Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:15 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “God’s love is experienced in death”   Yesterday our daughter Tracy died. It was only one week before that when we received the phone call telling us she had terminal cancer. That was on Tuesday. On Wednesday I flew to San Diego and began making arrangements to bring her home to Tennessee. On Thursday I took her out of the ICU, put her on an airplane, and we flew home. It was only by the grace of God that it was possible to do that. The hospital staff was very helpful by supplying us with medicines for pain, anxiety, and nausea, along with various hospital supplies. The airline personal were understanding and accommodating. Fellow travelers were exceptionally kind and helpful. We certainly felt loved and cared for and blessed. It was God’s love expressed through kind people.   Tracy’s first two days home were wonderful. She rallied, felt good, was happy. She thoroughly enjoyed being with family and friends and with her two little dogs. She did some crafts with her mom (they’re both very crafty people). But then Saturday evening she started to quickly fade. We saw her going. By bedtime she was no longer talking. The last thing she did before falling asleep was to reach up, put her hand behind my head, and give me a big kiss. Then, for all practical purposes, she was gone. Those two days were an amazing gift from God.   Sunday and Monday were tough days. In the rare moments she was awake, she was disoriented and unable to communicate. Linda sat with her late into the night, comforting her just by being with her. Early Tuesday morning I went in to check on her. She had the death rattle in her breathing, but I knew she could hear me. I told her I loved her and that it was okay to let go, she didn’t need to hold on anymore because soon she would be with Jesus and with grandma and grandpa and uncle Kevin. I walked back across the hall to see Linda for a few minutes. When I went back into Tracy’s room, she was gone. In those few moments she had left that tired and sick body behind and went to heaven.   For us it was a painful and sad moment. We love Tracy very much and we will miss her terribly. But for God it was a time of rejoicing and celebrating. That’s what Psalm 116:15 means. That’s why Tracy’s death could be precious in God’s sight. One of His much-loved children had completed her long and difficult journey on earth and had finally arrived home in heaven. God had patiently waited 49 long years for Tracy to get there, and at 6:55 A.M on October 27, 2020 His wait was over. His child was finally home. It was a precious moment for Him and there was a celebration in heaven because of it. Surely someone there shouted, “Hey everyone, Tracy’s here!”   Tracy never grew-up in this lifetime. Physically she had cerebral palsy and seizures. Mentally she had the emotional maturity of a 13 year old and the intellectual capacity of a 5 year old. Consequently, she never stopped being “Daddy’s little girl”.   We will miss her very much. But the day will come when it will be our turns to pass through that moment of death and when we do, Tracy will be one of those waiting to greet us in heaven. The fact that such a reunion is even possible is a direct result of God’s great love for us.      As we’ve been learning through these two months of daily devotional messages about God’s love, we get to experience and share in God’s love in many ways in this lifetime. But our greatest experience of His love for us, will occur one second after death.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, though its water roar and foam and the mountains quake with its turmoil … Nations rage, kingdoms topple; the earth melts when he lifts his voice. The Lord of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” Psalm 46:2-3; 6-7 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “The Bible is an expression of God’s love for us.”   One of God’s most loving acts towards us, after sending His Son to rescue us from the penalty of our sins, was to give us His inspired Word, the Bible. The Bible is an expression of God’s great love for us. It demonstrates clearly that God wants to be known by us and that He went to extraordinary lengths to communicate with us. In the Bible He has revealed to us everything He wants us to know about Himself and His ways.     Additionally, the Bible is our guide for living. Everything we need to know in order to live a life that is pleasing to God is contained on the pages of the Bible. That includes having a Biblical worldview which enables us to see all of the events of life through the lens of scripture. It helps us to see things from God’s perspective. A case in point is found in Psalm 46:2-3; 6-7 cited above. There the Psalmist paints a picture of the sovereign God of the universe reigning supreme over a world that at that moment, may have appeared to be in chaos. God was in control – just as He always is.   Viewing things from a Biblical perspective allows us to rise above the events going on all around us and to essentially view them from 40,000 feet. When we do that, we get to see the big picture. We realize that although the issues and events of the day are in fact important, in the overall arc of history they’re just a moment in time. Nations rise and nations fall; wars begin and wars end; economies are good and then they’re not; pandemics come and then they go; elections are held, things change, but then another election comes, the political pendulum swings in the other direction, and things change again.   Through it all Jesus is still on the throne, we are still saved, and the kingdom of God continues to grow (“… I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16:18).   The Bible helps us to better understand our world and to better appreciate the significance (or insignificance) or individual events. That then brings not only God-given clarity, but it offers peace and assurance in the midst of struggles and even apparent chaos.   The Bible is just one more expression of God’s great love for His people. It helps us to see things from His perspective.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be … and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.” Jeremiah 29:7 (NKJV)   Our thought for today: “Be an agent of God’s love and peace. Speak words of blessing.”   Jeremiah chapter twenty-nine is a fascinating and instructive piece of Old Testament history. The chapter is essentially a stand-alone letter that Jeremiah wrote to Jewish “elders, priests, prophets, and all the people” who had been taken captive by the army of Nebuchadnezzar and carried off as prisoners to Babylon. They were now living in a place where they did not want to be, in a harsh and authoritarian society that they did not want to be a part of, and Jeremiah was giving them instructions from the Lord about how to conduct themselves.   Some of the instructions included building homes for themselves, planting crops, and raising families. Then in verse 7 he tells them to pray for the peace of the land they find themselves in. Interestingly, that then led to the classic passage in Jeremiah 29:11-13 which we all know and love, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (NIV)   The picture we get in the overall passage is of the people of God living good and quiet lives in the society they were in – being agents of peace and love in the middle of a bad situation. And let’s be clear, God was not condoning or endorsing Babylonian culture or society. It was a pagan culture that was sinful and evil in many ways. But God’s word to His people was essentially, “You are where you are, and your situation is what it is. In the middle of this, be faithful to Me. Settle down, live good lives, stand for truth, and make a positive difference how and where you can.”   As we head into the last week of a contentious election season here in the USA, we need to remember who we are and how we are to conduct ourselves. We are the people of God and we are to be His agents of peace and love. By all means, advocate for the candidates and policies that best represent your views. Be active, be vocal, and vote. But also, be kind as you represent Christ in a confused and bitterly divided society. Pray for our nation and speak words of blessing. Perhaps a good way to establish this in our own minds would be to Google the music video “The New York Blessing” and remind ourselves how we, the people of God, can be agents of God’s love, speaking words of blessing even as the world around us is hurting and struggling.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Trust Him even when you don’t understand.”   Life can be hard. Sometimes things happen that we don’t understand and for which we’re not prepared. Often, we’re left feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do. It’s during times like that when strong faith in God and full reliance on Him becomes especially crucial.   Many things in life surprise us, but nothing surprises God. And even if we feel unprepared and inadequate to deal with them, God is always prepared and more than adequate. Yesterday my wife and I received a phone call informing us that our daughter in San Diego has terminal cancer. She was taken to the emergency room the night before with unexplained pain in her abdomen.  A series of tests quickly revealed cancer throughout her lower body including in her cervix, liver, and bones. Her kidneys are also failing. They tell us she doesn’t have long to live.   This morning I will fly to California to bring Tracy home to Tennessee, but I have so many unanswered questions. Why are we losing her at only 49 years of age? She is already so sick, will she be able to handle the trip home? How long do we have left with her? Can we care for her in our home or does she need the professional care of a hospice center? (She will initially go to our local Hospice Home for further evaluation and stabilization).   Those and so many other issues remain to be worked out and at this time, I honestly don’t know the answers to any of them. But I do know that God is good, and the He loves us deeply, and that none of this surprises Him. So we’re going to do exactly what Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to do, trust Him, lean not on our own understanding, and know that in His way and in His time, He will lead us through this. That promise is true for us now in this situation, and it’s true for you too in your situations. Trust Him, follow Him, depend on Him, even when you don’t understand.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope and glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Yes, He likes you. He really, really likes you.”   Probably one of the best remembered and most embarrassing moments in the history of the Motion Picture Academy Awards occurred in 1984 when Sally Fields won the Oscar for Best Actress. During her acceptance speech, as the audience of stars and V.I.P.s applauded for her, she was overcome by emotion and with tears in her eyes she gushed, “Right now I can’t deny that you like me! You really, really like me!”   It was a sad spectacle, a window into the heart of a secretly insecure woman. Despite all her years of fame and fortune, despite millions of adoring fans and numerous awards for theatrical achievements, deep down Sally Fields still wasn’t sure if she was even liked or not.   That’s also the case for many Christians. Deep down we wonder how and why God could love us. We know ourselves too well. We know who we really are and what we’re really like. And so, knowing ourselves as we do, and realizing that nothing is hidden from God, we wonder how He can even like us, never mind love us. Paul answers that for us in Romans 5:1-2. There we read that we stand holy and righteous before God, fully pleasing to Him and fully accepted by Him, because of our faith in His Son Jesus Christ. It’s Jesus who brings us into a relationship of full acceptance and unconditional love with Father God.   In the excellent Bible study, “The Search for Significance: Build your Self-Worth on God’s Truth”, one of the first lessons we learn is “Because of Christ’s redemption, I am a new creation of infinite worth. I am deeply loved, I am completely forgiven, I am fully pleasing. I am totally accepted by God. I am absolutely complete in Christ.” The rest of the study is all about helping us to embrace and live by that truth.   Sally Fields struggled with doubts about whether she was liked by her peers, and she was overjoyed to the point of tears to discover some amount of momentary acceptance from them. As a Christian you are more than just “liked” by God, you are loved by Him – deeply, fully, unconditionally loved.   Yes, He really, really likes you but more than that, He really, really loves you.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Luke 12:6-7 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “He even knows the numbers of hairs on your head.”   It is beyond our comprehension how great God is. His magnitude, majesty, and awesome power are more than our human minds can grasp. And rightly so. If God could fit into my little pea-brain then He wouldn’t be much of a God. No, God is far beyond my understanding.   And the depths of His love for me are also beyond my understanding. He is the God who not only created the universe, but He is bigger than the universe, and indeed, He holds the universe in the palm of His hand. How can such a magnificent and awesome God bother Himself with tiny little insignificant me? The great devotional writer Oswald Chambers once shared some thoughts about that:   “Look at the world either through a telescope or a microscope and you will be dwarfed into terror by the infinitely great or the infinitely little. Naturalists tell us that there are no two blades of grass alike, and close inspection of a bee’s wing under a microscope reveals how marvelously it is made. What do I read in the Bible? I read that the God of heaven counts the hairs of our heads. Jesus says so. I read that the mighty God watches the sparrows so intimately that not one of them falls on the ground without His notice. I read that the God who holds the seas in the hollow of His hand and guides the stars on their courses, clothes the grass of the field. Through the love of God in Christ Jesus we are brought into a wonderful intimacy with the infinitely great and the infinitely little.”   Part of the indefinable greatness of God is that He can guide the course of the stars while also being aware of the number of hairs on your head. He knows everything about you; He remains aware of your every issue, your every concern, your every thought, and He does so because He loves you so much. You are more important to Him than you can even begin to understand. He knows you intimately and loves you unconditionally.   I encourage you to spend some time this morning contemplating God’s great love for you. He loves you so much, and He pays such close attention to you, that He even knows the numbers of hairs on your head.     God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Love the brotherhood of believers.” 1 Peter 2:17 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Love others by being there for them.”   It has already been noted several times in this series of devotional messages that God’s love is often experienced best and most when the church is gathered. This is one of the reasons the writer of the book of Hebrews instructed us to not neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:24-25). When you are gathered with your church family God will express His love for you through the words and actions of other Christians. And, He will express His love for others through your words and actions.   That being the case, being present when your church is gathered is an act of love on your part. You are making yourself available to be used by God to express His love to others. And if you are not there, then you are not available to be used by God for that purpose.   In 1 Peter 2:13-25 Peter gave us instructions for proper Christian living. He listed things like submission to civil authorities, showing respect for everyone you encounter, being a good worker, and honoring God as you deal with difficult situations in life. Included in that long list was the instruction to demonstrate love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. But in order to demonstrate love for your brothers and sisters, you need to be with them.   We’re in a time right now when our churches are struggling with attendance issues, purportedly because of the COVID 19 pandemic but in reality, that’s only partially true. Some church members in high risk categories are still staying home in an effort to avoid exposure to the virus. That’s perfectly understandable. But many others who could safely come to church have simply gotten out of the habit of faithfully attending. They’re either sleeping-in on Sunday and having a lazy morning of coffee and donuts in their pajamas, or they’re off going here, there, and everywhere, instead of coming to church. It has been rightly said that rather than other things being your excuse for missing church, church should be your excuse for missing other things. (Can I get an “Amen!”?)   Your church family needs you to be there. If you genuinely feel you need to stay home as a health and safety issue, of course we understand. But if you’ve simply gotten out of the habit of faithful attendance, it’s time to get back in the habit. Not only are you missing the experience of God’s love coming to you through your brothers and sisters, but they’re missing it coming through you.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord …” Acts 3:19-20 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Welcome to seasons of refreshing”   Our focus this past week has been on experiencing the love of God by accepting and embracing the forgiveness of God. It has been noted that full confession and true repentance is the prelude to forgiveness, and that then leads us to a greater awareness of and experience of God’s love.   In Acts 3:19-20 the Apostle Peter was calling to the people of Jerusalem to confess and repent. He said that once they did that, their sins would be wiped out. He was reminding them of what God had told them hundreds of years earlier from the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 43:25, “I sweep away your transgressions for my own sake and remember your sins no more.” And in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”   What Peter was telling those people on that day is equally true for us in our day – out of His great love for us God is ready and eager to forgive us, and to wipe away our sins to the point of refusing to remember that we ever even committed them. It’s simply a matter of confessing and truly repenting, or as Jesus told the woman in John 8:11, “Go and sin no more.” Then we’re ready for what Peter called “Seasons of refreshing”. We’re ready to experience our relationship with God and with others in fresh new ways. A clean slate ushers us back into the realm of blessings whereby God can bless us the way that He really wants to.   The key for us is to accept the forgiveness and let the issue go. Clinging to guilt and remorse is essentially a demonic monkey on your back. It’s like the old ball and chain clamped to your ankle that you drag through life. And, it’s completely unnecessary, it’s holding you back and keeping you from experiencing the seasons of refreshing that God is trying to give you. If God has forgiven you, then you need to forgive yourself and move on in life.   Full confession and true repentance bring us to forgiveness. Forgiveness ushers us into seasons of refreshing.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” 2 Timothy 2:22 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Remove the temptations”   Accepting and fully embracing the forgiveness of God is a key factor for experiencing the love of God. That’s why I’m taking this entire week to explore the subject of forgiveness with you. Often, we know intellectually that God forgives us, but experientially we don’t really live like we’re forgiven. Instead, we continue to relive past failures and we wallow in regret and remorse. While we should grieve our sinful behavior, at some point we need to be able to let it go.   However, one of the reasons people have trouble letting go of their sense of guilt is because they’re still guilty – they have never really fully stopped their sinful ways. Sometimes we’ve indulged in a habitual pattern of sinful living for a long time and it has become so much a part of us that it feels normal (or at least not really that bad). Also, we tend to allow temptations from that lifestyle to continue to be present in our current life even though we have theoretically left the old ways behind.   As Billy Graham was fond of saying, “The first step you need to take to gain victory over sin is to flee from whatever is tempting you.” Don’t play with it or toy with it in your mind, and don’t allow any physical remnants of it into your life. If donuts are your downfall, then stay out of the donut shop! If you’ve had a past habit of viewing pornography, then you need to have security controls set-up on your computer, by someone else, with passwords you don’t know. Whatever it is that has created temptations for you in the past, needs to be out of your life now.   One of the reasons we sometimes have difficulty accepting and embracing God’s forgiveness is because we’re still guilty. Remove the temptations and you will be much less likely to sin in that manner in the future, and then your actual experience of God’s love for you will suddenly seem much more real and tangible. It’s hard to feel loved if you’re still sinning against the One you profess to love.   I encourage you to remove the temptations from your life.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

Copyright © 2020 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved.