Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift – not from works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Relax, and trust in God’s grace”   A friend of mine is currently having a building constructed on his property by Mennonite builders. The other day he commented to me about how much he enjoys having them work for him. He said that not only are they nice people, but they are good craftsmen and their work ethic is commendable – they show up when they say they will and they work hard until they are done.   That led us into a discussion about the differences between the Amish and the Mennonites. The Amish are skilled craftsmen, hard workers, and nice people too, but they have extreme views regarding their lifestyle and the use of modern conveniences. While there are some similarities between the Amish and the Mennonites, there are significant differences too. The major difference stems from an important theological truth – the concept of grace.   Both the Amish and the Mennonites trace their heritage back to the early Anabaptist leader Menno Simons. He was a Catholic priest in the early-to-mid 1500s in the Netherlands. Simons objected to the materialism and the excesses of the Catholic leaders, and he disagreed with the concept of infant baptism. He also rejected the rituals, practices, and endless rules created by the Catholic leadership which went far beyond what the Bible itself taught.   Simons ended up breaking away from the Catholic church and became part of the early Protestant Reformation. He taught his followers to adopt a simple lifestyle of leading an honest and quiet life, honoring God, blessing others – and learning to live by grace. He wrote, “Your mercies are greater than all our works. Who, dear Lord, ever came to You with a pious heart and was rejected? Who ever sought You and found you not? … Who ever prayed for Your grace and did not receive it?” Living by grace, not religious rituals and stern regulations, was the key.   Unfortunately, by the late 1600s a schism developed among the followers of Menno Simons. One group, under the leadership of a man named Jacob Amman, believed strict rules and a spartan lifestyle were necessary in order to please God. The other group rejected such notions and adhered to the original teachings of living simply and by grace. Eventually the division between the groups became so severe and irreconcilable that they split. One group followed Amman and became the Amish, the others continued to follow the teaching of Menno Simons and called themselves Mennonites.   Without disparaging the Amish in any way, I agree with Menno’s understanding of a simple life lived by grace.  We don’t earn God’s favor through the observance of a severe lifestyle and rejecting all modern conveniences. Instead, we are saved by grace, and we please Him by loving Him. So, relax and trust in God’s grace.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)   Our thought for today: “Read the memo. You are God’s masterpiece.”   If you’ve never read any of the books written by Og Mandino, you’re missing out. At one time Og was a thirty-five-year-old drunken derelict who at one point was so low, so despondent, that he decided to spend his last few dollars on a cheap gun with which to commit suicide. Fortunately, he didn’t. Instead, Jesus saved him and Og went on to become a best-selling Christian inspirational writer. His books have sold over fifty million copies and they continue to sell well today, even though Og has been in heaven now for over twenty-five years.   All of his books are short and easy reads. “A Better Way to Live” is his personal story of redemption and the life-principles he then lived by which radically transformed his life. “The Ragpicker” and “The Return of the Ragpicker” are wonderful little (true) stories about a quiet and simple man named Simon who spent his life ministering to and rescuing those who have ended up on life’s rag pile. He was the man God used to reach Og just before he would have committed suicide.   Perhaps Og’s most popular book was “The Greatest Miracle in the World”. Again, it was based on his personal story and again, it was a lesson he learned from Simon, the Ragpicker. Without giving the whole story away, I will tell you that it ends with something called “The God Memorandum”. What if God wrote you a personal letter to help you understand what an amazing creation you are and how special you are to him? What would it say? It would say that “You are the greatest miracle in the world!”   You don’t believe you are? Read the memo. Seriously. Read the memo. You don’t even have to read the book in order to read the memo. You can just Google “The God Memorandum” or click on this link: http://www.wowzone.com/godmemo.htm (Do it when you have a little time. It’s a short book chapter and is five or six pages long, but it will be worth your time.)   I want you to know this morning that you are more amazing than you realize. You are a wonderful creation of God’s – an absolute bona fide verifiable miracle. Read the memo. You’re a masterpiece.     God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Simple acts of blessing and service please the Lord”   Hannah Hurnard was a medical missionary who served the Jewish people in Jerusalem during the unsettled and dangerous days after World War II. During that time Israel was being reestablished as a sovereign nation, but her enemies were trying to prevent it and Jerusalem was under siege. Most other missionaries fled Jerusalem for their own safety, but Hannah stayed and served. Quietly, unobtrusively, behind the scenes, as battles raged in the streets, Hannah stayed and she ministered to the needs of the suffering.   When her brave and selfless actions became widely known and she was publicly commended for them, she brushed off the praise and remarked that untold numbers of the Lord’s people serve quietly and faithfully behind the scenes in thousands of ways everyday all across the world. She said that such unobserved service is especially pleasing to the Lord. “Many a quiet, ordinary, and hidden life, unknown to the world, is a veritable garden … a place of delight where the King of Love himself walks and rejoices with his friends.” What she meant was that Jesus is pleased by such quiet acts of service, and there are many Christians who do such things in a wide variety of settings all across the world.   As I write this, I’m preparing to conduct a memorial service later today for a friend and church member who died young, only in her 50s. Yesterday one of her closest friends posted the passage from Matthew 25:37-40 on Facebook in her memory. That passage is where Jesus commended the person who quietly engaged in simple acts of ministry such as feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, etc. He said such beautiful acts of simply service, done quietly behind the scenes as an act of love and compassion, are received by Him as if done for Him personally.   The Facebook post noted that this passage describes Gail perfectly. She was a nurse who spent her career compassionately caring for the sick. In her younger years she was a single mother who structured her life around the needs of her children. In her later years she was married to a fine man who she loved deeply and to whom she was a loving and dedicated wife. And to her friends, she was known as that quiet and unassuming person who cared deeply, loved a lot, and who could always be counted on to be there when you needed her.   Quiet, unassuming, faithful acts of service are beautiful and valued by Jesus. People like that inspire the rest of us to want to be better, to want to be more like them. Hannah Hurnard was like that. So was our friend Gail.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Don’t be a lukewarm Christian”   Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and theologian who lived in the 1800s. Although he wrote extensively on a wide variety of Christian topics, one he was especially passionate about and vexed by was lukewarm Christianity. He even questioned whether lukewarm faith in Christ was real faith, or perhaps if it indicated that the person’s initial profession of faith in Jesus wasn’t sincere. Kierkegaard said, “Spiritually understood, there are always two victories: a first victory, and then the second by which the first victory is preserved.”   The first victory Kierkegaard was referring to is salvation itself. The second is the Christian life lived well – in a manner worthy of that salvation. One should lead to the other and if it doesn’t, we should wonder if the first was genuine or not.   The great British preacher of the same day, Charles Spurgeon, believed that too. He was especially bothered by the gushing reports about the large numbers of people who professed faith in Jesus at emotionally-charged evangelistic rallies, and how few of them sometimes followed through on those professions. Spurgeon remarked, “It is foolish to declare in a moment what would take a whole lifetime to fully determine. Yes, Christ saves us in a moment, as we genuinely repent, but it’s in the process of life, through failure and faithfulness, that victory shows it’s colors.”   Likewise, in Romans 8:37 the Apostle Paul taught that we are “more than conquerors” as a result of our faith in Christ. What could he have meant that we are “more” than conquerors? He meant that beyond the fact that Jesus has saved us from the eternal punishment due for our sins – more than the fact that we have that victory, we also are empowered to live victoriously now. We are more than just one-time victors – we are ongoing champions when we live faithfully in a way that honors the Lord who saved us.   As Revelation 3:15-16 so vividly and graphically teaches, lukewarm and casual Christianity is an insult to Jesus. Considering what He did for us, He deserves better from us. If we truly understand and appreciate our salvation, how could we not be passionate about serving and pleasing and worshiping the Lord who saved us?   A lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron. It’s a contradiction in terms. Or, at least, it should be. How could a person who has been saved from eternal damnation – who knows and it and truly believes it, be indifferent about it? Let’s not be lukewarm Christians. Being so calls the sincerity and genuineness of our faith into question.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Learn to be content”   This morning I want to return us to the story of J.C. Penny, which we considered in yesterday’s devotional. He once confessed about himself, I had permitted the idea of the power of money to possess me.” And as we read yesterday, it nearly killed him – his compulsive preoccupation with money and things almost moved him to take his own life. Fortunately for J.C. Penny, he went on to learn the important truth that Paul taught in 1 Timothy 6:6 that regardless of how much wealth and how many possessions we do or don’t have, godliness and contentment are the keys to a good life, not money and possessions.   Paul went on in 1 Timothy 6:10 to say, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Please note that he did not say that money is evil. It isn’t. Money is neutral. It’s just a tool that can be used in good ways or in bad ways. It’s the love of money, the compulsive preoccupation with money and possessions, that’s the root of much evil. And this is the challenge we Christians face in our consumer-oriented culture that is so fixated on conspicuous consumption.   The truth is that contentment isn’t good for the economy. It just isn’t. Content people are satisfied with what they have and therefore they don’t buy more. Discontented consumers tend to spend, spend, spend even when they don’t need to. The entire point of advertising is to make us discontent. Its purpose is to convince us that we need this new product or service and that our lives will be incomplete if we don’t get it. So, on the one hand, as Christians we need to resist the temptation to always want more, more, more, never being satisfied with what we have.   On the other hand, we want and need the economy to be healthy, and therefore we do need to spend. We all enjoy the standard of living we have here in the USA and we want to maintain it. Therefore, there’s a balance that needs to be achieved between being satisfied with what we have, or acquiring more, and that balance has to be learned. The Apostle Paul wrote of this learning process in Philippians 4:11-13 when he wrote,   “…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”   Don’t miss the fact that Paul wasn’t advocating for either wealth or poverty. Over the course of his life, he had them both. He had times when he was well off and in need of nothing, and he had times when he was dependent on the charity of others. In this verse he wasn’t lauding or promoting either condition. What he was teaching was that he had learned to be content and satisfied, relying on the Lord at all times, regardless of what his circumstances were.   That needs to be true for us too. Our faith and trust must be in Jesus. Godliness and contentment are the keys to a good life, not money and possessions.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month; “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “And my God will supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Trust God and be content”   Linda and I were once Amway distributors. Don’t judge, you have skeletons in your closet too. Yes, we once sold Amway. We never got rich from it but it did pay for our youngest child’s braces. We were associated with a group of Christian Amway distributors who were very much into prosperity theology. They were convinced we were all supposed to become fabulously wealthy for Jesus. We had a leader who did become wealthy from it. He lived in a big lakefront home, drove a Rolls Royce, and wore expensive suits and a Rolex watch. He loved the phrase “conspicuous consumption”. He used it frequently and with relish. He said it slow and drew out the syllables, sometimes practically salivating. In his world, conspicuous consumption was a good thing, something to be sought after and indulged in. The more the better.   Linda and I didn’t last long in that setting. We did make a little money and we did pay for the braces, but then we got out. One of the reasons we got out is because we realized how unbiblical that all-consuming preoccupation with money and possessions was. It’s the exact opposite of the attitude displayed by another wealthy Christian man, but one who had it right. His name was J.C. Penny.   We all know J.C. Penny’s is a major U.S. department store. And most of us probably know that J.C. Penny was the founder of that chain and that he was one of the richest men in his day in the early 1920s. What you may not know is that during the Great Depression most of his business ventures failed and he lost almost everything. His wife had died, his businesses failed, and he was depressed to the point of suicide. But one night, sitting in the back row of a chapel at a rescue mission in the Bowery in New York City, Penny heard the hymn “God Will Take Care of You”. The words resonated deep in his heart and he realized that if he would simply cast all his cares on Jesus, strive to honor Him with His life, and then accept with gratitude whatever the Lord chose to give him, he would be okay. Penny wrote, “I had permitted the idea of the power of money to possess me.” And it had nearly killed him – it almost moved him to take his own life.   J.C. Penny got right with Jesus, he rebuilt his business, and he spent the rest of his life using his wealth to bless others and to finance many Christian rescue missions, orphanages, hospitals, schools, and a wide variety of other ministry efforts. But despite the great wealth he had regained he lived modestly, and he was happy and content doing so.     Trusting God and learning to be content is an important factor when it comes to living the Christian life well, so we’ll return to this thought tomorrow. In the meantime, know that God loves you, He is aware of your circumstances, and you can trust Him to take care of you.     God bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and all the Prophets depend on these two commands.” Matthew 22:37-40 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Simple is better”   Jesus was the great simplifier. It was one of the things people found so compelling about Him. Ancient Judaism under the Pharisees was a very complex system of rules, regulations, traditions, and expectations. Entire volumes had been written to describe it, and religious professionals spent their lives trying to understand, explain, and enforce it. But Jesus boiled it all down to two things, love God and love people. Do that, and everything else will be covered.   Modern Christianity has become pretty complicated too. Especially church life. Churches get competitive, and Pastors feel great pressure to match the programs and results of competing churches. That often results in churches attempting to offer long menus of programs and activities just because other churches do, and church members feel pressure to show themselves to be good church members by participating in all of it. It can become complicated, labor intensive, and exhausting for everyone.   Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger are leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention. Some years ago, they led a revolution. It was a simple revolution. More precisely, it was a revolution in favor of simplicity, and therefore against complexity in church life. They encouraged pastors and churches to resist the competitive nature of church life; pay less attention to what others are or are not doing; and instead, do only the things and have only the programs that are right and good for your unique congregation. In their book “Simple Church” they wrote:   “In the midst of all the noise, all the rush, all the change, all the busyness, and all the uncertainty (of life), people long for simplicity. Precisely because things are so hectic and out of control people respond to simple. The busyness and complexity of life makes simple a great commodity, something desired.” They continue: “Simple is in. Complexity is out – out of style at least … people are hungry for simple because the world has become much more complex … Simple is in. Simple works. People respond to simple. The simple revolution has begun.”   What’s true in church life is also true for life in general. Simple is better than complex. Life is hard enough, let’s not make it more complicated than it needs to be. If we can do it simpler and easier, then let’s. Jesus was the Great Simplifier and we should strive for simple too. Yes, simple is better.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   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 doesn’t have to be so complicated”   In 1988 Robert Fulghum wrote a great little book which, although it’s not an explicitly Christian book, it does teach an essential Biblical principle for living life well, and it is consistent with what the Old Testament prophet Micah was expressing in Micah 6:8 (above). The principle is simplicity and the name of the book is “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”   “All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom is not (found) at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and milk are good for you.”   “Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.   This is what Micah was getting at. Living well, in a manner that honors God, blesses others, and achieves a good life for us, really boils down to a few basic rules of honesty, integrity, and good character. But in many cases, we’ve lost sight of what we already knew. We’ve allowed life to get so busy and involved and complicated, that we make it much harder than it should be. Solomon once said, “God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 (TEV)   Simplicity in life is an important concept which we all need to relearn. As we will see tomorrow, Jesus Himself was the Great Simplifier. But for now, let’s remember that life doesn’t have to be so complicated. Just be nice, enjoy some cookies and milk, hold hands and stick together.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “Here I am today, eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. My strength for battle and for daily tasks is now as it was then.” Joshua 14:10-11 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Take care of your body”   In this series about great thoughts from great Christians I’ve already written about my pastor, Oren Teel. In that case I was sharing his thoughts about how important it is for a pastor to truly love his people. However, Oren taught me many other lessons as well (mostly by his example), all of which helped to make me not only a better pastor, but a better man than I would otherwise have been had it not been for his influence in my life.   In addition to being a kind and gentle man, as well as a good preacher and teacher, and a sharp dresser (he thought it was important for the pastor to dress nicely), Oren also took good care of himself physically. He loved a good meal followed by delicious desserts, but he disciplined himself to eat moderately. He enjoyed watching sports and television shows, but he made sure to exercise every day too. He was a hard worker who put in long hours, but he was careful to get adequate sleep. He cared deeply about people and situations, but not to the point of allowing himself to be overwhelmed by the stress of it all.   He once told me, “Jim, my body is a gift from God and I have a responsibility to take good care of it. I need to stay healthy for myself, but also for my family, my church, and my Lord.”   And he has. Today Oren is in his early nineties but he is still slim and trim and spry. He looks a good ten years younger than he is. He not only lives independently in his own home, but he still drives, and he goes to the gym multiple times each week for both cardiovascular and strength training.   None of us will live forever. Not even Oren Teel. But we can do the things necessary to stay as healthy as we can for as long as we can. The better we take care of ourselves the healthier we will be, and the better our overall quality of life will be.   I encourage all of us to do the things necessary to take good care of our body.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “We need three key relationships”   Building on Leighton Ford’s personal practice which he described as “I surround myself with the thoughts of those who have thought much about God.”, in this series we’re exploring great thoughts from great Christians.   Early in my life as a new Christian I heard a statement made in a sermon which profoundly impacted me, and which became something of a guiding principle for me in the practice of my faith. The sermon was preached at a Promise Keepers event in Los Angeles by Professor Howard Hendricks. Howard was a longtime professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. He was also the author of numerous books, and he was a popular speaker on the Promise Keepers circuit. Here’s the statement he made that day which so impacted me:   “Every man needs three relationships in his life: he needs a Paul, he needs a Barnabas, and he needs a Timothy.”   In the rest of the sermon Professor Hendricks explained that every man needs to have a Paul in his life – someone who is older and wiser than him and who will serve as a mentor. Every man also needs a Barnabas – a close and trusted friend who is on the same level spiritually with him. This is someone who loves him but who is not overly impressed by him, and who will speak plain truth to him. And then every man needs a Timothy – a younger man into whose life he is building and for whom he is being Paul.   It was a brilliant sermon, and powerfully true. We all (men and women) need a trusted mentor we can turn to for good counsel and who we are willing to learn from. We all also need at least one Barnabas in our life. This is the close friend with whom it is safe to be completely honest and transparent, and who will tell us what we need to hear – not just what we want to hear. And then, we should all be in the process of building into the life of a younger person. Not only do we need to have a Paul in our own life, but we need to be someone else’s Paul.   Do you have those three key relationships in your life? If you don’t, I encourage you to pray about it and ask God to open your eyes to who could fill those three roles in your life. Chances are you already know individuals, maybe in your church family, who would be happy to have such a relationship with you.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2021 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.