Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Don’t spend your life pursuing things that won’t matter in eternity.”

There was a time in by “BC” days (before Christ), when I was a bit of a gambler. I enjoyed playing poker, blackjack, slot machines, and the lottery. For a couple of years during that period my family and I lived in Florida where greyhound dog racing was popular. So from time-to-time Linda and I would go to the dog track, which is similar to horse racing tracks in other states.

The way it works is that the greyhounds are all lined up in a starting gate and there is an electronic rabbit on a circular metal rail that goes around the edge of the entire track. The dogs have been trained from birth to chase the rabbit. At the start of the race the bell rings, the rabbit takes off, the gates come up, and the dogs charge out like they were shot out of a cannon – and the race is on. The rabbit is programmed to move just a little faster than the dogs can run. The dogs race madly around the track trying in vain to catch the rabbit, but they never do.

However, one day the rabbit broke down part way through the race and suddenly stopped. When it did, the dogs caught it. But once they did catch it, they had no idea what to do with it. This had never happened before and the dogs were totally confused. Instead of tearing the rabbit apart, the dogs started barking and yelping and running around in circles snapping at each other. After all those years they finally caught the rabbit and when they did, they discovered it wasn’t what they thought it would be.

Many people spend their lives chasing the rabbit. Year after year they race through life chasing things that always seem to remain just beyond their grasp. It’s exhausting, it’s frustrating, and for the most part, it just leaves them tired and dissatisfied. In the unlikely event they finally catch the thing they were chasing, they often discover it wasn’t what they thought it would be and they end up discouraged and disillusioned.

In Mark 8:36 Jesus asked the provocative question, “What will it benefit you if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?” You see, when it’s all said and done, when your body is buried and your soul is facing eternity, the only thing that will matter is your relationship with Jesus.

As we end this series about “A life well spent”, I encourage you to stay focused on the most important pursuit in life – a close relationship with the Lord. Don’t waste your life chasing after things that won’t matter two seconds after you’re dead. As the poet C.T. Studd once wrote, “Only one life; will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

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Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “What’s in your heart determines everything else about you.”

Henry Ward Beecher was a well-known and widely respected pastor, speaker, writer, and social reformer in the mid-1800s. In much of his teaching and preaching Beecher asserted that the quality of any person’s life is determined by what’s in their heart. Commenting on Proverbs 4:23 he once wrote, “It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.”

Of course, that kind of thinking flies in the face of human wisdom. People are usually considered rich based upon what they have. If you make a lot of money, own a big house, drive a nice car, wear expensive clothes, go on exotic vacations, and have a lot of money in the bank, then you are rich. And if not, then you are poor. So says the world.

Beecher’s point in the quote above, and Solomon’s point in Proverbs 4:23, is that it is what’s in your heart that makes you rich or poor. A happy poor man is better than a miserable rich man. A small apartment filled with love and joy is better than a large mansion filled with anger and strife. A content man of modest means is better off than a greedy man who is rich but never satisfied.

And so, Solomon warns us to carefully guard the condition of our heart. Prayerfully consider the things that are most important to you. What is it that you crave, and what captures and holds your attention? The condition of your heart will ultimately determine everything else about you – it will determine the quality of your life.

One of the best places to go to get your heart right is church. A good worship service can be a powerful tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Through the prayers, scripture reading, music, and preaching, as well as through the powerful spiritual dynamic created by a group of worshipers all seeking God together, the Holy Spirit can often break through a calloused heart faster and better in a worship service than anywhere else.

I would like to invite you to visit with us this Sunday at Oak Hill Baptist Church. Sunday school is at 9:00 and the worship service begins at 10:00. Give your heart to Jesus and everything else in your life will quickly begin to fall into place, because it’s the condition of your heart that determines everything else about you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him …” Luke 24:31 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Living the ‘with-God’ life is possible.”

Please excuse me if I make this devotional message very personal. As I write this it is the morning of my sixty-fourth birthday. Now-a-days birthdays always put me in a reflective mood. They cause me to think back over the life I’ve had up to this point, and to think forward about the life I hope to have in the years to come. That’s where my mind is at this morning.

One theme that has become increasingly important to me at this stage in life is what Dallas Willard termed “The with-God Life”. That phrase, “The with-God Life”, became the theme around which Dallas’ lifework as a Christian thinker, philosopher, and writer, revolved.

“The with-God Life” is a life that is literally lived “with God” in a very real, very practical, and very experiential way. Through his own life experience, and as a result of his own close walk with the Lord, Dallas discovered that it is possible to know, hear, experience, and interact with God as the most important person in your life.

As we learn to live with God in this manner, we progressively experience what the disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced, “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him …” We learn to hear God speaking to us in a thousand different ways; we learn to experience Him through the events of our lives; we sense His presence with us; and we come to know Him in ways we never have before. Our eyes are opened and our hearts are burning.

Dallas’ lifework of explaining, teaching, and modeling “The with-God Life” is so intriguing and compelling that his books not only became best sellers, but they have become classics of modern Christian literature. Beyond that, so many Christians over the last thirty years have had a hunger for that kind of life with God, that two graduate level schools have been created based upon the work of Dallas Willard. They are “The Dallas Willard Center for Christian Spiritual Formation” at Westmont College in California, and the “Renovare Institute for Spiritual Formation.” (You can Google both of them).

One of my remaining life goals is to participate in the two-year spiritual formation program sponsored by the Renovare Institute. I have had a vision for doing this for almost twenty years since I first learned of it. It is mostly online classes, video conferences, lots of private personal study, research projects, and four one-week on-campus sessions over the two years. It is an intensive two year program of deep spiritual development and it is done with a small group of students, living in different locations around the country, all working together and helping each other. Each year the program only accepts 45 students nationwide. The 2018-2020 class, which begins in August, is already full. I am applying for the 2019-2021 class and would appreciate your prayers. It is a highly competitive application process and only a small percentage of applicants are accepted. As I said, this would fulfill one of my remaining life goals.

We are all works in progress (me especially), and we should all be in a constant state of learning, growing, and developing in our spiritual maturity. A life well spent is a life lived in a close relationship with Jesus – the closer the better. I pray that will turn out to have been true for me, and I pray it will be true for you too.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “Grey hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.” Proverbs 16:31 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Growing old is a good thing.”

The other day I was having a Facebook chat with a couple of old friends whom I haven’t seen in more than forty years. We grew-up in the same town but we haven’t seen each other since our early twenties. However, we have been Facebook friends for probably six or seven years.

On this occasion they wanted to wish my wife Linda a happy birthday. One of them then mentioned that she was having some ear problems and had lost some of her hearing. Another mentioned that she was experiencing some back and leg pain and was having therapy for it. I said that the older I get the more aches and pains I have, but still, I’m grateful for the privilege of growing old because so many people die young. We then mentioned some of our friends we had grown-up with who died in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s but here we were, in our 60s and still kicking it – but complaining! We all agreed that the aches and pains were worth it and we were glad to be alive.

That conversation was about the aches and pains associated with growing old. Last night I was thinking about old age again, but this time in a different way and for a different reason. In my reading I came across a statement written by Dallas Willard regarding Christians who age well. He wrote, “As people age the beauty of their souls can shine through.” Yes! I’ve known many older Christians like that. As they aged not only did they become more mellow and relaxed, but they became increasingly spiritually mature.

If we live this Christian life well then the fruit of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control), will become more and more a part of our nature. As we mature spiritually, those virtues will shine forth out of us.

In Proverbs 16:31 Solomon referred to grey hair (which is associated with old age), as being a crown of splendor which is attained by that person as a result of having lived a righteous and virtuous life. That’s a word picture, a metaphor. The crown of splendor attained through righteous living is the beauty that Dallas Willard was referring to. It is the wonderful, beautiful, well-developed, and spiritually mature soul which was formed over a lifetime of faithful living, and which is now shining out of that older person.

Growing old at all is a good thing. Many people don’t get the privilege of living a long life. But growing old well is a beautiful thing. People who walk closely with Jesus all the days of their lives grow old well, and the beauty of their soul shines through. That’s proof of a life well spent.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” Lamentations 3:25-26 (CSB)

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

I’ve always been a big fan of John Wayne. The Duke was a tough guy, but in the best sense of the term. He was a champion for justice, a defender of the helpless, and a nightmare for the bad guys. And he never gave-up. He persevered and saw things through. I saw a picture of him the other day with a caption that read “I don’t much like quitters, son.” The point was that giving-up just isn’t something that winners do.

If your life is going to be one that is well spent you will have to learn to persevere through tough times. Life is filled with difficulties and challenges. Many times those difficulties will last for a long time. The people I admire most are those who hang in there and push through times of adversity – someone who doesn’t give-up when the going gets a little tough, a person who has learned to persevere with dignity.

This morning I want to share with you two quotes which have been inspiring for me and which I’ve held onto for years. The first comes from our 30^th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. He once wrote:

“Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

The second is from author Andy Andrews in his book “The Traveler’s Gift” and it is the seventh of the seven major decisions he lists as being key to a life lived well:

“I will persist and persevere without exception. I hold fast to my dreams and visions. I stay the course. I do not quit. Fatigue is often a precursor to victory. I will not be one of those who gave up just before the victory would have come … trying times produce great men. I will persist and persevere without exception.”

The ability to persevere through tough times is a trait shared in common among those whose lives are well spent. It’s what Jeremiah was referring to in Lamentations 3:25-26. Deliverance from the Lord comes to those who wait patiently for God to come through for them and who don’t give-up.

Don’t be a quitter. Hang in there and don’t give-up. Wait patiently for the Lord and He will deliver you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “So my people come to you in crowds, sit in front of you, and hear your words, but they don’t obey them. Their mouths go on passionately, but their hearts pursue dishonest profit. Yes, to them you are like a singer of passionate songs who has a beautiful voice and plays skillfully on an instrument. They hear your words, but they don’t obey them.” Ezekiel 33:31-33 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Live what you profess to believe.”

If ever there was a prophet of doom and gloom, Ezekiel was that guy. Ezekiel ministered in the southern Kingdom of Judah from 593-571 B.C. This was before, during, and after the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian army. Ezekiel preached to the people, warned the people, pleaded with the people, and even threatened the people, but all to no avail. They just wouldn’t listen. One commentator described these people as being exceedingly sinful and thoroughly hopeless.

What’s interesting about this though is that the people were very religious. They came to the church services, they gathered around Ezekiel, they sat under his preaching, they listened to all he had to say, they even passionately mouthed pious religious platitudes in response, but it meant nothing. It was all a religious show. Their hearts were actually far from God. They left those worship services unaffected and unchanged, and they obeyed nothing they had been commanded to do (or to stop doing). They were religious phonies and they ended up paying a big price for it.

Their story is not just an old one, it’s a modern story too and it pertains to many people in our churches today. As the singer Jimmy Buffet once said, “There’s a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning!” Many people in our churches come to the services, sing the songs, listen to the sermons, nod their heads in agreement, and even mouth superficial Christian clichés, but then they live like the devil Monday through Saturday.

A life well spent is a life where the individual actually lives what he or she professes to believe. There shouldn’t be a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. There should be no line at all. Your church face should be your everyday face. The person you are in the pew on Sunday should be the same person you are at work on Monday.

I encourage you to actually live what it is you profess to believe.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “Jesus said, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” John 20:29 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Believe even if you can’t see”

We’re all familiar with the story of “doubting Thomas”. Thomas was one of the original 12 apostles. But he wasn’t present at the time the resurrected Jesus appeared to the other apostles and so, Thomas refused to believe that Jesus was alive. A week later, Jesus appeared to them again and this time Thomas was there. Once Thomas saw Jesus for himself he did believe, but his belief was based on sight, not on faith.

This is a primary problem for many people. We have trouble believing in things we can’t see and so many people have trouble believing in God. We can’t see Him and so we often having trouble believing He is real. But He is there none-the-less, and He does reassure us of His presence in many ways.

Author Gary Moon tells the story of how one day he and his wife watched a woman playing in a parking lot with her blind dog. The dog was completely blind and therefore could not see his master. To compensate for the dog’s inability to see, the woman ran backwards across the gravel parking lot dragging her feet and making a scraping noise for the dog to hear. The dog followed the noises made by the woman’s feet and joyfully, playfully, sprinted after his master. As she continued to back up she kept calling out to the dog, “I’m right here, I see you, keep coming”, and the dog responded by continuing to follow the clues the master provided.

Gary said that as he watched this playful exchange between the woman and her blind dog he sensed God speaking to him saying, “Gary, you are like that dog and I am the owner. You can’t see Me, but I am real and I am here. And even though you can’t see Me, I can see you. I’m here. I’ve got you. Just follow My voice and stay close to Me.”

To live the Christian life well we have to believe even when we can’t see. God is real and He is here. He can see you even if you can’t see Him. And, even though you can’t see Him, He will make noise, He will provide clues, He will call out to you so you can be sure of His presence and so you can stay close to Him. Just pay attention, listen and follow.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” Acts 13:22 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Be a person after God’s own heart.”

David was a man after God’s own heart. That’s what God was looking for. 1 Samuel 13:14 tells us “the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart …” Acts 13:22 tells us that He found that man in David, and that’s what made David so special. It’s also why God was able to accomplish such great things through David’s life. David was a man after God’s own heart and that resulted in a life well spent. But how do we, like David, become men and women after God’s own heart?

Dallas Willard is a spiritual mentor of mine. I have never met him (he’s in heaven now), so the influence he has had on me has come through his books. I’ve read everything he has written and I’ve also read his biography. One of the most important books Dallas wrote was called, “Renovation of the Heart”. Dallas was deeply disturbed that so much of modern Christian thought is laced with pop psychology, especially the “self-help” kind. This has resulted in modern Christian thought being primarily “me” centered, and consequently very superficial. Christian pop psychology is all about making a person feel good and it is focused on superficial “felt needs”. So Dallas wrote Renovation of the Heart in response to Christian-based pop psychology.

He started by pointing out that the word psyche actually means “soul” and therefore, in its purest and truest form, psychology should actually be soul-ology. Psychology should be all about making the soul well. Secular psychology focuses on thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Soul-ology begins with the soul (heart) and then once it is healthy, the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors follow.

Psychology is a real and helpful science. It is the study of the human person and it helps us to understand how the human person thinks and acts – and why. But in his book Dallas reminds us that it is the soul that is the essence of who the person is and that Jesus is the greatest psychologist who ever lived. Since He created human beings He understands us pretty well, and He therefore is the One who has the answers to life’s problems. With tongue in cheek, and keeping with the theme of psychology, Dallas refers to Jesus as “Dr. Jesus”. He then informs us that the Doctor is in and He is accepting new patients.

Psychology is helpful, but Christian psychology takes us to the heart of the issue (which is of course, the heart – that’s where we need to get to and that’s what needs to change). Becoming a man or woman after God’s own heart begins by surrendering your heart to Jesus. Then the Holy Spirit will go to work renovating your heart. If you spend your life seeking Him and following Him, you will soon find yourself being changed by Him.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “A life well spent”

Our Bible verse for today: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Philippians 4:11 (NASB)

Our thought for today: “Have a positive influence on people”

When I think about someone who is spending their life well I think about the impact that person has on others. Is your impact good or bad, positive or negative? Are other people better off as a result of being around you?

I love the image Paul paints of himself in Philippians 4:11. Over a lifetime of growing in Christ, learning through experience, and persevering through trials, he had learned to be content in whatever his circumstances where. I get the image of a calm and serene man who smiles a lot. He is warm and inviting, genuinely interested in the person sitting in front of him, and someone who has a positive influence on those around him.

I don’t mean to say that Paul was always like that, he wasn’t, but by this point in his life he had learned to be that way. What a great way to be –  a calm and gentle older man, wise in his ways, warm and approachable, building into the lives of others, and being a blessing to those around him.

What kind of an influence do you have on people? Are they better off for having been around you? Perhaps you have heard the old analogy of people being either like a thermometer or a thermostat. A thermometer simply reflects back whatever the temperature is. A person who is like a thermometer reflects back whatever the situation around them is. If there is anger, then the thermometer is angry too. If there is sadness, the thermometer is sad. If there is joy, then the thermometer can be happy. A thermometer person is influenced by the people and events around them, rather than being the one doing the influencing.

But a thermostat controls things. A thermostat sets the temperature and controls the environment. If you are a person who is like a thermostat then you are a change agent. If you walk into a situation where there is anger, you introduce peace. If there is sadness, you share joy. If there is despair, you offer hope. But a word of caution is appropriate here too. Not only can a thermostat change things for good, but they can also change things for bad. Think of the hyperactive drama queen who can easily take a peaceful environment and turn it into chaos.

So, is your influence on others good or bad, positive or negative? Are people better off because they have been around you? If you are a thermostat person (in a good way), then people will be better off because they have been with you, and yours will be a life well spent.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is: