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.

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Great thoughts from great Christians”   Our Bible verse for today: “But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.” Psalm 68:3 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ”   In 1978 Richard Foster published a book which has since become a classic in modern Christian literature and which is commonly referred to as one of the most important Christian books written in the last 100 years. The title is “Celebration of Discipline”. Which, if you think about it, is a rather strange title because we don’t normally associate celebration with discipline.   However, the disciplines Foster writes about are the basic disciplines associated with practicing the Christian faith. There are thirteen chapters, each of which is dedicated to a different essential basic discipline of practicing the faith. The first twelve chapters cover such things as prayer, study, simplicity, service, confession of sins, worship, etc. But the last chapter is all about celebration.   Foster insists that celebration is an important means of practicing the faith and it is the foundation which underlies all the others. If we’re not experiencing great joy in our relationship with the Lord, and if it isn’t showing itself in celebratory ways, something is wrong at a deep level. He writes: “Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ … Celebration brings joy into life, and joy makes us strong. Scripture tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength.”   However, there’s a problem: “The carefree spirit of joyous festivity is absent in contemporary society. Apathy, even melancholy, dominates the times. Harvey Cox says that modern man has been ‘pressed so hard toward useful work and rational calculation he has all but forgotten the joy of ecstatic celebration.”   I love the thought, “Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ.”, and I completely agree. As Saint Augustine once famously said, The Christian should be one big alleluia from head to toe!”   Today is Thursday, the weekend is coming. Do you have some healthy and holy celebrating planned? I hope you do. A robust and enthusiastic worship service certainly fits that description. We’ll be doing that kind of celebrating at Oak Hill Baptist Church. Our worship service begins at 10:00. Join us in-person, or for the online live-stream on the Oak Hill Baptist Church Facebook page. You can also participate in the celebration later by viewing the recorded version on our website at www.oakhillbaptist.net.    Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ. Therefore, we should be intentional about finding lots of reasons and ways to celebrate.   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: “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people.” Colossians 3:23 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Mix a little blood in with your paint”   Rufus Jones was a well-known leader in the Quaker movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He spent most of his life working as a writer, philosopher, and college professor. Jones believed we need to achieve a healthy balance in the Christian life between devotion and service. On the one hand, he was committed to pursuing the deeper spiritual life. He spent long hours in prayer, fasting, contemplation of the Scriptures, and seeking God at a deep level.   But he also believed that deep devotion should show itself in passionate service. Jones did not believe Christians should withdraw from the world, not even for a lifetime of quiet devotion. Instead, a deep relationship with the Lord should be the motive force behind a life of activism and service in his name. According to Jones, it’s only then that a Christian is fully alive and truly living with purpose and meaning. Here is one example of his teaching on the subject:   “There are stories of painters who have mixed their own blood with their paint. They are probably fanciful tales, but the idea is worth something at any rate. Until the very life stuff of the man goes into his task, until he grinds himself into his paint, his work will be ordinary and will lack the mark of inspiration. What a splendid sight it is to see a man who has been drifting along with the flow of the current, and who has put no blood into his work, suddenly wake up and throw himself with passion into his daily task as though his life depended on doing it. Everybody sees that something has happened. A new spirit has awakened. There is some power behind him.”   What Jones was describing is also what Paul was writing about in Colossians 3:23. As Christians we are to live life with purpose and passion by committing everything we do to the Lord. We are to do it all for Him.   We do need to cultivate that deep personal relationship with the Lord, and we need to nurture that relationship every day. But then out of that relationship should come zeal and passion and purpose as we live for Him, and as we serve others in this broken, lost, and confused world that we live in.   Christians must live and work with purpose and passion. Mix a little blood in with your paint.   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: “Be kind and compassionate to one another …” Ephesians 4:32 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Make it safe to drop the mask”   There’s an old poem I like very much which teaches a powerful truth. The name of the poem is “We Wear the Mask”. It was written by Paul Dunbar around 1900. Dunbar was the son of former slaves and he lived in a time when, although blacks were no longer slaves, there was still a lot of deep systemic racism in our society. It was simply a daily reality for blacks, and they had to find ways to live with it. In fact, for the most part, it wasn’t safe for them to publicly give voice to their true feelings about it because doing so would invite reprisals. Therefore, they wore emotional masks to conceal their real feelings.   Although the poem was originally and specifically about how black people in that day felt that it wasn’t safe for them to show their true feelings, I think it also describes the experience of all of us, to varying degrees. Even in church life, how often do we put on a happy face to disguise our true feelings because we feel it isn’t safe to be open and transparent with people? I encourage you to see yourself and those around you in this poem. We all wear masks.   We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, – This debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth myriad subtleties.   Why should the world be over-wise, in counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while we wear the mask.   We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries to thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile, beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!   C.S. Lewis once wrote, “There is always one thing more going on in every person’s life of which you know absolutely nothing.” That is very true, and usually it is true because people feel it’s not safe to drop the mask and to be real with those around them.   Today you will encounter many people wearing masks to conceal things in their lives which are tormenting them, but of which you know nothing. That being the case, be kind. And, see if perhaps you can help to create an environment where it is safe for them to drop the mask and talk about what’s really going on in their lives.   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: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” Hebrews 11:1-2 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Believe first”   I find it interesting that Hebrews chapter eleven, which is known as “The Faith Hall of Fame”, begins with a reminder that the nature of faith is based upon making a choice to believe even when we do not see. The essence of faith is that we choose to embrace what we believe to be true, even though we don’t have firm, concrete proof to base it on. Then, after making that observation, the chapter goes on to tell of extraordinary Christians who demonstrated extraordinary faith, often in impossible situations.   How did they do it? How did they come to be so sure of what they could not see, to the point of even sacrificing their lives for their beliefs?   Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was one of the great Christian thinkers and leaders of the early Middle-Ages in Europe. Writing about how it is that faith is achieved and then strengthened over time he said, “I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand: for this also I believe, that unless I believe, I will not understand.”   What Anselm meant is that first, we have to come to the point where we will trust God enough to give Him a chance. It’s even okay to say, “God, I’m not sure if you’re real or not but I am open and I am willing to be convinced. So, convince me.” Then, with an open mind and heart, and with genuine sincerity, make an effort to seek God and to give Him a chance to convince you. He will. That’s the beginning of faith.   Then, each day place yourself in a position before God in prayer, Bible reading, worship, fellowship with other Christians, and in acts of service to others, and let God prove Himself to you some more. In dozens of different and subtle ways, as you continue to trust Him and seek Him, God will reveal more and more to you, and your faith will get stronger and stronger. It’s a slow subtle process that unfolds over time as you choose to continue believing and trusting.   Choose to believe first; understanding will begin to come after that. As Anselm said, “I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand: for this also I believe, that unless I believe, I will not understand.”   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: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind; so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:1-2 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Be closer to God than to the world”   This morning I want to continue our thought from yesterday regarding the desperate need today for strong Christian men and women.   Vance Havner was a plain-spoken, home-spun, backwoods preacher from Jugtown, North Carolina in the mid-1900s. He did not have formal Bible College or Seminary training, but he did have the hand of God upon his life from an early age. At the age of nine he was already writing Christian essays for the local newspaper. At twelve he stood on a chair behind the pulpit in his church and preached his first sermon. At twenty-two he became a pastor, and by the age of thirty-nine he was a full-time traveling evangelist.   One of Havner’s favorite themes for reviving backslidden Christians and churches was the need to live differently than the world around us. Strong Christians get and stay strong by refusing to conform to the culture around them. Weak Christians give-in to cultural pressures and become just like it. Here’s a portion of one of Havner’s sermons on the subject:   “We are often distressed by church members who ask, “Can I be a Christian and do this? Why cannot I do that? What is wrong with dancing, smoking, card playing?” etc. What they are really asking is, “How much like the world can I live and be a Christian? How near the precipice can I walk without going over? How far away from the Lord can I be and still get to heaven?” Why do they not ask, “How far from the world can I live? How near the Lord? How much like Him?” Such people prefer the Borderline to Beulah Land.”   Havner’s point is perceptive, and accurate. Many of us toy with the Christian faith. We try to see how much of popular culture and worldly values we can include in our lives and still be found faithful to the Lord. But the fact is that the more we’re like the world the less we will be like the Lord. The more the world has a hold on us, the less the Lord will be able to do in us and with us.   In Romans 12:1-2 Paul called us to holy living. He urged us to resist the allure of worldly things and to give ourselves fully to Christ. Doing so will transform us into strong and courageous Christian men and women. I encourage all of us to stay closer to the Lord than we are to the world.   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: “These are the names of David’s mighty men: …” 2 Samuel 23:8 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “God, give us strong Christians!”   After much thought and prayer, I’ve decided to continue our study from last month of “Great thoughts from great Christians.” There’s just so much for us to learn by practicing what Leighton Ford taught, “I surround myself with the thoughts of those who have thought much about God.”   Josiah Gilbert Holland was a poet and magazine editor in the USA in the mid-to-late 1800s. That was a period of American history (during and after the Civil War), when there was tremendous division and strife in our country. Even after the war ended, the nation was deeply divided. Our social fabric was torn, anger and bitterness prevailed, and the need for strong Christians in our society was real and urgent. Here’s a portion of one of Holland’s poems addressing that urgent need, and it speaks powerfully of the identical need in our day:   God, give us men! A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking; For the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, their large professions and their little deeds, mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps.   2 Samuel 23:8 and the following verses lead us to a lengthy description of the mighty men who served alongside King David in his day – honorable men, courageous men, faithful men. They were the kind of men Josiah Holland was calling for in his poem, and they’re the kind of strong, brave, courageous Christians needed in our day as well.   The segment about David’s mighty men, and the poem by Josiah Holland, were written in patriarchal times and so the focus was on men, but the truth applies equally to women. We need strong, courageous Christian men and women who will boldly stand for truth, who will willingly endure risk and hardship for the sake of righteousness and justice, and who will not flinch in the face of adversity.   God, give us strong Christians!   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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