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

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

1 Thessalonians 4:18 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be an encourager”

The Bible calls us to be encouragers of one another. Two primary ways to encourage someone is to thank them for what they do, and to affirm them for who they are. But there’s a big difference between the two. When we thank someone we’re expressing gratitude for something they have done. It means we are appreciative. Most of us were raised to be polite and to say “thank you”. Thanking someone is not only an expression of gratitude, but it’s also a form of encouragement in that it makes the other person feel good for what they have done, and that then motivates them to do it again.

But affirming someone for who they are is different. When you affirm someone for who they are you are actually confirming for them what you believe to be true about them. Affirmation inspires and motivates a person, and it bolsters the person’s self-image. Affirmation is a form of encouragement too, but it is a higher form. Appreciation thanks them for what they have done. Affirmation commends them for who they are. Both forms of encouragement are important, and both are needed, but affirmation is more important and more helpful.

Encouragement can be a form of ministry. Making it a point to thank and affirm people is a good way of lifting someone’s spirits and encouraging them to even greater heights of conduct and character.  People who are encouragers find reasons to thank and affirm people. It’s a way of blessing them. By doing so, the encouragers build into that person’s life in such a way that it moves them forward in their development and growth as a person and as a follower of Christ.

The Bible repeatedly calls us to be encouragers of one another. One of my favorite New Testament heroes is Barnabas, the “son of encouragement”. (We could use more sons and daughters of encouragement.) In 1 Thessalonians 4:18 the Apostle Paul urged his readers to encourage one another with Biblical truth. In Hebrews 10:24-25 the writer reminds us that one of the reasons we are to regularly gather with our church family is so that we can encourage others, and so others can encourage us.

Why not add encouragement to your list of ministry activities? Be intentional about it. Make it a point to find reasons to thank people for what they do, and to affirm them for who they are. In my opinion if you are a habitual, intentional, encourager, then yours is 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: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Acts 20:28 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Just do your part”

This past Friday I had the privilege of preaching the funeral for my friend Dick Foster. As is true of all of us, Dick lived a life of contradictions. He was strong in some ways and weak in others. He excelled in some areas of his life and he struggled in other ways. He had his share of rough edges to his character, but he could also be a very kind and helpful person.

Dick will be remembered in many ways and for many things, but the thing that many of us will remember most about him will be his love for Oak Hill Baptist Church (and his fierce determination to protect and care for the church). Dick served as the Chairman of the Deacons for decades, including during some tough years when there were difficult problems and storms of controversy. At those times Dick led the church through the storms. It was during those times that his strong, tough, no-nonsense personality was exactly what was needed.

The point I wish to make with this story is that Dick invested a major part of his life into caring for the church, some of it in tough times when the church was in peril. In this way in particular, Dick’s life was well spent. God used his faithful service to help make sure there would still be an Oak Hill Baptist Church here today for you and for me.

That’s a story I’ve seen again and again, in church after church, over the course of my ministry years – faithful servants of God, diligently and with great love, caring for God’s church. Often their actual ministry activities are low-profile and therefore don’t get a lot of attention, but their service is vital and extremely important none-the-less.

In Psalm 84:10 the Psalmist wrote, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” I once heard a church custodian paraphrase and personalize that verse when he said to me, “Pastor, I would rather clean toilets in the house of the Lord than to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.”

You don’t have to be a Christian rock star, or a world-famous evangelist, or even a pastor or a deacon, in order to perform important service for the sake of the Kingdom. If you simply embrace the ministry activities the Lord has called you to and equipped you for, and then you faithfully spend your years humbly serving in, and caring for, the church God has placed you in, yours will have been 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: “If you have raced with runners and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Just be faithful and hang-in there.”

Jeremiah was having a tough day. In fact, he was having a tough life. God had called him to minister to a bunch of thickheaded, backslidden Jews who were not interested in anything he had to say. It seemed to Jeremiah that he was wasting his time trying to get through to these people and he didn’t understand why God had him there.

In Jeremiah 12:1-4 the prophet voiced his complaints and essentially challenged God to explain Himself. We read God’s response in verse 12:5. But rather than answering Jeremiah directly, God instead posed a rhetorical question for him to consider. I’m paraphrasing God’s response but essentially He said, “Jeremiah, you are contending with mere men and yet they are getting the best of you. So how is it you think you can question Me and My motives?”

The lesson for Jeremiah was to simply obey God and trust Him for the outcome. The circumstances were difficult, but God just wanted Jeremiah to hang-in there, be obedient, and trust Him for the outcome. If you’re familiar with Jeremiah’s story then you know he did exactly that. The years of his ministry were long and hard, but Jeremiah was faithful and he never gave-up.

There’s a lesson for us in that story. Many times our circumstances are difficult and we don’t understand why God has us in the situations we are in. Since God is Sovereign (all-knowing and all-powerful, and therefore in control of every situation), it means that He either directly created your circumstances for a reason, or by His permissive will He chose to allow your circumstances to happen. Either way, He has a purpose and a plan. Your job is to simply be faithful. You are not to give-in and you are not to give-up.

God doesn’t expect you to perform miracles or to accomplish the impossible. He just wants you to be faithful right where you are. Very often a life that He considers to have been well spent life is a life that consists of simple faithfulness, over a long period of time, in difficult circumstances. Jeremiah did that, and so can you.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

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

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Jesus gave you new life for eternity, but also for the here and now.”

This morning I want to return to a subject I wrote about on Easter weekend – new life. In that devotional message I said that Easter means new life, new life for eternity, but new life for the here and now as well. Jesus arose from the grave, thereby defeating death, so that we too can have new life.

We know what is meant by new life for eternity, it’s eternity in heaven with God. But what about new life now, what is that supposed to be like? For one thing it means that we are to be distinctly different than we were before we came to Christ. In Galatians 5:19-21 Paul gave us a laundry list of sinful practices. The list represents the kinds of things lost people are often involved in, actions such as drunkenness, sexual immorality, idolatry, and much more. Then he followed it in Galatians 5:22-23 with another representative list designed to illustrate the kind of godly characteristics that will be evident in the life of a person who is following Jesus. They include things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.

So the new life in Christ should be one of holiness rather than sinful conduct, but it’s more than that as well. The new life in Christ is to be one that is spent in ways that are productive for the cause of Christ on earth. There are numerous New Testament passages which teach that lesson. The three expressions of the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15 and Acts 1:8 are examples. So are the passages where Jesus taught about our call to service, such as John 13:1-16 and 15:1-8.

If all Jesus meant to accomplish through His death and resurrection was to make it possible for you to spend eternity in heaven, He would have taken you straight to heaven the moment you placed your faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. But He didn’t do that. Instead He left you here on earth, living this life, for some number of additional years. He left you here so you can serve Him here, helping to build His kingdom.

Whatever number of years you have left on earth after that moment of salvation, are meant to be spent in service to the Lord and to others. Do that, and yours will have been 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: “It has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brother and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” Philippians 1:13-14 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Serve Christ the best you can, right where you are.”

We often think of the Apostle Paul as a great preacher, teacher, and evangelist. We picture him as he traveled around the known world of his day on daring mission trips, preaching to large crowds, winning people to faith in Christ, starting new churches, confronting hypocritical religious leaders, debating with high government officials, and ultimately writing more than half of the New Testament.

It is true that Paul did all of those things, but he also spent a lot of time in very humble circumstances with no home of his own, with no source of income, and relying on the hospitality and generosity of others just to stay alive. Additionally, he spent lots of time in jails and prisons, sometimes in deplorable conditions.

The letter to the Philippians is a case in point. When Paul wrote this letter he was incarcerated in some kind of a Roman prison, in chains, awaiting trial. But Paul didn’t allow his humble and low profile circumstances to prevent him from being productive for Christ. It’s true that he was in jail, but so was everyone else around him, including the other prisoners, the guards, and the jail staff. Paul had a captive audience in a very literal sense, and so they became his mission field.

It’s not necessary to be a high profile preacher or teacher in order to make a meaningful difference for the cause of Christ. You don’t have to be an international missionary serving in some exotic location. You can make a difference right where you are, doing exactly what you do every day – in your home, at your job, in the neighborhood, and in your church. 99.9% of all Christians are regular people living regular lives doing regular things. The great preacher and author Robert McCracken once wrote, “A man can be as truly a saint in a factory as in a monastery, and there is as much need of him in the one as in the other.”

I encourage you to serve Christ the best you can, right where you are, doing exactly what you are doing.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

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

Our Bible verse for today: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such a faith save him?” James 2:14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Faith without works is dead.”

At Oak Hill Baptist Church we are an “Acts 1:8 church”. Acts 1:8 is our model for ministry. In that verse Jesus gave us the Great Commission and He told us we are to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In other words, we are to take our faith outside the walls of the church buildings and make a meaningful difference for His sake out in the world.

In order to accomplish that, we have regularly scheduled church-wide service projects and humanitarian relief work that takes us, as a group, out of the church buildings and into our local community. We also have ministry projects further out in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as overseas locations. At any given time our entire congregation is always in the process of preparing for one or more of those activities. This helps to keep our focus off of ourselves, and to instead always be thinking about how we can be a blessing to others in the name of the Lord and for the sake of His kingdom.

In James chapter two we learn that faith without works is dead. He means that talk is cheap. It’s easy to claim to be a Christian and it’s not too tough to show-up for services on a semi-regular basis; but it’s another thing altogether to be actively and regularly involved in acts of service to others.

In Isaiah chapter fifty-eight God was speaking through the prophet to the Jews about the kinds of religious activities that were most important and most meaningful to Him. The people were very good at going through the motions and rituals of worship, but many of them were not so good at genuinely living-out their faith. Here’s what God said to them:

“Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and to not ignore your own flesh and blood?” “And if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness and your night will be like noonday.” 58:6-7; 10

Faith without works is dead. A life well spent is a life of service to others in the name of Jesus.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

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

Our Bible verse for today: “I life my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep. The Lord protects you; the Lord is a shelter right by your side.” Psalm 121:1-5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “This is how you do it.”

The superscript that appears above Psalm 121 tells us that it is “a song of ascents”. It was primarily written as a song for people to sing as they climbed the road leading up to the temple in Jerusalem. It was also a good song to sing on any long journey, especially a difficult one. The Psalm affirms that the traveler will keep putting one foot in front of the other, keeping his head up and his eyes forward, trusting the Lord to protect and care for him as he continues to make progress on his journey.

This is a metaphor for life. Life is a journey. We make progress through it one step at a time, one day at a time. Often it’s a hard journey, like a long steady climb that ultimately leads us to our destination, but which requires tenacity, perseverance, and steady forward progress.

The way you do it is you keep your head up, your eyes forward, and you trust the Lord. You look to Him for guidance and strength and protection. As was noted in a previous message in this series, the Christian life lived well is sometimes referred to as “a long obedience in the same direction”. That’s a good way to see it.

Sometimes when we think about a life that is well spent we can be tempted to conclude that a life is only well spent if the person achieves spectacular things. Not so. Instead, the picture God gives us of a life pleasing to Him is a simple life of obedience. It’s the life of a person who simply and faithfully does the right thing day in and day out. This is a person who honors God, blesses others, and who keeps moving forward in life, always thinking about their ultimate destination.

Living the Christian life well often isn’t easy, but it’s also not particularly complicated either. This is how you do it: Keep your head up, your eyes forward, honor God, bless others, and keep moving.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

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

Our Bible verse for today: “For when David had served God’s purposes in his own generation, he fell asleep.” Acts 13:36 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “It’s not over until it’s over.”

Acts 13:36 tells us that King David lived until God was done with Him, and then he died. He didn’t die a day before or a day after – he died when God was done with him. He served God’s purposes in his generation, and then he went to heaven.

This is important for us for a number of reasons. For one thing, God has a purpose and a plan for your life. Second, He Himself determines the number of your days. Third, if you’re still breathing it’s because God isn’t done with you yet. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what the condition of your health is, or what you have or have not accomplished in life up to this point. If you are still alive it’s because God isn’t done with you yet. So each day that you continue to live you should be thinking and praying about what God wants to do in your life now, this day.

Also, every day of life offers a new opportunity to change and to make a fresh start. It’s not at all uncommon to meet someone who came to faith in Jesus late in life, a person who seemed to have wasted many years living far from God and accomplishing no good thing in this world (maybe even doing a lot of damage), but who then comes to faith in Christ, is radically transformed, and then spends the rest of their life making a significant difference for good.

I’m firmly convinced that you cannot determine the full measure of a person’s life until that life has been fully lived. A person might live like the devil for the first 40 years of their life, have a mid-life conversion, and then spend 40 more years making a spectacular difference for good. Or, the best and most productive season of a person’s life might be the last 12 months of their life.

You cannot determine the full measure of a person’s life until that life has been fully lived, and every day that you continue to live is a new opportunity from God to do something meaningful and special.

It’s not over until it’s over. Your life continues to have meaning and purpose right up until your last breath. Regardless of what your life may have been like up to this point, every new day brings with it new opportunities to be the man or woman God wants you to be. Take advantage of your days. Use them well.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

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

Our Bible verse for today: “Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.” Isaiah 37:14 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Bring everything to God.”

Hezekiah was a good king. After years of godless and evil leadership under his father Ahaz, Hezekiah spent years painstakingly leading the nation back to faithful obedience of the One True God. Hezekiah was a good man who loved the Lord and who led the people well. As a result, the nation was blessed by God.

However at one point the army of Assyria came and surrounded the city. The army was huge and powerful and there was no way Hezekiah and Judah could prevail against them. The commander of the army sent Hezekiah a written letter demanding immediate full surrender or else he would destroy the city, slaughter the people, and take Hezekiah captive.

Hezekiah knew the threat was real. There was no way his people could withstand the onslaught of the Assyrians. So he took the threatening letter, went into the temple, knelt at the altar, spread the letter out on the altar before God, and he talked to God about the situation. He affirmed that only God could get them out of this and then he pleaded with God for divine intervention. Well God heard, He responded, and the Assyrian army was defeated.

I love this scene of Hezekiah kneeling at the altar, with the actual letter spread out on the altar before God, and pleading with God for help and deliverance. That’s powerful – and effective.

At Oak Hill Baptist Church we frequently have people come and kneel at the altar as they pray to God about issues they are facing. It’s a symbolic act of surrender and faith, and it is one that God honors.

One of the key aspects of a life well spent is that the person is a pray-er who frequently brings all the issues of life to God in prayer. God is interested in the big issues and in the small ones. He wants us to actually invite Him into all the moments of our lives. Of course He is already aware of it all, but He wants us to actually bring it to Him and ask Him to help us with it. He wants to be asked to be a part of everything we have going on.

I encourage you to bring everything to God in prayer. Pray frequently. Pray with passion and intensity. Actually lay the symbolic letter out before Him and talk to Him about it. The more you involve God in your situations the better your life will be.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is: