Our theme for this month: “Character and Integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: ‘If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat. For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies. Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t enable bad behavior”

In yesterday’s devotional I made the statement that virtuous Christians care about others. I also said that character and integrity are often evidenced through acts of kindness, compassion, and mercy towards those in need. I even cited the example of Jesus as He ministered to the outcasts of society, and then I encouraged all of us to go and do likewise.

That lesson is certainly true, but there is a caveat that must go with it, a balance that must be struck. In our eagerness and enthusiasm to be a blessing to those in need we must be sure we truly are helping and not hurting. We have to be sure that our charitable acts of compassion are not in fact enabling bad behavior. Sometimes helping actually hurts more than it helps.

In 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 the Apostle Paul was writing about some people in the community who could work – they were capable, but they chose not to work. Instead, they were living off of the generosity and charity of others. They were taking advantage of the acts of kindness and mercy extended to them by kindhearted Christians, rather than going out and earning a living so they could take care of their own needs. In such a case Paul’s instructions to those kindhearted Christians was to stop feeding those people. The implication is that if they get hungry enough, they’ll get a job and buy their own food.

This was tough love in action, and sometimes tough love is exactly what the situation calls for.  It is love, but it is tough, and it is intended to motivate the other person to start doing the right thing rather than to continue taking advantage of others. We’ve all had encounters with people like this, people who go from person to person, from church to church, from helping agency to helping agency, getting what they can from this one, then moving on to the next one. My thought when dealing with such a person is often, “If you would put half as much effort into working at a job as you do trying to get stuff for free from other people, you would have a pretty good life.”

Sometimes the best thing we can do for the other person is to say “no”. And sometimes the test of our own character is our ability to use tough love when it is appropriate. Be wise enough to know when “no” is the right answer. Then be strong enough to stick by it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Character and Integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “At that time Jesus healed many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many blind people. He replied to them, ‘Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news.” Luke 7:21-23 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Have compassion on those in need”

This Sunday evening at Oak Hill Baptist Church is “Bread of Life Night”. It’s the Sunday each quarter when we hold our evening service at the Bread of Life Rescue Mission in downtown Crossville. At 5:00 some of us will lead the evening worship service while others are in the kitchen preparing the evening meal. Then at 6:00 we will serve the meal to the people living in the mission and to those who have come in off the street. After everyone has been served, we will sit down and eat with them. The menu this time is a “Crockpot Potluck”. Everyone is bringing their favorite Crockpot dish, so there will be a smorgasbord of selections.

The following weekend we will be going on our tri-annual mission trip to the coal mining region of eastern Kentucky. We partner with a little church up there by bringing them a large load of supplies to help them to minister to the poorest people in that very impoverished community. On this trip we will bring 125 boxes of food, each with enough food to feed a family of four for two meals. Each box will also have a family-size turkey with it. We are also bringing a supply of blankets, winter coats, and winter clothes.

Our goal in both of those cases is to come alongside and strengthen the efforts of Christians who are doing something good to build the kingdom of God in their community. They are preaching the Good News, leading people to Christ, and discipling them. Our assistance and resources are temporary in nature, but they do help to meet the immediate physical needs of hurting people, while our partners maintain a long-term presence for the cause of Christ in that community.

Meeting the physical needs of people first was Jesus’ model of ministry, and it is the one the Bible calls us to. Jesus directed much of his ministry efforts to the underclass, to the poor and the sick and the outcasts. The early church in Jerusalem did the same. They made the meeting of physical needs a prominent feature of their church life – whether they were taking care of their own, ministering to widows and orphans, or reaching out to hurting people in the extended community. The Apostle Paul modeled and taught this as well.

Character and integrity are often evidenced by acts of mercy and compassion. Virtuous Christians care about others. It’s a joy for me to be the Pastor of a church filled with kind and compassionate Christians who go out of their way to bless others. The character and integrity, the acts of compassion and mercy, routinely demonstrated by the members of our church are inspiring to me and I’m blessed to be a part of it.

I encourage you to show compassion to those in need.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Character and Integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men …” Colossians 3:23 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Christians should be the best workers”

Recently I read a description of a man’s job that was pretty bleak and depressing. Here’s how it was described: “He had a menial, dead-end job. They assigned him tasks non one else wanted – the “dumb work,” the dirty work, the dangerous work. They called him out at all hours of the day and night to satisfy the whims of his supervisors. He had little hope for advancement. In fact, he’d be lucky just to keep his job; plenty of others stood in line, ready to replace him. Whether he even lived or died mattered little. He was a first-century Roman slave.”

I know, I know, you thought I was describing your job. But no, that’s what life was like for the average Roman slave in the time of the Apostle Paul. Yet, such a man mattered to God, and his work mattered too. Paul wrote that as a Christian such a person was no longer just a slave, he was an employee of the Lord Jesus Christ! And that should make all the difference.

The Bible teaches us to approach our work as an expression of our faith. We can honor and even worship God by the way we perform our labor. Work was God’s idea. He invented it and He is the one who has commanded us to have a job and to pay our own way through life. Having a job, meeting your own needs and those of your family, is a good thing. Not only are we to do it, but we are to do it well.

In every occupation, in every workplace, Christians should always be the best employees. We should be the ones with the best work ethic. We should stand out as an exemplary employee because we are conducting our work as a means of serving our Lord and not simply to please a human boss. I encourage you to honor Jesus by the way you perform your job.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Character and integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.” John 13:15 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Attitudes are caught rather than taught”

The disciples were inspired by Jesus. Oh, they learned from Him too – in that they listened to His words, memorized the lessons, and took them to heart. They also observed His conduct and modeled their own on His. So there was learning taking place for sure. But more than being taught by Jesus they were being inspired by Jesus. They wanted to be like Him and so they made an effort to follow His example. His passion for honoring the Father, His commitment to blessing others, His love for people, His willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others, all inspired the disciples to copy His behavior.

We read a similar account in Philippians 3:17 where the Apostle Paul urges his readers to consider his example of passion, faithfulness, and service, and to then follow it. Those that did accept Paul’s teaching and follow the example he set for them did so not so much because they were taught to, but because they were inspired to.

You’ve probably heard it said that racism is a learned behavior. It’s true. Babies aren’t born hating other babies because their skin is a different color. Children learn racist beliefs and behaviors from the adults in their lives whom they look up to and admire. Children are inspired towards racist attitudes because the people they are closest to, those they look up to and are most influenced by, are racist.

It’s really true that attitudes are caught rather than taught. That’s especially true when it comes to children learning from and being inspired by the adults in their lives, but it’s also true adult-to-adult. I’m sixty-five years old but I’m still surrounded by people I admire and whose examples inspire me to want to be a better man.

What attitudes are others in your life “catching” from you with respect to character and integrity? There are people close to you – children, teens, and other adults, who admire you and who are influenced by your attitudes and behaviors. How do they see you acting? What do they hear you saying? Are you a man or woman of character and integrity who others might want to be more like?

Attitudes are caught much more than they are taught. I encourage each of us to give careful thought to who we are, what we are like, and what it is other people see as they observe us and listen to us.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Character and Integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” Proverbs 11:3 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “A little less talk and a little more action, please”

A couple of days ago a lady told me about the problems she had with a young man she had hired to do some work for her. On the morning he was supposed to start the job he didn’t show up, and he didn’t call either. Finally, the lady called him and asked him why he didn’t come as he had promised. He replied that something else came up but that he would be there the next day. The next day it was the same thing, he didn’t show up and he didn’t call, so she called him again and asked why. This time his answer was that he had forgotten but that he would definitely be there the next day. But the next day he didn’t show up again. This time she called him and fired him. But in good motherly fashion she also gave him a little lecture about keeping his word and doing what he promised to do – and also about having the courtesy to at least call if for some reason he cannot keep his commitment.

As I listened to that story, I thought of the contrasting example set by a friend of mine, a good Christian man, who is a real stickler for keeping his word. If he tells you he is going to do something you can count on him to do it, and to do it when he said he would. He is a man of integrity and he keeps his word. If he says he’s going to do something he does it no matter what – even if he doesn’t feel like it and even if it’s inconvenient.

Yesterday’s devotional was about telling the truth. Today’s topic is directly connected to truth-telling because if you don’t follow through and actually do what you said you would do, you really haven’t told the truth. Words are cheap. It’s your actions that matter. If you say you’re going to do something but then you don’t do it, you have failed to keep your commitment. That’s not too different from lying. Oh, perhaps you really did mean it when you said it, but if you don’t follow through on it, then in the end your words were not true.

As Christians we have to be men and women of integrity, men and women whose word means something. People should know that if we promise to do something, we will in fact do it, and to the greatest extent possible we will do it when we promised to do it. And if keeping our word turns out to be costly to us? No matter, we will keep it anyway because we are men and women of character and integrity who do what we say we are going to do and who keep our commitments.

Some people need to hear this: A little less talk and a little more action, please.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Character and integrity”

Our Bible verse for today: “But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’. Anything more than this is from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Just tell the truth”

I sometimes have to deal with a person who lies at least as much as she tells the truth, and this has been true of her for as long as anyone can remember. She always has a sad story designed to make everyone feel sorry for her, and it is almost always filled with drama, exaggeration, and outright lies to the point of being unbelievable. She has been caught in so many lies, so often, that when talking to her it’s impossible to know what’s true and what isn’t.

That’s an extreme example of a problem that exists, to a lesser degree, throughout our society today. For many people the truth is irrelevant and inconvenient. What they claim to be true in any given situation depends on what they need the “truth” to be in that moment. And if their need changes, then say does their truth-claim.

This should never be true of God’s people. Every Christian should be a man or woman of his or her word. Just speak the plain and simple truth. No embellishment, no conveniently omitted facts, no shades of meaning, just straight and simple truth. That’s what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:37. “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’.” Nothing more and nothing less. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and let the chips fall where they may. Do it gently and in love, don’t be unnecessarily blunt or insensitive, but simply speak the truth.

One of the men I look up to and who I’ve learned a lot from by his example is General Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. He had a list of leadership principles that he practiced in his own life, and which he taught to others, and that he looked for in the men and women he promoted into leadership positions. He called them “Powell’s Principles” and he had one about truth-telling: “Just tell the truth. Untidy truth is always better than smooth lies which unravel in the end anyway.” What he means is that even if telling the truth is inconvenient and hard, be truthful anyway.

Men and women of God should be scrupulously honest. Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’. As Jesus said, anything other than that is from the devil.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

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