Our theme for this month: “Character and integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine beside a spring; its branches climb over the wall.” Genesis 49:22 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Your life of character and integrity will be a blessing others.”

I’m a child of the 50s and 60s and one of my favorite television shows as a child was “The Munsters”. The Munster family consisted of the father, Herman, who was a friendly and goofy Frankenstein character; the mother Lily, who was a sultry vampire; the grandfather Al, who was an over-the-hill vampire who loved to reminisce about the good old days; the son Eddie who was a werewolf; and then there was the poor daughter Marilyn, who was just a normal girl and therefore the rest of the family secretly felt sorry for her because she was so odd. They lived in a big old Victorian home at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, and Herman made his living as a grave digger.

Herman Munster was a bit of a philosopher and he saw himself as a wise and kind all-American Dad. One day he sat his son Eddie on his lap and gave him some very good advice about character and integrity. It went like this:

“The lesson I want you to learn is … it doesn’t matter what you look like, you can be tall, short or fat or thin or ugly or handsome like your Father, or you can be black or yellow or white, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the size of your heart and the strength of your character.”

Wise words. Biblical, in fact. This is a principle taught over and over again, in numerous ways and by numerous teachers, all throughout the Bible. The thing that matters most in the life of a man or woman of God is the size of your heart and the strength of your character. This is the outward evidence which reveals the depth of your faith. If your faith is real and deep and strong, it will be obvious in how you conduct yourself in the world. You will be a man or woman of strong character and impeccable integrity – and people will know that to be true about you.

In Genesis 49:22 we find Jacob at the end of his life, on his deathbed, speaking words of insight and blessing about his sons. In each case the words spoken revealed something deep and integral about the man’s character. When he came to Joseph, Jacob likened him to a fruitful vine that has been well-nourished and whose fruit is abundant – so much so that his branches spread far and his fruit blessed many. What a great picture of a life lived well!

Christian men and women with strong character and impeccable integrity are a blessing to everyone they encounter. Their lives matter in meaningful ways. You may not be good looking, wealthy, talented, or of high professional accomplishments, but if you are a man or woman of character and integrity, you are leading a fruitful life that is a blessing to others.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Character and integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be a man or woman of character and integrity”

I was watching a news report yesterday which featured film clips of two high ranking and well-known elected officials, each making a statement about testimony that was given behind closed doors in a secret congressional hearing. Both officials were commenting on the exact same event, but each of them made claims about it which were exactly opposite of what the other one said happened. One of them had to be lying, or maybe both of them were.

A little later I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed when I came across a statement claiming that the Speaker of the House of Representatives raided the social security fund of 1.2 billion dollars to pay for the ongoing impeachment inquiry. To that post someone had attached a link to an investigative website that purports to factcheck such claims, and in this case the site said the claim was false. But then the one who originally posted it claimed that the factchecking site was biased and that the original claim was actually true. Who is telling the truth here?

The news media has become one of the least trusted institutions by the average person today because it is commonly understood that none of them are truly objective and unbiased anymore. They all seem to have an ideological agenda, and their reporting and editorializing is slanted and misleading in favor of their preferred political party.

But the problem isn’t limited to just politicians and journalists. It’s pervasive throughout all sectors of society. Character and integrity, ethics and honesty, truthfulness and dependability, are in increasingly short supply in our society today. Situational ethics, rejection of objective truth, and general dishonesty are increasingly the standards being embraced and practiced.

It’s up to the people of God – Bible-believing Christians – to push back against that trend, to stand for truth, and to be men and women of character and integrity in the midst of a culture that has become increasingly ethically untethered.

All this month we will explore the issues of character and integrity from a Biblical perspective. We will discuss virtues like honesty, courage, dependability, and accountability; and we will look at problems like shading the truth, misrepresenting facts, situational ethics, reposting exaggerated and misleading Facebook memes, and much more.

Christians should be examples of ethical and honest conduct, men and women of integrity and strong character. I look forward to exploring this important subject with you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

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 life grounded in the love of God”

As we conclude our study of living a life that is grounded in the love of God, I want to finish where we started – with the understanding that God loves you fully and unconditionally, with an everlasting love which He never ceases to extend to you. I also want to remind you of several important truths we have learned through this study.

First, as John taught in 1 John 4:9b, “God is love”. Love is His very nature; it is the essence of His being. Love isn’t just an emotion that God feels, and it’s not just an action that He takes, although God does feel love for us and He does act on those feelings. Instead, love defines who God is and therefore everything He says or does comes out of and is based upon perfect love.

Second, as we learn in John 3:16, God loves us so much, and He has such an intense desire for us to be with Him for all eternity, that He sent Jesus to earth to rescue us from our sins so that we can one day be with Him in heaven, forever.

Third, as numerous devotionals in this series have taught us, as we progressively learn to more fully embrace the perfect, unconditional, never-ending love of God in our own lives, the practical reality of it enables us to face the storms and trials of life with a sense of peace and assurance.

And fourth, as we are taught in Galatians 5:22-23 and John 15:5-9, the love of God is one of the fruits that the Holy Spirit produces in our own lives as we learn and grow in Christ. Not only does that love become a personal experience for us in our own lives, but the love of God wells up in us and overflows out of us. Therefore, as we share it with other people, they then have a direct experience of the love of God as a result of their encounter with us.

Learning to live a life that is grounded in the love of God is a lifelong process of learning and transformation that takes place little-by-little on a daily basis. We have to want it and we have to apply ourselves to the discipline of daily discipleship. To help with that, this entire two-month series, consisting of fifty-one daily devotional messages, is available for you in book format. If you would like to have a copy of it for further study, I would be happy to send it to you free of charge. Just send me an email at pastorjimmohbc@gmail,com requesting a copy and I will send it to you as an email attachment.

I pray that through this study you have experienced God’s love in a deeper way and that more and more you are learning to live a life that is grounded in God’s love.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel did not obey me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own plans. If only my people would listen to me and Israel would follow my ways. I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cower to him; their doom would last forever. But he would feed Israel with the best wheat. I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.” Psalm 81:11-16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “God wants to bless us.”

God wanted to bless Israel. But as a nation they wouldn’t obey Him. They chose to live outside of the Biblical boundaries which He had established for acceptable conduct, and therefore they were choosing to live outside of the boundaries within which God could and would bless them. As a result, they were suffering terribly.

That Psalm is specifically about the nation of Israel but the lesson applies to our country too. God wants to bless us, but first we have to honor Him in our national life. As a nation we have to choose to live within the boundaries of acceptable conduct that He has established for us in the Bible. That doesn’t mean that we are to become a theocracy ruled by religious elites. We’re not Iran. But it does mean that the Bible provides us with a broad outline of morals and ethics that are God’s acceptable conduct for any people – even for those who do not specifically call upon the name of Jesus. That’s how the founders of our nation based the Constitution and the Bill of Rights on Biblical principles without actually turning us into a theocracy.

The further any nation drifts from those standards, the worse all aspects of their national life becomes. By most measures the quality of life in America continues to deteriorate. I’m not talking about economics. People can be well-off financially and still be miserable. Instead, I’m referring to things like morality, civility, and peaceful co-existence between groups of people with differing points of view on important issues. We’re doing well economically, that’s true enough, but in most other quality indicators our society is suffering badly. Why? Because as a nation we are living well outside of the boundaries within which God can and will bless us. And therefore, like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, God is giving us over to the consequences of our own bad choices.

As Christians we have to model for our fellow citizens what it looks like to live within Biblical boundaries. We have to be sure the we ourselves are living in such a way that we are part of the solution and not part of the problem. We must live lives that are grounded in the love of God, and we must actively share the love of God in the middle of all the anger, bitterness, and civil chaos. In time, our influence can move the needle and persuade others to live that way too.

God wants to bless us as a nation. We, the people of God, need to help our country get back to the place where God can and will bless us.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear …” 1 Peter 3:15-16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be the adult in the room”

The image that comes to our minds when we think of the Apostle Peter is usually one of a big gruff fisherman who was impetuous and a little volatile. Peter was the one who reprimanded Jesus for predicting His own death; he was also the one who drew a sword and chopped a man’s ear off in the Garden of Eden. Peter boasted that he would stand by Jesus, protect Him, and even die for Him, but he then, when the moment came, denied three times that he even knew Jesus.

Peter was big and boastful, a little mouthy, and definitely impulsive. So it’s a bit surprising that he’s the one who teaches us to tone down our rhetoric and to learn how to contend for Biblical truth in a kind and respectful way. That’s what he was teaching in 1 Peter 3:15-16 cited above.

In yesterday’s devotional I made the case that in this angry and divided society of ours, if we are going to live a life that’s grounded in the love of God, we will have to have our priorities in proper order. We need to be more focused on honoring God and building His kingdom than in promoting our favorite politician or political position. And, we need to do it in a kind and respectful way. We accomplish no good thing if we add to the angry and bitter rhetoric.

In 2018 I published a book about this. The title is “Getting Along Without Going Along: Biblical Sexual Ethics in An Age of Controversy and Conflict”. Although the primary focus of the book is sexual ethics, the overriding lesson is how to contend for Biblical truth with boldness and confidence, while at the same time treating others with respect and kindness. If you would like to have a copy of it, send me an email at pastorjimmohbc@gmail.com.

When it comes to speaking truth boldly but kindly in the midst of an angry and bitter society, Christians should always be the adults in the room. If you are living a life that is grounded in the love of God, then you will help to make things better rather than adding to the problem with more nastiness.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “… but our citizenship is in heaven …” Philippians 3:20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Remember where your loyalties lie.”

For two months now we’ve been exploring the theme of “living a life of love”. I chose that title to emphasize the practical aspect of God’s love. God’s love is more than just an abstract theological truth, it’s a practical reality that should make a real difference in our lives every day. That’s why we’ve been thinking about how to live a life that is grounded in the love of God.

As we conclude our study, I want to focus on the cultural environment that we find ourselves living in today. Many political commentators, social scientists, and historians are in agreement that our nation is probably more divided today than at any time since the Civil War. The political and social divisions are so deep, and there is so much anger and divisiveness between groups of people, that we truly are a nation divided. How do we as Christians live a life grounded in the love of God in the middle of so much anger, controversy, and conflict?

First, we need to remember where our loyalties lie. We are citizens of heaven first, and citizens of the USA second. That was Paul’s point in Philippians 3:20. As we’ll see on another day, the Apostle Peter teaches that same lesson in one of his letters.

This is important. It’s a crucial understanding for Christians. It’s a truth we all probably agree with, I’m sure, but in actual practice many of us act as if we’re citizens of the USA first and citizens of heaven second. We talk more about politicians (those we like and those we don’t) than we do about Jesus. We get more worked up about political and social issues than we do about Biblical issues. We put more time and effort into arguing for our political positions than we do in sharing the Good News of the Gospel and trying to lead people to faith in Christ.

But we ‘re supposed to be citizens of heaven first and citizens of whatever country we live in second – and we need to actually live that way. While we should be good citizens and obey the laws, and we should be involved in the political and social issues of our day, first and foremost we need to be about our Father’s business of blessing others and helping to lead them into the kingdom of heaven.

Living a life of love that’s grounded in the love of God, regularly sharing the love of God, and helping to lead people to Jesus, is a higher priority and should therefore supersede our political affiliations and our positions on social issues. We need to remember where our true loyalties lie. We’ll think more about this tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Preparations are being made now for what is to come later”

I love the picture Jesus paints for us in John 14:1-3. There He describes Himself in heaven preparing a special place for each one who belongs to Him. Additionally, we get the sense of the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the angels, and those people who are already in heaven, eagerly awaiting our arrival there.

It reminds me of a pregnant mother lovingly and patiently preparing for the arrival of her baby. She prepares a nursery, complete with furniture and decorations. She buys baby clothes, blankets, and various supplies to care for her baby. And then, once everything is ready, she waits. She waits for the day when her baby finally arrives, and what a great day that is!

That’s how it is as Jesus prepares that special place in heaven for each one who belongs to Him. Author Leighton Ford explains that there are two realities about heaven that make it special for us: place and personhood – we have a place to go to and we have a person to be with. There’s a special place prepared just for us, and there’s a special person (God) who we will enjoy being with for all eternity.

We’re being prepared for this now. That’s what the Christian life is all about. It’s the time during which Jesus is lovingly preparing that special place for us in heaven, and it’s the time during which the Holy Spirit is lovingly forming our souls and growing us spiritually so we will be ready for eternity in our Father’s presence.

We should live now with the understanding that eternity is going to be great. It will be a paradise beyond anything we can imagine. In love and with eager expectation God is preparing us now for what is to come later.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses.” Luke 14:16-18 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “Don’t use the gifts from God as an excuse to stay away from God.”

In my devotional reading this morning the author I was reading shared an insight into the parable Jesus told in Luke 14:16-24. It was an insight I had not considered before. In this parable Jesus told of a generous man who prepared a great banquet and then invited people to come and enjoy it with him. The man holding the banquet intended for it to be a time of fellowship between him and his guests. But instead of accepting the invitation, many of the invited guests made excuses instead. They all decided they had other things they wanted to do instead of spending time with the generous banquet-holder.

Jesus intended this story to illustrate how it is that God invites us to have fellowship with Him but many of us come up with lame excuses for not doing so. But here’s the really interesting part of the story: the excuses the people used in Jesus’ parable to get out of spending that time with the generous man, were all based upon blessings from God. One person had been blessed with the purchase of new land and felt he needed to go inspect it instead of coming to the banquet. Another said that he had just gotten married (a spouse is a gift from God) and wanted to stay home with his wife instead of coming to the banquet. And don’t miss Jesus’ real lesson here: The people were using the gifts of God as an excuse for not being with God.

That’s actually pretty common. Just as one example, I once knew a young family in the church I was the pastor of who were guilty of this. They were an attractive, healthy, and active family – Dad, Mom, and four children. They enjoyed outdoor activities together and they would frequently skip church on Sunday in order to go to the beach, or the lake, or the park, or hiking, or to athletic events. Now, family is a gift from God; good health is a gift from God; money is a gift from God; nice sunny days are a gift from God; and there’s nothing wrong with any of those things. But this family regularly combined all those gifts from God and used them as a reason to skip worshiping God with their church family.

In your own mind I’m sure you can think of endless other examples of the same kind of thing. We take the blessings of God and then use them in ways that actually move us away from God.

The blessings of God come to us as a love-gift from our Father in heaven and they’re intended by Him to draw us closer to Him. I encourage you to consider how you’re using the gifts of God in your life. Are they drawing you into a deeper relationship with Him, or are you using some of them in such a way that they are actually leading you away from Him?

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “If you love God, spend time with Him.”

A relationship only becomes and stays healthy if both parties in the relationship spend the time necessary for it to be so. A new relationship will only grow if the individuals spend time together. Likewise, an established relationship must be nurtured or it will wither and die.

The only way to nurture a relationship, a new one or an old one, is to give it time and attention. That’s true whether we’re talking about a relationship between a husband and wife, or between a parent and a child, or between friends; and it’s also true of your relationship with God. If you don’t give it time and attention, it will wither and die.

Time and attention to nurture a relationship doesn’t necessarily have to include activities, and it might not even involve talking. It could consist of nothing more than just being together and enjoying the fact that the other person is with you. My wife and I can ride in the car together for hours without talking much, and we’re both okay with that. We just enjoy being together. (Seriously, after forty-four years as a couple we’ve pretty much already said most of what can be said anyway, lol.)

When my children were young there were plenty of times when one of them would climb up onto the couch, snuggle up next to me, and just sit there – not saying anything, just snuggling. Those are some of my fondest memories as a father.

Our relationship with God can be like that too. We don’t have to always be jabbering away at Him in prayer. And we don’t have to always be listening to Him talk back to us through the Bible. It’s okay to sometimes just sit with Him, think about Him, and enjoy His presence, without saying much of anything. In our church we have a beautiful stained-glass window in the front of the sanctuary. It depicts Jesus with His arms wide-open in an inviting gesture, reminding us that He said: “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). Sometimes I’ll sit in the empty darkened sanctuary, with a single light turned on and shining through that stained-glass window, just gazing at it as I relax and enjoy being with God.

Every relationship needs time and attention in order to be healthy. That’s especially true of your relationship with God. If you love God, spend time with Him.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Living a life of love”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24 (RSV)

Our thought for today: “Cleave to God.”

The word “cleave” is an old-fashioned word that we seldom hear anymore. It means “bonding together” and is used in Genesis 2:24 to illustrate the relational bonding that describes a godly marriage. A man and woman come together as life-partners, walking through life together, sharing their lives with each other, and doing so until death-do-they-part.

In its purest and best form this cleaving of a man and woman, this bonding of their lives together, is the closest thing we see in human relationships to the agape love of God. It is much deeper than the infatuation of new moonstruck lovers. Instead it’s the deep commitment of two lives joined together in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, in abundance and in scarcity, in good times and in bad.

We’ve all witnessed examples of this, especially in older couples whose marriages have endured for forty, fifty, sixty years, and who, late in life, remain in love and fully committed to one another. They have walked through the fires of life together, never giving up, leaning on and into one another, never drifting apart.

Such human relationships are a picture of God’s never-ending and unconditional love for us. However, since our relationship with God is a spiritual one rather than physical, and since we therefore experience it by faith rather than by sight, it can be subtle and sometimes difficult to visualize. So He points us to the example of the marriage relationship done right, as an earthly picture of a heavenly reality.

God will never leave you nor forsake you. His love for you is unconditional and never-ending. God cleaves to you, are you cleaving to Him?

God Bless,
Pastor Jim