Author: marvinmck

Marvin McKenzie was born in the Pacific Northwest and became a Christian at the age of eighteen. He has been in the Baptist ministry for thirty years and has planted and pastored churches in Washington and Oregon. Besides his pastoral ministry, Marvin has been actively involved in training men for the Baptist ministry. He has conducted local church Bible Institutes in those churches he has pastored, from which a number of men have entered the ministry. Marvin also served as: Vice President of the Western States Baptist Bible Fellowship, The Board of Directors of Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in San Dimas, CA, Dean of men at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in San Dimas, Executive Vice President of Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in San Dimas, CA and Executive Vice President of Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City, OK. Marvin is married to Anita. They have two sons, Bohannan and Caleb. Both are Baptist pastors in Washington State. Marvin enjoys camping, fishing and horses.

John 17:5 Truly Christ

John 17:5 (KJV)
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

In this statement Jesus declares the following things about Himself to be true:

He has the same glory as God the Father
This is a statement of deity. Further it asserts that His deity is the same as God the Father. They are not separate but the same God, two (of three) Persons but one being.

He was with God previous to His incarnation
He descended to earth from heaven. He existed with God the Father in Heaven before His incarnation.

He was with God previous to the Creation
This is a declaration of eternality. Jesus not only existed in heaven previous to His incarnation but also has existed eternally.

The Bible bears out all of these doctrines. Jesus confirms that they true.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3600 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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John 17:5 Truly Christ

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

John 15:13-14 Laying Down Our Life for Jesus

John 15:13-14 (KJV)
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Jesus sets this passage up by inferring His friendship with the disciples and theirs for Him. As their friend He would perform the greatest act of love a man can do for his friends, He would lay down His life for them. In the next breath Jesus teaches us the best act of love we may do for Him, that is to do whatsoever He commands us.

Notice it is “whatsoever.” There are no conditions or exceptions. There can be no line of refusal, no limit to our observance. Whatsoever is “everything without question.”

In some respects then Jesus described this obedience as a laying down of our lives for Him.

In a day when Christians reject commandments and refuse standards as legalism Jesus’ words are more important than ever. No doubt it is not necessary to do the “whatsoevers” in order to be or stay saved. No question a believer can maintain many friendships with the world and still be a believer. But that isn’t the question at hand; Jesus said the greatest love was to lay down our lives for our friends.

Jesus did that for us

Can we not do that for Him?

 

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3600 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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John 15:13-14 Laying Down Our Life for Jesus

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Isaiah 10:27 Our Liberator

Isaiah 10:27 (KJV)
And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

Albert Barnes may be one of the most honest of all the commentaries when he writes concerning this verse, “I confess that none of these explanations seem to me to be satisfactory, and that I do not know what is the meaning of the expression.”

Such is the dilemma of the man with too many teachers; he comes to believe there is nothing we can know. At the risk of sounding as if I despise scholarship[1], I would remind my reader that the only capable teacher of the Word of God is the Holy Spirit of God. If we will rely upon Him, a satisfactory explanation of the Word of God is always possible. There are many passages of the Bible that we will not fully comprehend until we reach heaven, perhaps most of the Bible. But the Spirit of God will lead the dependent soul into truth that is satisfactory and enriching.

The believer’s great need in this life is liberty:

  • Freedom from the bondage of sin
  • Freedom to pursue Spiritual growth
  • Freedom to advance in his or her relationship with Christ

We are born into this world with a yoke of bondage to sin, unrighteousness and worldliness. Even when we try to do right it is but filthy rags in the sight of God. We will not experience liberty without a liberator. The book of Isaiah is, at its core, a book about that Liberator.

  • He is prophesied of in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6
  • Jesus preached this book was about Him when He opened it to Isaiah 61:1 and spoke of Himself
  • Philip assured the Eunuch that Isaiah 53:7-8 was speaking of Christ

The One who destroys the yoke is Jesus Christ, the anointed, the Messiah of God.

 

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3600 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Isaiah 10:27 Our Liberator

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[1] I promise, I do not. I only suggest that we not make too much of it.

John 13:26-27 “Is It I?”

John 13:26-27 (KJV)
Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

I agree with John Gill that this was neither a part of the Lord’s Supper or of the Passover, but was a meal taken previous. Because of the topic in discussion, I doubt that this could be considered a high point in the spiritual life of the disciples, but it is certainly an intimate, close and extremely spiritual one.

  • They are sharing in a meal with the Saviour just prior to His crucifixion
  • They are sharing in His ministry to them in washing their feet
  • They are sharing in His revelation of His betrayal and subsequent execution

Concerning the identity of the betrayer, all of them are asking that question, “Lord, Is it I?” Then Jesus performs this very generous act of dipping the sop, a piece of the crust of bread, in a sauce and giving it to Judas Iscariot. It is at the moment of grace that Satan entered into him.

What a lesson there is to be learned here. God’s grace in our lives is no assurance that Satan hasn’t access to our lives.

Over the years I have spoken to a number of people who believe that they are somehow safe with God because they have experienced some act of grace. I remember speaking to a lady, the first year of my pastoral ministry, who told me that she believed she was saved because she had asked God to spare her life as she underwent heart surgery. She believed that because she survived the surgery God had answered her prayer and that God had saved her eternally. How many people in this world believe that they are going to heaven because:

  • They survived some tragic accident
  • They had a particular prayer answered
  • They were blessed in some particular way

Is impossible to estimate. What is not impossible is to proclaim that every one of them have a false hope of salvation. Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.“[1]

If your hope of heaven is in anything besides Jesus Christ alone, your hope is hopeless.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

John 13:26-27 “Is It I?”

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

[1] John 14:6

Isaiah 5:3-4 Good Grapes

Isaiah 5:3-4 (KJV)
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

I suppose there have always been “wild grapes” among professing believers. As there were in Jewry, there has been in Christianity.

  • Churches such as we find Paul correcting in Corinth
  • Churches such as those in Galatia who were so soon removed from the faith
  • Churches such as Jude dealt with

In a sense we could call Catholicism a garden of wild grapes. Protestantism certainly is a cluster of these gardens.

A garden of wild grapes isn’t fruitless. It might in fact yield a large crop. It’s just not an ideal crop and in some cases could be a useless crop. Wild grapes also have the tendency to choke out, compromise and spoil those grapes the gardener intended.

There are a growing number of wild grape gardens among fundamental Baptists these days. It exists among those who see fruit rather than quality as the most important thing in the faith. It can take a number of forms:

  • The progressive pragmatists who let anything slide so long as there is growth
  • The aggressive evangelists who call anything salvation as long as they can record conversions
  • The resurgence of Reformed doctrine that sounds like a return to faith but is nothing more than an older wild grape

There will no doubt always be wild grapes but the key is to not settle for them. The only way for a vineyard to produce what God intended is have God plant it, till it and fence it in.

When God works God’s vineyard will produce choice grapes.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Isaiah 5:3-4 Good Grapes

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

 

John 11:5 Loved Especially

John 11:5 (KJV)
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

Love is a giving relationship, but it grows through mutual experience.

The Bible’s says “For God so loved the world…[1]” This would be true of Jesus as well as God the Father. His love reaches out to any and every person in any and every era. Show me a human being and I will show you an object of Christ’s love.

So it could seem a bit obvious that Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus except that we know God never wastes a word in the Word of God. Jesus loves everyone and loved these three especially.

The thing to get from this is to be among the especially loved. That happens through:

  • Fellowship,
  • Experience and
  • Personal devotion

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

John 11:5 Loved Especially

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

[1] John 3:16

John 10:3 The Porter?

John 10:3 (KJV)
To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

John Gill writes plainly, “There is nothing in the explanation of this parable given by Christ, that directs to the sense of this clause;” He then goes on to give us what this could not mean. Concerning the identity of the porter:

  • “It could not be Michael the Archangel
  • It could not be the Virgin Mary
  • It could not be Apostle Peter
  • It could not be Moses
  • It could not be preachers

It must therefore be either God the Father or else God the Holy Spirit.”

In a bit of a contrast, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown writes, “…it is better not to give the allusion a more specific interpretation…”

I am inclined in this case to agree with the later. This passage is a parable.

  • Sheep
  • Sheepfolds and
  • Shepherds

Some parts of the parable are obvious to interpret. Some parts are given specific interpretation. Some parts of the parable are not necessarily meant to be interpreted to specifically.

  • The Shepherd is Christ. He has free access to the sheepfold, no thing or no one preventing Him.
  • The sheep are people; in this case the saved
  • The sheepfold is heaven

But the porter? I don’t know.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

John 10:3 The Porter?

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

John 9:2 Blame The Parents

John 9:2 (KJV)
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

I don’t want to be too hard on the disciples because they were, after all, no different than me. I do want to point out that they were asking the totally wrong question.

Isn’t it just like us to want to fix blame? Especially when we see someone else suffering, we have an almost natural tendency to think they must have done something to deserve such bad fortune.

  • Fate
  • Karma
  • Destiny
  • Providence

must have let loose on them for some terrible thing they did. If it wasn’t them, it must surely have been their parents.

Oh yes, blame the parents. This is the tried and true strategy of almost all people of the “psychoanalytic culture.” It would be mentally unhealthy to carry the responsibility for our troubles and parents are the

  • Most likely
  • Nearest and
  • Easiest

targets upon which we may fix that blame.

The disciples had missed the whole point. Jesus said this had happened so that the works of God should be made manifest in him. From a human point of view the issue was his blindness. From the spiritual point of view the issue was his healing. It had little to do with his parents or him. It was God at work in our world.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

John 9:2 Blame The Parents

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Isaiah 2:22 The High Value God Places on Man

Isaiah 2:22 (KJV)
Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

Albert Barnes writes of this text, “That is, cease to confide in or trust in him. “

It may be humbling to see ourselves the way God sees us but when we do we also find it uplifting.

Do not put trust in man:

  • Because his life is always but a breath away from death and
  • He is of little account in the broadest scheme of things

Yet it is this creature of so little account that God has extended grace:

  • Forgiveness of sin through the Gospel
  • Fellowship with Him through prayer and His Word
  • Eternal life in Heaven as joint heirs with Christ

The low estate of man only serves to accentuate the high value God places upon us.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

Isaiah 2:22 The High Value God Places on Man

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

John 7:24 How Can It Be Wrong?

John 7:24 (KJV)
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

An old country song mused, “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?”[1] The fallen nature of man has a mixed up sense of good and evil, seeking to call things right in their own eyes when they know God says it is evil.

There is something that looks right and something that is right. The Lord urged that we would judge what is right and not just what appears right in our fallen minds:

  • A woman’s right to choose may appear right but killing the baby she carries is not right
  • A person’s longing for love may appear right but a same sex marriage is not right
  • A person’s happiness may appear to be right but to break up a family because you have fallen for a different partner is not right
  • A woman or an unqualified man may believe they are called to be a pastor might seem to be right, but to ignore the Bible in order for them to do it is not right

On and on we could go with things that might look to us to be right but that are definitely opposed to the Word of God.

The standard is that which has been established by God in His Word. Judge righteousness by that.

 

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others

John 7:24 How Can It Be Wrong?

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

[1] http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/elvispresley/itfeelssoright.html