Oak Hill Baptist Church

Faith grows in community

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other; and all the more as you see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Faith grows in community”

This morning I want to continue our thinking from recent days regarding the theme of taking personal responsibility for our spiritual health and growth. As we learned yesterday, an important part of that is faithful attendance and full participation in the life of your church.

The fact is that faith grows in community. God never intended for any of us to be “Lone Ranger Christians”. Although our private personal faith practices are essential and even crucial, our faith is to be lived-out in the midst of, and along with, our faith community. That’s our church family.

We need to be together. That’s the point of Hebrews 10:24-25 (above). Not only does your presence and participation in the gatherings of your church benefit you, but your presence benefits others as well. That’s what the writer meant when he wrote about provoking love and good works and encouraging one another. God uses us to bless, encourage, and motivate each other.

When you join with your church family in Bible study, worship, fellowship, and ministry activities, you will hear from God and you will be blessed in various ways. That insight and those blessings will come to you from God, but He will deliver them to you through other people. It will come to you through the teaching, or the music, or the sermon, or from kind and encouraging words from other church members. And likewise, God will use your words and your actions to do the same for them.

There’s a spiritual dynamic at work in the gatherings of the faithful that simply isn’t present during our times alone with God. Often a person’s greatest encounter with God will come as a result of something that occurs in the group setting. But the more people who are missing, the more that group dynamic is diminished. There’s a good reason the writer in Hebrews urged us not to miss the gatherings of our church family. You need to be there for yourself, and others need you to be there for them. And as was noted in yesterday’s devotional, this is a matter of personal responsibility for each of us.

But if you aren’t there, then you’re not a part of that. If you aren’t there, then you miss the blessings for yourself, but also, God can’t use you to bless and encourage others. This Sunday will someone miss a blessing because you weren’t there to deliver it?

I encourage you to be present as often as you can when your church family is gathered. You need to be there for yourself, and you need to be there for the sake of others.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Churches are struggling:

ood morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” Revelation 2:4-5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Churches are struggling”

In chapters two and three of the book of Revelation there are seven churches mentioned. Jesus had a special message for each of them – tailored to their particular set of circumstances. These were real churches which existed in that day, but each was also intended to represent a problem or situation which would exist in multitudes of churches down through the ages. Therefore, the lesson taught regarding each of those seven churches was not just for that particular church, but for all churches like them which would ever exist. And of course, since churches are made up of people, the lessons have to apply to us as individuals. Any church will only be whatever the people of that church make it.

If you read the full passage about the church in Ephesus (2:1-7) you realize their problem was that they were a mere shadow of what they had once been. Jesus said that the reason was because their love for the Lord and for the work of the church had cooled. They had lost much of the love and passion they had once had, and as a result, they were something less than what they had been. The church in Laodicea (3:14-22) had a similar problem. Jesus described them as being lukewarm.

That’s also the situation in many churches today. The Church in the USA has been in decline for decades, but especially so now in the pandemic era. During the pandemic large numbers of active church-goers have drifted away from church, and many haven’t come back. Others started watching church services online and decided they liked that better. Others have gotten in the habit of only infrequent attendance. As a result, many churches today are struggling with lower attendance. Most are at the 50-70% level compared to pre-pandemic numbers.

This is a big problem because diminished numbers result in not only lower attendance, but also in scaled-back ministry activities – there are simply fewer workers to help. This limits the church’s influence in their communities. Diminished numbers also mean that those who are there have to do more, and work harder, to cover for those who are not there. This will eventually lead to burnout among leaders and church members. Diminished numbers are also discouraging, and all of it adds to the perception that the church isn’t as effective as it once was. That hurts morale and makes it harder to generate enthusiasm.

As was already noted, the church is made up of individuals, and any church will only be what the people of the church make it. That makes this a matter of personal responsibility. Faithful attendance and full participation in the life of your church is an important part of how we practice our faith, and right now, most churches are struggling because church-goers are being less faithful than before.

If we want our churches to be healthy and vibrant, we as members have to do the things necessary for them to be healthy and vibrant. That begins with just showing up. Granted, nobody can be there all the time. Work, sickness, family obligations, and vacations sometimes take us away. Some people, such as elderly shut-ins and others who live geographically distant from the church, rely on the online broadcast. But all of us need to do everything we can to be present as often as we can. The church in America is in trouble. Too many of us are simply not showing up.

Today is Friday. Sunday is coming. I encourage you to attend the worship service at your church this week. The fact is that your church needs you to be there – now more than ever.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

The rewards of spiritual growth

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

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: “The rewards of spiritual growth”

I love the way the New Living Translation uses the word “masterpiece” to describe us. We are God’s masterpieces. This wonderful spiritual truth, revealed by the Apostle Paul, is actually connected to and flows from two other essential and foundational truths revealed in other places by Paul. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 he wrote, “… anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.” And in Philippians 1:9, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

In the moment you placed your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins you became a new spiritual creation. Your sins were forgiven once and for all and forever, and in God’s eyes you are perfect – a spiritual masterpiece! That’s what 2 Corinthians 5:17 means. But also, at the same moment, God began a process of transformation that involves spiritual growth. This is what Philippians 1:9 teaches. So, in terms of forgiven sins you are already perfect. But in terms of spiritual stature, you are growing and becoming better and stronger. In that sense you are a masterpiece in process. You are being formed into what you will one day be.

One important reward of spiritual growth is the knowledge that God is making us better and stronger. And because we know that is true, we can learn to rest and relax in the Lord and just let Him have His way in our lives. We can learn to stop striving and stressing over the things of life; we can stop trying to find our identity and our value in the standards of the world; we can stop looking to the world for peace, joy, meaning, and fulfillment. Rather than looking to the world to define us and to assign us our identity, we instead look to God and when we do, we find ourselves described with this wonderful phrase, “God’s masterpiece”.

What a relief this can be! How much pressure is lifted and stress is removed when we have learned to rest and relax in the Lord as we let the Holy Spirit do His work in us. This is big. This is a game-changer. It’s what we were talking about in yesterday’s devotional about all the rest of life flowing out of a deep and rich relationship with God.

And this is what God wants for us. This is why He has revealed to us, in the Bible, that the most important thing is our spiritual growth. This is why we need to have spiritual disciplines that place us in a position before God every day whereby He can continue molding and shaping us.

Take personal responsibility for this. Do your part. Have a solid structure of daily spiritual disciplines in your life. Then embrace your reward. Enjoy it. Learn to rest and relax in the Lord knowing that you are becoming who He wants you to be.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Spiritual growth is the most important thing

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green.” Psalm 92:12-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Spiritual growth is the most important thing”

The Christian life has often been described as “the journey of the soul”. Our soul is on a journey through this world on our way to our real home in heaven. God is using the journey to mold us and shape us into the people He wants us to be and to prepare us for eternity. This is the most important thing.

Also, our spiritual growth is foundational to everything else in life. All the rest of life flows from the heart, and the heart is shaped by our relationship with God. This is what Solomon meant when he wrote, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) The Christian life is lived from the inside out. It begins in the heart, rises up, and flows out. Rather than external influences penetrating inward and impacting the heart, the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23), flow up and out from the Christian, influencing and impacting the world around them. The Christian life is lived from the inside out.

This is an inner reality that produces outer fruits. It’s the result of a life that is centered in God and which is spiritually healthy and thriving. This is what the Psalmist was describing in Psalm 92:12-14 (above). The righteous thrive like a mighty tree with deep roots – a tree that stays healthy and green, bearing fruit its entire life long.

Down through the ages of Christian history, those who earnestly sought this deep and thriving relationship with God have done so by establishing a structure of daily spiritual disciplines in their lives. The disciplines are always rooted in prayer, Bible study, worship, and service. These are the things which when consistently practiced day-in and day-out, over the course of a lifetime, result in a deeper life with God.

Spiritual growth is the most important thing in the life of the Christian. All the rest of life flows from this, and this is why our personal responsibility to do these things is one of the dominant themes in the Bible. This is one of those revealed things which we discussed in the first message in this series. God has revealed to us, in Scripture, that it’s our responsibility to practice basic spiritual disciplines that put us in a position before Him every day whereby He can mold us and shape us into the people He wants us to be.

Your spiritual growth is by far the most important thing. I urge you not to neglect it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Attitude and diligence make the difference

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “But as for you, be strong; don’t give up, for your work has a reward.” 2 Chronicles 15:7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Attitude and diligence make the difference”

Recently a friend posted a New Year’s cartoon on Facebook which caught my attention. The scene depicted a grumpy looking man watching as his friend was on his knees in his garden planting seeds. They were evidently in a conversation about what each of them were expecting from the upcoming New Year. With a defensive tone the grumpy looking man says, “Well then, what are you expecting in the New Year?!” To which the other man replied, “I’m expecting flowers.” Mr. Grumpy relied, “Flowers? Why are you expecting flowers?” And the other man said, “Because I’m planting flowers.”

There are two important questions for us implicit in that cartoon which pertain to our approach to the New Year, “What are you expecting?” and “What are you planting?” If you’re expecting flowers, you’d better be planting flowers. In other words, we need to be preparing for and planting the seeds of the things we hope to accomplish. Many people have hopes, dreams, and aspirations; fewer people actually have specific plans for accomplishing those hopes, dreams, and aspirations. And fewer still are actually in the process of doing the things necessary to actually accomplish their goals.

In the days to come we’ll look at specific areas in which God wants us to always be improving, and which He has revealed to us in the Bible. But before we begin that, it will be helpful to get our thinking straight about it. Having the right attitude and then being diligent in our daily efforts are the keys to success in anything.

Ask God for clarity about the areas of your life you need to be working on. Ask Him to help you develop a simple plan to address those areas. Then resolve to do your part by being diligent and faithful day-by-day. All it takes is one little step forward each day and soon you will begin to see the improvement you are seeking. Flowers don’t grow overnight they grow a little each day. Personal improvement is like that too.

Whatever goals for personal improvement the Lord leads you to set, have a positive attitude about it and then be diligent about working your plan every day.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Ask God what needs to change

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Ask God to show you what needs to change”

Does it surprise you to learn that God might want something to happen, even want it very much, and yet He chooses to leave that thing undone until and unless we get busy and do something about it? It’s true. There are actually many instances like that – which is a bit surprising considering that God is Omnipotent (all-powerful) and He can do anything He wants any time He wants in any way He wants, and He doesn’t need us to do it.

And yet, in many cases He waits patiently for us to get off our duffs and do something about the very thing that He Himself wants done, and which He could accomplish in an instant and with no help from us. Why does He wait for us to get with the program and get busy? The answer is “personal responsibility”. There are things that God wants us to take responsibility for and which He refuses to do for us. He will help us with those things once we get moving and start doing our part, but He won’t force the issue and He won’t simply wave a magic wand and accomplish the thing for us.

For personal improvement is one of those areas. It’s true that God wants you to be your best. It’s also true that He could turn you into the best you, simply by willing it to be so. But He doesn’t do it like that. Instead, He requires us to put some effort into it. He isn’t going to magically turn you into a spiritual pillar of strength if you never bother to pray or read your Bible. He isn’t going to give you the physical vitality of Caleb (Joshua 14:10-11), or the long life of Methuselah (Genesis 5:27), if you don’t bother to take care of your health. He isn’t going to give you the riches of Solomon if you’re financially irresponsible with what you already have. God wants us to make an effort and to take some actions to do the right thing and to accomplish what we are able to do for ourselves.

In the days and weeks to come we’ll explore many of the ways in which God has revealed to us, in the Bible, things He wants us to take personal responsibility for in different areas of our lives. For today, it would be good for each of us to make David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 our own prayer. I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord and ask Him to reveal areas of your life that need some work. In upcoming devotionals it’s likely that your issue will be one of the topics we focus on.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

We are responsible for the revealed things

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The revealed things belong to us”

On Sunday December 26^th, at Oak Hill Baptist Church, I preached our New Year’s sermon. The passage of scripture I based it on was Deuteronomy 29:29. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was preparing the Israelites to cross over into the Promised Land and enter into the great future God had prepared for them.

In 29:29 he explained that there was much about that future that was a mystery to them. As is always true, only God knows the future. The specific events that will unfold, and the details of those events, are hidden from us until they happen. Those are the hidden things that Moses was referring to in that verse and he taught that those things belong to God. In faith, we need to be comfortable trusting the unknowns of the future to Him. That was true for them back then as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, and it’s true for us today as we begin this New Year. The future is unknown to us. We don’t know what 2022 will bring. God does but we don’t. Those are hidden things and they belong to Him.

However, in that verse Moses also taught that there are revealed things that belong to us. By “revealed things” Moses meant that in a variety of ways (in our case through the Bible), God has made known to us things He expects us to do. These revealed things then become our personal responsibility. They are things that He certainly could do by Himself and without our involvement, but He has chosen to involve us. In fact, very often, those revealed things will not happen unless we do our part. God will often leave the thing undone until we get busy and do it.

The things that have been revealed to us by God and for which we are responsible are important and essential if we are to live well in 2022. We’ll spend the month of January considering many of those revealed things. We will think about our personal responsibility for those matters and how it is that our lives will be better, fuller, and happier when we are doing the things God has revealed to us that He wants us to do.

By the way, if you would like to watch that sermon, the video is available on our church website (oakhillbaptist.net) and on the Oak Hill Baptist Church Facebook page.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

It begins with you and me

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Knowing God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “It begins with you and me”

To conclude our month of thinking devotionally about “knowing God”, I want to build on our devotional from yesterday where we considered God’s appeal to the people in the days of Malachi, “Return to me and I will return to you.” (Malachi 3:7). In that devotional we learned that this was really all about a broken relationship with God. It was a relationship which God wanted very much to be restored and renewed so that the people would be aware of His presence and would return to living in a way that He could bless.

In Psalm 51:10-12 King David was thinking along the same lines, and He turned it into a personal prayer of repentance. He understood that if His relationship with God was broken, it was His responsibility to take the steps necessary to fix it. The same is true for us.

In the case of the passage in Malachi, the entire nation of Israel had drifted far from God. But the nation was made up of individuals, and if there was going to be a national move back into a good relationship with God, it would only occur if the individuals who made up that nation each made a personal move back to God. It had to happen one person at a time. Each person had to take personal responsibility to get their own heart and life right with God.

In his book, “The Knowledge of the Holy”, A.W. Tozer wrote, “We as Christians are the Church and whatever we do is what the Church is doing. The matter, therefore, is for each of us a personal one. Any forward step in the Church must begin with the individual.”

That’s still true today. If America is going to get back into a right relationship with God, it will only happen when the Church gets back into a right relationship with God. And if the Church is going to get back into a right relationship with God, it will only happen if the individuals who make up the Church get back into a right relationship with God.

It starts with you and me. It’s a matter of personal, individual responsibility – and that’s what we’re going to think about in our daily devotionals for the month of January. We will spend the first month of the new year considering this matter of personal responsibility.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

If God seems far away, guess who moved?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Knowing God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Since the days of your fathers, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies.” Malachi 3:7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “If God seems far away, guess who moved?”

Malachi was the last of the Biblical writers we know as “The Minor Prophets”. With this short book, God closed the Old Testament. That then ushered the people of God into what is called the “intertestamental period”, also known as “The four hundred years of silence”. It’s the four hundred years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. During those four hundred years there were no prophets of God working among His people and there were no new messages from God. For all intents and purposes, God had gone silent.

The book of Malachi was intended to be one final prophetic warning to the people as God tried to call their attention to how far they had drifted from Him. However, in Malachi 3:7 God made it clear that despite their long history of disobeying Him, He was still ready to reestablish a close relationship with them if they would just repent and return to Him. Jesus would paint this same word picture in His parable of the Prodigal Son.

The phrase “return to me and I will return to you” was actually a metaphor describing the broken relationship between God and His people. It wasn’t that God was no longer present. As we learned yesterday in our discussion about the Omnipresence of God, He is everywhere all the time. There is no place that God is not. Likewise, when we read in the Bible of God threatening to withdraw His presence from disobedient people, it means that the relationship will be broken and they will no longer sense His presence or experience His blessings.

So, because the people in Malachi’s day had moved away from God in their hearts, they were no longer in a close relationship with Him. They couldn’t sense His presence and they weren’t experiencing His blessings. But that could change. God was ready and willing. If they would return their hearts to Him, the relationship would be reestablished. “Return to me and I will return to you.”

The same is true for us. God wants to be in a close relationship with each of us. He wants us to be vitally aware of His presence and He wants us to be living a life that He can bless. He is right here, He is willing, and He is waiting.

If you’re not experiencing that close relationship, if it seems as if God is not close and not blessing, guess whose fault it is? It’s yours. The good news is that God’s invitation is also a promise: return to Him and He will return to you. The relationship can be reestablished and renewed. You moved, He didn’t. Now it’s time to move back to Him.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

God is not far off

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Knowing God”

Our Bible verse for today: “… he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being …” Acts 17:27-28 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “God is not far off”

Acts 17:16-34 is a fascinating passage of scripture which records Paul’s encounter with the scholars and philosophers of Athens. It tells us much, not just about those men in Athens in that day, but about humans in general down through the ages. And it also reveals an essential understanding about God.

In verses 22-23 Paul noted that the people of Athens were very religious. Everywhere he looked there were shrines and idols to a plethora of gods and goddesses. There was even one to “An Unknown God”. They had created that altar to cover themselves just in case they had somehow missed a god they weren’t aware of. This fascination with spiritual things was completely consistent with human nature in all cultures. As we’ve learned previously, and as Solomon taught in Ecclesiastes 3:11, God created human beings with an awareness of eternity in our hearts. All people have an inborn understanding that there is a spiritual realm, God does exist, and there is more than just this life.

In verses 24-28 Paul then goes on to explain what theologians have since come to call the Omnipresence of God. “Omnipresence” is a fifty-cent theological term which simply means that God is everywhere, all the time. There is no place that God is not.

This is what Paul meant when he said to them, “… he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” This is also the truth King David was reflecting on in Psalm 139:7-10 when he wrote, “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me.” Through the prophet Jeremiah God Himself declared in Jeremiah 23:24, “Can a person hide in secret places where I cannot see him? – the Lord’s declaration – “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?”

This is something that’s true about God and which we need to remember. All too often we think of Him as “the God in heaven”, as if He’s far off in some distant place. No, He’s actually right here with us. He’s closer than we realize. In fact, we’re never out of His presence.

The reason we can and should interact with God as if He’s sitting in the chair next to us is because He is. He’s even closer than that. We’re surrounded by His presence; we exist in His presence; we are never out of His presence. He’s not some far-off God, He is right here with us.

God bless,
Pastor Jim