| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Be the church” Our Bible verse for today: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Feed your soul” There can be no denying that we live in challenging times. That’s true for everyone, not just for Christians. We are a nation divided by deep political and social divisions; we have an economy that is struggling; crime is surging; the moral decline in our nation is significant and accelerating; and many people have lost faith in what should be our most trusted institutions. While that’s all true for the population in general, for Christians the problem is magnified because we also have a God-given mandate to contend for and promote Biblical values in a society that is increasingly anti-Biblical and therefore anti-Christian. It’s a tough environment to live in and it can be physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting. As Christians we need spiritual healing and spiritual nurture, and then we need to help our unbelieving neighbors realize that spiritual healing is also what they need, and what our nation needs. Psalm 100:4-5 is one of many passages that describe what spiritual health looks and feels like – people who are able to give thanks, rejoice, praise, bless the Lord and others, take comfort in the truth that God is faithful and that His love endures forever, and doing so even when life is hard. That is what we as Christians need to be experiencing in our own relationship with God, and it is what we need to show to the unbelieving world. That’s what will win people over – when they see us living with a sense of joy and celebration, with faithfulness and hope and trust in God – even in the midst of difficult circumstances all around us. That sense of joy, thanksgiving, and faith is what we as Christians need to be known for, and cultivating that kind of spiritual health should be a major focus in our lives. For that reason, that will be the theme for our daily devotionals in September. We will spend the entire month thinking about how to feed our souls and cultivate a deep, rich, healthy relationship with God. There’s an old song by the Christian music group “The News Boys” with a line that goes, “Show them what you got; make them wish that they were not; on the outside looking in.” Yes, that’s it precisely. Show them a faith that is so strong, so vital and dynamic, so fulfilling and attractive, that they want it too. You accomplish that by feeding your soul and keeping it healthy. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville |
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