Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Dear friend, do not imitate evil, but what is good.” 3 John 11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be careful who and what you are influenced by.”

I want to end our study this month where we began it, by considering the influences that shape us. Perhaps you’ll remember our friend from the first devotional message in this series, the man decked out in “The Cleveland Look”. Red polo shirt tucked in, red and white plaid pants, white patent leather belt and shoes, dressed like no one else and evidently couldn’t care less. (I think also of my good friend Trevor, sporting a man-bun, taking lots of good-natured ribbing for it, but just laughing it off and going on his merry way. He seems to like his bun and he is unaffected by the heat he gets for it.)

Most of us spend too much time worrying about what others think, and too often we allow ourselves to be influenced by what others like and approve of. By seeking the approval of others, we effectively allow ourselves to be shaped by them. The Cleveland Look and man-buns are relatively unimportant issues, but people also allow themselves to be negatively influenced on much more important issues too, like issues of faith and morals and ethics. In these things we need to be influenced by God and by what He says in the Bible. This goes a long way towards determining the kind of person you are.

One of the reasons God gave us the Bible is to establish the boundaries we are to live within. The boundaries are wide and leave us lots of room for making choices and deciding for ourselves the things we like and don’t like. But there are boundaries, and we do have to stay within them.

In addition to well-established boundaries, the Bible is also filled with principles for living. These principles provide us with the guidance we need in order to have a Biblical worldview. We consider everything we see and hear in the world and we compare it to what the Bible says. The rightness or wrongness of anything is determined by how it compares to what God says in the Bible.

And finally, the Bible gives us models to follow. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Deborah, Ruth, Esther, Job, Jesus, Mary, Paul, and so many more. Their stories all have important things to teach us. In terms of conduct, it’s people like that who we should be learning from and copying.

I encourage you to be your best self, but make sure it is the self that God intends for you to be, then relax and enjoying simply being you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Here I am today, eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. My strength for battle and for daily tasks is now as it was then.” Joshua 14:10-11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Live with passion and enthusiasm”

I tend to quote Joshua 14:10-11 a lot. I do so first of all because it’s one of my personal life verses but also, because it communicates such an important message. In it we learn that at eighty-five years old Caleb was still vigorous and strong. This tells us that he remained active and he took good care of himself – probably right up until the end of his life. We should do that too.

But this verse also communicates a sense of passion and enthusiasm for life. Evidently there was no retiring to a rocking chair on the front porch for Caleb. As long as he was still breathing there were things to accomplish, adventures to go on, and a difference to make in the world. Caleb had passion and enthusiasm for life, and so should we. Jesus was like that, so was the Apostle Paul, so were the other apostles. In fact, this is the model for living that scripture gives us. There are no positive Biblical examples of sedate individuals shuffling through life with no real purpose and accomplishing no meaningful thing. Solomon told us to be bold as lions in our approach to life; from Joshua we learn to be strong and courageous; in Caleb we see passion and enthusiasm. This theme is carried all throughout scripture and it’s the model for the Christian life. As I noted yesterday, this is part of your spiritual DNA.

That doesn’t mean you can never retire. It just means you should use your retirement years in constructive ways. And it doesn’t mean that you can’t have a simple job and live a simple life in a quiet community. But you should live it with passion and enthusiasm, in a way that blesses others and helps to build the kingdom of God on earth. As the Apostle Paul taught us in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people.”  

I’ll be forever grateful for a piece of advice I received early in life from a very wise man. He said, “Jim, live life large. Live it with passion. Go for the gusto. Life is too short to live small.”

When it comes to accepting and embracing the gift of being yourself, it’s important to remember that God created you to live with passion and enthusiasm for the cause of Christ. Anything less than that and you are not being who God created you to be.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed (intimidated), for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (Amplified Bible)

Our thought for today: “God created you to be strong and courageous.”

In yesterday’s devotional we considered Solomon’s encouragement for us to be as bold as lions in the way in which we face the challenges of life. I want to continue that thought today and tomorrow by considering two of my favorite people from the Old Testament. These two men served as associates of Moses and they both figured proximately in the history of the early years of the nation of Israel. They are Joshua and Caleb. We’ll talk about Caleb tomorrow but this morning I want to focus on Joshua.

One of the things I love about Joshua was that he did the very thing the Lord commanded – he was strong and courageous. It was in his spiritual DNA. It’s who God created him to be. We actually see this early in Joshua’s life when he served alongside Moses and when he boldly went out as one of the spies to reconnoiter the Promised Land. Along with Caleb he then urged the nation of Israel to ignore the ten nay-sayers who argued against taking possession of the Promised Land and to instead go as God had directed them.

Joshua was bold and strong and courageous all throughout his life. That’s also what the Lord expects from us. It’s in your DNA too. You may not know it – you may not be exercising that boldness and courage right now, but it is there. God created you to be strong and courageous in Christ.

Another man from history whose example I’ve always found inspiring is President Teddy Roosevelt. He was a strong and courageous man of action and he encouraged others to be that way too. In one of his greatest speeches he said:

“It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but he who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

I encourage you to be strong and courageous in your approach to life. It is the kind of person God has called you to be, it’s who He has created you to be. It is in your spiritual DNA.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “The wicked flee when no one is pursuing them, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” Proverbs 28:1 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t be afraid to be bold”

Author Philip Yancey once posed the question: “How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?” Yancey was referring to the fact that if Jesus had simply told everyone to be nice to each other and stopped there, it wouldn’t have been a problem. How could anyone object to that? The problem developed when Jesus kept talking and ended up saying things that people didn’t want to hear. It was spiritual truth, vital truth, but some important and powerful people didn’t want to hear it and by saying it anyway, Jesus put Himself in a dangerous situation that ended up getting Him killed.

One of the biggest hindrances to simply being yourself is fear. We fear what others will think, or what they will say, or what they might do. We fear rejection, opposition, or even persecution. And so, we settle for being like Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo rather than like Jesus. We smile and keep our mouths shut rather than saying the things that need to be said. We hang back and don’t even try rather than risking failure. We’re timid rather than being bold.

One of my favorite men’s Bible study books is “Wild at Heart” by John Eldredge. It addresses this very issue. Too many men today are timid or afraid or withdrawn. It’s a big, bad, and challenging world out there, and so they have checked-out of life and withdrawn into the world of sports, or video games, or television, or substance abuse. It’s safer there. Life is easier there. Women do this too.

But that’s not a valid option for men and women of God. It’s not who God has created us to be. As Solomon wrote in Proverbs 28:1, we’re to be bold as lions. That doesn’t mean that we’re aggressive, obnoxious, pushy, mean, or reckless. It simply means that our faith in Christ gives us the courage we need to face life head-on and to deal boldly with the problems and challenges we’re confronted with.

Don’t be timid, fearful, or withdrawn. That’s not who God created you to be. I encourage you to be bold, as bold as a lion. Jesus was bold, and we’re to be bold too.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Does something need to change?”

All this month we’ve been considering the theme of “The Gift of Being Yourself.” We’ve explored the freedom God has given us to just relax and be ourselves. We have thought about the importance of being comfortable in our own skins, no longer giving in to the pressure to conform to the patterns and expectations of the world. And we have considered the great truth that we matter simply because God says we do. So, the goal has been to come to the point of relaxing and just enjoy being yourself.

But do you want to do that? Do you like yourself enough to just be you? Christine, the young lady I told you about yesterday, didn’t. She was unhappy with who she was and she didn’t consider herself to be worthy of acceptance or love, from herself or from anyone else.

An important part of being able to enjoy the gift of simply being yourself is to actually like yourself enough to want to just be you. Very often there are things about ourselves that we don’t like and which we wish were different. Sometimes those feelings are unjustified and come from allowing the culture and other people to impose their values on us. But other times there are things about ourselves that do legitimately need to change. Sometimes there are characteristics and mannerisms that we should be unhappy about and which we should make us uncomfortable.

This is where the prayer of King David in Psalm 139:23-24 becomes helpful. David was a pretty impressive guy in many ways. He was smart and talented and rich and powerful. He wrote beautiful songs, he was a successful leader of God’s people, and there was a lot about himself that he could justifiably feel good about. But that wasn’t good enough. David knew he needed to be right before God. Ultimately that’s what really matter. It was only when he was right with God that David could relax and enjoy being the man that he was. Thus, his prayer. “Search me, Holy Spirit. Know me, ferret out any offensive way in me, show it to me, then lead me to confession and repentance.”

What was true for David is just as true for us. Despite any other good thing about you, you won’t really feel good about yourself until you know, deep down, that you are right with God. That begins with placing your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, but then it continues with a daily time of searching, confession, and repentance.

I encourage you to spend some extra time with the Lord this morning. Make David’s prayer your prayer. Then allow the Holy Spirit to show you the areas of your life that need some attention. You won’t really feel good about yourself until those issues are addressed.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born.” Jeremiah 1:5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You matter because God says you do.”

Christine was a young woman who had been adopted at birth. She never knew her birth parents. In fact, her parents had given her up without ever seeing her and without naming her. The knowledge of that decision haunted Christine. She felt as if she had been discarded as unwanted and worthless. She was grateful for her adopted parents of course, but she could never shake the sense of having been so easily tossed aside by her biological parents.

Christine spent many years struggling with her identity and with her sense of self-worth. It colored her personality and negatively impacted every part of her life. Fortunately, eventually, she placed her faith in Jesus, developed a deep and growing relationship with Him, and in the process, she came to know her heavenly Father. And as she did, she discovered the love of the One who formed her in the womb, the One who knew her and named her before she was even born. At the moment of conception God declared her to be His deeply loved child, His prized and valued possession. She was His.

As this new understanding washed over her, and as the reality of it took hold in her heart, all the pain from all the years of feeling alone and unwanted drained away. Christine finally realized that her significance came from God not from any other person, not even from her birth parents. God loved her and cherished her. She was the much-loved child of her Father in heaven, and that’s all that mattered.

Some of us reading this right now struggle with feelings like Christine had. Oh, maybe you weren’t abandoned at birth by your biological parents. Perhaps you grew up in a stable home with two loving parents. But still, how much of your sense of self-worth depends on the approval of others? To what extent do you measure yourself against the standards of the world?

As we approach the end of our month-long focus on “The Gift of Being Yourself”, I want to recommend to you again the excellent little Bible study by Robert McGee, “The Search for Significance: Build Your Self-Worth on God’s Truth”. I’m confident you will find the truths revealed in that study to be very helpful.

The truth is that you matter because God says you do.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:19-20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Jesus will give you a new identity.”

If you had met some of the apostles before they became followers of Jesus you probably would have been unimpressed. They were rugged and somewhat uncouth fishermen from a remote village in northern Galilee. James and John evidently had explosive tempers because Jesus jokingly nicknamed them “The sons of thunder”. Peter was rough, tough, and impetuous. Andrew may have lived quietly in the shadow of his tough big brother Peter.

But then they met Jesus and it changed everything. Jesus called Andrew and Peter to put down their fishing nets and follow Him. Then He called James and John to follow Him too. They did, and nothing was ever the same for them again. Jesus gave them a new identity. He changed them from who they were into who God wanted them to be. He will do the same for you.

In the last two devotionals we’ve been considering the important truth that who you are on the inside is much more important than who you are on the outside. Physical characteristics aren’t anywhere near as important as is spiritual maturity. It’s who you are on the inside that matters most, and it’s in your heart that God does His best work in your life.

By the time God had spent thirty years or so molding and shaping Peter into the man He wanted him to be, Peter probably still looked pretty much the same. Older and greyer certainly, probably with a bigger belly, but you would still have recognized him as the guy you used to fish with. But on the inside, now that was a different story. The change in his heart was nothing less than a miracle. This was the guy who became a founding father of the Christian faith and a leader in the early church. He was the one who wrote two books of the New Testament and probably dictated the gospel of Mark. This was the man who spent many decades of his life earnestly helping to build the kingdom of God on earth. The change in him from that rough, tough, impetuous fisherman was astounding. Jesus gave him a new identity and then spent years and years molding and shaping Peter into that new man. That’s what Jesus does for us.

All month I’ve been urging you to relax and enjoy being yourself, accepting the gift of just being you. But I’m talking about the you that Jesus wants you to be. If you’re not already in the process of becoming that person then my goodness, don’t be content to stay as you are! Jesus has a new identity for you, and that’s the person you are supposed to be.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23

Our thought for today: “It’s what’s inside that counts.”

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Galatians 5:22-23 in the life of the Christian. There are other verses that are probably more important, like John 3:16 which reminds us that our Father in heaven loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us in order to rescue us from our sins. In John 3:6-7 Jesus tells us that we must be born again. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 the Apostle Paul explains that when we are born again, we become a brand-new spiritual creation. Romans 10:9-10 tells us how to be saved. Those scriptures express essential truths of the Christian faith and are therefore some of the most important passages in the Bible. I personally believe Galatians 5:22-23 is right up there in that top tier.

In this passage Paul explains the amazing transformation the Holy Spirit progressively brings about in the life of the Christian. Paul calls it “the fruit of the Spirit”. These are character traits that the Holy Spirit works into your life. As you mature and grow spiritually these traits become more and more a part of who you are as a person. They begin to define you. You become known as a person who is so full of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control that those things bubble up, overflow, and radiate out of you. It’s simply who you are.

This is what matters. This is what counts. As I said in yesterday’s devotional, it’s not your physical attributes that are the most important, it’s what’s inside of you that matters most. You may be 6 foot 4 with sculpted abs, you might have Brad Pitt looks, you might be a black belt in karate and drive a Maserati, but if you have anger and bitterness in your heart then you are not a person to be admired or emulated. On the other hand, you might be short, round, bald, and wheezing, but if you have a heart overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit you will be a wonderful person who is a joy to be around.

Also, the fruit of the Spirit is an excellent barometer to evaluate how you’re doing with respect to spiritual maturity and growth. To what extent does the fruit of the Spirit define you? To what degree are those attributes present in your life? More is better, less is problematic.

As you consciously and joyfully embrace the gift of simply being yourself, give more thought to your spiritual maturity rather than to your physical characteristics because it’s what’s on the inside that matters most.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “The people I formed for myself will declare my praise.” Isaiah 43:21 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “God created you for Himself.”

We live in an age of tremendous scientific discovery and advances. Computer and digital technology are mind boggling. Advances in artificial intelligence are creepy and scary. But perhaps the area of scientific advancement that is most troubling is cloning. Through the science of cloning scientists take cells from one being and use them to create an exact living copy of that being. They’ve successfully done it with mice, sheep, cattle, and chickens. They are working to clone monkeys and they have their sights set on humans.

But if they do someday create a clone of a human, will that clone really be an exact reproduction of the real person? I don’t think so. The clone may be a near perfect physical copy of the person, but it will not have the mind, heart, soul, and spirit of the person. Even if scientists do manage to manipulate biology to the point of growing a physical replica of a person out of a test tube, that replica will still not be the real person. Maybe the physical body can be copied, but not the mind, heart, soul, and spirit. Those cannot be grown in a test tube.

There is only one you. Only you can be you. God created you to be you and He didn’t create anyone else to be you. When it comes to accepting yourself for who you are – when it comes to graciously receiving the gift of being yourself, this is an important understanding. God created you to be you, and only you can be you. God didn’t make a mistake when He created you.

Even if you think you are too tall, too short, too skinny, or too fat; even if, like me, you have more hair in your ears and nose and on your chest and back than you do on your head, it doesn’t matter. God created you to be you and the physical characteristics are the least important part of you.

The most important thing about you is what is on the inside not what’s on the outside. We will think more about this tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.” Colossians 2:8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t be fooled.”

One of the greatest dangers faced by Christians today is the danger of counterfeit Christianity. There’s a lot of false teaching in our society today, a lot of dangerous philosophies and unbiblical worldviews which lead people into all sorts of ungodly behaviors. And, worse, such things are promoted and celebrated as being normal and even good.

But the problem isn’t just in society at-large, the problem is also in the church. Christians in large numbers are buying into the unbiblical worldviews, incorporating them into their Christian worldview, and ending up with a form of counterfeit Christianity. In 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 the Apostle Paul warned us: “For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” 

Yes, false teachers and preachers disguise themselves as Christians so they can infiltrate the ranks of Christianity and spread false teaching. They try to convince the faithful to give-in to the cultural pressures, and to combine popular worldly beliefs with traditional Christian doctrine. That creates a counterfeit Christianity and leads Christians astray. I preached two sermons on this subject recently at our church. You can listen to them on our website at www.oakhillbaptist.net. Just click on “listen”, then select the sermons and PowerPoint for July 7, and 14, 2019. I encourage you to do that.

What does that have to do with “The Gift of Being Yourself”? Just that when you accept the lies of Satan you are being led away from being the person God intends for you to be. This is why it’s so important for Christians to be active in a good Bible-believing church, and it is why we must be diligent students of the Bible. We have to develop a solid Biblical worldview, and then we must be strong enough to stand against the lies of the age.

If you are out of church, and if you are not a diligent student of Scripture, you are in an extremely vulnerable position and you are a ripe target for Satan. You can easily be led astray. I encourage you not to let that happen. You will only be your true self, and your best self, when you are in a strong and healthy relationship with God, based upon sound Biblical doctrine. Don’t let yourself be fooled into believing the lies of Satan.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim