Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It’s up to you”   We began this devotional series about experiencing the love of God more than five weeks ago with a discussion about how difficult it sometimes seems to experience God’s love in real and tangible ways. I used the illustration of a young man I know who was concerned that the love of his girlfriend often seems more real to him than does the love of God. I explained to him it’s because his girlfriend is a flesh and bones person who he can see and hold, but God is a spirit.   Since then we’ve also learned that the most common way in which God expresses His love for us so that we can experience it in a palpable and easily perceived way is through the actions of other Christians. He uses us as a vessel through which His love flows to others. That being the case, it means that other people are depending on you for their experience of God’s love. That’s why so many of the Bible passages about love focus on how we are to love each another.   In 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter), Paul provided numerous descriptors illustrating how God’s love manifests itself through us. There is no envy in it; there’s no boasting, arrogance, or rudeness; it is not self-seeking; and it keeps no record of wrongs. Instead, it rejoices in truth, it willingly bears hardships, it is filled with hope, it endures, and it never ends. Those are all descriptions of human behaviors based in God’s love, and it is how God wants us to interact with each other.   Yesterday we all sat around the campfire, held hands, and sang the song, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love”. (Okay, we didn’t actually sit around a campfire holding hands but admit it, you sang the song in your head as you were reading the lyrics). And that’s good because it really is true that what this world needs now is a whole lot more of God’s love being shared among people.   I encourage you to go out there today and allow others to experience God’s love coming through you. To a large degree it’s up to you whether or not others will have a tangible discernable experience of God’s love.   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: “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love – but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”   Okay, you had to know it was coming. We’re into our second month of devotional messages about God’s love and I have yet to mention “the love chapter” of the Bible (1 Corinthians 13), nor have I referred to the classic song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, and sung by Jackie DeShannon, “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love”. So today you get them both in a single message. First, here are some of the lyrics to the song:   What the world needs now is love, sweet love No – not just for some but for everyone; Lord, we don’t need another mountain, There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb, There are oceans and rivers enough to cross … Enough to last ‘till the end of time. What the world needs now is love, sweet love; No – not just for some, but for everyone It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.   I know, the song’s a little sappy but yet, the message is true and it was Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 13. The love of God is perfect in all its ways and it is exactly what the world needs more of. Especially our world today. There’s so much anger and bitterness, so much hate and vitriol. Our country seems to be seething with dark passion over many issues and sadly, some Christians are being part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Some Christians have joined the chorus of angry voices and snarky social media posts. It’s okay and appropriate for us to have opinions about important issues and to express them, but how we say it is at least as important as what we say.   We actually don’t need more hot opinions right now. What we do need is more of God’s love injected into the middle of all the hot and emotional confrontations. It really is true that what the world needs now is love, sweet love – God’s love, and it needs to be expressed through you and me.   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: “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.” Luke 10:36-37 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “We need more than lessons and proclamations.”   Kosuke Koyama was an unusual and interesting man. He was a Japanese Christian who spent many years living and working as a Bible scholar and teacher in Thailand. He then became Dean of the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology in Singapore, and then he taught philosophy and religion at the University of Otago in New Zealand.   He once wrote a book with the title “Three Mile an Hour God”. Three miles an hour is the average walking speed of a healthy adult. The premise of Koyama’s book was that God walks with us through life at our speed. God is patient and unhurried with us, and He is perfectly content to walk with us through life at the speed we can handle. As He walks goes along with us, He guides us, teaches us, and bestows many blessings upon us. He also brings other brothers and sisters alongside to make the journey with us. And that thought brings us to the subject of today’s daily devotional.   Today is Saturday. Tomorrow you will gather with your church family for worship and fellowship. One of the reasons God will have us all together is so that we can support, encourage, and bless one another on His behalf. As we’ve already learned in this devotional series, one of the primary ways in which God expresses His love and care for us is through the actions of other Christians.   Unfortunately, as Kosuke Koyama points out in his book, far too often we teach lessons about love and blessings, and we make proclamations about love and blessings, but we don’t actually bestow love and blessings. But we need more than just lessons and proclamations about love and blessings. We need to actually be loved and blessed. That was pretty much Jesus’ point in the parable of the Good Samaritan cited above. He doesn’t want us to just learn the lesson and then teach it to others, he wants us to “go and do the same”.   We’re all walking together with God on this journey through life. It’s like a group of Boy Scouts out on a hike together. God is the Scout Master, the guide, and He is teaching us to look out for each other and to help each other as we travel along the way. I encourage you to be alert tomorrow for those in your church family who are in special need of experiencing God’s love and blessings. God wants to use you to lift up and encourage them.   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 as for me, God’s presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all you do.” Psalm 73:28 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “He has proven Himself to you.”   This morning I want to continue our thought from yesterday about “being” instead of always “doing” – or at least being first and doing second. My point was that our love relationship with God is based first on simply being with Him, and then doing things for Him second. We need to be patient and wait on the Lord as He speaks to us, settles us down, gives us peace of mind and clarity of thought, and then we will be ready to go deal with whatever our situation is. That lesson was from Psalm 37 and it came to us out of the personal experience of King David.   Psalm 73 was written by a man named Asaph and again, it seems to be based on his personal experience of what he discovered God to be like, how much He loves us, and how much we can trust Him. In this case, the main point of the Psalm is that God has proven Himself through His past actions. Because of His faithfulness in the past, we know we can trust Him in the present and in the future. As treacherous and confusing as life was for him at times, Asaph could look back and see the hand of God all throughout, caring for him, protecting him, and guiding him. That’s why he ended the Psalm with the confident declaration that God is his refuge and that he will eagerly tell of all the great things God has done for Him.   Early in my life as a Christian I was blessed to discover the Bible study “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God” by Henry Blackaby. That study was transformative for me and brought me to an entirely new and better understanding of my relationship with God. One of the most helpful exercises in that study was to construct what Henry calls “a spiritual map” of my life. To do this, you go back as early in life as you can remember and you list chronologically every major event, every turning point and crossroads, every transformative moment that you can remember. Then, as you review it, see how God has been at work in your life over the years guiding, leading, and transforming you as He slowly and patiently worked out His plan for you.   That spiritual map helps you to see how you arrived at the point you’re at in life, and it also serves to point you forward. God is amazingly consistent in our lives. One thing is usually a stepping stone leading us to the next thing. So, look to see where you’ve been, consider where you are now, and look forward to get a glimpse of where He is leading you to.   When we do that, we discover that God has always been present in our lives; He has always been active and working and we can trust Him fully; He is indeed our refuge and our strength; He is our comforter and our guide; He is our loving heavenly Father, guiding us through this journey on earth, and progressively leading us closer and closer to our real home in heaven.   God has proven Himself to you in the past. That means you can trust Him in the present and you can trust Him for the future. I encourage you to spend some time just being with Him and considering how faithful He has been to you, and how much He must love 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: “Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him …” Psalm 37:7 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Be with Him first, do for Him second.”   Psalm 37 consists of forty rich verses from the wisdom of King David. In this Psalm he draws a contrast between a life that is lived in a world filled with trials, struggles, dangers and unanswered questions, but which is still a life in which the person is at peace in the middle of the storm. At their core, as the storm of life swirls around them, the person is calm and peaceful.   The reason that’s so is because the person trusts in the Lord. In the middle of the swirl of life, the individual is sitting quietly and peacefully, waiting on the Lord and then enjoying rich fellowship with Him. Eleven times in the forty verses David refers to the threats and dangers that come from living in a broken and sin-filled world. But nineteen times he refers to the blessings that come to the faithful man or woman of God in the middle of all that mess. And six times he points to the source of the blessings, the peace, the confidence that such a person has. It’s because they have learned to sit quietly with the Lord and to trust Him.   Far too often we busy North American Christians rush right in to attack every problem, deal with every situation, and do something about everything. Granted, there are things we are supposed to do in order to solve our own problems. God doesn’t usually sit on His throne in heaven, wave a magic wand, and “poof” our problems are solved. We are responsible for taking action to deal with our own issues. But first we need to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). We should let Him speak to us about the situation first.   Perhaps, as we sit and wait, He will deal with the situation for us so that we don’t have to. I have sometimes found that God works situations out in His way and in His time without me having to do anything about it. But most other times He just wants me to sit quietly with Him for a while, gain a deep sense of confidence and assurance about the things that are going on around me, and then go do something. But not in a hurried and agitated state of mind. Instead, after being with the Lord in peaceful silence for a while, He settles my mind, calms my heart, and gives me clarity of thought that I didn’t have at first. Then I’m ready to deal with the situation at hand. God does this for us out of His great love for us. He wants us to be calm and confident, reasoned and reasonable, trusting the He is sovereign and in control.     The Christian life is not all “do, do”. First it is “be, be”. Our love relationship with the Lord is based on simply being with Him first, and doing stuff second.   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: “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It’s too much for just one month.”   Once the Lord has helped me to settle on a theme to write daily devotionals about each month, I then take a notepad and begin jotting down ideas. I keep that notepad handy, and I continue to add to it every day as I come across Bible verses, or good illustrations, or stories and examples that apply.   Once that theme is in my head, it’s amazing how much useful material I come across in my own Bible study, or in research and writing of sermons, or in books that I’m reading, or in the newspaper, or just from observing life. As a result, I always have a rich supply of ideas and material, to the point that each day I have to sort through it to pick what I want to use for that day’s devotional message.   Usually at the end of each month I have some material and ideas left over that I just wasn’t able to include. That’s normal. However, for this month’s theme about the love of God, the month is over and I still have eleven pages of notes and ideas that I haven’t used. Eleven pages! That’s because, as Paul alluded to in Ephesians 3:17-19, the love of God is so wide and high and deep that it surpasses knowledge. In other words, it is more extensive than we can possibly comprehend. In fact, we can hardly scratch the surface of it in a month of devotional messages.   So, we need to continue our study about the love of God for another month. There’s just too much left to say, too much still to explore and embrace and experience. Let me conclude this morning by sharing with you Paul’s full prayer for the Ephesian Christians, of which verses 17-19 were just a small part. Here’s his full thought:   “For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us – to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen.”   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: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Open the door and let Him in.”   I once saw a painting that was based on the truth revealed by Jesus in Revelation 3:20. It was a picture of a young man, obviously in distress, standing on one side of a closed door, and Jesus standing on the other side, ready and waiting to embrace him.   As I looked at the picture, I could just sense the desperation and need in the young man, as well as the eagerness and willingness of Jesus to help him. But there was that closed door between them. Then, as I continued to look at the picture, I realized that there was a door knob only on one side of the door, on the young man’s side. If that door was going to open, it would have to be the young man who opened it. That’s the point Jesus was making in Revelation 3:20. He stands at the door of our heart and knocks, but we have to open the door and let Him in.   We often mistakenly use this verse in an evangelistic way in an attempt to convince a non-Christian that Jesus wants to be invited into their heart and life. And it is okay to use it that way, it certainly does mean that, but Jesus was actually speaking these words to the Christians in the church in Laodicea. They were people who were already Christians but who still were not letting Jesus into most of the situations of their lives. The lesson in this verse is that Jesus wants to be invited into all the situations of your life, and you’re the one who has to open the door to let Him in.   Oswald Chambers once observed that with respect to our relationship with God, most of us are content to live on too low a level with Him. Most of us don’t allow Him into large parts of our lives, and then we wonder why we don’t have a closer relationship with Him.   In Psalm 42:1-2 the Psalmist wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”   Does that verse express the desire of your heart? Do you long for Jesus in that way? Do you want Him to be involved in every part of your life? Spend some time this morning meditating on that verse and ask the Holy Spirit to create that kind of a longing for Him in your own heart. Then make it a point to invite Him into all the moments of your life. He is at the door of your heart, ready to enter into every moment of your life, but the door has to be opened on your side.   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: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” John: 14:1-3 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “God is eagerly awaiting your arrival in heaven”   Yesterday I told you that Linda and I are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our first grandbaby in April. It’s only September but we’re already making plans to fly to San Antonio so we can be there for the birth. Additionally, we’re looking forward to the gender reveal event, the baby shower, shopping for gifts, and everything else that goes along with preparing for the arrival of a new baby.   That’s essentially the picture Jesus paints for us in John 14:1-3 of what takes place in heaven as God eagerly awaits our arrival there. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, along with the angels and all the saints who have gone before us, they’re all anticipating the day of our arrival. Jesus Himself is preparing a home for us, a special place just for us. A young couple expecting a baby prepares a room to serve as the nursery, they carefully pick out furniture, they decorate, they buy clothes and diapers and toys, and then they wait – in eager anticipation of the day. And what a day that is! What a time of joy and celebration!   That’s the scene in heaven as your Father, and all those with Him, patiently wait for your arrival. And they have waited. Sometimes 70, 80, 90 years until your time on earth is done. From our perspective here on earth we view death as the end of life. From God’s perspective in heaven our physical death here on earth is similar to the passage through the womb for the baby in birth. It’s not an ending but a beginning. It’s at that point that real life begins. Which is why, in Psalm 116:15 we read, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” What we see as a sad departure of a friend or loved one God sees as the long-awaited arrival of a dearly loved child.   Make no mistake, you are loved by God and He is eagerly waiting for the day you are home with Him in heaven.   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: “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Cuddles and coos.”   My wife and I are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our first grandbaby in April. We don’t know the gender yet but it doesn’t really matter. Every child is a gift from God and we can’t wait for this precious gift to arrive. It’s still September but we’re already making plans to fly to San Antonio so we can be there for the birth.   As I imagine holding that beautiful little infant in my arms, I can already hear myself making silly babytalk sounds – sounds which have no meaning in the literal verbal sense and yet, sounds which communicate volumes. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen it. You’ve probably done it. An adult holding a little infant, the two of them making eye contact and gazing at each other, the adult making cooing sounds, the baby smiling and giggling in response.   The parent / infant bond is perhaps the clearest and purest picture we have of simple, uncomplicated, and unlimited love. Is there a relational bond that is stronger for human beings than that of a parent and infant? And think about the communication that’s going on – it’s not even articulate distinguishable speech. It’s just cuddles and coos, but it communicates a love-bond that comes straight from the heart and is about as deep as it could possibly be.   There’s a reason Jesus used children as an illustration of the kind of love relationship God wants to have with us. In Matthew 19:14 Jesus didn’t say the kingdom of God belongs just to children, He said it belongs to those “such as” children. In other words, “like” children. It belongs to those who come to God with the purity, simplicity and faith of a child.   We often think God is looking for us to be spiritual giants who are theologically correct, spiritually astute, verbally articulate, upright, moral, and towering examples of virtue and integrity. But all the while He’s yearning for cuddles and coos. All of those other attributes and virtues are important and should be developed, but in its simplest and best form, our relationship with God should be a love relationship that is tender, gentle, and deep. It’s the faith of a child.   When was the last time you spent time with God like that? Why not try it now? Just sit with Him for awhile and simply enjoy being with Him. You don’t need words. It’s okay to just enjoy being together.   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: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you – a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant – and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.” Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Don’t get casual or indifferent”   The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy is all about Moses preparing the nation of Israel to enter the Promised Land. In the passage from chapter six quoted above, He gave them words of caution to guard against becoming casual or indifferent in their relationship with God. He noted that as promised, God was going to bestow gifts upon them that they had not earned and which they did not deserve. He would do it simply because He is a good and loving Father who finds joy in blessing His children. But when that happened, the danger would be for the people to get casual and indifferent. They would settle into their comfortable lifestyles, forget where the blessings came from, and slowly drift away from the Lord.   We see something similar happen in marriages. On their wedding day a man and a woman stand at the altar professing that their love for each other is limitless and that their marriage will be “until death do we part”. Then God blesses them with careers and incomes, with a house and with babies, and with a nice life for which they should be grateful. But over time life gets busy, they settle into routines, they take the marriage for granted, and they slowly drift apart. Then the man has a midlife crisis, complete with a red Corvette and a blond floozy, and the wife has an affair with a coworker. Soon they’re headed to divorce court.   In both cases, with the nation of Israel in their relationship with God, and with the man and woman in marriage, they took their relationship for granted, got casual about it, and it slowly diminished and then died. We have to be intentional about preventing that from happening. Relationships have to be protected and cared for. That’s true for marriages and it’s true for our relationship with God.   God loves you and He longs to bless you. But you have a responsibility to care for your relationship with Him and to nurture it. There are things you need to do in order to keep it vibrant and healthy. That includes daily prayer and reading your Bible, and it also includes regular participation in group worship services. Full participation in the life of a good church is one of the most helpful things we can do to keep our relationship with God healthy and vital.   In encourage you to plan to attend worship services this Sunday. Don’t get in the habit of skipping. It’s an easy thing for your relationship with God to slip into casualness and indifference. Don’t let that happen to you.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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