Oak Hill Baptist Church

Control your appetites, control your life

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, ‘I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.’” Judges 14:1-2 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Control your appetites, control your life”

This morning I want to continue our thinking from yesterday regarding Moses’ challenge to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:19 to choose God’s way or the way of the world. Each of us chooses the path we will walk through life, and that choice will determine how our life unfolds. “Choose your path, choose your life”.

But far too often we allow our appetites to dictate our choices. We allow the things we are hungry for, the things we lust after and deeply desire, to guide our thinking and to determine our choices. Samson was a man who was controlled by his appetites. On the one hand, he was extraordinarily gifted by God. He had amazing strength, he had good looks, he had a charismatic personality, and he inspired trust and loyalty in the people. They even appointed him to be a judge over Israel.

But on the other hand, Samson was a man of raging appetites and out of control emotions. He allowed lust, greed, anger, and revenge to dominate his thinking and to determine his choices. As a result, he lived a short, turbulent life that ended badly. You can read his story in the Old Testament book of Judges, chapters 13-16. Samson’s potential for doing good and for honoring the Lord and for blessing people was never fulfilled because of his bad choices. Repeatedly he chose the ways of the world over the ways of God. He allowed his appetites to control his choices, and ultimately to determine the course of his life.

I knew a young man like that once. He was a talented singer, songwriter, and musician. He led music for the church youth group and he had the potential to not only be a worship leader, but perhaps a Christian recording artist. But he made the bad choice to leave the world of Christian music and he went to Hollywood instead to try to make it in the world of secular music and movies. Long story short, he succumbed to many of the bad influences in that world and he lost his way. I performed his funeral not too many years later. Like Samson, he chose the ways of the world over the ways of God, and the ending was tragic.

It really is true that if you control your appetites, you control your life. But how can we control our appetites? We’ll think about that tomorrow. Choosing God and His ways over the world and its ways is always the best choice.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Choose your path, choose your life

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life …” Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Choose your way, choose your life”

We each choose our path through life. God has ordained it to be so. He has set before us His way and the world’s way, and then He requires us to exercise our free will and to make a choice. Will you follow Him, or will you go the way of the world? The choice is yours. You have a personal responsibility given to you by God to choose your path – and then you will have to own that choice.

In order to fully appreciate the passage from Deuteronomy 30:19 quoted above, we need to go back a few verses and pick the conversation up in verse 11: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”

Moses’ point was that obeying God is not that hard. In fact, if you fully surrender your heart to Him and then look to the Holy Spirit to guide you (Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight), you will be living in a way that honors and pleases the Lord and you will be blessed by Him. Your best life will be a life lived in the center of God’s will.

But you have to want that and you have to choose it. And be sure to choose carefully, because when you choose your way, you have chosen your life.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

If you see something, do something

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4:17 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “If you see something, do something”

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It’s uncertain who originally said that. The quote is often attributed to the 18^th century Irish philosopher Edmund Burke. The 19^th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill is sometimes also given credit for it. But whoever the original author was, the point is well-taken. Evil triumphs when people allow it to. Albert Einstein once said it this way, “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually do it.”

Most people are good and decent – they’re just narrowly focused on the activities of everyday life like jobs, family, friends, church, hobbies, etc. They’re just minding their own business, not really hurting anyone, and living life. Most people are not evil and diabolical, plotting mass murder or creating sophisticated online scams to steal the life savings of senior citizens. It’s not that they don’t care about evil, they’re just busy and distracted, and hoping someone else will do something about the things that are wrong and which need to be dealt with.

No, most people are not actively engaged in evil, they’re just not actively opposing it. And as a result, evil often flourishes because good men and women allow it to.

This brings us back to the point we’ve been considering in our least several devotional messages that Christians need to be engaged in our world, opposing evil and actively promoting good. We are to be salt and light. We are to be the ones who will take the time and make the effort to say something and to do something.

For instance, abortion is a terrible sin – an offense against God. So, we must say so, we should help to fund Christian crisis pregnancy centers, and we should vote accordingly. Poverty and homelessness are big problems in our society too. So, we should support and assist rescue missions, food banks, and transition programs for the homeless.

You get the point. Jesus and James both taught us to be active advocates for good in the world. That will necessarily involve opposing that which is not good, and then going one step further and doing something about it.

If you see something that isn’t right say so, and then do something about it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Just do the next right thing

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” Ruth 2:20 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Just do the next right thing”

In the Old Testament book of Ruth, we find the story of Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Naomi was a Jewish woman who lived in the land of Moab with her husband and two sons. Tragically, the husband and both sons died, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law in dire straits. Eventually Naomi and one of those daughters-in-law, Ruth, returned to Naomi’s homeland in Bethlehem, homeless and destitute.

When they got there, Ruth encountered a man named Boaz, who was a wealthy landowner and a distant relative of Naomi’s. Boaz had compassion on the women, he gave Ruth a job working in his fields, and he provided for them in other ways as well. Eventually Boaz married Ruth, had children with her, and they became part of the long line of descendants that eventually led to Jesus.

The editors of the “Every Man’s Bible” noted that Boaz didn’t really do anything exceptional or extraordinary, he simply showed kindness and compassion to people in need. And out of that, the story that led to the birth of Jesus advanced in history. “God didn’t ask Boaz to be a hero, just to do what was right.” That’s true for us too. God isn’t asking us to single-handedly save the world, He’s just asking us to do the next right thing as we go through our days.

This brings us back to the story from yesterday’s devotional about those two police officers who are making a real difference simply by doing their jobs and doing them well. Their commitment to making a positive difference one person at a time, one situation at a time, is exactly the approach we should take too. Just be a person of character and integrity, honoring God and blessing others as you go through your days.

God isn’t asking you to be a hero. Just do the next right thing.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Restrain evil and shine the light

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:13-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Restrain evil and shine the light”

Our church is currently hosting the Cumberland Country Sheriff’s Department Citizens Academy. On Tuesday evenings members of our local law enforcement and justice agencies are educating the community about law enforcement policies and practices. It includes presentations about the use of force, self-defense tactics for citizens, investigations, traffic stops, SWAT tactics, active shooter scenarios, and much more.

The other night two comments were made that caught my attention, both of which reminded me of how fortunate we are to have good men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting the public. The first comment was made by a Lieutenant who is a narcotics investigator. He told us about the massive flow of drugs coming across our southern border, about the influence of Mexican cartels even here in Cumberland County, and about all the fentanyl being pumped into our communities from China through Mexico. The comment he made was that their work in narcotics can be frustrating and discouraging, because sometimes it seems like they aren’t making much progress dealing with the problem.

The other comment was made by an officer in the juvenile justice system. He talked about how his officers don’t treat the juvenile offenders as perpetrators but as children and teenagers who are struggling in life and who need positive role models and good encouragement. Their approach (in addition to enforcing the law) is to bond with the juvenile offenders, try to figure out what’s going on in their lives, and find ways to address the root causes of their criminal behavior. He told some heart-touching stories about juveniles whose lives were turned around simply because they encountered an officer who cared enough to get involved in their lives in a positive way.

Both of those stories reminded me of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:13-14 about being salt and light. Salt is a preservative that helps to prevent decay and rot. That’s what that narcotics officer is doing. He is acting as a restraining influence to hold back the spread of evil in our communities. It can be frustrating at times, but without him and others like him, there would be no restraint and things would be much worse. In a similar manner, Christians should be active in our world to help restrain the spread of evil in a wide variety of ways. Our presence in those situations should make a difference for good.

With respect to the comment from the officer from the juvenile justice system – light chases away darkness. That’s the influence that officer was describing. Instead of just arresting and incarcerating those young people, he and his team of officers treat them as troubled young human beings in need of help and enlightening. Likewise, that should also be the role of Christians in society as we interact with people lost in sin. Instead of just judging them and condemning their behavior, we should be helping them to experience the love of Jesus and to discover a better way to live.

The presence of those officers and their colleagues in those situations is making a real difference for good. That should be true of the followers of Jesus was we encounter people in our daily situations as well. Work to restrain evil and to shine the light.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Let’s stop sitting around looking at each other

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “When Jacob saw that there were food rations to be had in Egypt, he said to his sons, ‘Why do you keep looking at one another?’” Genesis 42:1 (Jewish Publication Society Translation)

Our thought for today: “Let’s stop sitting around looking at each other”

Recently I was reading Dr. Dennis Prager’s commentary on the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis. It was contained in Prager’s work, “The Rational Bible”. If you remember the context of that part of the story, we read in Genesis chapter forty-two that the people were suffering from a prolonged famine. There was little food and everyone was starving. But thanks to the vision God had given to Joseph regarding the approaching famine and the steps Joseph had taken to prepare for it, there was abundant food in Egypt – even enough to sell to people from other lands.

Jacob and his family were in Palestine starving. So, in Genesis 42:1 Jacob asked his sons why they were just sitting around looking at each other while they all starve, instead of traveling to Egypt to get some food. They had a great need and there was something that could be done about it, but none of them were taking the needed action. In his commentary Dr. Prager observed, “He (Jacob) asked the question we should all ask when there is an ongoing and unaddressed problem: ‘Why am I – why are we – not doing something to solve it?’ Too often, we just keep looking at one another waiting (hoping) for something to change.”

This brings us back to the point we were considering yesterday about being men and women of wholehearted action. When problems exist and something needs to be done, we need to stop sitting around waiting for the issue to be magically fixed by God, or for someone else to do something about it. If you see something do something. If something needs to be dealt with, then deal with it. This pertains to our individual lives, our family life, our church life, and life in society.

How many of us are living with bad health due to poor lifestyle choices – and we want to be healthier, but we’re not doing the things we need to do in order to be healthier? Let’s just do it. How many of us in our family life see something that needs to be addressed (the trash needs to be taken out) but we leave it for someone else to do? Just take care of it. How about in our church life? How often do we see things at church that really do need some attention but we ignore it thinking someone else will handle it? The same is true in society. If there are issues in the community or the nation that bother you and need to be addressed, then get involved and do something about it.

Let’s stop sitting around looking at situations and at each other waiting for things to get better all by themselves. Instead, let’s go to Egypt and get the food (or lose the weight, or take the trash out, or, well, you get the idea). We have a responsibility to do something about it rather than just sitting around waiting for it to fix itself.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Be a person of wholehearted action

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “… I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.” Joshua 14:8 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Be a person of wholehearted action”

Caleb lived during the days of Moses. He was one of the twelve men sent out by Moses to conduct a reconnaissance mission of the Promised Land and he was one of only two (along with Joshua) to bring back a good report. Caleb is also one of my heroes from the Old Testament.

His words in Joshua 14:8 (above) provide revealing insight into his character. He was a man who wholeheartedly sought and followed God, and that was the key to his long and successful life. “The Every Man’s Study Bible” cites Caleb as a prime example of Biblical manhood and labels him “A man of wholehearted action.” Caleb had a single-minded, wholehearted, full-steam-ahead approach to living life with God, and he did so with purpose and passion.

For the next few days, we will continue our discussion from yesterday about taking responsibility for our own lives and doing so with purpose, courage, and confidence. We approach life with a Biblical worldview as we honor God and bless others. It’s up to us to establish that mindset and to create that structure in our lives. Nobody is going to do it for us. It’s our personal responsibility. We have to want such a life and we have to be intentional about creating the conditions for it.

Caleb succeeded in life while an entire generation of his peers failed, precisely because he was a man of action and he was committed to honoring God with his life. He did it with boldness and courage, and always within the boundaries of God’s commandments.

If you’re not clear on how to live in such a manner, I encourage you to go back and review yesterday’s devotional where we considered the lessons of Jeremiah 29:11-14 and Proverbs 3:5-6: Get your heart right; seek God; resolve to learn and abide by His standards; then go forward in life with boldness, courage, and passion, confident that God will lead you and guide you.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

You are responsible for your own life

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

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 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 …” Jeremiah 29:11-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are responsible for your own life”

Considering the Bible verses I quoted above, does our “thought for today” surprise you? “You are responsible for your own life”? Doesn’t Jeremiah 29:11 make it sound as if God is responsible for my life? Doesn’t it read is if He already has a great plan all worked out for me and I’m really just along for the ride?

Well, I suppose it could … if you stopped reading at verse 11. But if you continue on to verses 12-14 then you enter into the realm of personal responsibility. Yes, God has a plan for your life. But the fulfilling of that plan is contingent on you calling to Him, praying to Him, seeking Him with all of your heart, finding Him, and following Him.

Make no mistake, you are responsible for your own life. God does have a plan for you, that’s true, but you have some responsibilities too. You do your part and you can be sure He will do His. In Proverbs 3:5-6 Solomon told us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” There it is – in all your ways acknowledge Him, and then He will make your paths straight.

I recently came across an insightful statement written by author Elizabeth O’Conner in her book “Journey Inward, Journey Outward”. She wrote: “Each of us is the artist of his own life. The materials we are given to work with, the conditions we work under and what happens to us, are part of the drama of what we shall do with our lives. But materials and conditions and events are not, in themselves, the determining factors. Whether a man arrives or does not arrive at his own destiny – the place that is peculiarly his – depends on whether or not he finds the Kingdom within and hears the call to wholeness – or holiness. The man who hears that call does not have to scramble for a place in the scheme of things. He knows that there is a place which is his and that he can live close to the One who will show it to him. Life becomes his vocation.”

“Life becomes his vocation.” In other words, living well is the true purpose of your life. Everything else – conditions, circumstances, events, are all incidental. Your purpose is to seek God and follow Him. Do that, and all the rest of life will fall into place.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

You are responsible for your worldview

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship – the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are responsible for your worldview”

Each of us is personally responsible for our mindset. Our perspective on things, the way in which we choose to view the world around us, and the way in which we choose to approach life, is all up to us. This is often referred to as our “worldview”.

A worldview is an all-encompassing perspective on everything that matters. It represents our most fundamental beliefs about the most important questions regarding God, creation, human existence, values, ethics, and morals. It’s the lens through which we view and understand the world around us, and it’s the basis upon which we make our decisions about what is right and wrong and how we will conduct ourselves in this world.

The problem is that many people don’t think through, at a deep level, what their worldview is and why they believe it to be correct and good. Many people simply drift along with the cultural tide, and they end up conforming to the pressures put upon them by society to think and act in certain ways. In other words, they allow their worldview to be defined for them by the culture.

For Christians our worldview, our system of values, ethics, and morals, has been worked out for us by God. In the Bible God gives us the framework within which we are to view, evaluate, understand, and interact with the world around us. Therefore, we compare everything we hear and observe against what the Bible says, and then we make decisions about right and wrong, and about our own behavior, based upon what the Bible says not on what the culture says.

That was exactly the point Joshua was making to the Jews in Joshua 24:15 (above). He told them that they could base their worldview and their behaviors on what they were seeing and hearing from the culture around them if they wanted to, but as for him and his family, “we will worship the Lord.” Joshua had a choice to make regarding his worldview, and he decided that his would be Biblical. He chose a God-honoring worldview based upon God’s commandments.

How about you? Where does your worldview come from? Make no mistake, you do have one (whether you’ve thought it through at a deep level or not), and you are fully responsible for it. If you are a committed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ than you should be living with a Biblical worldview. (By the way, regular attendance in a good church goes a long way towards helping to form and maintain an accurate and dependable Biblical worldview. I hope to see you on Sunday!)

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Life in a good church helps

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Life in a good church helps”

By way of review, we spent all of last month considering matters of personal responsibility that God has revealed to us in the Bible. We learned that they create a pattern of living God calls His people too which will honor Him, bless others, and create for us our best life possible. We’re continuing our study of those lifestyle habits in February.

However, to guard against simply creating a New Testament version of Old Testament legalism, it’s essential that we understand these matters of personal responsibility as guidelines for living, rather than as a checklist of dos and don’ts. They help to create the conditions within which our relationship with God flourishes, and we will then find ourselves living our best life. God gives us these matters of personal responsibility for our own benefit.

But we need help creating those nurturing conditions within which our relationship with God will flourish, and that’s where life in a good church family can comes in. A good church creates an atmosphere where prayer, study, worship, and service are taught, modeled, and exercised. For instance, in the Old Testament passage cited above, from Micah 6:8, we find a general approach to the life of faith which includes justice (fair treatment of all); mercy (kindness and compassion, especially towards those who are suffering); and a humble attitude before God (a healthy relationship with Him). Life in a good church helps to create those conditions.

By way of example, as I’ve mentioned before, at Oak Hill Baptist our church life is based on the Acts 1:8 model of ministry. This model leads us, as a congregation, to be continuously involved in ministry projects outside the walls of our church buildings in our community, state, country, and in the world. Therefore, although we do pay close attention to keeping our internal church life healthy and vibrant, our primary focus is on others rather than on ourselves, it is outward rather than inward.

That’s consistent with the guidance God gives through the words of Micah, and it goes a long way towards helping us to stay spiritually healthy and vibrant. As a church and as individuals we’re involved in something larger than ourselves, something that truly matters and which makes a real difference. That’s the kind of life God wants His people to live.

Life in a good church helps to create the conditions within which a deep relationship with God is nurtured and grows. It’s the kind of help we need and therefore I encourage you to gather with your church family this Sunday.

God bless,
Pastor Jim