luke 1:34, Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be seeing I know not a man? The miraculous events God has for those who are godly and morally pure is beyond imagination. I wonder how many he could find in America today?

 

- Acts 13:10, And he said, O full of all subtilty and mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Where are the rough, touch, leather-lunged preachers today who preach the truth, call sin and wickedness what it is, and run the devil off?

 

- Acts 13:44, And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Get ready for trouble from the world and the devil’s crowd when the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ draws a crowd and convicts sinners to believe.

 

- 2 Sam 18:5, And the king commanded Joab and Abishai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. Dads will always have a soft spot in their heart and a love for their kids, no matter how rebellious they are or what they do.

 

- Ps 6:2, My soul wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. We need to wait patiently upon God. He works on His own timetable, not ours. We should not get impatient and try to help Him out like Sara and Abraham did.

 

- Phil 2:5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.  Weak minds find pleasure in things: motorcycles, cars, trucks, fishing, hunting, shopping, cooking, crafts, hobbies. It's all they talk about. They never leave this field. Mediocre minds find pleasure in relationships: people, jobs, administration, family, health, education. This field dominates their thinking. They spend most of their time in this field, but visit field #1 periodically. Visionary minds find pleasure in God: Scripture, purpose, soul value, surrender, serving, heaven, eternity. They have learned to visit and balance each of these three fields, but not spend all their time in one field. The mind is a curious asset. It can be abused, lopsided, drugged, put out to pasture, or it can be groomed, developed, matured and productive.

 

- I wonder if David wishes II Samuel 11 was not in the Bible, yet it is a part of his story. We all have II Samuel 11's, but it does not have to be our entire story, nor does it have to be our final chapter. Move on!! Go write another chapter.

 

- Satan could never have hurt Job had God not permitted it. So, who was to be blamed for the hurt brought into Job's life? Blame? Let me change that last question. Who was to be trusted for the lessons brought into Job's life? You see while we blame a person for the hurts in our lives we should be realizing that God permitted it, but not without a purpose. We can either find a villain or we can trust the Lord and learn the lessons he wants us to learn. It is up to whether we really trust God or not. Job did. Do you?

 

- Psalm 119:71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. God uses afflictions as sandpaper to smooth out the rough places in our lives.

 

- Lou Holtz said, “You cannot win as an underdog unless the coach convinces you you’re not an underdog.” The Word of God says that we are more than conquerors. I guess our Coach wants to convince us that in this world we are not underdogs either.

 

- The term "unconditional love" is a misnomer because it leaves us to assume there must be a love that is conditional.

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- Don’t miss out on something amazing just because it also could be difficult.

 

- The truth is still the truth even if no one believes it, and a lie is still a lie even if everyone believes it.

 

- Wise young people are they, who have learned to value the people in their lives who love them.

 

- Poverty is not the absence of money. It is spending more than you have.

 

- Always be kind. If you see someone falling behind go walk beside them. If someone is being ignored, find a way to include them. If someone has been knocked down, help them up. Always remind people of their worth. Be the person whom you needed when you were going through hard times.

 

- It is an unchanging, immutable fact of life that following every midnight hour comes daylight.

 

- People let us down because they can't hold us up. Only God can. If you expect anyone to do what only God can do eventually they will fail you.

 

- Happiness is like Shepherds pie. There is no real recipe. We just take what we have and make it work.

 

- Integrity is more than doing the right thing when no one is watching. Integrity is doing the right things because you are aware God is watching even if no one else is.

 

- Hurting friends do not need us to tell them to "look on the bright side." They need us to sit with them in their darkness.

 

- My fresh sins are not match for God's fresh mercies.

 

- If you have a "good reason" to be angry and bitter at someone, recognize that as an opportunity God has allowed you to practice grace and forgiveness.