Baptist City Blog

Luke 10:31

"And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side."

Every day there are divine appointments we miss because of our blindness to God's guiding hand. The parable of the man who fell among thieves is a classic picture of two men who missed their divine appointment. After the man was robbed, beaten and left to die, the priest and Levite walked by his way but did nothing for this dying man because they wanted nothing to do with the situation. When the Samaritan came by his way, he stopped, bandaged the man and brought him to safety until his healing. Each of these men had a divine appointment that day, but only one fulfilled his appointment. I find four reasons from this story why people miss their divine appointments.

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Luke 6:38

"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

Most people are stingy from their childhood. You often see children not sharing their toys. When a child is given a couple pieces of candy they often become very stingy and won't give the other piece away because of the desire of the flesh to keep everything for itself. Giving is not a natural desire of the flesh.

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Mark 15:20

"And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him."

Every Christian must bear a cross if they are going to follow Jesus. Jesus was our example and He had to bear the cross. When you look at the whole experience of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, you will soon realize what the cross of Christianity means.

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Mark 2:14

" And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him."

Two of the most powerful words that Jesus said was, "Follow me." I seriously doubt the disciples understood what following Jesus would do for their lives. Because they obeyed this simple command, their lives were turned upside down. They went from ordinary people to leaders in Christianity. They did not know who they were following at the time, but they knew there was something different about Him.

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Matthew 6:1

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven."

The Pharisees were known for their acts before men. When they prayed, they prayed openly using swelling words to impress everyone with their spirituality. When they gave offerings, they would oftentimes fill their bag with coins and drop it into the temple treasury so everyone could hear the coins falling. The Pharisees were all about the Pharisees. They wanted to be sure that everyone knew how spiritual they were.

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Matthew 4:3

"And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."

You will never get through life without having to face temptation. Temptation is the desire to perform an action that one may enjoy in the short term but will probably regret later. If Jesus faced temptation, then you will certainly face it.

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Proverbs 24:33-34

"Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man."

One of the most destructive little things a person never takes into account is the termite. Many times a termite will go unnoticed until they have destroyed part of the structure of the house. Only the trained eye can see the termite. The termite may not be real big, but the destruction they leave is tremendous and costly.

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Hosea 10:12

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."

The laws of sowing and reaping are very evident in the verse above. The patience of most Christians is very small when it comes to seeing God's blessings for doing right; however, you can see that many things must happen between the time a person decides to do right and the actual blessings of God upon their lives.

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Daniel 1:6

"Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:"

We often hear the warning about having bad friends, but how to look for the right friends is rarely discussed. In the verse above, there were four men who became close friends. The Scriptures do not tell us if these men grew up together, but one thing we know is that these four men became close friends. They didn't become close friends because they sought each other out, but they discovered each other as they did right.

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Proverbs 19:11

"The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression."

There is nothing more uncomfortable than being around someone who constantly loses their temper and blows up in anger. The tension it causes to an atmosphere is tremendous. Everyone around that person who is quickly angered walks on egg shells because they just don't know when they are going to go off and become angry.

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