Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “You are loved”   Our Bible verse for today: “You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you – this is the Lord’s declaration …” Jeremiah 29:12-14 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “God will love you back.”   My wife has a phrase she often uses in response to people’s expression of love for her. If someone says, “I love you Linda” she will often respond with “I love you back.” And she does! And God does too. God loves it when you express your love for Him, and He loves to love you back.   In yesterday’s devotional I cited Jesus’ words in Mark 12:20 that we are to love God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul. In other words, not only does God love us fully and unconditionally, but we need to love Him in the same way, fully and unconditionally.     Love needs to flow in two directions. God loves you, but you also need to love Him. He expresses His love for you, but you also need to express your love for Him. In fact, you will experience His love for you most and best by expressing your love for Him. It’s in the act of expressing love that we experience love. Let me say that again, “It is in the act of expressing love that we experience love.”   This is what God was teaching us through the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. Come to God, call to God, pray to God. Seek Him and search for Him with all your heart, and what will happen? He will listen to you; He will be found by you. You will experience His presence.   God wants to be wanted. He loves you, and He wants you to love Him back. God reaches out to you, and He wants you to reach out to Him. Do you? If so, in what ways? Do you faithfully seek Him in worship? When you enter the time of corporate worship is it more than just singing songs and listening to a sermon, are you consciously and eagerly seeking an encounter with God? Do you seek Him in prayer? As you pray are you actually thinking of Him, forming an image of Him in your mind, hearing yourself converse with Him as you would with your spouse or with a friend? When you listen to worship music (as discussed earlier in this series), are you really listening to the words, praying them back to God as a prayer set to music? When you engage in acts of mercy and compassion are you doing it in the spirit of Matthew 25:40, as if you were doing it for Jesus Himself?   Such efforts to reach out to God are deeply pleasing to Him, and His promise is that when we do that, He will respond in-kind. We experience God’s love for us by expressing our love for Him. I encourage you to express your love for Him, and then relax and enjoy it as you realize He is loving you back.   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 with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Get in the habit of dealing with God about everything.”   Have you ever been in love? I mean really, deeply in love. Head-over-heals, totally infatuated, can’t-get-you-out-of-my-mind in love. This person fills your thoughts when you’re apart, and you’re totally content when you’re together. You love to do things for them, and you love it when they do things for you. Your heart is so full and overflowing with love for this person that it seems like you’re going to burst. I mean, you are seriously in love!   Okay, maybe that sounds a little sappy, a little too much like teenage puppy love. Maybe you haven’t felt that kind of love for another person in a long, long time. But work with me here, play along. Imagine yourself in love with God like that.   That’s the kind of love Jesus was talking about in Mark 12:30, and He was saying that it should describe our love relationship with God – loving Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. That is how God loves us, by the way. And it should be our goal to love Him back in the same way. But how do we achieve that? Isn’t that the very reason I’m writing devotional messages on this theme to begin with, because we have such difficulty experiencing that kind of love with God?   The great devotional writer Oswald Chambers suggested that we should train ourselves to get in the habit of dealing with God about everything. We should work to establish a running dialogue with Him about all the things that are going on in our lives, big and small – intentionally including Him in our life moment-by-moment. When we do that, we slowly begin to become aware of His constant presence with us. That then develops into a sense of familiarity and intimacy that fills our heart and mind with Him. Over time, He then becomes a noticeable presence in our lives and we no longer feel right or content if we don’t sense Him with us like that. Our thoughts then keep getting drawn back to Him.   But that takes some work on our part. We have to be intentional about it. We have to want that kind of relationship with Him and we have to make the effort to develop it. The good news is that it can be done. And the primary reason it can be done is because God Himself wants that even more than you do. He wants to be included in every moment of your life. He wants your thoughts to continually return to Him. He wants you to love Him like He loves you. If you make the effort, He will gladly reward that effort with an increased awareness of Himself in your life.   I encourage you to get in the habit of dealing with God about everything.   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 will sing about the Lord’s faithful love forever ….” Psalm 89:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Let the music carry you away”   This will be the third day in a row that I’ve written about music being a way in which God enables us to experience His love. I’ve done so because that has been my own experience recently.   Last week I concluded three weeks of vacation. It was restful and renewing and I’m grateful for having had the time off. But this vacation was different from previous years. Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, our travel options were limited and we spent most of the time at home. But that turned out to be a good thing. I slept more and later than usual; I completed some projects I had been putting off for a while; and I enjoyed the freedom of going hiking, kayaking, motorcycle riding, or out on my mountain bike whenever I felt like it.   Another thing I did which I haven’t done in a very long time is I spent hours lying in a deck chair, looking up at the trees and sky, and listening to soothing and relaxing music through headphones (smooth jazz, Christian worship, etc.). But I wasn’t just listening to the music as background while I did something else. Instead, I really listened – deeply. I noticed each instrument; I listened closely to the voices of the singers; I thought about the words being sung; and I allowed myself to get caught up in and carried away by the music.   The best sessions were the ones I spent with a collection of worship songs by Michael W. Smith. Michael calls his worship songs “prayer songs” because each one is a prayer set to music. It was moving and relaxing and a great time of communion with the Lord. Then I remembered that I used to do this all the time. Listening to music used to be a regular part of my time with Him. But that was back before I allowed myself to get so busy. It was when I wasn’t in such a rush all the time.   It’s vitally important for the health of our relationship with God to slow down and place ourselves in a position before Him whereby He can speak to us – a time when He has our full and undivided and thoughtful attention. It’s during times like those that we come to actually experience His love for us in real and heartfelt ways. Music can bring us to that place.   I’m making music a regular part of my personal time with the Lord again. I encourage you to try it too.   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 still, and know that I am God …” Psalm 46:10 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Be still and let God love you.”   Yesterday I asked you to end your devotional time by listening to the song “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle. I provided the words for you and suggested that you follow along with the song, reading the words and thinking deeply about the profound truth being revealed. I also urged you to hear the Father’s voice speaking to you through the words of the song.   Did you do it? It would only have taken an extra 3 ½ minutes of your time. Or, were you in too much of a hurry to get on with other things? Did you read the devotional, glance at the lyrics, and then rush off into you day?   In Psalm 46:10 God calls us to slow down, be still, and know that He is God. He paints a picture for us of sitting quietly with Him and deeply experiencing His presence, His love, His comfort. If you read the entire Psalm you realize these words were written within the context of a world in chaos. That’s what the Psalmist was describing. In the midst of all that, God is there waiting for us to be still and to experience Him. But many of us don’t because we’re in so much of a hurry all the time.   Almost thirty years ago I adopted Psalm 46:10 as one of my personal life verses for this very reason. If I want to truly experience God in a deep and rich relationship, I need to carve out the time to simply sit with Him and let Him express His love for me. An important part of becoming sensitive enough to truly experience God’s love, is to simply sit quietly before Him and let Him love you.   So, I would like us to try yesterday’s experiment again. Let God communicate His heart for you through another song by Lauren Daigle. Go to Google and listen to the song “You Say”. And again, as you listen to Lauren sing, hear the words of the Father speaking personally to you. Here are the lyrics. Please read them as you listen to the song:   I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low? Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know, ooh oh You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak And You say I am held when I am falling short And when I don’t belong, oh, You say I am Yours And I believe (I), oh, I believe (I) What You say of me (I) I believe The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity, ooh oh You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak And You say I am held when I am falling short When I don’t belong, oh, You say I am Yours And I believe (I), oh, I believe (I) What You say of me (I) Oh, I believe Taking all I have and now I’m layin’ it at Your feet You’ll have every failure God, You’ll have every victory, ooh oh You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak You say I am held when I am falling short When I don’t belong, oh, You say I am Yours And I believe (I), oh, I believe (I) What You say of me (I) I believe Oh, I believe (I), yes, I believe (I) What You say of me (I) I believe (oh) Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Lauren Daigle / Paul Brendon Mabury You Say lyrics © Essential Music Publishing   God loves you very much. He wants you to know of His love, but He also wants you to experience it in a deep and real way. Sometimes we just need to sit still and let Him love us.   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 God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “God rescues you.”   One of the hardest things any parent ever has to do is to watch their grown child go off on some dangerous adventure. I know this from personal experience. I once had to stand and watch one of my own sons walk to an airplane that was going to carry him into a war zone in Afghanistan. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about what he was going to face once he got there and what the potential outcome could be.   In Romans 5:8 the Apostle Paul was commenting on the great truth John revealed to us in John 3:16 when he wrote, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 5:8 and John 3:16 describe a rescue mission. God the Father sent His only Son from the comfort and safety of heaven to earth to rescue us from our sins. It was a dangerous mission that would require great suffering and sacrifice on the part of the Son. Knowing what Jesus faced, it grieved the Father to do it and yet, it had to be done. Paul’s point was that this proves God’s overwhelming, unconditional, and never-ending love for us. He loves us so much that He was determined to rescue us at all costs. But then, it didn’t stop there. He continues to look out for us and to be our shelter in the storms of life.     This morning, along with reading this devotional, I want to ask you to Google the song “Rescue” by Christian singer Lauren Daigle. Take just 3 ½ minutes to listen to it. As you’re listening, please read the lyrics along with it and think deeply about the profound truth being revealed in the song. Hear the voice of the Father speaking to you personally through the words. It will be Lauren singing, but hear the voice of the Father through it. Here are the words:   You are not hidden There’s never been a moment You were forgotten You are not hopeless Though you have been broken Your innocence stolen I hear you whisper underneath your breath I hear your SOS, your SOS I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night It’s true, I will rescue you There is no distance That cannot be covered Over and over You’re not defenseless I’ll be your shelter I’ll be your armor I hear you whisper underneath your breath I hear your SOS, your SOS I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night It’s true, I will rescue you I will never stop marching to reach you In the middle of the hardest fight It’s true, I will rescue you I hear the whisper underneath your breath I hear you whisper, you have nothing left I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night It’s true, I will rescue you I will never stop marching to reach you In the middle of the hardest fight It’s true, I will rescue you Oh, I will rescue you Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Paul Mabury / Lauren Daigle Rescue lyrics © Essential Music Publishing   That’s how much He 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: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.” Jeremiah 31:3 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Experience the love of God”   I once received an email from a young man with whom I have something of a mentoring relationship. He contacts me from time-to-time to discuss various issues. In this case, he was disturbed and feeling a little guilty by the realization that it seemed to him that he loved his girlfriend more than he loves God. He was certain it was wrong to feel that way and he didn’t know what to do about it. It’s not that he didn’t love God too, he did, it just seemed to him that his love for his girlfriend was so much more real.   I assured him that I understood. His girlfriend is pretty and warm and soft and cuddly – and God is none of those things. His girlfriend is physical, but God is spiritual. Therefore, it’s a lot easier to actually sense and experience the love of a girlfriend than it is the love of God. (As I was writing this our little eight-pound Maltipoo puppy came up, nuzzled my leg, and waited for me to pick her up. She too is soft and warm and cuddly, and she just wanted to be held. As she laid in my arms and rested her head on my chest, she looked up at me with goo-goo eyes and wagged her tail. I really felt the love).   Can you relate? Does the love of your mate, your children, or your pet seem more real to you than the love of God? Intellectually we know (we have the knowledge) that God loves us, and by faith we believe it to be true. But experientially – well, that’s something else again. Experiencing the love of God is much more subtle and nuanced than experiencing the love of a person or a pet. And yet, the love of God is real none-the-less – much more real than the love of a mate, a child, or a pet.   In my opinion, Jeremiah 31:3 is one of the great verses of the Old Testament. It is a powerful and profound promise that God loves us more than we can possibly understand. That’s also the message of the entire Bible.   All this month we’re going to consider the great truth of God’s love. Hopefully, by the time we’re done, we will all have not just a better understanding of His love for us, but also a greater experience of it. I look forward to exploring the reality of God’s love with you.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”   Our Bible verse for today: “He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.’” Mark 6:31 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It’s time to unplug for a while”   I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to be a part of so many overseas mission trips over these last twenty-five years. Every one of them was special and unique in its own way but without question, the most adventurous and exotic were those missions into the restricted zone of the Amazon Jungle in Peru. “The Manu Reserve” is 3.5 million acres (the size of Massachusetts) of pristine Rainforest. It is almost entirely detached from civilization as we know it, and in many respects, it’s the stuff of National Geographic magazine.   As you leave the river town of Puerto Maldenado and head north, your cell phone coverage, internet, and all basic forms of communication begin to get weaker and weaker. The further north you go, the less there is. Finally, as we enter the Manu Reserve itself, there is no more. Then for approximately six days, as you go deeply into the heart of the Rainforest, you are completely out of touch with the outside world. No communication at all.   In some respects that experience of being completely out of touch is a bit disconcerting. It’s something we aren’t used to. But on the other hand, it’s strangely freeing. No telephone calls, no text messages, no email or social media of any sort. It’s just you and God and nature and your teammates.   At the end of the mission, as you’re heading south and coming back out, you begin to slowly reestablish communication. It’s sketchy at first but gets stronger the further south you go. Over the course of a few days you soon have full coverage again. When that happens, I’m always amazed to discover how little I missed while I was unplugged and out of touch. It doesn’t take long to catch up on the voicemails and emails. A quick scan of Facebook assures me that all the same nonsensical drama is still there. The 24/7 news cycle is still churning it out, but there’s really nothing new going on there either. The food fight in Washington D.C. is still raging; the stock market went up, and then down, and then up again; and the Padres are still in last place in the National League West. The church building didn’t burn down, nobody’s hair caught on fire, and Jesus didn’t come back.   In one respect I guess my feelings are always a little hurt when I realize that the world didn’t stop because of my absence.  Most people didn’t even know I was gone. But at the same time, it was a refreshing experience and one that I was grateful for. Unplugging like that can be a wonderfully renewing thing.   And with that said … I need to tell you that this will be the last daily devotional message until Tuesday September 1st. I’ll be going on an extended vacation and I’m going to pretty much unplug for the entire month of August. I look forward to coming back in September refreshed, renewed, and ready to explore a new theme with you. In the meantime, I encourage you to take a break too. Unplug for a while; get some rest; find some fresh wind for your sails and some fresh fire in your soul.   I’ll see you in September. (What a great title for a song! See you in September. Go ahead and Google it.)   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”   Our Bible verse for today: “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Do good and bless others”   As we draw near to the end of our month-long pursuit of fresh wind in our sails and fresh fire in our souls, I want to return to a subject I’ve been repeatedly emphasizing over the four months that our nation has been in the grip of the pandemic, the economic collapse, and the social unrest. It is the subject of doing good and blessing others. One of the best things a person can do to help him or herself through this, is to take their eyes off of themselves and focus instead on being a blessing to others. Few things will lift us up and be as big an encouragement to ourselves than the knowledge that we were able to make life a little better for someone else.   Recently I read an account told by an old man who had served as a soldier in post-World War Two in London. Throughout the war England had been bombed without mercy by the Nazis. There had also been a naval blockade, and obstructions to land routes, that both served to inhibit trade and make resources scarce all throughout the war. Now that the war was over, the city of London was heavily damaged. There was rubble everywhere, the economy was depressed, people were homeless and hungry, and despair was heavy and pervasive.   The solider told of how one day he was driving his jeep down a rubble-strewn London street when he saw a dirty young boy in rags staring into the window of a bakery. Captured by the sight, the solider stopped his jeep to get a closer look. On the other side of the window the baker was taking fresh pastries out of the oven. The boy was fixated on the sight of the pastries and his mouth was watering so much that saliva was dripping down his chin. The soldier’s heart just broke at the sight and he asked the boy, “Son, would you like to have some of those pastries?” Wide-eyed and startled the boy said, “Oh, yes sir, I really would.” With that the soldier went into the bakery, purchased a bag of the fresh pastries, and handed them to the boy. The boy was stunned, and as the soldier turned to walk away the boy tugged on the edge of his jacket and asked him, “Mister … are you God?”   He wasn’t, but He was following God’s example. The soldier drove away from that encounter humbled by the knowledge that such a small act on his part could be so meaningful to someone else.   We are never more like God than when we intentionally bless others. And also, we will never experience a greater sense of having been blessed ourselves than when we have had the privilege of blessing someone else in Jesus’ name. I encourage all of us to take our eyes off of ourselves and intentionally look for opportunities to bless others. It will be good for them, but it will be good for you too.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”   Our Bible verse for today: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Be the peacemaker”   The other day I was speaking with a member of our church who has lived in our town for a long time and who knows a lot of people who attend other churches. Recently she has been checking with some of them to see how their churches are doing during these difficult times we live in. She told me she was surprised and alarmed to hear of how many churches are struggling with a wide variety of issues arising as a result of the pandemic. Of course, attendance is way down in all the churches. But beyond that, many churches are experiencing internal strife resulting from disagreements about best practices for handling the situation. My friend said to me, “Not only is Satan using all of this to divide our country, he is using it to divide our churches.”   And she is right. I’m hearing that too. On the one hand, we live in difficult times. The situations we face are dangerous and confusing. Nobody has all the answers. We’re all figuring this out as best we can as we continue to push through it. There are some practices and guidelines that simply have to be implemented in all churches based upon the best advice from the most reliable sources. There are also Biblical principles which govern our conduct in situations like this and which must be adhered to. There are health and safety concerns that have to be considered. And then there are legal liability issues as well (legally we have to do “due diligence” in our efforts to handle this correctly and we have to be able to prove it).   But once those parts of it have been addressed and implemented, we need to give each other as much room and grace in dealing with the rest of this as we can. Church is the place where we can escape the storms of life for a while. It’s a place of sanctuary and respite for all of us. So, we do the things we have to do in order to take care of each other during these challenging times, and then we go over and above in our efforts to make our time together as much of an encouraging and uplifting experience as we can.   None of us will agree on everything. Therefore, there will be difficult conversations that will have to take place. We should all be grateful for mature Christians who are willing to step into the middle of difficult situations to be calm voices of reason. I encourage all of us to be the peacemakers. Satan is already dividing our land; don’t let him divide our churches too.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Fresh wind, Fresh Fire”   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 the blessing”   Have you seen the music video “The New York Blessing”? If not, I encourage you to pause here and Google it. It’s less than five minutes long and trust me, you will be glad you took the time to watch it. I ended my sermon with it this past Sunday at Oak Hill Baptist Church and everyone was in agreement that it was a powerful, uplifting, and convicting experience.   The video is a joint effort of 100 New York area churches. They came together to sing words of blessing and peace, joy and encouragement, over their city as the people of their community continue to struggle with all the hardships emanating from the pandemic, the economic collapse, and the racial tensions all going on right now. People are hurting – they’re scared, they’re desperate, and many are angry. These 100 churches decided to rise up together to be a voice of peace and unity, reminding people that God is present and powerful and working right there in the middle of all the heartache and chaos. And, He wants to bless them. God wants people to find comfort and strength in Him. That’s what the video is about. I encourage you to watch it.   But the message isn’t just for New York City. It’s for all people in all places – in every city and town and neighborhood across our land. And that act of ministry – being the messengers of peace and reconciliation, spreading words of hope and joy – that’s not just a message for those 100 churches to share in their community. Theirs is an example the rest of us need to follow as we seek to minister to our own communities. We don’t necessarily have to get together with other churches to produce a music video, but we do have to be the messengers of peace, speaking words of hope and encouragement on behalf of our Lord to people who need to be blessed.   As you watch the video one thing that will stand out to you is that the singers and musicians are red, yellow, black, and white. They are Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Jewish Christians. They come from mainline churches, evangelical churches, and non-denominational churches. This was the people of God coming together in the name of God to draw people to God.   If you’re looking for a little fresh wind in your sails and some fresh fire in your soul, I encourage you to watch the video. Then go out into your community and do the same – bless people in the name of Jesus.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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