Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Being a virtuous person”

 

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 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Change will come from the inside out.”

 

Probably the most well-known list of Biblical virtues is found in Galatians 5:22-23. There Paul lists what he calls “the fruit of the Spirit.” These are virtues – character traits, which the Holy Spirit progressively develops in the life of a disciple of Christ.

 

Just before this, in verses 19-21, Paul listed what he called “the works of the flesh”: “sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.”

 

In verse 16 he prefaced all of this by writing, “walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.” In other words, as you place yourself in a position before God whereby the Holy Spirit can work in your heart, He will slowly and progressively remove the desires of the flesh from your heart and replace it with the fruit of the Spirit. The more frequently and the more completely you surrender yourself to the work of the Spirit in your life, the more and the faster that transformation will occur.

 

It’s the job of the Holy Spirit to bring about that transformation in your life. It is your job to frequently and consistently place yourself in a position whereby He can do His work in you. We do that by means of the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian life which include prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, acts of service, good stewardship, etc. The more time we commit to the spiritual disciplines in our life, the more opportunity we’re giving the Spirit to do His work of transformation.

 

It’s a good thing to exercise personal discipline and through sheer willpower to force yourself to avoid drunkenness and carousing, sexual immorality and all of the other things Paul lists in that passage. But willpower is weak and temporary. What’s needed is spiritual discipline. Spiritual discipline helps to bring about a change of heart so that we no longer have any desire for those things. Give Him the opportunity and the time, and the Spirit will replace those desires with love and joy, peace and patience, kindness and goodness, faithfulness and gentleness, and self-control. This is the true moral excellence of a genuinely virtuous person and that change comes from the inside out. It takes place in your heart and shows itself in good conduct.

 

I encourage you to spend some extra time today praying for God to grant you more of the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Ask Him to change you from the inside out.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Being a virtuous person”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.” 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “There’s a difference between knowledge and virtue.”

 

Knowledge by itself does not make us virtuous. The greatest modern proof of this would be Germany under Hitler. Throughout the 1930s and for the first half of the 1940s Germany may have been the most advanced nation in the world. They led the world in most fields of art, science, medicine and intellect. Some of the best universities in the world were in Germany. They had great artists, brilliant composers, and world-class musicians. Medical breakthroughs were common, German scientists were renowned, and in the early to mid 1930s German industry was recovering from World War I at an astounding pace.

 

Germans were smart, industrious, and cultured. And yet, they gave us the horror of the holocaust. Six million Jews incarcerated and exterminated in brutal conditions that boggle the mind with the extent of the cruelty and depravity.

 

Clearly knowledge by itself does not make one virtuous. It’s not enough to just learn about virtue, we must also have a change of heart and behavior. A knowledgeable person can easily recite long lists of virtues from memory while still living like a little Hitler. But a person who is truly virtuous will have had a change of heart that led to a change in behavior. Rather than just living a refined and cultured life, a virtuous person lives a life of moral excellence.

 

This is what Paul was writing about in 1 Corinthians 8:1-3. There were Christians in that early church who were still struggling with the concept of living by grace. They were still caught-up in Old Testament rule-keeping. Many of them were very smart, but they attempted to use their knowledge and their powers of persuasion to control others. They were convinced that they had advanced knowledge of right and wrong and anyone who disagreed with them was uninformed and unspiritual. They had rules about food and about lots of other things as well, and they dogmatically insisted that everyone else needed to follow their rules. In some respects some of the worst of them were being religious Nazis. Paul told them in this passage that what they really needed was a change of heart.

 

Knowledge without moral excellence can be a dangerous thing. Smart people are admired for their knowledge. Persuasive people are often followed even when they are wrong. Great knowledge without a pure heart often produces holocaust type tragedies. We’re all familiar with stories of the mad scientist or the diabolical genius.

 

It’s sadly common in our day to encounter Christians who have Biblical knowledge without a Biblical heart. They can recite scripture until you have to tell them to stop, but they are rigid and shrill, cold and hard. They have knowledge without virtue.

 

As we continue our study of being a virtuous person, rather than simply learning about Biblical virtues let’s be praying that the virtues transform our hearts.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Being a virtuous person”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue …” 2 Peter 1:5 (NKJV)

 

Our thought for today: “Strive to be a virtuous person.”

 

In 2 Peter 1:5 Peter tells us to add virtue to our faith. In other words, faith is a good starting point but it’s just the starting point. From there we need to grow and change, adding something called “virtue” to our basic faith.

 

The Amplified Bible doesn’t use the word virtue when translating this verse from the original Greek. Instead it uses the phrase “moral excellence” – we are to develop and add to our faith “moral excellence”.

 

A virtue is a quality or character trait that is morally good and which serves as a foundational principle and a guide for living. In the Greek world there were four primary cardinal virtues that were promoted – justice, courage, prudence (thoughtful deliberation), and temperance (self-restraint). The early Christian church adopted those four (which are all taught in the Bible), and added three from 1 Corinthians 13 (faith, hope, and love), forming the traditional seven cardinal virtues of the Christian faith – prudence, justice, temperance, courage, faith, hope, and love.

 

However the Bible gives us other lists of virtues as well, particularly the Fruit of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

 

If you are a virtuous person you are a person of moral excellence. You are firmly committed to doing what you know to be right. Your life is guided by deeply embedded virtues that have become so much a part of your character and personality, that moral excellence is simply a description of who you are as a person. Granted, we all still sin. But moral excellence is our goal, and it is what we strive for. It is our true north – the principle that directs and guides us through life, and to which we always return. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a mature Christian.

 

All this month we will explore the theme of being a virtuous person. We’ll consider many of the virtues listed in the Bible, and we will think about what those virtues look like being lived-out in everyday life. We’ll also consider the impact that moral excellence can have on the people around us. As a Christian we should be a walking, talking, mobile advertisement for Christ. Moral excellence helps us to do that. I look forward to learning and growing with you as we explore this theme of being a virtuous person.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.” Romans 14:19 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “A spirit of graciousness should reign in the church.”

 

As our study of graciousness comes to an end I want to conclude by considering Paul’s teaching in Romans 14:13-23. When Bible commentators attempt to summarize the main theme of this passage many of them choose the phrase “The Law of Love.” In other words, the guiding principle Paul was teaching about here is that in our interactions with each other Christians should be guided by the law of love.

 

The back-story behind this passage is that in the early Christian church there was a group called “Judaizers”. These were Christians who attempted to include in the practice of the Christian faith a lot of the rules, regulations, and traditions of Judaism – especially the Levitical dietary restrictions. Then they tried to insist that all Christians had to observe those restrictions.

 

So in this passage Paul taught that (1) Those dietary restrictions were un-Christian because Jesus Himself had done away with them. (2) By attempting to require other Christians to observe those restrictions they were requiring more of them than the Lord Himself requires. (3) We should never create stumbling blocks that might cause other Christians to struggle or fall. (4) Out of a sense of love and caring, we should put the well being of others above our own desires.

 

Clearly Paul was calling for a spirit of love and graciousness to reign in our churches. There should be no extra-Biblical rule-making; no judgmental niggling and nitpicking; and no inconsiderate or insensitive behavior. Instead we should deal with each other out of love and kindness, seeking the best for others, always striving to lift them up and encourage them.

 

I know that pridefulness is a sin if it is misplaced and for the wrong reasons. But sometimes a sense of pride is good and appropriate if it’s for the right reason. As the Pastor of Oak Hill Baptist Church I’m proud of our people because they practice what Paul preached here. A spirit of love and graciousness reigns in our church and it’s precisely because we do not have a bunch of judgmental rule-makers. Instead our folks are kind and gracious. There is a spirit of genuine love and concern for others and everyone strives to encourage and lift each other up.

 

If you are anywhere near Crossville, TN we would love to have you visit with us. Sunday school is at 9:00, Worship service is at 10:00, and Sunday evening Bible study is at 6:00.

 

As we conclude our month of study on the theme of graciousness I encourage you to be a gracious person. May graciousness be your personal legacy and may a spirit of graciousness reign in your church.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Let your graciousness be known to everyone.” Philippians 4:5 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Graciousness, like ungraciousness, is contagious.”

 

In his book “What’s so Amazing about Grace?” Philip Yancey tells the story of a family that was plagued by generational ungraciousness. It started with the father of a young girl by the name of Daisy in the early 1900s. He was a tyrannical alcoholic who was merciless in his physical and verbal abuse. Daisy hated him and swore she would never be like him.

 

She wasn’t, in that she never touched a drop of alcohol in her life. But sadly she was like him in her tyrannical attitude towards her own family. Daisy grew into a tense, depressed, and easily agitated woman who was complaining and critical – especially towards her children. Daisy’s daughter Margret was especially impacted by that treatment. She disliked her mother and resented the way her mother treated her. But as is so often the case, she ended up becoming just like her – tense, depressed, and very critical. In the late 1960s, when Margret’s son Michael became a hippy, Margret complained about his lifestyle and criticized him without mercy, until she finally drove him away. He was in his late teens when that happened and they never did restore the relationship. So in that family there were four generations infected by the spirit of ungraciousness and it continued to spread.

 

Yancey writes, “Like a spiritual defect encoded in the family DNA, ungrace gets passed on in an unbroken chain. Ungrace does its work quietly and lethally, like a poisonous, undetectable gas.”

 

Graciousness, and ungraciousness, are both contagious and are easily passed along to those closest to us – especially to young children. Our own attitude and demeanor has more of an impact on the people around us than we realize. Very often those closest to you will in time begin to reflect elements of your personality. Don’t allow an attitude of ungraciousness to be your legacy. If you are somewhere in the daisy-chain of a heritage of ungrace, you can be the one who breaks the chain and stops the spread of that spiritual defect.

 

Graciousness is a powerful force for good and can have a great impact on those around you. Likewise, ungraciousness is a terrible force for evil and can do great damage. I urge you to choose grace.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I am the worst of them.” 1 Timothy 1:15 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Nobody is beyond the reach of God’s grace.”

 

The other day in the mail I received the “2018 World Watch List” from the ministry Open Doors USA. Open Doors is a ministry that monitors Christian persecution around the world.

 

The annual “World Watch List” lists the 50 countries where it is most dangerous to follow Jesus. North Korea is #1 on that list. Afghanistan is #2. Rounding out the top ten are Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. Others of note on the list include India, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, China, Mexico, and Bangladesh.

 

As I read reports of what is done to Christians in other places around the world I’m reminded of how cruel humans can be to one another. It’s not uncommon for Christians to be arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their faith. What kind of person does that to another? Well, people like the Apostle Paul. Paul, in his former life as the Pharisee Saul, did exactly that, and worse. He was brutal in his treatment of Christians. That’s what he was referring to in 1 Timothy 1:15 when he called himself “the worst of sinners.” That was a period in his life he ended up being greatly ashamed of and he referred to it several times in his Biblical writings.

 

What does that have to do with our theme of “graciousness”? Two things: First, there is nobody beyond the reach of God’s grace. Even someone as despicable as the murderous Pharisee Saul could be reached for Christ, led to faith, and transformed into a person who would be known as “the Apostle of Grace”. Paul went from being a cruel murderous persecutor of Christians to being so gracious that grace became the primary theme in his ministry and writings, and he even authored the most famous and influential essay on grace that has ever been written, the letter to the Galatians. If Saul could be reached by Christ then anyone can be.

 

The second lesson for us to learn from this is that in our dealings with despicable people, we need to remember that this person can potentially be led to faith in Christ and transformed into an entirely different person. So we want to deal with them graciously. That does not mean that we excuse their abhorrent behavior, nor are we to allow ourselves to be a doormat the person can walk all over. We will stand up to them and we will oppose their inexcusable conduct, but we must do it with a strong sense of confident graciousness. It is possible to be strong and firm, and still be gracious.

 

Want an example of that? Look at Peter and the other Apostles appearing before the Jewish leaders in Acts 5:29. They refused to comply with unjust treatment by simply saying, “We must obey God rather than men.” Or look at Paul himself in Acts 22 on trial before King Agrippa. He vigorously defended himself, but he did so graciously and respectfully.

 

Remember that nobody is beyond the reach of Christ, not even the worst of people. Be strong and firm when dealing with such people, but do it with grace.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Nathan replied to David, ‘You are the man!” 2 Samuel 12:7 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “It’s all in how you say it.”

 

Our graciousness, or lack of it, is usually conveyed by our words. Words are powerful and they are our primary means of communication, so the content and tone of our words will determine whether or not they are perceived as being gracious or not.

 

But what do we do when we have a difficult word of truth that must be spoken to someone and there is the danger of it not being well received? One possible approach was modeled for us by the Old Testament prophet Nathan. He had to confront King David regarding his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah.

 

The entire story can be found in 2 Samuel chapters 11-12 but the gist of it is that David seduced Bathsheba, who was married to Uriah, and he got her pregnant. David then ordered the murder of Uriah and he married Bathsheba himself. In chapter 12 we read that God directed Nathan to confront David with his sin and announce the punishment that God was going to inflict on him.

 

Well how do you deliver a message like that to a king? David was known for his temper and he could easily have ordered Nathan arrested and executed. So instead of marching right in and delivering the message like he was swinging a sledgehammer, Nathan got creative. He told David a made-up story about a rich man who had huge herds and flocks of his own, and a neighboring poor man who had only one little lamb which he kept as a pet and treated as a member of the family.

 

One day the rich man received an unexpected visitor and needed to quickly prepare a meal for him. Not wanting to slaughter one of his own sheep, he had a servant burst into the poor man’s house, take his little lamb, slaughter it, and serve it to his guest. When King David heard this (thinking it was a true story) he exploded in rage and ordered the rich man to be punished. Nathan then told the king that it was not a real story. Instead it was an illustration of what he (David) had done to Uriah and therefore God was now going to bring upon David the punishment that David himself had just said the rich man in the story deserved.

 

My point here is that Nathan delivered the tough message, but he did it in a creative way. Rather than simply marching in and delivering it with a sledgehammer, he was thoughtful and creative about it and as a result, his words had the necessary impact.

 

Sometimes being gracious requires us to be creative rather than direct. It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Intentionally speak gracious words of blessing”

 

Two days ago Billy Graham died. I’ve always had great admiration for Billy, for many reasons, but one reason is that he was such a gracious man. Like Moses, Billy had a habit of speaking words of blessing upon people. It seemed so natural for him. The words of kindness and compassion just seemed to flow. He was a gracious man and his speech revealed that about him.

 

Being known for his graciousness is all the more remarkable considering how much he spoke. Preachers commonly joke among ourselves that “misspeaking” is an occupational hazard for us. If you talk enough sooner or later you will say something that is wrong, or which comes across wrong because of the words or tone you used. At other times you will say something insensitive or use an illustration that was misplaced or inappropriate for the audience. That happens because you didn’t give enough thought to it before you said it. At such times you do not come across as gracious and you often end up wishing you had not said what you said. The more you have to talk, the more likely such occasions become. But that was rare for Billy Graham. Somehow he managed to be gracious all the time.

 

I think that comes from intentionality. We decide we want to be a gracious person and then we train ourselves to think gracious thoughts and to speak gracious words. If we do that, over time, graciousness becomes the norm for us and any thought or word that is not gracious stands out like a flashing red light because it just does not fit with who we are.

 

Are you intentionally gracious with your words and manner? It’s harder for some of us than for others. You may have a personality that leans towards critical thoughts and unkind words. Or you may be in a profession that requires you to speak a lot about difficult subjects. For a variety of reasons gracious thinking and gracious speaking might be a challenge for you, but we can all learn to be more gracious by being intentional about it and training ourselves in graciousness.

 

Train yourself to think gracious thoughts, and then be intentional about speaking gracious words.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus … This is the disciple who testifies to these things …” John 13:23; 21:24 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “What if you lived like you’re loved?”

 

There’s a song by the artist Hawk Nelson which is popular on Christian radio right now. The title is “Live like you’re loved”. The chorus goes:

 

“So go ahead and live like you’re loved

It’s ok to act like you’ve been set free

His love has made you more than enough

So go ahead and be who he made you to be.”

 

What if we really did live like we knew we are loved by God? How much would that change us? Sociologists have a theory they call “The Looking-Glass Self”. This theory holds that over time a child will become what the most important person in their life thinks they are. So if the most important person to that child is their mother, and if the mother constantly tells the child they are stupid, the child will inevitably do poorly in school. But if the mother constantly affirms the child’s intelligence, that child will do well. You will become what the most important person in your life believes you to be.

 

Jesus was the most important person in the life of the Apostle John. Early on, when John first began following Jesus, Jesus playfully referred to him and his brother James as “The Sons of Thunder!” That was because John and James were rough tough fishermen with short tempers and loud mouths. But Jesus knew John could be different and better. After spending three years with Jesus, and realizing that he was deeply loved by Jesus, John changed into the man Jesus believed him to be. Historically John became known as “The Apostle of Love”. That was because being loved by Jesus was the most important reality in John’s life and it is what formed his personality. It changed John to the point that he went from being a “Son of Thunder” to “the Apostle of Love.”

 

What if we lived like we knew we are loved? Philip Yancey asks the question, “How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?”

 

Becoming a gracious person begins with receiving God’s grace. You can’t give what you don’t have. So first and foremost, receive His grace and know that you are loved. Then His grace and His love will change you. You will begin to become the person He knows you can be.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Graciousness”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “I delight in your commands, which I love. I will lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and will mediate on your statutes. Remember your word to your servant; you have given me hope through it. This is my comfort in my affliction: Your promise has given me life.” Psalm 119:47-48 (CSB)

 

Our thought for today: “We need equal measures of grace and truth.”

 

Psalm 119 is the longest of the Psalms and it is the longest chapter in the Bible. It is 176 verses celebrating the beauty of the Word of God. It begins with the joyful declaration: “How happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk according to the Lord’s instruction! Happy are those who keep his decrees and seek him with all their heart.” 119:1-2

 

What’s interesting about Psalm 119, and what also tends to be true of the Bible in general, is that it alternates between roughly equal measures of grace and truth. We are told we need to know and obey God’s commands, and then we’re told about how blessed we will be if we do that. The clear lesson is that the best life you will ever have is the one that is lived in obedience to God’s commands, because that then keeps you within the Biblical boundaries whereby God can bless you.

 

This is why God gives us equal measures of grace and truth. The truth is for our own good and is designed to help us live well. The grace is because He loves us and thoroughly enjoys blessing us. Because God so wants to bless us, He gives us all the truth we need in order to live in such a way that He can bless. Author Mark Batterson explained it this way: “Grace means I’ll love you no matter what. Truth means I’ll be honest with you no matter what.”

 

That’s what God does for us and it’s what we need to do for each other. We need to love each other no matter what, and we need to speak Biblical truth to each other no matter what. And as long as we do love each other without condition and without reservation, the truth will be communicated in a gracious manner.

 

Psalm 119 is a great testimony from a writer who learned from personal experience the value of knowing God’s Word and then living by it. He found that his life was blessed when he did, and troubled when he didn’t. He then went on to share that wisdom with the rest of us in this Psalm.

 

The great preacher and writer Charles Spurgeon once observed, “A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” God wants you to live well and to live blessed. In the Bible He has provided all the truth we need in order to live in a way He can bless.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim