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.

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Embrace the forgiveness.”   1 John 1:9 is an important verse of scripture, one which we should all have memorized. Here John (who was known as “The Apostle of Love”) reminds us of a vitally important aspect of God’s love, His willingness to completely forgive us if we will simply and genuinely confess and repent of our sins.   God doesn’t want to hold our sins against us. He has expressed His heart about this numerous times throughout the Bible. In Isaiah 1:18 He said, “Come, let us settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be whiter than snow; though they are crimson red, they will be like wool.” He is saying that if you confess and repent you will be whiter than snow in His sight.   We read something similar in Psalm 103:11-12, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” As a function of His great love for you, He removes your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. In others words, infinity. Your sins are removed from you as far as they could possibly be. And, just to put an exclamation point on this, here’s Hebrews 8:12, “For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.”   Those are just a few of the many places in the Bible where God assures us of His willingness, indeed, His deep desire, to forgive us. The problem for many of us is that we don’t really and fully accept that forgiveness. We don’t embrace it and then live like we have been forgiven. Instead, we allow ourselves to wallow in guilt and regret, and we’re often haunted by our past. But that shouldn’t be. If God has forgiven us then we should forgive ourselves and move on in life.   We’ll continue thinking about this tomorrow.   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: “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Forgiveness and restoration is an act of love.”   Is there a pain greater than to be betrayed by someone you love and trust? I suspect not. We can accept and deal with wounds from an enemy, but the betrayal of a loved one feels like a knife in the heart. Jesus experienced this twice in His earthly ministry. Two of His closest disciples badly betrayed Him, Judas and Peter. Judas turned Him over to the religious authorities and helped to arrange for His arrest ((Luke 22:1-6). After the arrest, Peter denied three times that He even knew Jesus (Luke 22:54-62).   The difference between Judas and Peter was that Peter confessed and repented of His betrayal, but Judas never did. In Matthew 27:1-10 we read that Judas was in fact remorseful, and he did regret what he had done, but He never went back to Jesus and asked for forgiveness. Instead he went out and hung himself. Peter on the other hand went to the resurrected Jesus, professed his love for Him three times, and was fully restored in his relationship with the Lord (John 21:15-23). He then went on to have a productive life of ministry and he was a blessing to many people. That’s what Jesus had been praying for with respect to Peter in Luke 22:32.   No matter what you have done, you can be forgiven. The relationship can be restored and you can go on to great things in life. But you do have to confess, repent, and change your ways. That is certainly true with respect to our relationship with God, but it is also true in our relationships with other people – especially those we are close to and who we have wronged. Full confession with no excuses, combined with a genuine desire to avoid similar sin or betrayal in the future, and with a sincere effort to correct the damage if possible, all can lead to full restoration and a much better future. Again, that’s true with God in the larger sense, but it’s also true in our relationships with other people.   Too often we try to repent quietly and privately, in our own head, usually with a resolve to not do the thing again. But that’s only going half-way in your repentance. That makes us like Judas, being remorseful internally but without making an effort to make things right with those we have wronged. That wasn’t sufficient for Judas and it’s not enough for us either. I personally think Jesus would have forgiven Judas if he had only sought forgiveness. But, sadly, he didn’t.   Forgiveness, followed by restoration, is an act of love. But as was noted in yesterday’s devotional, confession and repentance is the prelude to restoration. God’s love for you is unconditional, that’s true, but if there is unresolved sin then the relationship is still damaged. If you don’t confess and repent, you don’t get restored. Just ask Judas.   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: “Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! I say, “The Lord is my portion therefore I will put my hope in him.” Lamentations 3:22-24 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “God’s love and compassion never end.”   Lamentations 3:22-24 is an extraordinary statement of faith and hope in the midst of disaster and desolation. For generations God had been warning the people of Israel that their sinful ways were leading them to terrible consequences. The prophet Jeremiah had spent his entire ministry, (almost forty years up to this point spanning the reigns of five kings) warning the people that actions have consequences and that their sinful ways were leading them to ruin. But the people didn’t listen.   Now, in the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah is wandering the rubble-strewn streets of a Jerusalem that has been sacked, looted, and destroyed. Most of the people had been carried off into captivity in pagan lands. But despite that, Jeremiah knew that God is a forgiving God and that although the people would have to suffer the consequences of their poor choices, God was still prepared to forgive them and restore them when the price was paid and the time was right.   We all have times of failure in our lives which bring consequences we would rather avoid. Usually we have to simply pay the price for what we’ve done, then get up, dust off, and move forward in life. The good news is that God is always ready to forgive and restore us. God always has our good at heart, and He’s always ready to lead us to better and brighter days.     We’re going to spend the next several days exploring the great truth that God expresses His love for us through forgiveness and restoration. It really is true that God’s love and compassion never end but as was noted in yesterday’s devotional, it’s incumbent on us to come back to Him – full confession and true repentance is the prelude to restoration and better days. That was true for the nation of Israel in the days of Jeremiah and it’s true for you too. Confess, repent, change your ways, and then come and be restored.   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 tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Zechariah 1:3 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Return to Him”   The Old Testament prophet Zechariah began his short letter to the Hebrew people with a call from God, “Return to Me”. The people really needed to hear that. They had just come through one of the worst periods in the history of the Jewish people. Their homeland had been destroyed by invading armies, the city of Jerusalem had been looted, and most of the people had been carried off into captivity in pagan lands. Finally, after seventy long years of captivity, King Cyrus granted a group of them permission to return to Palestine and rebuild Jerusalem. So, after a long and dangerous trek, they were finally there. It was at that time God had Zechariah issue the call “Return to Me!”   God wanted His people back. He didn’t just want them back in the land of Palestine; He wasn’t just looking for a rebuilt Jerusalem and a restored Temple; He wanted the people back in right relationship with Him. That’s what this call was for.   Sadly, it’s a call God has had to issue to His people repeatedly over the course of history – both Jewish and Christian history – and it’s a call He continues to extend today. Individually, and as a church and as a nation, God’s people have continued their misguided ways and have drifted from Him, only to suffer terrible consequences for it. And so, God’s call has remained the same, “Return to Me”.   In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God promised that if as a nation His people would return to Him, confess their sins, and repent of their ways, then He would heal their land and pour out His blessings upon them. In the last book of the Bible, in Revelation 2:1-7, God declares that some of His people have forsaken their first love (Him) and He again exhorts them to return to Him. Here in Zechariah 1:3 the call to return to God was to the Hebrews as a group, but also to each person as an individual, “Return to me.”     Let me ask you this morning: Where are you in your personal relationship with the Lord? There’s an old and challenging question that is often asked which goes: “If God feels far away, guess who moved?” The obvious answer is “you did!” God doesn’t move away from us we move away from Him.   The Lord is calling to you personally today, “Return to Me and I will return to 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: “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 we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “A place to heal”   As I write this it is Friday morning. On Friday’s my thoughts always turn to Sunday. Sunday is the best day of the week because it’s the day the church family gathers. One of the reasons I love it when the church family is together is because, as I’ve mentioned numerous times now in this devotional series, it’s when the church is gathered that the love of God is experienced most and best. God loves us through each other. The other day in my reading I came across a great description of church life that came from pastor and author Chuck Swindoll:   “Churches need to be less like national shrines and more like local bars … less like untouchable cathedrals and more like well-used hospitals, places to bleed in rather than monuments to look at … places where you can take your mask off and let your hair down … places where you can have your wounds dressed … it’s okay if they look like churches on the outside, just so folks don’t act churchy on the inside.”   I smiled when I read that because it sounds so much like our church life at Oak Hill Baptist. We’re not like a local bar to the extent of hanging out in the Fellowship Hall drinking beer and sipping wine, but we are like a bar in that we are relaxed and social, with lots of laughing, a bit of crying, and people freely and comfortably sharing their joys and sorrows. We care about what’s going on in each other’s lives, we help where we can help, and the rest of the time we empathically listen. And yes, it does look like a church on the outside, but the people inside are not real “churchy” – there’s not a lot of stained-glass prayers or superficial Christian cliches or modern-day Pharisees. You can come bleeding, have your wounds treated, and take some time to heal.     In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Paul described Christians who have themselves been wounded and healed, and who now use their own experiences as the basis from which they understand, commiserate with, and minister to others who are experiencing similar things. That’s what church life should be like. It is a deep and rich and glorious expression of the Father’s love for us. I encourage you not to miss it. Your church is a gift from God, and there you will experience His great love for 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: “Love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:30-31 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Not all love is the same.”   Would you agree that there are degrees of love? There are. I love ice cream, but I love my dogs more. I love my dogs, but I love my wife more. I love a crisp Fall day, but I love life more. And, I love myself, but I love God more. Not all love is the same. There are degrees.   In the ancient Greek language which the New Testament was written in (Koine Greek), there were four common words for love: “eros” (which isn’t used in the New Testament) is a possessive and sexual expression of love that is physical and often selfish; “storge” is the idea of family love or strong family-like affection for someone; “philos” defines love between close friends; and “agape” is the highest form of love. Agape is unconditional love that is not deserved or merited but which is freely bestowed, without restraint, and without limit. Agape is the best and purest expression of love.   Some form of the word “agape” is used over two hundred and sixty times in the New Testament. Most often it is used to describe God’s love for us. God’s love is unconditional, unlimited, and perfect. Other times however, agape is also used to describe the love we are to have for God and for others. That’s what Mark was describing in Mark 2:30-31 above.   Interestingly, the word “agape” is also sometimes used by New Testament writers in a negative way to illustrate a seriously misplaced love for something of this world. That was the case in 2 Timothy 4:10 where Paul tells us that Demas loved the things of the world so much that he deserted Paul and left the work of ministry. Demas had an “agape”, or all-consuming love, for the things of the world. His love for the things of the world was so strong that he was willing to sacrifice other things (like ministry and his friendship with Paul) in order to get it.   Agape love expressed fully and perfectly describes only God and is beyond the reach of us mere humans. And yet, it is the standard for which we are to strive. Family love and friendship love are admirable qualities, but it is “agape” that is the gold standard for love, and that should be our desire as we express our love for God and for others.   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: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Romans 8:35 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Nothing can separate you from God’s love.”   Romans 8:35-39 is one of the most reassuring and comforting passages in the New Testament. Paul assures us that the love of Christ is so complete and so secure that we can never lose it. Here’s some more of what he wrote:   “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   The meaning of this passage is foundational to an accurate understanding of our relationship with God through Christ. Once we belong to God through faith in Jesus, we possess a depth and degree of His love that is as complete and as secure as it could possibly be. Paul explains that once we have come to the Father through the Son, there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from Him. Nothing in life and not even death itself can separate us from God’s love. There are no angels (not even demonic angels) who can take God’s love away from us; there are no powers strong enough to do it; there is no height or depth extreme enough to separate us from Him; there is nothing in all creation that can do it.   Once you belong to God by means of having been adopted into His family through your faith in Christ, He will never let you go. That’s the theological doctrine known as “the security of the believer” and it teaches “once saved always saved”. There’s nothing that can now separate you from God. You’re too important to Him for Him to ever let you go now that you are His.   That even means that your sinful behavior can’t separate you from Him. Of course, there are consequences for sinful behaviors, you do lose blessings and you do suffer in many ways in this lifetime as a result of sinning, but God doesn’t love you any less and you can never lose your salvation because of it.   Be assured today that God loves you so much that there is nothing in this world or the next, in the physical realm or in the spiritual world, in the present or in the future, that can separate you from Him.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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