Maplewood Baptist

01/29/2025

Married men should forget their mistakes. There is no need for two people to remember the same thing.

Hebrews 8:8, "For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:"

The first covenant, which could never save, was that Israel agreed to follow certain ceremonies as well as moral laws. All these were a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ.* The new covenant* promises a new heart, the law written in the heart, and all sin charged to Christ's account.
* Galatians 3:24, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
* Jeremiah 31:33, "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God,
and they shall be my people."

01/28/2025

01/28/2025

Verse of the Day

Philippians 3:10,
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;"

01/28/2025

When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing: either the car is new or the wife is.

Genesis 1:7, "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."

Evidently a canopy of v***r surrounded the earth so that before the Flood the whole earth had a moderate or subtropical climate. Fossils and coal beds found in Siberia and Alaska near the North Pole and in Antarctica show tropical plants and animals once lived in these frozen regions. Be aware of the amazing changes later brought by the Flood. There was no rain before the Flood.
Genesis 2:5-6, "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."

01/28/2025

Using the Proverbs as guiding principles to help with daily life is a good way for a believer to keep the light of the Word guiding their path, but it is no substitute for a real, dynamic, close relationship with the living God. For people who do not yet ...

01/28/2025

Goats are stubborn. They like to do their own thing with no shepherd or farmer guiding them. All the goats my family had wore collars with bells on them, so we knew where they were. They liked being free to do their own thing. Herding them was close to im...

10/31/2024

When do you stop at green and go at red? When you’re eating a watermelon!

Isaiah 42:22-23, "But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. 23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?"

We may condemn our predecessors for their failures, but we're twice as guilty if we repeat the same mistakes. Paul gave a warning similar to this one in I Corinthians 10:1-11. We may be so ready to give God's message to others that we may overlook what it reveals in our own lives. Make sure you follow your own advice as you teach or lead.

1 Corinthians 10:1-11, "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

10/31/2024

Pigweed

Genesis 3:17, "Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it."

The New York Times ran an article titled “Attack of the Superweeds.” Some unwanted plants have developed a resistance to modern herbicides. Pigweed, for example, can grow three inches a day, and it’s no longer threatened by sprays. It can also suppress corn yields by up to ninety percent.1

Read: Revelation 22:1-5
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, all creation was affected. The ground was cursed so that weeds grew more easily than crops—as all of us who have gardened know. But there’s wonderful news. During the thousand-year reign of Christ the curse will be abated. The ground will become more fruitful. And after the thousand years, we’ll receive a new heaven and new earth. Revelation 22:3 says, “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.”

Sin and sinful habits do a lot of damage. We have to work to eradicate them from our patterns of life, just as we have to pull weeds from our gardens. But in the Millennium, the curse will be abated, and in eternity it will be totally absent. So rejoice over that the next time you deal with pigweed!

The Curse is real, but it is temporary. Jesus is the cure for the Curse.

10/31/2024

Verse of the Day

1 Peter 3:14,
"But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;"

10/31/2024

Clothing Ourselves
Colossians 3:1–14

The words of a traditional spiritual show the joy of our salvation: “I’m born of God, I know I am, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, I’m purchased by the dying Lamb, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord! Going to shout and pray and never stop, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord; Until I reach the mountain top, My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!”

We have been raised from death to life, made alive with Christ (vv. 1–4)! Our life is hidden in Him, meaning not only that it comes from Him but also that it’s safe with Him. As a result, our hearts—our affections and desires—should be set on things above. Our minds—our thoughts and choices—in the same way should be focused on eternal priorities.

In the life we now live, we should be putting to death sins, including immorality, greed, and idolatry, as well as sins of the tongue such as anger, slander, and lies (vv. 5–11). Such behaviors are who we were, not who we are. In Christ we have put on a “new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

We are to clothe ourselves with virtues including compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love (vv. 12–14). We are also to forgive as Christ forgave us, freely and without limits (Matt. 18:21–22). These are not qualities we can develop or put into practice on our own. They can only be done through our life in Christ.

To clothe ourselves in this way is to live out our transformed identity as believers “raised with Christ.” Just as clothing can imply social status, the metaphor of clothing here reflects our spiritual status, the reality of our life in Him.

Go Deeper
Of all the virtues listed in Colossians 3, on which one do you need to focus the most at this time? If you’re not sure, choose love, “which binds them all together in perfect unity” (v. 14).

10/30/2024

What type of doctor can work in an auto body shop? A dent-ist.

Philippians 1:10, "That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;"

"The day of the Lord" refers to the time when God will judge the world through Christ. We should live every day as if God might come at any time. If you knew He would come tomorrow, how would that knowledge affect you for today?

10/29/2024

What You Think You Know

James 3:14–16, "But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."

Gossip is a very critical area that we must be cautious about. This is especially true among church members. The devil loves to cause strife and contention among believers.

There are so many times when there is backbiting or people making mountains out of molehills. There will be times when a conversation gets passed on to someone else and is miscommunicated, added to, or misunderstood. The devil loves the ill will this gossip and misinformation creates. As a result, someone is offended and sidetracked from their spiritual life. Confusions do need to be cleared up, but sometimes confusion is the result of our envy and strife. The best solution is to confess it, let it go, and move on.

When I was a kid, my dad would say, “Don’t say everything you know or THINK you know.” It is amazing how much accuracy is lost by the time a half-truth gets passed through the grapevine! Believers within the local church need each other, and only through unity can they accomplish great things for God.

Be suspiciously cautious about random facts that are circulating, especially the ones that are hurtful or damaging to others. These are traps of the devil that destroy lives and hurt the body of Christ.