Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Be more thoughtful and appreciative.”   Today is Memorial Day. It’s the day each year that we as a nation have set aside to honor those who gave their lives in defense of our country. It’s different from Veteran’s Day. Veteran’s Day is observed on November 11th of each year and is meant to honor all those who have ever served in the Armed Forces. But Memorial Day is specifically for the remembrance of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in combat.   The origin of Memorial Day is complex and a bit uncertain. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs lists twenty-five localities which all claim to have been the place where Memorial Day was first observed. Most of those early claims date back to Civil War days. At that time the actual designation was “Decoration Day” and it was the time when families, friends, and civic groups would decorate the graves of the war dead.   The other day on a radio station I was listening to a listener called in and urged the audience to stop saying “Happy Memorial Day”. He noted that there is nothing “happy” about this day. Instead, it’s supposed to be a somber reminder of the great sacrifices that have been made in order to protect the freedoms that we all enjoy. The caller suggested we say instead “Have a “memorable” Memorial Day”. In other words, “I hope you have a day that is deeply thoughtful as you consider and appreciate the sacrifices that have been made on your behalf.”   Personally, I like that a lot better and I think it’s much more appropriate. It also reminded me of a statement I read not too long ago in the book “The Burnout Society” by philosopher Byung-Chul Han. He was commenting on how scattered and superficial our thinking often is because we are so busy and distracted. He noted that all of the greatest cultural achievements of humanity have come as a result of contemplative attention and deep thinking. As individuals we’re at our best when we take the time to slow down and to think deeply about things.   One of the good changes that can come out of this time of social distancing, the stay-at-home orders, and the isolation, is that perhaps we will all slow down and think more deeply about issues that truly matter. Thinking deeply about the meaning of Memorial Day, and gaining a new or deeper appreciation for the sacrifice others have made for the sake of our freedom, would be a good start.   I wish you a “memorable” Memorial Day.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Life is hard but it’s easier when we do it together.”   If you’ve read the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes then you know that much of it is pretty grim. The author was King Solomon and it was written towards the end of his life. In it he is reflecting back on a life filled with hard lessons, most of them learned through painful experiences which resulted from the many poor choices he made.   But it’s not all grim. Some of it is upbeat and some of it is very helpful – such as this passage from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. Here Solomon reminds us of how much we need each other. The fact is that life can be hard, but it’s a lot easier if we face the tough times and the difficult problems together. He writes about the benefits that come from companionship with close friends and brothers and sisters in the family of God. When we face things together, we can draw strength and encouragement from each other and we are then better able to face the trials and tribulations of life. There is strength in numbers.   For many of us one of the most difficult aspects of this current period of social distancing and stay-at-home directives has been the social isolation and the inability to gather together with our church families. Although most of us have made an extra effort to stay connected through social media and phone calls, it’s not the same. We need to actually be together.   This Sunday, May 24, 2020, we at Oak Hill Baptist Church will recommence our group gatherings. We’ll start by simply meeting for worship at 10:00. In the weeks to come we will slowly begin our other times of gathering as well. We’ll be smart about it, and we will emphasize safety, but we need to do this. We need to be together again.   Hopefully one of the positive outcomes from all of this is that we will all gain a new appreciation for our church family and we’ll be even more committed than before to being actively involved in the full life of our church. Sometimes you don’t realize what you have until its gone. Well, we lost that aspect of our church life for a while, but now its back. Let’s appreciate it for the special thing that it is.   Life can be hard, but it’s easier when we do it together.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “Pay careful attention, then, to how you live – not as unwise people but as wise – making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Less is often more and good is better than bad.”   In the late 1970s (back in the days when I used to watch television), there was a weekly show I enjoyed called “WKRP in Cincinnati”. It was about a radio station trying to transition from sedate music to top-40 rock ‘n’ roll. The new DJs included Venus Flytrap and Dr. Johnny Fever. A holdover from the old staff was a neurotic newsman named Les Nessman who had a bad habit of including way too much detail in his reports. In an attempt to get him to say less, the other characters tried to convince him that “Less is more.” They would chide him, “Less is more, Les, less is more”. Meaning that his newscasts would actually be better if he would include less information instead of more.   That’s often true for us too. We typically fill our lives full of things that don’t really need to be there. Sometimes they are bad things that are harming us; at other times they’re neutral things which are just taking up space in our lives and which we could easily do without.   God wants us to clear out both the unnecessary clutter from our lives along with the bad stuff, so that He can replace it with something better. He wants to fill our lives with good things – but usually we need to empty of it bad and/or unnecessary things in order to make room for the good things. The editors of “The Men’s Study Bible” ask you to imagine that you are walking along the beach and you find a small chest washed up on the shore. You eagerly open it only to discover its only filled with sand. As you stand there in your disappointment a rich man comes along, sees your disappointment, and offers to fill the chest with gold coins for you. You’re eager to receive those gold coins but there’s a problem – the chest is already full of sand. In order to allow it to be filled with the coins you will first need to empty it of the sand. Would you do it? Of course you would. You would much rather have the coins instead of the sand but first you will need to make room for the coins by getting rid of the sand.     What things have you filled your life with that you really need to get rid of? Perhaps there’s just too much stuff and too many activities and clearing some of it out would actually improve the quality of your life (less is more). Maybe some of it is bad and God wants to replace it with things that are much better, but you will need to clean out the bad in order to make room for the good. In Ephesians 5:15-16 Paul simply urges us to make wise choices about such things, but take a moment to read his lesson in Galatians 5:19-23. There he is much more specific about it when he gives us a list of what he calls “the works of the flesh” and he explains that if we will rid our lives of those things, then there will be room for God to replace that bad stuff with “the fruit of the Spirit”. Turn there in your Bible for a moment and compare those two lists. Which of them you would rather have your life filled with? You will have to get rid of the bad stuff in order to make room for the good.   Less is often more and good is better than bad. You have to choose what you want your life to be filled with. I encourage you to be wise about it and make good choices.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)   Our thought for today: “You can find peace in the storm.”   Our focus this month has been on good changes that could come out of this pandemic and its associated issues. We started the month thinking primarily about how this time of social distancing and isolation could result in spending more time with the Lord and developing new or better habits for the ways in which we practice and nurture our faith. That would be a very good outcome from this. There are many associated issues that this pandemic is forcing all of us to deal with but first, foremost, and fundamentally, it’s our relationship with the Lord that matters most – much more so than any of the other issues.   This is important, especially right now. We are supposed to be “in” the world – and therefore engaged in the important issues of our day, including the political, social, and economic issues; but we are not to be “of” the world – we are not to be so deeply engaged in those things that they hamper or harm our relationship with Jesus and with others. Our relationship with Jesus should impact the issues rather than the issues impacting our relationship with Jesus.   But for many Christians that’s not the case. Just listen to their conversations and read their Facebook posts about the issues of our day. Many Christians are up-in-arms about what they believe to be infringements on their constitutional rights (it is a concern); or they’re furious about the economic damage that has resulted from the shut-down of businesses (rightly so); or, on the other extreme, they’re living in real fear of the virus (it is contagious and deadly). Many of them, on both sides, are emotional and angry and making lots and lots of noise about it.   Okay. I understand. I really do. These issues are important, and as Christians we do need to be engaged in helpful ways to make a meaningful difference as people suffer and struggle through a complicated and difficult time. But regardless of what our positions are with respect to any of the associated issues, as the people of God we need to be the agents of peace and stability, rather than adding to the conflict and instability. We should be the calm ones and the voices of reason. While so many others are freaking-out we should be at peace in the midst of the storm. This is why it’s so important to stay fully focused on the Lord. Like Isaiah teaches in 26:3, God will keep in perfect peace the one who’s mind stays focused on Him.   When our primary focus is on Jesus instead of on the issues, we then remember who we are and who we belong to. We remember that God is sovereign and in time, these troubles will pass. We find that we can walk through the storm without being overwhelmed by the storm, and we can help others around us to handle it better as well.   At a time like this we need to focus a lot more on the Lord and a little less on the issues. If we do, He will give us peace about it – peace that we can then impart to others.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)   Our thought for today: “Slow down and let your soul catch up with your body.”   There’s an old story that tells of a missionary in Africa who hired a group of natives to help transport his supplies a long way to a remote location. The journey was going to take several days and the missionary was eager to get to his destination so he urged his team to move fast and to keep going, on and on and on, mile after mile after mile. Finally, in the evening, once they arrived at their camp, the exhausted tribesman dropped their loads and collapsed on the ground.   The next morning the eager missionary wanted to get an early start but he wasn’t able to get the natives moving. They took their time doing their morning chores and seemed in no hurry to resume their march. Finally, the frustrated missionary demanded to know what was going on. One of the natives then patiently explained that they had moved so fast the day before that they now needed to wait for their souls to catch up with their bodies. I think that’s true for many of us sometimes too. We need to slow down and let our souls catch up with our bodies.   The most common piece of advice the great Christian writer and philosopher Dallas Willard used to give to those who came to him for counseling was, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Dallas would then go on to explain, “Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”   This is a challenge for many of us. Read the Gospels. Jesus was never in a hurry. If we are going to be like Him then we need to slow down and not be in a hurry either. Jesus had sufficient time to accomplish the things God wanted Him to do. Anything outside of that would have been something He wasn’t supposed to be doing anyway, and so He just ignored those things.   Also, Jesus was fully present in the moment. Whatever the task at hand, whoever the person he was focused on, that task or that person got His full attention in that moment. It has often been said that the secret to happiness is to be fully present in the moment, the now. We often waste so much emotional energy reliving the past or worrying about the future that we miss the present. Pastor and author John Ortberg once noted that we get so busy and distracted that “we just skim our lives instead of actually living them.”   Hopefully during this time of social and economic shut-down you’ve had a chance to slow down a bit and let your soul catch up with your body. That would be a good change to carry with you out of this time. We need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way. Proverbs 19:2 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Slow down a little.”   You’ve probably noticed that in my own writing I refer to a lot of books. They’re always books that I have read, and they’re usually books that I have read recently. The subject matter of those books usually reveals something about an issue I’m working through in my own life at that time. Some of the books I’ve referred to this month include “The Burnout Society” by Byung-Chul Han, “The Freedom of Simplicity” by Richard Foster, and “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer. (Are you noticing the trend?)   That last one, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, is something I’m especially working on. I allow myself to get too busy. I try to do too much for too many people. Also, I tend to be a perfectionist and so whatever it is I’m doing, I tend to put a lot of time an attention into doing it well. Consequently, I tend to go, go, go – always plowing through a long “to do” list.   That may seem like a good thing. I often get compliments for doing so much for so many, and for being so structured and so disciplined. But that also creates problems. For one thing, I frequently find myself exhausted and drained. For another, people can become projects to complete rather than souls to care for – and that then can lead to superficial conversations, or thoughtless comments, or overlooked needs. As John Mark Comer admitted about himself, “All of my worst moments happen when I’m in a hurry.” Uh huh. Mine too brother. Mine too.   One good thing that’s been happening for me during this COVID 19 shut-down is that I’ve slowed down a bit and become a little more patient, a little more thoughtful. It’s been good for me and I’ve decided that I like it. Going slower and being more thoughtful is a mindset I want to take with me out of this time and so (bear with me here), I’m going to spend a few more days writing about it. (This is more for my sake than it is for yours. Sorry.)   However, there’s a good reason that books like “The Burnout Society”, “The Freedom of Simplicity”, and “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, are Christian bestsellers. Apparently, I’m not the only one reading them. Apparently, I’m not the only one who struggles with those issues. I’ll bet many of you do too. And so, more about this tomorrow.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “And if you offer yourself to (assist) the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday.” Isaiah 58:10 (Amplified Bible)   Our thought for today: “Account for both sides of the grave”   In his book “Freedom of Simplicity” Richard Foster wrote, “Many today have been given a one-sided Gospel, a message offering Good News for salvation in the life to come without addressing human needs here and now. No, we need to proclaim a Good News that embraces both sides of the grave.”   I think Foster addressed a problem that has afflicted far too many of our churches for far too long. Many of our churches are predominately inward-focused. The overwhelming majority of their time, attention, and resources are focused on what occurs inside the walls of the church buildings. It’s all about worship services, Sunday school and small groups, fellowship events, building maintenance, etc. And on those rare occasions when a few of the members may engage in a church-sponsored event outside the walls of the church which is designed to minister to the lost, often it consists of knocking on doors to share the plan of salvation, or passing out tracks, or something along those lines.   Those activities are all good and needed and I don’t mean to suggest that they should stop. Afterall, discipleship is the primary purpose of the local church. We do need to take care of, teach, and equip believers. And evangelism of the lost is of course crucial too. But compassion ministry is important as well and unfortunately, meeting the physical needs of hurting and suffering people out in the world is often an aspect of church ministry that doesn’t occupy very much space in the life of the average church. That shouldn’t be the case. As Isaiah 58:10 reminds us, it has always been God’s desire for His people to be out in the world providing help and assistance to those in physical need. That’s when our light really shines. That kind of compassion ministry is a very effective springboard for then sharing the Gospel.   One of the positive changes I’ve been seeing during this COVID 19 pandemic and the resulting economic shut-down, is that churches are much more engaged in compassion ministry outside the walls of their church buildings than ever before. This is a good thing and I hope it continues after the pandemic is over. In Acts 1:8 Jesus taught that we are to be on-mission with Him out in the world. It’s my prayer that out of this bad set of circumstances God will bring a very good and much needed change in the life of the average church. We need to be much more intentional about addressing people’s needs on both sides of the grave – their needs for the life to come, but their needs in this life too.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “… for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know both how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content – whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:11-13 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “What if you have to get by with less?   In previous devotionals in this series I have challenged all of us to consider if perhaps we have allowed ourselves to get drawn into the problem of “conspicuous consumption”. I noted that capitalism is a great thing, and we in the USA are blessed by the lifestyle we enjoy because of it. But it’s also true that too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. We can get caught-up in over-consuming and we can get a little too dependent on our comfortable lifestyle.   What if you find yourself faced with unemployment, or a large loss of investments, or under-employment which results in reduced income? What if you find yourself having to get by on less? Can you still be happy and content with less money and fewer possessions? The great Christian writer G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “There are two ways to get enough: one is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”   In our churches we often sing songs to Jesus affirming that He is all we really need and that we find our joy and fulfillment in our relationship with Him. Is that really true? Is Jesus really all we need? Can we, like the Apostle Paul, confidently declare that we will be joyful, fulfilled, content, and complete in Christ whether we have a little or a lot in terms of worldly wealth and possessions? If you find yourself in a situation where you have less than what you have now, would Jesus still be enough for you?   The question is real and it is pressing for all of us, very contemporary. Our nation is in an economic crisis and probably will be for the foreseeable future. I don’t think we fully appreciate the extent of the damage or how far it’s going to reach or how long it’s going to last. We are all potentially vulnerable to financial loss, even if it doesn’t feel that way for you personally at the moment. What if you find in the future that you have to get by with less? Can you handle it mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? Will you feel diminished as a person because of it? Will Jesus really be enough for you then?   Let’s hope and pray it’s an issue we don’t have to face. Let’s pray that we quickly get through this and our economy comes roaring back. But still the question is valid: Is Jesus enough? Would you still feel fulfilled and joyful if you had less (maybe much less) in terms of worldly wealth and possessions? I encourage you to spend some time with the question – ask the Holy Spirit to help you work through that and settle it once and for all.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.” Matthew 19:21-22 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you?”   Capitalism is a good thing. It’s the only economic system that makes any sense. The abundance we enjoy here in the USA comes as a result of our free-market economy. This is the understanding that the role of government is to provide just enough structure and guidance to keep things moving in the right direction, and then to get out of the way and let businesses and individuals engage in commerce. This encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, and it’s the engine that drives a healthy economy.   But as with everything, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. Free markets depend heavily on effective advertising, and advertising in our day has become refined to such a high degree that it is essentially psychological manipulation. Advertising by nature is designed to create a sense of dissatisfaction in the consumer. Its purpose is to convince us that we need more, bigger, and better. In short, we need their product or service, we need it now, and we shouldn’t let anything stop us from getting it.   This creates the disorder known as “conspicuous consumption”. We’ve been conditioned to consume at an ever-increasing rate. We consume even when there’s no real need to consume, and we often over-consume to an unhealthy degree. People carry mountains of debt because they’ve purchased so many products and services that they either don’t really need, or which are much more than what they need, and we end up owning lots of stuff that we don’t even use.   Also, once you own all the stuff you bought, you have to take care of it. You have to maintain that big house, the cars and trucks and motorcycles and ATVs. You have to clean those guns, water that lawn, launder those clothes, organize the computer files, and on and on it goes. Soon your life is structured, defined, and hemmed-in by all the stuff you own and by all the responsibilities created by the stuff you own.   The rich young ruler in Jesus’ parable in Luke 19:16-22 wanted to follow Jesus. Jesus was glad to have him except that the guy was burdened and held back by all the stuff he owned. In his case there was so much of it, and it created such responsibilities and restrictions in his life, and he loved it all so much, that it was holding him back from going off on a great adventure with Jesus. This was the classic example of a good thing becoming a bad thing. He didn’t own his stuff, his stuff owned him – and it controlled him to the point of determining the future direction of his entire life.   Income, possessions, and all the rest that goes with this comfortable and affluent lifestyle that we all enjoy is a good thing. But too much of a good thing can become a bad thing if we love it too much and if it begins to define and control us. The rich young ruler needed to change his thinking about all that he had. He was owned by his riches, his life was controlled by it, and that ended up having a negative impact on the entire direction of his life.   My question for you this morning is, “Do you own your stuff, or does your stuff own you?”   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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

Good Morning Everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Change can be good for you”   Our Bible verse for today: “Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Do you need to get rid of some stuff?   Did you know that Americans spend $39.5 billion per year to rent storage units? The average renter pays $89 per month per unit. The total square feet of rentable storage space for private individuals (not including space for commercial purposes) is 1.7 billion square feet.   Why do we need all that storage space? What are we putting in there and why? Well, we need it because we have run out of storage space in our homes. Our closets, shelves, attics, garages, and sheds are already full of stored stuff we’re not using. So, we rent 1.7 billion square feet of additional space so we can store more stuff that we’re not using (and probably never will again). And what is it that we’re storing in all that space? Stuff. Just stuff. Old clothes, old dishes, old furniture, and old bicycles. Old tools, old files, old … stuff. It’s just stuff. It’s that exercise equipment that was going to make you look like a celebrity with a personal trainer but which you stopped using three weeks after New Year’s Day ten years ago.    And why do we keep it? Because we’re hoarders. And because we think we might use it again someday (you won’t). And because we just like the feeling of owning lots of stuff, even if we don’t use it.   Five years ago Linda and I did a dramatic downsizing of our lives. We exchanged our five-bedroom 3000 square foot home for a two-bedroom 1400 square foot home, and we got rid of approximately 70% of everything we owned. That was five years short years ago. During this time of isolation and social distancing one of our projects was to clean out our closets, shelves, garage, and shed, (I still have the attic to do). I was amazed at how much stuff we had already accumulated that we weren’t using and needed to get rid of (again).   That’s actually a story I’m hearing over and over again from numerous people. During this time of being shut-down and shut-in many people are cleaning-up and clearing-out. They’re downsizing and getting rid of a lot of stuff they no longer use and therefore no longer need. Some of it needs to be thrown away. But much of it is still usable and can therefore be used by someone else – if you would just let go of it.   As Jesus taught in Luke 12:15, your life is not measured by the quantity of things you’ve managed to accumulate over the years. The more time we spend in our homes right now the more we become aware of the fact that most of us have too much stuff and we need to get rid of some of it. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow. We’re going to talk about the disorder known as “conspicuous consumption”, and whether you own your stuff or if your stuff owns you.   God Bless, Pastor Jim

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