Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Lying creates a tangled web of deceit”

In the year 1513 Scotland lost one of the most disastrous battles in its long history. It was the battle of Marmion. Without going into the details, the battle was lost because of a complicated web of lying, deceit, intrigue, and treachery on the part of the key characters.

In 1808 Scottish writer and poet Sir Walter Scott memorialized that battle in his famous poem “Marmion”. Out of that poem came one of the most memorable lines ever about lying: “Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”

One lie inevitably leads to another, and then to another, and then to another. When you tell a lie not only do you have to remember what untrue thing you said, but invariably you will end up having to tell another lie to cover up for the first lie, and that will often lead to additional lies, and soon it becomes a tangled web of lies that you can’t work your way out of. Eventually you will be found out and identified as a liar, relationships will be damaged, people will get hurt, and your reputation will be tainted – all because you didn’t tell the truth to begin with.

In John 8:32, when Jesus said that the truth will set us free, He was speaking specifically about spiritual truth, Biblical truth. In other words learning, embracing, and living by the truth as taught by Jesus will set you free. A saved and obedient follower of Jesus will experience freedom from sin, but also from the confusion about how to live daily life. Knowing and living by the truth of God sets us free, it brings freedom from wrong living.

In a similar manner, telling the truth will set you free. Tell the truth to begin with and you won’t have to worry about getting caught up in a tangled web of lies and deceit. The truth isn’t always convenient but it is always the truth. If you simply tell the truth you will never have to worry about accurately remembering your lie, and you won’t have to cover anything up. Always telling the truth frees us from being trapped in the complicated and tangled web of lies and deceit.

I encourage you to avoid that tangled web of lies and deceits. Simply tell the truth – always.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” 2 Corinthians 13:1 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are innocent until proven guilty.”

Many times it’s hard to know if someone is telling the truth or not. A good contemporary case-in-point would be the sexual assault allegations made against current Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He has been accused of a sexual assault thirty-five years ago. The accuser seems credible to many people, but Judge Kavanaugh insists he didn’t do it. There is no evidence and there are no witnesses. It’s entirely a matter of “He said, she said”. So who do we believe? How do we know what the truth is?

The Biblical standard is that the truth of any matter must be established by two or three witnesses. In other words, there has to be hard evidence or there must be multiple credible witnesses. That’s what the Apostle Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 13:1, and Paul was simply quoting Moses from Deuteronomy 19:15. This was an Old Testament standard for determining truth, and it was reaffirmed in the New Testament.

The presumption of innocence unless proven guilty isn’t just a Biblical standard either, it’s also a foundational precept in both English and American law. In 1765 Sir William Blackstone wrote in his classic work “Commentaries on the Laws of England”, “Better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.”

That principle was critical in the thinking of our Founding Fathers as well, and it was absorbed into both American common law and into the American sense of justice and fair play. Benjamin Franklin paraphrased Blackstone when he said, “It is better 100 guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer.” John Adams said it like this, “It is more important that innocence be protected than guilt be punished.” This is where we get our standard of “innocent until proven guilty”. And it is more than just a legal standard to be applied in a court of law – it’s part of the American sense of justice and fair play.

God apparently agrees that it’s better for the guilty to go free than for the innocent to be punished. In Genesis 18:23-32, as God was planning to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded with Him to relent, just in case there were some innocent people among all the guilty. The way the conversation developed was that if Abraham could show God any righteous people at all in those towns, God would relent and allow all the guilty to go free for the sake of the innocent among them (there weren’t any).

Back to our current contemporary example: Sexual assault is an awful crime that demands punishment. Victims of sexual assault should be taken seriously and dealt with in a kind and compassionate manner. However, it’s also the case that anyone can accuse anyone else of anything at any time – but that doesn’t make it true. Just because an accusation has been made, doesn’t mean it is true. The burden of proof lies with the accuser to demonstrate that an offense has in fact been committed, and also that the person being accused is in fact the person who did it.

We are entitled to the presumption of innocence – both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion. The burden is on the accuser and on the government to prove guilt, not on the accused to prove him or herself innocent.

Not only do we as individuals have a responsibility to tell the truth, but all of us also have a responsibility to insist that the truth be told. Additionally, we also have a responsibility to withhold judgment until and unless there is either hard evidence, or multiple credible witnesses, to corroborate the alleged offense.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “But from eternity to eternity the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear him, and his righteousness toward the grandchildren of those who keep his covenant, who remember to observe his precepts.” Psalm 103.17 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are responsible for your legacy.”

Psalm 103:17 is about legacy. It speaks of someone who loves the Lord and whose life has a strong impact on those who are close to them.

The other day I had the privilege of performing a funeral for a Christian woman who was deeply loved by many people. During the service we had a time when we invited anyone who wanted to, to stand up and share a special memory about her. Person after person spoke of her kindness and generosity. They also told stories about her great sense of humor and how much she loved to laugh (and to make others laugh). They talked about how much she enjoying cooking and eating, and cooking so others could enjoy eating too. But mostly they spoke of her warmth, her friendliness, and her ability to make everyone around her comfortable and relaxed and welcomed. And they spoke of her great love for others.

This was a woman who left a significant legacy that will be remembered for generations to come. However, her legacy is not about professional accomplishments, or financial wealth, or great worldly possessions. No, her legacy is wrapped up in the people she loved and blessed throughout her life. Her legacy consists of people not things.

In my remarks I noted that it was her strong faith in Jesus that made her the person she was. It was the Holy Spirit working in her life who molded and shaped her into the kind, generous, warm, and loving person that she had been. And those are the things she will be remembered for. That will be her legacy.

Many years ago I saw a sign in front of a church which caused me to laugh out loud, but which I have also remembered and used on our own church sign numerous times over the years. It read, “Live in such a way that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral.”

Yes please. I appreciate it when people don’t make me stretch for nice things to say about them at their funeral.

You are responsible for your legacy. Live in such a way now that people will have lots of nice things to say about you later.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Bless others, even when you yourself are hurting.”

Some years ago I spent four hours with a man (an old friend) who had been going through a difficult season of life. He had some health problems, he lost his job, he had financial problems, his marriage was struggling, and he was pretty miserable. In fact, he was so consumed with his misery that it was all he could think of or talk about. For four hours I sat silent and listened as he recited what seemed liked an endless list of problems, complaints, and criticisms about other people. He talked non-stop and I simply listened.

Although we had known each other for years, my friend never once asked about me or my family. He simply wanted to talk about himself and his problems, and that’s the way he was with everyone pretty much all the time. So it shouldn’t surprise you that people (including his wife) could only take so much of that and then they started to avoid him, which made him even more miserable and even more convinced that nobody understood him or cared what he was going through.

Contrast that with the story of Army General John Kelly (President Trump’s current Chief of Staff). In 2010 General Kelly’s son was killed in combat in Afghanistan. It was a devastating and heartbreaking time for General Kelly and his wife and they did grieve deeply. But they quickly moved beyond their grief and focused their attention instead on ministering to other military families who had also lost a loved one in combat. They made a decision to take their eyes off of themselves and their own grief, and to focus instead on helping others who were dealing with a similar tragedy in their life. They effectively turned their own grief and suffering into a way of caring for and blessing others who were experiencing something similar.

The difference between the man in the first example and General Kelly and his wife is that the first man was completely self-absorbed and focused on himself, while General Kelly and his wife took their eyes off of themselves and their own grief and focused instead on blessing others who were suffering too.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 that God will bless and comfort us in our suffering so that we can focus on blessing others. We don’t need to be self-absorbed and focused on ourselves. God will pay attention to what we’re going through and He will help us through it. He wants us to focus less on ourselves and more on others.

We are each responsible for how we handle our suffering. God does not want us to become self-absorbed, thinking only of ourselves. Often the best therapy is to take your eyes off of yourself and focus instead on blessing and caring for others who are suffering too.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “When there is a person whose work was done with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a person who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great wrong.” Ecclesiastes 2:21 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are responsible to work for what you want”

It’s widely and wrongly believed by many people today that the Bible advocates socialism. Socialism is a political and economic system whereby the government intervenes and redistributes wealth. The idea is supposedly “equality among classes” and is achieved by taking from those who have worked hard, been successful, and earned a lot, and giving it to those who have not worked hard, been successful, or earned a lot.

Those who promote socialism often claim Biblical support for it (especially the passages where Jesus instructs us to give to those in need). Another passage often cited is Acts 2:42-46 where we find the early church in Jerusalem sharing with each other and everyone being well cared for. However socialists aren’t as fond of passages like Ecclesiastes 2:21, which clearly speaks about the wrongness of this socialist mindset; or 2 Thessalonians 3:10, where the Apostle Paul says that if a man will not work then he shall not eat; or Proverbs 6:6-8, where Solomon mocks the lazy person who doesn’t work hard.

The truth is that the Bible instructs us to work, to work hard, and to pay our own way in this world. It started with Adam in the Garden of Eden when God assigned him the job of caring for the Garden, and it carries through the entire Bible. God’s people are to be hard workers and we will then reap what we sow.

It’s true that there are plenty of passages which teach us to generously and compassionately care for the poor, but those passages speak specifically about those who have a legitimate need and who can’t care for themselves. It’s not God’s desire for us to enable the bad behavior of lazy people. Also, passages like Acts 2:42, which show God’s people sharing generously with each other, are examples of voluntary generosity. Those were not cases of religious or government officials forcibly taking money and provisions from one person who earned them, and giving them to another person who did not earn them.

Many people in our land today are attracted to what I call “soft-core socialism”. Soft-core socialism is like soft-core porn – it’s suggestive enough to be titillating and therefore attractive, but not revealing enough to show how evil it really is. However, just as soft-core porn is a gateway to hard-core porn, so too soft-core socialism is simply the leading edge of something that is clearly and emphatically unbiblical.

In God’s economy each person has a responsibility to provide for themselves, and you then reap what you sow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “It’s up to you to turn to God for courage.”

This morning I want to revisit our thought from yesterday about having the courage to stand your ground. Throughout history it has always been the case that God’s people have been faced with adversity and opposition from the surrounding culture. And it has always been true that God’s people needed to turn to him for the courage they needed to face that opposition.

In Deuteronomy 31:6 we’re reading part of Moses’ farewell speech to the nation of Israel. He was about to die, and they were about to cross the Jordan River to take possession of the Promised Land. When they did, they were going to have to face their enemies and they were going to have to trust God, drawing courage from Him to go forward and do what they needed to do. Once before, forty years earlier, they had been faced with the same situation and they had failed. At that time they did not trust God and they did not turn to Him for the courage they needed in order to deal with the challenge. And so, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.

There has never been a time when God’s people did not face opposition and challenges. The nature of the opposition and challenges do change, but the need for courage and trust is the same. We need to look to the Lord and trust that He is leading us in the way He wants us to go. We also need to remember that as Christians helping to build our Father’s kingdom on earth, our cause is noble and right and just.

In his great little book “Make Your Bed”, retired Four Star Navy Admiral and SEAL William McRaven made a great statement about the value of courage:

“Our goal, which we believed to be honorable and noble, gave us courage, and courage is a remarkable quality. Nothing and nobody can stand in your way. Without it, others will define your path forward. Without it, you are at the mercy of life’s temptations. Without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots. Without courage, no great society can flourish. Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up. With it, you can accomplish any goal. With it, you can defy and defeat evil.”

I encourage you to remember that the Lord your God is with you and He goes before you. He will not leave you and He will not abandon you. Therefore there is no need to be afraid.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “For God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “You have a responsibility to stand your ground”

It’s amazing to me how many verses and passages in the Bible urge the people of God to push past their fears and to take a stand for righteousness. From the earliest chapters of the Old Testament to the last chapters of the New Testament we find examples of great men and women of God who were faced with challenging and even threatening situations, and who had to find the courage to push past their fears and do the right thing.
The lesson we learn from all of their examples is the one Paul was teaching to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, that our God gives us the courage, the fortitude, and the determination to deal with such situations.

The most common form of intimidation the average Christian is faced with in our society today is the pressure to remain silent about your faith and about Biblical principles. We live in a culture that is becoming increasingly intolerant of Christian thought and speech. Virtually every other point of view (even the most perverse ones) are tolerated and celebrated, but Christianity is mocked, shouted down, and ridiculed. (Colin Kaepernick is hailed as a courageous hero for kneeling in protest, while Tim Tebow was scorned as a narrow-minded religious bigot for kneeling in prayer).

The primary reason I wrote my new book “Getting Along without Going Along: Biblical Sexual Ethics in an Age of Controversy and Conflict” was to help Christians to be prepared to speak-up for Biblical principles regarding sexual ethics. The thirty-four short and easy-to-read essays in the book provide the reader with simple and accurate teaching from the Bible, as well as good answers to difficult questions about sexual issues, along with strategies for boldly and confidently taking a stand for righteousness in a kind and respectful way. You can visit my website at www.JimMersereauBooks.com to read excerpts from the book and to place orders.

In many different ways God equips us to take a stand for Him and to do so with boldness and confidence. You have a responsibility to stand your ground, and God will help you to do it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

Our Bible verse for today: “I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” John 15:5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are responsible for maintaining a healthy relationship with Jesus.

In John 15:5 Jesus directed the attention of His disciples to the grape vine and its branches. The life of the vine flows in and through the branches, and the fruit of the vine is produced through the branches. As long as the branch stays firmly attached to the vine, the life of the vine will continue to flow through it and the fruit of the vine will continue to be produced through the branch. But should the branch become detached from the vine, the healthy relationship ends and no more fruit is produced.

That’s a perfect picture of the relationship you and I have with Jesus. He is the vine and we are the branches. His life flows in us and through us. His fruit is produced through our lives, and as long as we remain in a good and healthy relationship with Him, that continues to be the case. Within the disciple the fruit will be what Paul described in Galatians 5:22-23, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” That’s what you experience in your life as a result of your relationship with Jesus. The fruit that is produced through your life is the blessings of God showered upon a broken and bleeding world. It’s the work of Christ in this world being performed by His faithful followers.

Each of us has a personal responsibility to protect and nurture the relationship we have with Jesus. We do that by practicing the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian life including, prayer, Bible reading, worship, fellowship, acts of service, etc. That will help to keep our relationship with Jesus healthy and thriving and there will be plenty of fruit.

Today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday. One of the most important ways of keeping your relationship with the Lord vibrant and healthy is through regular participation in group worship and fellowship. We each need to be an active member of a good church family. If you don’t have a good church that you are already a part of, then I want to invite you to visit with us at Oak Hill Baptist. We’re located at 3036 Genesis Road in Crossville, TN. Sunday school is at 9:00, the worship service starts at 10:00, and the evening service is at 6:00. I hope to see you there!

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Personal Responsibility”

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 14:11

Our thought for today: “You are responsible for taking care of yourself.”

I know a lady who is ninety-nine years old. She is spry and active and full of life. She is healthy, she comes to church every Sunday, her mind is sharp, and she just stopped driving a car two years ago.

The other day I ran into an old friend who is eighty-nine. He too is energetic and active and in good health. He’s getting ready to go on a tour of the Holy Land and is looking forward to walking the streets of Jerusalem.

Last year I made a trip to California to visit the man who had been my pastor and mentor for many years. He is eighty-seven now but looks sixty-seven. He is fit and trim and he just went on a trip to Japan to visit his granddaughter who is stationed there in the military.

I’ve recently made friends with a man who has just moved to our town and is now attending our church. He is eight-four and he rides his Harley even more than I ride mine.

What do all those people have in common? They took care of themselves! They have made it a point to protect their health by eating right and getting some exercise every day. Oh, each of them have had some health issues over the years. Two of them have had to fight cancer. One fell and broke her hip and had a stint in rehab. Disease, sickness, and accidents are just part of life and affect us all at some point. But the healthier you are the better you will handle the sickness and disease when it comes.

Taking proper care of yourself isn’t that hard. Just eat moderate amounts of reasonably healthy food and get some exercise every day. Throw in adequate sleep and plenty of relaxation time, and you will have the physical side of it covered. Then make sure you have a healthy spiritual life as well, and you will be well on your way to being healthy in body, mind, and spirit.

Nobody can avoid all disease and sickness. And, someday we will all die anyway. But there is a lot you can do to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible – and you should! Your physical body is a gift from God. The healthier you are the more He can use you to accomplish His purposes.

Taking proper care of yourself is your responsibility. Borrowing a quote from that wise old Vulcan from Star Trek (Mr. Spock), “May you live long and prosper.”

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is: