Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Obeying God when obeying isn’t easy”
Our Bible verse for today: “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” James 1:27 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God commands us to take care of those less fortunate then ourselves.”
In his book “The Insanity of Obedience” missionary and author Nik Ripkin explains that in the era of the early New Testament churches, and in much of the Christian world today, it is understood that an important part of reaching the world for Christ involves actually getting out into the world and providing physical care for those in need. The spreading of the Good News is centered on physical ministry that is designed to meet the needs of suffering people, and it is combined with telling the story of Jesus.
The one place that model is not practiced by very many churches is in the Western world – especially in the USA. In our church culture there is an inordinate, unhealthy, and excessively unbalanced over-emphasis on discipleship, rather than on service and evangelism. Almost all of our time, energy, and resources are focused inward on ourselves in the form of worship services, Bible study groups, and fellowship events. We label all of it “discipleship” and pronounce it “good” because after all, discipleship is a good thing, right?
Well yes, but only when it is balanced with evangelism and service.
Nik invites us to consider if perhaps the church in our country has become so inwardly focused and so preoccupied with ourselves, that we use our celebration of “discipleship” as camouflage to conceal the fact that we’re doing precious little evangelism and service outside the walls of our church buildings. Such a church life is unbiblical and it is not common in the rest of the Christian world.
There is great value in getting out of our church buildings and taking the practice of our faith out into the world, as a group, in the form of service to those in need. It’s what Jesus did. It’s what the early church did. And it’s what most Christians around the world do today as a regular practice of the Christian faith.
This Sunday night (October 12th) we at Oak Hill Baptist Church will move our regular Sunday night activities to the Bread of Life Rescue Mission on 4th avenue in Crossville. We do this every quarter as a regular part of our church life. Our children and teens will join the adults as we all go out to serve. We will hold an evangelistic service at 5:00. While that service is going on, some of our people will be in the kitchen preparing the evening meal. Then at 6:00 we will serve the meal. After that we will go into the dining room and enjoy the meal along with everyone else at the mission. The topic of conversation will be Jesus. We would love to have you join us.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 