Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” Acts 2:42 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You need refreshing and renewal”

Taking care of each other is important and it is rewarding, but it can also be exhausting. For most of us, life itself is busy. If, on top of that, you’re the kind of person who pays attention to other people, and therefore you notice when they’re struggling, and if you then go out of your way to help and bless them, after a while you can begin to experience “compassion fatigue”. Taking care of your own issues, and then helping others with their issues as well, can just plain wear you out.

That’s especially true if you’re the caregiver for a sick loved one (which many of you are). It’s common for a caregiver to focus so much on the one they’re taking care of that they forget to take care of themselves.

Yes, taking care of each other can sometimes be labor intensive and it can wear you out. You can find yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually drained. And so, you need to take care of yourself.  You need renewal.

This is one of the reasons it’s so important that we not neglect gathering together with our church family each week (Hebrews 10:24-25). It’s a time to come together for study and worship, but also for fellowship too. It’s a time to set-aside the cares of life and to focus on meeting God in group Bible study and in worship. It’s also a time to relax and enjoy the company of your brothers and sisters in Christ. In short, it’s a time of renewal. You can rest and recharge physically, mentally, emotionally, and most of all, spiritually.

I encourage you to attend church this weekend. You need it. You need to be with your church family. Also, if you know of someone in your church family who typically goes over and above in the level of care they provide to others, they probably need renewal even more than you do, so make an extra effort to bless and encourage them while you’re all together at church.

By the way, if you’re in the vicinity of Cumberland County Tennessee this Sunday morning, please visit us at Oak Hill Baptist Church. This Sunday our Sunday School department will be serving a hot breakfast from 9:00-9:50. Instead of our regular classes, we will instead enjoy a time of feasting and fellowship. Plan to join us!

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,’ but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.” James 2:14-17 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Do something.”

I have some friends (a husband and wife team), who have the spiritual gifts of service and hospitality. They love people (especially their church family), and they’re always doing things to bless others. Together they deliver meals, visit in hospitals, help with work days, provide transportation for those who can’t drive, they help with chores in the church buildings, and lots of other acts of service like that. Actually, I have many friends who fit that description – good people who simply love to serve and who get great joy out of doing things to help and bless others.

In James 2:14-17 the Apostle challenged us to think about the fruit of our faith. His point was that if your faith is genuine then it should be evident by the way you live – and he wasn’t talking about engaging in religious rituals either. In James 1:22, when he urged us to “Be doers of the word, not hearers only …” he wasn’t referring to praying, reading your Bible, and going to church (as important as those things are). Instead, he amplified and clarified the meaning of the statement in 1:22 by what he wrote in 2:14-17 where he made it clear that if your faith is real and deep, it will show itself in acts of compassion, mercy, and service to others.

It’s good if you notice that someone is in need and it bothers you that they are suffering. It’s even better if you pray for them. But it’s something else again to actually do something about it. Nice thoughts are, well … they’re nice, and prayers certainly are important too, but your actions are what really matters. That’s where the proverbial rubber meets the road. It’s what you do that makes the difference, not just what you say.

When it comes to taking care of each other you have to actually do something. Words are cheap. It’s action that makes the difference. I encourage you to actually do something today. Put feet to your faith, put action to your words, and actually do something to help someone today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers.” 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Find a partner to work with.”

As an “Acts 1:8 church” we at Oak Hill Baptist are committed to being on-mission with Jesus out in the world beyond the walls of the church building. Towards that end, we look for groups that are doing something good for the kingdom of God, in their little part of the world, who we can come alongside of and partner with. That’s how we ended up working with the rescue mission in our town, and a foster home for children in another county, and a little church in the coal mining region of eastern Kentucky, and a children’s home in the Amazon Jungle of Peru, and missionaries in Southeast Asia, and an orphanage in Haiti, and a small church in a remote part of Liberia, Africa.

Recently God has led us to what we believe will be a new ministry partnership here in Tennessee with the Lighthouse Christian Camp. The mission of the Lighthouse Camp is to provide a free one-week summer camp experience for underprivileged and at-risk children and teens who would not otherwise be able to attend camp. These are children from the counties in our part of Tennessee and they come from broken homes, foster homes, deep poverty, abusive situations, drug infested homes, etc. Lighthouse brings them to camp for a week in the summer, and then volunteers and partners stay in touch with the children all throughout the year – inviting them back to weekend camp retreats throughout the year, and to a big Christmas party at Christmastime. Church volunteers in the local communities also stay in touch with the children and teens from their own county, attempting to build relationships with them and their families, with the end goal of drawing them into the church.

Lighthouse also operates two foster homes on the camp property and they have eight apartments for widows. The widows live on the camp grounds, serve on the staff, and spend lots of time with the children. Lighthouse is a wonderful ministry that is worthy of your support and partnership. If you would like to learn more about the camp and the wide scope of their ministry activities, you can go to their website at www.lighthousechristiancamp.com.

Sometimes the best way to help take care of each other and of the most vulnerable who are in need of help, is to find a good partner to work with.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Treat others with kindness, mercy, and compassion – even if they don’t deserve it.”

Perhaps the greatest example of mercy and compassion that I have ever personally witnessed occurred in Spring Valley, CA in 1997. I was the Pastor of Bancroft Baptist Church. Bob and Carol were members of our church and they were in their early 70s. They had been married for almost forty years at that time, but Carol was Bob’s second wife. Bob’s first wife had been a fussy and angry woman who was not a good wife to Bob or a good mother to the children. Theirs was a short and stormy marriage that ended with her abandoning Bob and the children and going off to begin a new life with another man.

Over the decades that followed, the first wife remained fussy, unhappy, and mean. She continued to cause pain, heartache and trouble for Bob and their children all throughout the decades, right up until the end of her life. Which is where today’s story begins.

By the time that woman was in her 70s she was old, alone, and deathly sick with terminal cancer. She had alienated everyone in her life and it appeared that she would die alone in a nursing home. But Bob and Carol were strong Christians and although the first wife was still a mean-spirited shrew, Carol told Bob that she wanted to bring her into their home and care for her so that she didn’t die alone. And that is what they did.

For months Carol kindly and gently took care of her. She fed her, bathed her, changed her diapers, and spent many hours talking to her and praying with her. It was an indescribable act of kindness, compassion, mercy, and Christian love.

As Christians we ourselves are the recipients of grace and mercy from our heavenly Father. The love and forgiveness He has extended to us is completely unmerited and mindboggling in scope. Now He calls us to be kind, merciful, and gracious towards others.

I encourage you to consider who God has brought into your world who you could minister to with some act of kindness and compassion today. It doesn’t have to be through some great act like I described above. Small acts of kindness are important too. You will bless that person, it will inspire and motivate others to similar acts, and it will greatly please your Father in heaven.

Treat others with mercy, kindness, and compassion – even if they don’t deserve it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.” Judges 2:10-11 (NIV)

Our thought for the day: “Teach the younger generation”

What a sad passage of Scripture Judges 2:10-11 is! During the lifetime of Joshua, the nation of Israel had been relatively faithful to God. They obeyed Him, took possession of the Promised Land, developed it, defeated the enemies of God and drove them off, and as a result, they lived in peace and prosperity.

But then Joshua died, as did the generation after him, and then, as we read in the passage above, an entire generation grew up that didn’t know the Lord and who were unaware of the awesome things God had done for their nation in the past. How did that happen? How did an entire generation grow up who knew nothing of God and who were ignorant of the important history of their people?

The answer is that “somebody didn’t do their job.” Those in the previous generation evidently took care of themselves and enjoyed their comfortable lifestyles, but they didn’t bother to pass along their faith or their history to the next generation. And so, if you read the book of Judges, you discover that it was a very sad period in the history of the nation of Israel. The people were constantly seeking after the false gods of the surrounding cultures, and they suffered terribly because of it – including social ills, crashing economies, and military defeats.

As was noted in yesterday’s devotional, one of the most important and impactful things you can do for others, especially those in the younger generation who are close to you, is to set a good example for them. Consistently and enthusiastically live your faith before them, modeling it for them and teaching it to them. If you do, your good example will pay dividends in their lives for generations to come. But if you don’t, how will they learn?

You may remember one of the last statements we heard from the great leader Joshua before he died (Joshua 24:15). There he declared that he and his family were going to honor the Lord regardless of whether anyone else did or not. Joshua had the courage of his convictions and he was going to set a good example no matter what. Caleb said and did the same thing.

How about you? Do you have the courage of your convictions? Will you stand for what’s right; honor the Lord by the way that you live; teach, preach, practice, and model the faith for the younger generation whether others do or not?

One of the greatest acts of service you can perform for others, one of the most meaningful ways in which you can help the younger generation, is to honor the Lord in your own life and then pass the faith along to them.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.” Deuteronomy 1:35-36 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Follow the Lord wholeheartedly”

This morning I want to return to our thought from yesterday about the importance of setting a good example for others. One of the most impactful things you can to for others is to set a good example for them. Those close to you will be influenced by how they see you conduct yourself. If the practice of your faith is deep, sincere, and consistent, they will notice, and there’s a good chance they will follow your example.

For many reasons, Caleb is one of my Old Testament heroes. For one thing, I’m inspired by the courage he demonstrated in Numbers chapters 13-14 when Moses sent him on an undercover mission to spy out the Promised Land. When ten of the other spies who went with him brought back a bad report to the nation, voicing fear about the strength of their enemies and encouraging the people to disobey God, Caleb (along with Joshua) boldly opposed them and insisted that the nation obey God and trust Him. Caleb continued to maintain that position even when the other ten, along with the majority of the people, threatened to stone him for voicing a contrary opinion.

I’m also inspired by Caleb’s passion for life, and the vigor and strength he displayed when, in Joshua 14:11, at the advanced age of eighty-five, he entered the Promised Land, took possession of it, and declared his intention (and ability) to fight and defeat any enemies who would dare to oppose him.

But another thing I really admire about Caleb is his passion for following the Lord. Five times the Bible describes the way he practiced his faith as having been “wholehearted” (Numbers 32:12; Deuteronomy 1:36; Joshua 14:8,9,14). Caleb followed the Lord “wholeheartedly”, with great enthusiasm and with nothing held back. Not only did God reward him for his single-minded, wholehearted, full-steam-ahead attitude, but ever since then God has used Caleb’s story and his great example to inspire countless thousands of others.

He will do the same with your good example. One of the most important and helpful things you can do for others is to set a good example for them in how you follow the Lord. I encourage you to be faithful and passionate – be “wholehearted”.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Set a good example”

Recently I’ve been seeing an increasing number of articles being written, published, and shared by church leaders regarding the worsening problem of church attendance in the USA. The other day there was a new one, this one shared by a missionary friend of mine on Facebook. In this article the author’s point was that as far as he was concerned, church attendance is non-negotiable for him and his family. Attending church is more important to him than virtually anything else going on in life and therefore it takes priority over everything else including likes a minor sickness, social or recreational activities, house guests, or anything else.

He wrote that American Christians have become entirely too casual in our church attendance. We’ve become willing to skip church for far too many reasons, and I agree. When I was growing up my mother was adamant about church attendance. We all went, all the time, no matter what. If we had house guests staying with us, they were invited to go to church with us. If they didn’t want to go, then they could wait for us to get back home, but my mother and her children were going to church. And to this day my mother’s good example continues to influence me. The example of her faithfulness was indelibly imprinted in my memory banks and has borne fruit in my own life ever since.

That’s what Joshua was talking about in Joshua 24:15. In that scene he had just finished telling the people that they would have to make their own choices about the practice of their faith but as for him and his family, they were going to honor the Lord regardless of whether others did or not.

When it comes to taking care of each other, especially those who are close to you such as family members, one of the most important things you can do is to set a good example for them in how you practice your own faith – including in your church attendance habits.

Christians often talk about how we want our nation to be faithful to God, and we want our children and grandchildren, our friends and neighbors, to faithfully follow Jesus. That’s good, but it starts with us as individuals. You have to be diligently faithful yourself first before you can expect others to be. Those close to you are watching, and they are being impacted by what they see you doing. Your example matters, so be sure to set a good one.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

Today is Valentine’s Day. It’s the day set aside each year to celebrate romantic love. There’s a good deal of mystery and debate surrounding the origins of this day. It certainly does have Christian roots, but there are elements of it that are pre-Christian also and which were born out of pagan mythology.

For Christians, Valentine’s Day is attributed to a mysterious individual known in the Catholic church as “Saint Valentine”. But even the Catholics can’t agree on which person in history that actually was. There were three men named Valentine, or Valentinus, from the third century who were all priests and who are all sometimes identified as the original “Saint Valentine”.

The most likely of the three was a priest named Valentinus who defied an edict from the Roman Emperor Claudius II regarding love and marriage. Claudius believed that unmarried men made better soldiers and therefore he forbade his soldiers from marrying. As you would imagine, this rule was very unpopular and so Valentinus performed weddings for the soldiers anyway, in direct disobedience to the Emperor’s command. Eventually he was arrested and executed for his disobedience. The Catholic church then declared him a martyr, made him a saint, and established a holiday in his honor. About 100 years later, the official date for Valentine’s Day was established as February 14^th in order to offer the people a “sanctified substitute” for the Roman festival of “Lupercalia”, which was a fertility festival celebrated around this same time.

The figure of Cupid is often portrayed today as a naked chubby cherub (an angel-like being), whose job it is to initiate feelings of love in young couples. The figure was originally actually a depiction of the Roman god of love known as Cupid, and the Romans copied him from the Greek god Eros.

So, should Christians celebrate Valentine’s day? I think so. Valentine’s Day is all about love. In John 13:34-35 Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loves us, and according to Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, love is the greatest of all the virtues.

So, yes, use Valentine’s Day to celebrate love. But your focus doesn’t have to be on just romantic love. You can use this day as an opportunity to celebrate love in general. You can celebrate the love of God for us, and our love for each other. So, happy Valentine’s Day. God loves you and so do I!

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:19-20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Lead them back to Jesus.”

This past Sunday our church was at the Bread of Life Rescue Mission. Once each quarter we hold our Sunday evening service at the Mission rather than at the church. While we’re conducting the service in the chapel, we also have a crew in the kitchen preparing the meal. After everyone is served, our folks then get plates and sit down and eat with the residents.

We’ve been doing this for years and one of the things I’ve noticed about the majority of the people staying the Mission is how many of them profess to already have faith in Jesus. That’s probably true for the majority of the residents. For most of them the story is that they were in church as a child and teenager, but then drifted away from the Lord and ended up making a mess out of their lives as adults.

That being the case, for them, the focus of our ministry isn’t about leading them to place their faith in Christ, but rather to lead them back to the Lord. Our job is to remind our straying brothers and sisters that God can and will bless the life that is lived within Biblical boundaries. When we stray outside of God’s commands, we’re choosing to live life outside of the boundaries within which He can and will bless us.

A big part of the ministry of the Bread of Life, and of the churches such as ours that partner with them, is to love our straying brothers and sisters back into fellowship with Jesus. We meet their physical needs by providing food and shelter, but we also minister to their wayward souls and attempt to lead them back into a healthy relationship with the Lord.

We can all use that same approach when dealing with the straying Christians we encounter in our families, in our neighborhoods, in school, and in the workplace. There are many professing Christians who have strayed far from the Lord and who are living well outside of the boundaries within which He can and will bless them. The best way you can help them is to lead them back into a healthy relationship with Jesus. Often that will entail blessing them by meeting some physical need they have or helping them in some other way, so you can then have a conversation with them about their spiritual condition.

A Christian living in a broken relationship with Jesus is usually a miserable person with lots of problems. The greatest act of service you could provide for such a person is to help lead them back to Jesus.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Take care of each other”

Our Bible verse for today: “Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4:17 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Err on the side of blessing.”

So, when it comes to taking care of each other, when should you help someone and when should you not? Is it always the right thing to do stuff for others? All the time? Always? Or, perhaps, is a little discretion and sound judgment needed as well?

In James 4:17 quoted above, the Apostle tells us that if we know we should do something good for someone and we don’t, we have sinned. However, that statement implies sound knowledge on our part. It does not say that we should help everyone, always, all the time. It means that we should evaluate the situation, determine if we should and can help this person, and if the answer is “yes” but we still don’t, that then is sin.

In Proverbs 3:27 Solomon said something similar when he wrote, “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.” Please note the conditional and modifying word “deserve” in that statement. Not everyone deserves to be helped. Sometimes the issue they’re dealing with is a result of their own irresponsible behavior and therefore they need to experience the consequences of their poor choices in order to learn an important lesson that will lead to better choices in the future. The Apostle Paul was very direct about this as well in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 when he wrote, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

As faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ we have a desire to be kind, compassionate, merciful, and to be a blessing to others, so our default mode should be to err on the side of blessings. We should be looking for reasons to help and bless people, not to withhold blessings and help. But we do need to be smart about it too.  We need to be sure our help is actually helping and not simply enabling bad behavior. We always want to help and bless if we can. But sometimes the right thing to do is to withhold the help and allow them to experience the consequences of bad choices.

When it comes to taking care of others, if there is any doubt in your mind, I encourage you to err on the side of blessings. Help if you can – and if it is appropriate to the situation.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim