Baptist City Blog

John 4:23

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

For about a decade, I took a group of young people out every summer to represent a Bible college. The purpose of going out with this group was to recruit young people who were seeking to go to Bible college. We were scouts for the college, seeking young people who had a desire to serve the LORD full-time or who had a desire to learn more about the ministry so they could go back to their home church and help their pastor in the ministry.

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Luke 22:21

"But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table."

One of the most amazing verses in the Scriptures is the verse above. Jesus is at the last supper with His disciples, and He prophesied that one of them was going to betray Him. Not only did He prophesy who was going to betray Him, but He identified that He knew who they were and that they were sitting with Him at the table. The disciples wanted to know who this person was so that they could take care of him, but Jesus would not let the conversation go any further.

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Luke 13:19

"It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it."

We often hear about God being the God of the miraculous, but we sometimes fail to hear where the miraculous starts. When Jesus describes the kingdom of God, He says, "It is like a grain of mustard seed..." In other words, before the miraculous ever starts, there is a person who takes a small amount of faith and uses what they have, and He then takes that faith and blesses it. There are several things that God is teaching us about mustard seed faith.

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Exodus 18:21

"Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:"

The pressure of leading the children of Israel had evolved into something that was greater than what Moses could handle. He would literally spend all day counseling, judging and advising the people and it was wearing him down. His father-in-law wisely advised him to train several men who could help him in counseling, judging and advising the people. There were five qualifications that he gave that would be wise for anyone to follow when choosing someone to advise them.

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Proverbs 9:4

"Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,"

Everyone starts out simple at some point in their life. Being simple is not an indictment against someone, it simply means that you are new at something and that you have plenty to learn. However, nobody stays simple. You will either turn into a fool or scorner, or you will be wise enough to control three areas of your life that will help lead you to understanding.

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Genesis 49:22

"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:"

God commands the Christian to bear fruit. He says in John 15:16, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain..." Bearing fruit is a natural process of anything that has life, and a Christian obtained life when they were born again.

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Mark 6:52

"For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened."

Preachers or those who minister to people in church oftentimes will say someone has a hard heart. Their reasoning for saying such a strong statement is because someone they are trying to help seems to have no emotion or response to the help. Saying someone has a hard heart is not an out for the one who has made this statement, but when a person shows no signs of desiring spiritual help that is evidence of a hard heart.

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Matthew 23:26

"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."

"Ma'am, could you give me a new glass? There is some dirt on the inside." When this happens, your mindset of that restaurant changes because you wonder about the cleanliness of the kitchen. The dirt on the inside of that glass can change your whole outlook on that restaurant's quality.

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Genesis 27:12-13

"My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them."

The Devil's attack against the home is a never ending attack. Unfortunately, the Devil doesn't have to do much work in many homes because they do the work for him. He certainly sets the trap for them to take, but once the destructive forces begin the damage they cause will often affect several generations.

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Matthew 14:15

"And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals."

Jesus had taught the crowds all day, and when the evening was come the disciples thought that He should send them home because there was no food for them to eat. They saw the negative of the situation which in reality seemed like a real problem that could not be overcome. Jesus, on the other hand, saw the opportunity of the situation. Instead of sending them home, Jesus took the food he had, which was five loaves of bread and two fish, and turned it into a feast with twelve baskets of food remaining when they were done. What seemed like a big problem in the desert was truly turned into an opportunity by our Saviour.

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