Oak Hill Baptist Church

Life is a journey not a destination

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Enjoy the journey by redeeming the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you” – this is the Lord’s declaration – “plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. “I will be found by you” – this is the Lord’s declaration …” Jeremiah 29:11-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Life is a journey, not a destination”

I have a little wooden box sitting on my desk, always within my line of sight. The lid is open. On the inside of the lid there’s a compass, intended as a visual reminder for me to give careful thought to the direction I’m headed in. Inside the box there’s a large copper medallion inscribed with the words, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

I need to be reminded of that. More often than not I’m charging through my days accomplishing tasks and checking them off my list. For me, life very much is a destination – a hurried dash from point A to point B, from one task to the next. But living like that takes me out of the moment and causes me to miss so much. Instead of stopping to smell the proverbial roses, I tend to trample them as I’m rushing by.

Currently I’m preparing to take three weeks of vacation. It’s the time each year when I seek to unwind, decompress, and rest my heart, mind, soul, and body. Unfortunately, it usually takes a full week or more just to get my mind to stop racing and to get myself to the point that I’m ready to relax. So, this year I’m trying something new. This year I’m spending the two weeks before the vacation even begins to get myself ready to unwind and relax. I’m preparing by slowing down and being more reflective.

One way I’m doing that is by rereading Mark Buchanan’s excellent book “The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath.” Right at the outset Mark makes it clear that “God gave us the gift of Sabbath – not just as a day, but as an orientation, a way of seeing and knowing.” In other words, more than just being a day set aside to rest and worship, Sabbath is an attitude, an orientation to life – life that is lived in the moment, and life where time is redeemed in meaningful ways for God, for ourselves, and for those we love. This is when we learn to enjoy the journey of life rather than just constantly rushing to yet another destination. As Buchanan wisely notes, “We need a sabbath heart, not just a sabbath day.”

This month I would like to explore with you the idea of sabbath being an orientation to all of life; and I want to focus on how that orientation can help us to truly redeem all the moments of life so they can be fully embraced and fully enjoyed. We all need to learn to enjoy the journey of life by redeeming the time – moment by moment.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

You can read and write, so please do

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I don’t now how to read.” Isaiah 29:12 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “You can read and write, so please do”

In Isaiah chapter twenty-nine the prophet was speaking a word of woe upon the city of David (Jerusalem). He was speaking of a day when there would be all kinds of destruction and despair and the people would be suffering greatly. In verse 12 he made reference to someone who was handed a scroll with the words of God but who was unable to read them because he was illiterate. How sad to have the Words of God in your hand but to be unable to read them.

Fortunately, that isn’t the case for any of us. If you’re reading this right now it’s because you are not illiterate, you can read. And that being the case, you should read. What a shame to be able to read but then to not do so.

It’s my prayer that this month of devotionally considering the gift of writing and reading has given us all a new appreciation for writing and reading. Both are valuable and both come to us as a gift from God. Reading is an essential form of communication with more benefits than I can list here this morning. We’ve spent an entire month considering those benefits.

Writing helps to clarify our thoughts. We think more clearly when we write. Writing also helps us to remember things that are important. When you take the time to write them down those thoughts become lodged deeper into your brain. This is one of the reasons we encourage people to keep a journal.

God has given you the gift of literacy – the ability to read and write, so please don’t waste it. Be a reader and be a writer.

You can read and write, so please do.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Reading people are knowing people

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “The people here (Berea) were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Reading people are knowing people”

John Wesley was a pastor, theologian, traveling evangelist, and church-planter in the Church of England in the 1700s. Together with his brother Charles they developed what came to be known as the Methodist denomination of churches. John Wesley was a scholar. He was also a strong advocate for teaching Bible study methods and encouraging Christians to develop the habit of daily Bible study, as well as the spiritual reading of good Christian literature. To this day the system of study known as “Wesleyan Theology” places a heavy emphasis on intensive personal discipleship.

He wrote, “It cannot be that people should grow in grace unless they give themselves to reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people.” His point was that if you are not a reading person, a person who digs into subjects and discovers the answers for yourself, you will always have to rely on what you are told by others. And that being the case, you will never know for sure if what you are being told is entirely true and accurate, because you didn’t take the time or make the effort to check it out for yourself.

In Acts chapter seventeen Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica preaching and teaching – promoting the Word of God and the cause of Christ. But the people there were only marginally interested and not very receptive. So, when a different group came in and argued against the teaching of Paul, the Thessalonians were easily misled and they turned against him.

Paul and Silas then went to the town of Berea and there they found a different quality of people. The people were students and they were eager to hear what Paul and Silas had to say. The big difference between the people in Berea and the people in Thessalonica is that the Bereans did their own study. Once they heard from Paul and Silas, they dug into the Scripture to verify what they were being taught. Luke’s point in the passage is that reading and deep study made all the difference.

For all the years I lived in San Diego, my favorite Christian bookstore was called “Berean Christian Bookstore”, in honor of the Bereans in Acts 17. They were a reading people, and consequently they were a knowing people. May that be true of us as well.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Write something for history

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.” Jeremiah 30:2 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Write something for history”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a famous Russian novelist in the mid-to-late 1900s. He was a Christian and a captain in the Soviet army who made the mistake of saying something critical about Joseph Stalin in a private letter, which was then opened and read by government censors. As a result, he was stripped of his military rank and sentenced to eight years in a Soviet gulag (prison camp). The conditions were hideous and inhumane, and Solzhenitsyn suffered terribly.

During those years in the gulag Solzhenitsyn decided that the world needed to know about the terrible injustices of the gulag system, so he secretly wrote about it, smuggling his notes out of the gulag when he could. Ultimately his writings became the core for two of his best-selling books, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and “The Gulag Archipelago”. As he was originally writing about those experiences, Solzhenitsyn was certain he would never live to see them published. He believed he was writing for history and that he himself wouldn’t live to see it. (He was wrong. He did live. He ended up surviving prison and immigrating to the West. He died in 2008).

The point is that Solzhenitsyn wrote for history. There were things that he wanted people to be aware of and to remember. That’s a pretty good reason to write. However, you don’t have to be a famous Russian dissident to have something worthy of writing about and preserving. When our grandson was born, Linda and I wrote him a long letter, put it in a time capsule along with family pictures and other memorabilia, and put it away for him to read, perhaps twenty years from now.

The Bible is of course the greatest example of important and worthy information that has been recorded in writing and preserved for history. Thank God that it has been! Solzhenitsyn’s books have been a gift to history as well, just for different reasons. Hopefully someday Oliver will appreciate and even cherish the letter Linda and I left for him. I have friends who had a beloved relative from a previous generation who made an entry in her personal journal almost every day of her life, and then left those journals for her family to read after her death. The entries were just of everyday activities, family events, and special moments, but the family sure was grateful to be able to read them after she was gone. What precious memories!

I encourage you to give some thought to writing for history. People fifty years from now might be inspired and touched by what you had to say. Or, maybe they’ll just get a good laugh. Either way, why not leave them a note? Write something for history.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Writing brings clarity

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.” Luke 1:3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Writing brings clarity”

The Gospel writer Luke was a physician – a man of medicine and science. He was a logical and reasoned thinker and he recognized the value of clear, concise writing. So, when he decided to write an account of the life of Jesus, he “carefully investigated everything” and then he wrote it out in the clearest and most straight-forward manner he could.

Madeleine L’Engle was a popular writer, especially of young adult fiction. She wrote the bestseller “A Wrinkle in Time”. But she also wrote poems, plays, and many books about living the Christian life well. In her book, “Walking on Water” she was explaining the importance of writing in general and of journaling in particular. She said, “If I can write things out, I can see them, and they are not trapped within my own subjectivity.”

Madeleine was talking about the fact that writing brings clarity to our thoughts. Writing causes us to think about what we want to say as we organize our thoughts and attempt to express them clearly. We can then read what we’ve written and think about it some more. Then, if needed, we can rewrite it, and rewrite it again, and keep rewriting it until we have expressed exactly what we are thinking and feeling.

With respect to using writing to bring clarity, I learned an important lesson from the example of Abraham Lincoln (which I adopted and have used myself for many years). If Lincoln needed to have a difficult discussion with a person, especially about a complex or unpleasant subject, he would often write that person a carefully worded letter about it first. He would ask the person to read the letter thoughtfully, multiple times, and then to respond to it, in writing, in the same manner (thoughtful and clear). Then, after they both took the time to clearly express themselves in writing and to give careful thought to what the other person had to say, they would meet to further discuss the issue in-person.

The reason Lincoln did that was because the things we say in face-to-face conversations (especially about sensitive or difficult subjects), are often spontaneous, not well thought out, and sometimes driven by emotions. We also sometimes don’t really listen well to the other person in those kinds of situations, because half our mind is thinking about what we want to say next rather than really listening deeply to what the other person is saying now. It can also be difficult afterwards to remember accurately and fully what was actually said during the conversation. Writing about it first helps to eliminate all those problems.

Writing helps to bring clarity, and we would all benefit from doing more of it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Linger over it

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “I will meditate on your precepts and think about your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” Psalm 119:15-16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Linger over it”

There’s a special kind of joy and satisfaction that comes from lingering over and savoring good writing. A well-turned phrase, an especially insightful and thoughtful statement, or a wise and helpful observation should be read slowly and thoughtfully, then read again and thought about some more.

In her book, “Pathways of Spiritual Living” Susan Muto was writing about the importance of slow and prayerful reading of the Bible and other types of Christian literature. She wrote, “Our spiritual life is refreshed whenever we take time to savor these timeless values. They become a living part of who we are. The text is like a bridge between the limits of our life here and now and the possibilities awaiting us if we open our minds and hearts to God.”

She was writing about the care and feeding of our devotional life. In order to truly appreciate it we must take the time to savor it. Last night Linda and I went to dinner in a very nice restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. The meal was excellent and we took our time enjoying it. What a shame it would have been to have just scarfed it down and quickly left. Instead, we lingered and savored both the food and each other’s company. That’s what our time with God should be like. Unhurried, restful, enjoyable, thoughtful, and prayerful. So, relax, linger, enjoy.

That’s also what we do on Sunday when the church gathers for fellowship, study, and worship. We enjoy each other’s company, we think deeply about small parts of God’s Word, and we savor our time with Him and with each other. We invite you to join us. We meet for Sunday school at 9:00 and worship at 10:00. Together we will relax, linger, and enjoy God and each other.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

We can learn much from the lives of others

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.” Hebrews 11:32-34 (CSB)

Our thought from today: “We can learn much from the lives of others”

It was the reading of biographies that got me hooked on reading. From the time I was very young my mother used to take me to the public library to borrow books. I can remember as a young boy reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln and being completely engrossed in it. Soon I was reading biographies of other famous men and women and I’ve never stopped.

As I sit here this morning writing this devotional message, I’m looking at several bookcases in my office filled with biographies and character studies. There is at least one biography of every U.S. President. There are biographies of Diedrich Bonhoeffer, Ben Carson, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Saint Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Martin Luther King, Henry Kissinger, Tom Landry, C.S. Lewis, James Mattis, Nelson Mandela, Antonin Scalia, Mother Theresa, Mark Twain, and dozens more. I have the entire thirty-volume series of short bios of famous missionaries published by Youth with A Mission, and I have Chuck Swindoll’s nine-volume series of character studies of great Biblical figures.

The thing I love about biographies and character studies is that we can learn so much from the lives of others – especially others who have accomplished significant things in their own lives. That’s precisely what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews was doing when he wrote Hebrews chapter 11, which we often refer to as “The Faith Hall of Fame”. In that chapter he writes about some truly inspiring acts of faith by figures both famous and unknown, from early Biblical history. He lists nineteen of them by name, and makes references to multiple others who remain unnamed. His purpose in doing so was to use their examples to inspire us to similar acts of faith.

That’s what biographies and character studies do for us. They take us deep into the lives of real people who have gone before us, and then their life experiences can teach and inspire us. I encourage you to read a biography or character study of someone who’s life is of interest to you and see what you can learn from their life.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Seek knowledge

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.” Proverbs 18:15 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Seek knowledge”

I’ve mentioned in a previous devotional that one of my favorite motivational books is “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. It’s based upon seven resolutions a person can make that will help to guide them to building a successful life. The second resolution is “I will seek wisdom”. A condensed summary of the resolution reads, “Wisdom waits to be gathered. I will seek her out. My reading, listening, and choice of association will serve to make me wise. Wisdom is a gift to the diligent.”

That’s essentially what Solomon teaches in Proverbs 18:15 and it’s a theme that’s developed and written about by many Christian writers. In his whimsically titled book, “Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men” Stephen Mansfield includes an entire chapter on the importance of being a lifelong learner, and it builds on the subject of yesterday’s devotional about self-education. In that chapter Mansfield writes, “The truth is most great men in history have become great because they aggressively pursued knowledge. They overcame gaps in their early education. They took responsibility for their education and did not wait for knowledge to come to them.”

Mansfield tells us that Winston Churchill was such a ravenous reader that one later biographer wrote that “he became his own university”. Abraham Lincoln was so enflamed with a hunger for knowledge that he read every book he could buy or borrow, he enlisted tutors, he followed lecturers from town to town, and he spent many late nights studying a wide range of subjects. Benjamin Franklin taught himself five languages. Thomas Jefferson taught himself seven languages.

Harry Truman was a voracious reader on many subjects and he was our only U.S. President who did not have a college degree. He was a successful businessman, a county judge, a US senator, the vice-president of the United States, and the President of the United States. He presided over the end of WWII; the Korean War; the dawn of the atomic age; the founding of the United Nations; the birth of the nation of Israel; and much more – all with only a high school education followed by all that he learned on his own.

The love and pursuit of knowledge is a common factor among those who accomplish significant things in life. That’s what Solomon was teaching in Proverbs 18:15 and we see the truth of it in the lives of millions upon millions of men and women who love knowledge and who make the effort to seek it out. I encourage you to be one of them.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Self education is the best kind of education

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.” Proverbs 4:13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Self-education is the best kind of education”

Almost immediately after I became a Christian in 1990, I knew the Lord was calling me into full-time ministry once I retired from my career in the Navy. I didn’t know what form that ministry would take but I was certain that the rest of my life would be spent in the ranks of ordained ministers and therefore, I had a burning desire to go to Bible college and seminary. But it just didn’t seem possible. I had a demanding career in the Navy that wasn’t over yet, and I had a family to raise and support. So, Bible college and seminary didn’t seem to be in the cards for me, and I was discouraged about it.

Fortunately, an early Christian mentor pointed me to a self-education program that was offered by our Southern Baptist Convention at that time. It consisted of self-paced study courses in every aspect of Bible study, church life, sermon-writing, preaching, and more. My mentor said, “Jim, if you complete all of these courses, you will end up with as good an education in Bible and ministry as you would get in any Bible College – maybe even better.” So, I launched into those courses and ended up completing many of them over the next several years. Eventually I ended up in seminary anyway, but those courses were solid gold and they were very helpful.

Bible college and seminary are of course well worth the time, effort, and money. But self-education is even better. I truly believe we learn more from self-education than we do from formal education. There’s no more valuable teacher than experience, and therefore life experiences are crucial to our education and growth. But personal Bible study and good Christian books are also essential, and the more time you spend with each of those, the more you will learn and the faster you will grow.

Tomorrow I’ll share with you the stories of some famous people who achieved great things as a result of self-education. But for today, I encourage you to spend some time reading your Bible and reading a good Christian book. As helpful as formal education can be, I still believe that in the long run self-education is the best kind of education.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t be bored and don’t be boring

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Writing and Reading”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, I encourage you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you …” 2 Timothy 1:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t be bored and don’t be boring”

One of the things I love about reading good Christian books is the helpful insights and clever sayings we often get from the authors. An author who’s books I’ve come to appreciate in recent years is Richard Morgan. Richard was a pastor, counselor, author, and devotional writer. He spent most of his career counseling and ministering to older people, especially in assisted living facilities and in nursing homes. Even when he himself got to the point that he needed to be in an assisted living facility, and then in a nursing home, he continued his ministry. He simply became the chaplain for the nursing home and proceeded to preach, teach, counsel, and write for his fellow residents.

Richard ended up writing a collection of daily devotional books about how to grow old with grace and dignity and with a good attitude – determined to live every day to its fullest no matter your circumstances. He encouraged his readers to do what Paul wrote about in 2 Timothy 1:6 – rediscover and rekindle the gift of God that is in you. In one of those devotionals, as he was encouraging his readers to stay engaged and to have a purpose in life, he wrote, “It is easier to grow old if we are neither bored nor boring.”

I love it! Don’t be bored and don’t be boring. You can take that and apply it to all of life, regardless of your age.

I’ve always had great respect for those who age with grace and dignity and who also stay engaged in life, productive and active. Clarence Thomas is seventy-three and still serving well as a Justice on the Supreme Court. Charles Stanley and Chuck Swindoll are in their eighties and they are both still preaching, teaching, and writing (I hope to do the same). The Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation when he was close to ninety. One of the greatest American novelists, James Mitchener, didn’t write his first book until he was in his forties. He ended up writing more than forty of them, many of them best sellers, and he was still writing in his late eighties.

I’ve never met Richard Morgan, but I came to know him through his writings. As a result, his insights and his personal example have served as an inspiration to me. Good writing does that. I encourage you to identify authors whose work resonates with you, and then read everything they’re written.

And please, regardless of your age, stay engaged. Have meaningful things you’re involved in. Live with purpose and passion. Don’t be bored, and don’t be boring.

God bless,
Pastor Jim