Oak Hill Baptist Church

Choose joy

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Choose joy”

I’m a disciple of the contemporary philosopher Snoopy. I’m speaking of course of Snoopy the dog, from the Peanuts comic strip. Snoopy is indeed wise. He is observant and insightful, an astute student of the human condition, and as a result, he often has helpful advice for Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Pigpen, and me.

Take for instance, the Snoopy Dance. Are you familiar with the Snoopy Dance? You should Google it. Seriously. Take a moment, type in the search bar “Snoopy Dance”, select the YouTube video that comes up, and enjoy. It will take less than a minute.

What you’ll see is Snoopy dancing. Fast. Joyfully. His little paws are just pattering away (Snoopy stands and walks on two legs like humans). His head is back, his face is lifted to the sky, his eyes are closed, his arms (front paws) are extended wide, there’s a smile on his face, and he’s just dancing. He’s doing the Snoopy Dance. He’s thoroughly happy and joyful, and he doesn’t seem to have a care in the world.

Now, the question is “What brought on such an expressive explosion of joyfulness?” And the apparent answer is “nothing”. In the scene there doesn’t seem to be any special reason for his joyful dancing other than that he decided to be joyful and dance. It kind of reminds me of Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Do we really need special reasons to be joyful? Can’t we simply embrace the moment and enjoy it for what it is, a gift from God? Can’t we simply choose to be joyful and then be intentional about expressing it?

Seriously, take a moment and watch the Snoopy Dance. You’ll be glad you did. And if you’re having a down day and it’s tough to be joyful right now, then go one step further and watch the follow-on clip “Snoopy dances with the bunnies”. Snoopy was having a down day too but some dancing bunnies helped to draw him out of it. Maybe they’ll help you too. Or maybe, by doing your own version of a Snoopy Dance (you don’t really have to dance, just be joyful and express it), maybe by doing so you will end up being someone else’s dancing bunny and you’ll help them to be joyful too.

I encourage you to choose joy today. Do your version of the Snoopy Dance.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

You need the Sabbath

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “That Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You need the Sabbath”

In his book, “The Relentless Elimination of Hurry”, Pastor John Mark Comer includes an excellent chapter about the value and importance of observing the Sabbath. First of all, he points out that the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word “Shabbat” and literally means “to stop”. It means that we are to cease normal activities in order to worship and to rest.

Doing so is so important that God commanded us to do it. Comer points out that observing the Sabbath is the only spiritual discipline included in the Ten Commandments (it’s the fourth). There God commanded us to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy. It’s the only spiritual disciple that made it onto the list. Not fasting or Bible reading or even prayer. “Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.”

We are to work six days and to observe the Sabbath on the seventh. God Himself even modeled it for us in Genesis 2:3 when He took the seventh day to rest and admire His creation. But of course, God wasn’t actually tired. He didn’t need to rest. He did it as an example for us. Stop your labor, your chores and errands, your relentless rushing through life, and just worship and rest. That’s what the Sabbath is for.

What Jesus was teaching in Mark 2:27 is that God created the concept of Sabbath for our benefit. The Sabbath was made for man. We need it. The regular rhythm of our lives needs to include coming to a full stop once a week for the specific purpose of worshiping God and resting our bodies. Comer writes, “The Sabbath is how we fill our souls back up.” That’s true because observing Sabbath is renewing and refreshing. It’s how we recharge our physical and spiritual batteries so we’ll be at our best the rest of the week. This is why God called the day blessed and holy.

Think of Sabbath as a weekly holiday. It’s Christmas, or Easter, or Memorial Day, or Labor Day once every week. It’s a special day for celebrating, feasting, resting, and for company. It’s filled with worship, rest, and fun. So don’t miss it! You need your Sabbath!

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Three miles an hour is a good pace

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3:8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Three miles an hour is a good pace”

This morning I want to continue our thought from yesterday regarding the pace of our lives. I noted that too often we blow through our days, just skimming the surface of life rather than slowing down and going deep with people and situations, savoring the moments of our lives.

Kosuke Koyama is a Japanese Christian and a professor of theology. He once wrote a book with the title, “Three Mile an Hour God.” The title comes from the fact that the average human, when not in a hurry, walks at approximately three miles an hour. That’s the average speed of a leisurely but steady stroll. It’s the speed at which we notice, appreciate, and enjoy our surroundings. We’re moving, but we’re not rushed.

Koyama’s premise is that God Himself is never in a hurry, and He seldom pushes us to hurry either because under normal circumstances, hurry is neither necessary nor helpful. Instead, He walks with us through life at the speed that is best for us – three miles an hour. Moving, but relaxed and enjoying the trip.

Read the Gospels. Jesus was never in a hurry. And if our Lord didn’t allow Himself to get frantic and agitated, rushing from here to there, and if our goal is to be more like Him, then perhaps we need to back it down a bit.

Peter’s point in 2 Peter 3:8 (above) is that God is outside of time. Time doesn’t apply to Him. Time is a construct God created within which human affairs unfold and are measured, but God is eternal and He is unaffected by time. Therefore, a day is the same as a thousand years to Him, and a thousand years is like a day. God has eternity to work with and therefore He doesn’t need to rush. And actually, the same is true for us. In reality, we have eternity to work with too.

So, do we really need to rush so much? In fact, since God walks with us, and since our best speed under normal circumstances is a leisurely three miles an hour, I can picture God with His hand on my shoulder saying, “Whoa, slow it down a little, Hoss. What’s your hurry?”

Good question. What is my hurry? Three miles an hour through life is a good pace.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t just skim the surface of life

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Don’t just skim the surface of life.”

I’m currently rereading a book I’ve come to value and appreciate very much. The title is “The Relentless Elimination of Hurry” by Pastor John Mark Comer. This is the third time I’ve read the book in the two years I’ve owned it. It’s really good. And helpful. Throughout this month I’ll share some of John’s thoughts with you.

The basic premise of his book is that hurry is a thief. It distracts us from the things that are most important, it causes us to miss precious moments in life, and it steals our joy. Hurry makes it impossible to truly savor moments, people, and events that should be special to us. Hurry also makes us insensitive to other people, and it causes us to miss telltale verbal clues that might have alerted us to the fact that someone else is having a bad day or is need of a hug or a kind word. Speaking of himself Comer realized, “All of my worst moments happen when I’m in a hurry.”

Amen brother.

Philosopher David Zach once referred to such a life as “hyper-living” or, “just skimming the surface of life.” We move through life at such a pace that we just blow by people and situations that really do deserve and should receive our focused attention. We greet people and ask “How are you?”, without actually listening to how they are. We speed past a beautiful view of meadows and mountains, without actually seeing the meadows and the mountains. We’re just in too much of a hurry. We’re skimming the surface of life.

I love the picture Solomon paints for us in Ecclesiastes 3:1. There’s a time for everything and a season for every activity. It’s a picture of a leisurely stroll through life, stopping to smell the roses and talk to the neighbors and pet the puppy. No hyper-living in that picture.

I encourage all of us to slow it down, take a breath, and enjoy the moments of our lives today. No hyper-living. No skimming the surface of life. Instead, take the time to pay attention and to go deep with people and situations. Truly appreciate and enjoy the gift of this day that the Lord has given to you. Savor it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Relax and enjoy it

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Relax and enjoy it”

I have this vivid memory of a time from about thirty years ago. It was July. The previous year had been especially busy and trying, but I was on vacation now. My family and I had traveled from our home in Southern California to my parent’s house in New Jersey for a family reunion. On the day I’m thinking about I was in their backyard (which was bordered by woods), lying in a hammock in the shade of a tree. There was a gentle breeze blowing, birds were singing, and I was reading a good book. Suddenly it dawned on me that I was as relaxed and stress-free as I could remember being in a long, long time. It seemed as if all the stress and all the tension had been drained out of me. I was serene, comfortable, and content. I remember thinking “This feels soooo good …” and I savored the moment – so much so that I clearly remember it three decades later.

One definition of “savor” is: “To relish; delight in; enjoy; to appreciate fully.” But if we’re going to be able to savor our time – especially our special moments – we have to slow down and truly focus on the person before us, or enter deeply into the event we’re participating in, so we can fully enjoy and delight in the moment. But how often do we do that? How often do we truly enter into and savor the moments of our lives like that?

The moment I described from my parent’s backyard thirty years ago involved a very simple event, lying in a hammock in a backyard, yet it turned into one of the special moments of my life. It’s one I make an effort to recreate as often as possible. And actually, every moment has the potential to be savored. In Psalm 118:24 the Psalmist reminds us that every day is a gift from God. We can read that “every moment” is a gift from God. And if properly handled, it can be embraced, enjoyed, and savored.

Let’s learn to slow down and savor life. Let’s relax and enjoy it. If we don’t, we will miss the best moments in life.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Life is short, time is precious, enjoy it while you can

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Savor the time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Life is short, time is precious, enjoy it while you can.”

The other day I attended the funeral of an old friend who died rather suddenly. He was seventy-seven, but he had been a healthy and vigorous seventy-seven. However, one day they discovered he had cancer and seven weeks later he was dead. Just like that, he was gone.

Many of you reading this know that last year my daughter Tracy died suddenly as well. The cause was also cancer. It was exactly one week from the time they discovered she even had cancer until she died. One week. I have another friend who lost his daughter instantly, in a car accident. One moment she was alive and well, and the next she was dead.

This is what James was referring to in James 4:14. There’s a thin line separating life and death and any of us can cross it at any moment. Life is fragile, unpredictable, sometimes short, and it often ends abruptly. Therefore, we must savor and guard and cherish the time that we have. Time is precious and shouldn’t be wasted. That’s why one of my favorite sayings about time, and one which I often think about, write about, and use in my preaching and teaching, is the one from Benjamin Franklin which, when rephrased in contemporary language says, “Do you value your life? Then value your time. Because time is the stuff that life is made of.”

Too many of us waste our time, or we rush through our lives allowing ourselves to be so busy that we don’t really enjoy it, or we don’t give our time to the people and things which are most important. The older I get the more I appreciate and value my time.

All this month I would like to explore with you the idea of slowing down, focusing on the people and events that matter the most, and truly savoring this gift of life the Lord has given us. Let’s learn together how to truly savor our time.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Others sacrificed so we can be free

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Others sacrificed so we can be free.”

It’s fitting and appropriate for our study of “You have been set free” to conclude on Memorial Day. Memorial Day is the day each year when we as Americans stop to honor those who have given their lives in defense of our nation. They died to protect our freedom. We owe them a great debt of gratitude and they are perfect examples of what Jesus described in John 15:13.

However, as we have learned this month, the far greater sacrifice was made by Jesus when He died upon the cross to win for us freedom far greater than our constitutional freedoms. As precious as those are, they pale in comparison to the spiritual victory Jesus won for us. Our spiritual freedom is so much more important. If you would be interested in learning more about our spiritual freedoms, I encourage you to do a personal in-depth Bible study of the book of Galatians. Two helpful tools for such a study that I have used myself and which I recommend to you are, “Be Free: Exchange Legalism for True Spirituality” by Warren Wiersbe, and “The Life Application Bible Commentary on Galatians” published by Tyndale House. Galatians is a study in freedom.

Over the centuries millions of American service men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice so we can live as free citizens of the greatest nation in the world. Be grateful for their sacrifice. Honor it and celebrate it. Almost two thousand years ago Jesus made an even greater sacrifice so we can be free for eternity. People need to know this, and we can be the ones to tell them. Since today is Memorial Day, people are thinking about and celebrating freedom as citizens. We Americans cherish our freedom and therefore, the subject of freedom can be a great conversation starter to lead a person into a discussion about true freedom found through faith in Jesus Christ.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Help others find freedom too

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” 1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Help others find freedom too”

As we near the end of our study on the theme of “You have been set free”, I think it’s important to remind ourselves of the two primary reasons Jesus has set us free. First, He set us free from the penalty of our sins so that we can spend eternity in heaven. And second, once we received that salvation and experienced that freedom, He then left us here on earth in order to help others find that freedom too. As we have learned, we are now to be on-mission with Him in this world blessing others and leading them to faith in Him.

The Apostle Paul understood that. From the moment He was saved on the road to Damascus, the focus of his life was to help others find the freedom from sin that he himself had received. That’s what he was describing in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. In the rest of the passage, he went on to describe all of the sacrifices he was willing to make in order to reach people with the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Not only did Paul live that way himself, he taught the rest of us to do so as well. In Galatians 5:13 he wrote, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.” Likewise, in Philippians 2:4 we read, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” The Apostle Peter taught this as well. In 1 Peter 4:10 he wrote, “Each one of us should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

And all of this of course, is based upon the example that Jesus Himself set for us. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45. And, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” John 13:15. Jesus even went on to say that as far as He is concerned, the greatest and most faithful followers are those who are the best servants: “The greatest among you will be your servant.” Matthew 23:11.

The teaching is clear – we have been set free from our sins, now we are to help others discover that same freedom. The best way to do that is to serve them in the name of Jesus, then tell them the Good News of the Gospel. Nothing we do will be of more benefit to our society and to our nation than for Christians to be on-mission with Jesus in the communities where we live.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Be a source of grace, peace, and comfort

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be a source of grace, peace, and comfort”

I love the way Paul began his letter to the Corinthian believers, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What a wonderful word of blessing to greet someone with. Then, he immediately follows that in verses 3-4 with an explanation of how it is that we can be a conduit for that grace and peace to flow from God to other people: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort that we ourselves received from God.”

It never ceases to amaze me how much pain and suffering there is in this world. From famines and wars; to natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and pandemics; to the normal everyday trials that we all experience like the death of a loved one, sickness, wayward children, betrayal by friends, etc. And Christians aren’t exempt from any of it. We suffer those things right along with our fellow humans.

Yes, there is a lot of pain and suffering in life. But that’s just life in a broken, bleeding, sin-filled world. However, God often does His best work in the middle of suffering, because that’s when people are most open to Him. As Christians we often experience God most and best in the middle of pain and suffering, and that’s even truer for non-Christians. Typically, the closer a person gets to rock-bottom in life the more open that person is to seeking comfort from the God of all comfort.

That’s the situation Paul was describing in 2 Corinthians 1:3-6. First, God will comfort you in the midst of your own pain and suffering. Then, He will use your times of pain and suffering, and what you learned through them, to make you more sensitive and empathic to those who are suffering like you did. That then creates the opportunity for God to use you to deliver His grace and peace and comfort to others who are suffering and who may not even know Him.

Through their pain and suffering you can help other people to find the grace and peace that you have found from God through faith in Jesus Christ. Pain and suffering can become a pathway that leads them to freedom – the true freedom that we’ve been thinking about all month. I encourage you to look for someone you can be a source of comfort to today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

The Jesus way

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “You have been set free”

Our Bible verse for today: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The Jesus way”

Pastor and author Eugene Peterson once had this to say about Jesus’ metaphor of being “the way”: “The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life … But Jesus as the truth gets far more attention that Jesus as the way. Jesus as the way is the most frequently evaded metaphor among Christians …”

We commonly think of Jesus as “the way” to heaven. And He is that. That is the primary context of John 14:6. But He’s more than just the way to eternal salvation, He’s also the model of the way we as Christians are to live. Repeatedly throughout the gospels Jesus demonstrated with His own life and taught in His parables how He wants His followers to conduct themselves, and then He said “Now go and do likewise”.

Seriously. We need to pay attention to this. Jesus is our example. He shows us how we are supposed to conduct ourselves in this world. We are to measure our life and conduct against His, and then make adjustments accordingly. His life is the gold standard and His example is our guide, it’s what we’re supposed to be striving for.

Not too many years ago there was a popular saying in Christian culture which we were supposed to frequently ask ourselves as both a challenge and a reminder. It was, “What would Jesus do? (WWJD)” It’s true that it was overused to the point of becoming a trite cliché and yet, it is Biblical. And important. And helpful. What would Jesus do in your situation?

Granted, He is not you and you are not Him. Your world today is different than His world was then. Jesus wasn’t a forty-year -old man driving a car in Crossville, TN and He didn’t just get flipped off by another driver who thinks you cut him off. But if He was, then how would He respond in this instance? What would Jesus do? And Jesus wasn’t a fifty-year-old woman working in an office with an irritating and obnoxious coworker. But if He was, how would He deal with this person? What would Jesus do? And Jesus isn’t here to show us how to deal with angry fellow citizens on the other side of the political spectrum. But if He was, how would He respond in such situations? What would Jesus do?

You get the picture. The Gospels don’t provide us with explicit instructions to address every situation we will encounter in life. But they do provide us with principles that apply broadly, and they do offer us enough examples from the life of Jesus so that we can ask the question “What would Jesus do?” and then apply those principles and His example to our situations.

Jesus is “the way” that we are supposed to be conducting ourselves in our world. It’s “the Jesus way”, and not enough of us are doing it. I think our society needs to see a little less of our way of handling things and a little more of the Jesus way.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim