Baptist City Blog

Ezekiel 28:5

"By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:"

Most often tools were made to help someone do things for good. When you look at a mechanics toolbox, his tools are often used to make cars better. What would happen if one day the mechanic picked up the tool and the tool started talking back to the mechanic? What if the tool told the mechanic that it didn't want to work on cars, but because it was such an important tool it would rather start a tool show to display its beauty or strength? This is certainly ridiculous, but this is what God's people oftentimes do.

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Ezekiel 18:23

"Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?"

God is often misunderstood by most people. There are those who like to paint God as an angry person up in Heaven Who can't wait to press a red button and send lightening to strike them dead because of their sin. Then there are those who paint God as a person in Heaven Who loves people so much that He never chastens or judges His children. Neither of these pictures are accurate.

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Isaiah 48:7

"For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together."

Isaiah 48 is the prophecy of God's judgment against Moab. Moab was known for the fortresses it built, and they were confident that their works from the past would secure their future, but they forgot to realize that present actions are what secure your future. Though they were strong enough in the past to build these great fortresses, their actions in the present were defiled because of their worship of Chemosh, the fish god.

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Jeremiah 31:17

"And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border."

Have you ever watched something where the villain seems to be winning and the final scene shows that the villain has the hero down and is about ready to knock him out, when the next thing you see are the words, "To be continued." There is nothing more frustrating because you hope that somehow the hero of the story finds a way to get out of their life-ending situation.

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Jeremiah 16:18

"And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things."

When a person is indicted for a crime, you will often hear that they have several counts against them. The reason this happens is because in the commission of a crime, a person breaks several laws. For instance, when a person robs a house, there are several laws they break in the commission of the crime. They are indicted for breaking and entering. They are indicted for several counts of stolen property. They can also be indicted for vandalism. If a person is present in the commission of the crime, then they are also indicted for holding a person hostage against their own will. These are just a few of the laws that can be broken in one criminal act. The prosecutor will look to have the criminal judged on each of these indictments because each law broken carries its own penalty.

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Jeremiah 11:8

"Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not."

Israel's biggest downfall was that they followed man's logic and reasonings and not the voice of God. According to Jeremiah 8, from the time that Israel left the land of Egypt to the time of the writing of this chapter, Israel was a nation that oftentimes followed the "imagination of their evil heart." This was magnified in Judges 21:25 when it says, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Yet, this dangerous response led to their eventual captivity and judgment of God.

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Isaiah 59:1

"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:"

The location of the church I attended as a youth was located in the hills of California. The church was located outside of the city limits, and in order to get water we had to drill a well. We set up a 10,000 gallon tank to be sure the church had plenty of water and that the fire department had plenty of water in case of a fire. Connected to this well was a pump that pumped the water into the tank. Having a 10,000 gallon tank didn't matter much if you couldn't pump water into it.

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Isaiah 1:9

"Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."

In the previous verses, Isaiah showed the condition of his people. They were a rebellious people who would not consider the LORD. They were a people who had forsaken the LORD, and instead of going forward towards God they were running from Him. Isaiah showed that God had tried to get their attention through several judgments but to no avail.

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Ecclesiastes 9:15

"Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man."

The story in the verse above is about a little city that was besieged by a mighty king. This little city had very few men in the city to defend it, but one thing this city had was a wise man who didn't have much money. This city found itself in a terrible predicament because the king had built a wall around the outside of the city to keep anyone from coming in or going out. This king was trying to starve these people to death. Yet, this poor wise man devised a plan that delivered them from this tyrant king.

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Job 38:2

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"

Have you ever walked into a room that was totally dark and you had to find the light switch on the other side of the room? When you walk into a darkened room, you may think you know where everything is, but you can't see everything because it is dark. You stumble through the room as you feel your way, nearly falling a couple of times until finally you find the light switch and turn it on. When the light is turned on, everything becomes clear because with the lighting you can see the room exactly like it is.

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