West Salem Baptist Church

(Mark 6:4-5) "But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." In the above story, Jesus went home to his home town where people knew him and saw him grow up. Everywhere else that he went people followed, and as a result, great miracles happened but in his own hometown not much happened because of their unbelief. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand this great truth . You see, people that know us the best have the hardest time with us changing after salvation because they judge us by the past and not the present. When we get saved, we become new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5: 17). "Old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new." It takes a while for "kin" and friends to see that we are different, because they knew us before. Therefore ...

(Mark 5:2) "And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit...,"   Have you ever wondered why there was so much demon possession and oppression in Israel during the days of Jesus? There are some that say that all physical diseases are demonic, but the scripture does not teach that. No, the real reason lies in Israel's past. In (Duet. 28) God promised Israel before they entered into the promised land, continued blessings if they would follow Him and his Word; freedom from sickness, victory over their enemies, protection from evil, and a bountiful and happy life, but because Israel didn't listen "all the curses" that he was going to put upon Israel's enemies He said, "shall now pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed" (45). One of the greatest blessings Israel had was God's protection from Satan's influence. That's why God wanted all the occult p...

(Mark 4:35) "And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side." In the above verse the will of Jesus was to "pass over" to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. So, as obedient disciples that night they left not knowing that ahead was a fierce storm that would ultimately threaten their lives, and little did they know that this test was allowed by God to teach them faith. 1) To Trust in God's Plan . Whatever the will of God is, God will help us do it .  The apostles were able because they had Christ with them in their vessel, for Jesus said, "I will never leave thee or forsake thee." Sometimes the storms of life hinder us from following God's will, but one thing is for certain when Jesus is within us, there is no storm that can stop us. 2) Trust in God's Peace . Once Jesus was aware of the storm, all his disciples had to do was trust in him to handle the situation. Trials teach us t...

(Mark 11:23) "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." Over a hundred years ago, the great evangelist Dr. R. A. Torrey told the story of one little church in Maine that was dead spiritually. In fact, most of the churches in that town were pretty dead, but in this one particular church a few of its godly men decided to petition God for a miracle, and so they said, "here we are, uneducated laymen, but let us form a praying band, and center our prayers on the salvation of one man." So, they decided on one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and centered their prayers on him. To their amazement in just a week this man was converted. Seeing therefore the impossible become possible, they began to pray for another, and then another, u...

(Jonah 3:5) "So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them... (4:1) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." Imagine if you will one of the largest and most wicked kingdoms of all time, repenting of their sin and turning to the God of heaven, and Jonah became angry. In fact he refused to rejoice in the repentance of a sinner. 1) Jonah's heart was not right with God . Jonah had seen the terrible things that the people of Nineveh did to Israel. They stole their possessions, raped their woman, killed and murdered Israel's fathers, and then enslaved their children. They were pagan, immoral, exceedingly wicked, and yet God still wanted Jonah to preach to them. For it wasn't until Jonah was in the belly of the whale that he truly surrendered to do so. You see, Jonah saw the forgiveness of God upon the Ninevites as wrong and so he refused to rejoice i...

(Psalm 119:11,15) "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee... I will meditate in thy precepts , and have respect unto thy ways." I wonder how many believers today truly study God's Word? Too many people today are satisfied with an electric device that will open up a good Bible program, but never do they hold a real tangible Bible in their hands or mark it up with notes where the Holy Spirit spoke to them during devotions. Too often believers read a verse for the day, or some prewritten devotional, but never do they sit and really study God's Word as God intended. I'm just old fashioned enough to look back at my 40 years of Bible reading to say that I'm on my 4 th Bible. Having old used Bibles on my shelf that look like they went through a war (which they did). Having pages scribbled with notes that go back to a time where God specifically spoke to me about something important. Bibles with tear and coffee stained pages t...