Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Hebrews 6:19 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Jesus is the anchor of your soul”   I’m an old sailor. A retired Naval Officer. Most of my career in the Navy was spent on aircraft carriers. An aircraft carrier is huge – a floating city. Fully manned it has a crew of over 5000 sailors. It has sleeping quarters, multiple kitchens and eating areas, a laundry, stores, gymnasiums, even a multi-channel television station! And so much more. The average modern aircraft carrier weighs more than 100,000 tons.   One of the things that always amazed me was how a ship that size could be firmly held in place by an anchor. Now, the anchors on an aircraft carrier are huge by themselves, but compared to the overall size of that ship, they are miniscule. Yet, somehow that tiny (by comparison) anchor, once it is firmly embedded in the sea bottom, holds that huge ship in place. That’s the power of a firm anchor.   In a spiritual sense Jesus is our firm anchor. That’s what Hebrews 6:19 teaches. The hope the verse refers to is the promise of God that we have salvation through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. That truth then becomes the anchor that holds us firm in the storms we face in life, but it also holds us firm in the bosom of God for all eternity. Jesus is our firm anchor. He holds us fast, secure, and stable.   But it is possible for a ship to break free from its anchor and to then be set adrift. Likewise, it is possible for the Christian to break free from Jesus. I’m not talking about losing your salvation, but becoming untethered from Him and no longer being held securely in the truth of sound doctrine and good practice. When that happens, the Christian is no longer secure and will instead be adrift on the sea of life, being carried along by the cultural tides. That person is going to get tossed and battered by the storms of life and perhaps even end up shipwrecked on the rocks.     As we conclude this series about salvation past, present, and future, and as we continue our journey through this world living in the reality of salvation present, it’s essential for us to stay firmly tethered to Jesus. He is the anchor of your soul.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “The purpose of the journey”   As a Christian your life is a journey through this world towards your real home in heaven. But as we have learned, it’s during this life that you are to grow in Christlikeness and in spiritual maturity. And that growth process will have a direct bearing on what eternity will be like for you. The purpose of your journey through this life is to prepare yourself so you can experience for all eternity all the fullness of God that Paul wrote about.   However, life can be hard and the journey often takes us through deep and dark valleys. Those are troubling times that bring with them pain and heartache. We all wish we didn’t have to face situations like that but that’s just life and we do have to deal with it. However, God walks with us through those times in the valleys. He also strengthens us for the struggle and helps us to deal with the trials. And if we draw close to Him and rely on Him, then those times become some of the most formative spiritual moments in this long journey.   Author John Eldredge once wrote a great devotional book to help us through times like that. The title is “Restoration Year.” It consists of 365 daily devotionals and it is designed to assist a Christian in picking up the pieces and moving forward in life after a life-altering event. Here’s a piece from one of those daily devotionals that I found particularly helpful. Maybe you will too:   “We need Jesus like we need oxygen. Like we need water. Like the branch needs the vine. Jesus is not merely a figure for devotions. He is the missing essence of our existence. Whether we know it or not, we are desperate for Jesus … The purpose of your being here on this planet, at this moment in time, comes down to three things: (1) Love Jesus with all that is within you. (2) To share your daily life with Him. (3) To allow his life to fill yours.” And I would add a fourth to that list – we are to spend our time on earth serving others in His name.   That’s the purpose of the journey and it’s the reason God still has you on this planet living this life – it’s so you can get to know Jesus better, grow spiritually, become more like Him, and continue to serve others on His behalf until He is ready for you to come to heaven. Doing that helps you to grow spiritually and it prepares you for the reward of your salvation – eternity in heaven.     You have been saved, you are saved, you will continue to be saved, and one day your eternity in paradise is going to be glorious. You will then experience all the fullness of God. But until then – live. Just live fully every day and make the most of the journey.     God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “He answered, ‘Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Feed your soul”   Yesterday we ended with the thought that we need to live like we’re headed for heaven. That’s true. Now that we are nearing the end of our study of salvation past, present, and future, I want to shift our attention back to the topic of salvation present and how we are to live while we’re moving through this life towards the consummation of our salvation in eternity. As we have learned, how well you prepare yourself now will determine what eternity will be like for you later.   In Matthew 4:4 Jesus referred to a great truth about living the Christian life. There, as He was responding to the temptations posed by Satan while He was in the wilderness, Jesus said that even more than He needed physical food to sustain His body He needed spiritual nourishment for His soul. He made a similar statement in John 4:32;34 when he told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about … My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”   This reminded me of a great insight shared by the famous Christian philosopher Dallas Willard. Dallas was one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the last generation. Much of his ministry was focused on helping Christians develop a deeper practice of the Christian faith and to thereby grow much deeper in spiritual maturity. He spent his entire life preparing himself for the eternity in heaven that he is now enjoying, and he helped others to prepare themselves as well. Here’s what he had to share about caring for your soul and growing spiritually:   “What’s running your life at any given moment is not your external circumstances, not your thoughts, not your intentions, not even your feelings, it’s your soul. The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens anything going on in the various dimensions of the self. You don’t direct your soul you feed it, then the soul directs you.”   “You don’t direct your soul you feed it, then your soul directs you.” What a critical understanding that is! The most important thing you can do to live well now, grow spiritually, and to prepare yourself for eternity is to feed your soul every day. Feed it well. Feed it on the Word of God, on worship, on acts of service, and on fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.    I encourage you to feed your soul and to feed it well, today and every day.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Live like you are headed to heaven”   In the end, salvation is about spending eternity with God. The three phases of the salvation process accomplished that for us. If you have already placed your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then phase one is a done deal for you and your salvation is secure. You are now in the second phase of being sanctified as God prepares you for eternity, and you are headed towards the third and final stage – the consummation of your salvation. But as long as you are on this earth, you are somewhere in that second phase.   So, what impact should your new and fuller understanding of the entire doctrine of salvation have on how you live now? That’s what Paul was writing about in Philippians 3:13-14. The Apostle Peter wrote about it also in 1 Peter 2:9-12:   “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourself honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.” Also, in 2 Peter 3:11-14, “… it is clear what kind of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.”   We are the people of God, saved by grace through faith in Jesus, called to be a holy people who bring honor to our heavenly Father. We are to be people who live with the knowledge and understanding that we are just passing through this world on a journey towards our real home in heaven.   I encourage you to live each day with the certain knowledge that you are a child of God, headed for a glorious eternity in a perfect paradise prepared for you by Jesus Himself. Let your thoughts, words, and deeds be governed by that great truth. Be joyful, kind, and merciful, and share with others the good news that they too can have salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus. That’s the impact our understanding of salvation should have on how we live now.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future” Our Bible verse for today: “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.”  Psalm 63:1 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Your longing for God will be fulfilled” Psalm 63:1 is one of my favorite expressions about longing for and seeking after God. Psalm 42:1-2 is another, “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God. I thirst for God, for the living God. When can I come and appear before God?” Two other expressions about longing for God that I have always appreciated come from the minds of two great Christian thinkers. The first is from Saint Augustine writing sometime around 400 A.D.: “You have made us for Yourself, Oh God, and our heart is restless, searching, until we find our rest in you.” The other comes from the French philosopher Blaise Pascal writing around 1650, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of man that can only be filled by God.” All four of those expressions are consistent with what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “God has placed eternity in the heart of man.” God created human beings with an innate understanding that He does exist. We also have a deep longing to know and experience Him. That’s why every culture that has ever existed in the history of the human race has always had religious beliefs. All cultures have had a belief that there is a spiritual world, there is a God (or gods), and there is more than just this life. That’s simply how God has designed us – with an inner desire to know and experience Him.  Today we can know and experience Him by means of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and with the Holy Spirit living in our heart. That relationship goes a long way towards filling the God-shaped vacuum in our hearts and satisfying our innate longing for God. It goes a long way – but it still falls short. There is still that longing; there continues to be a sense that there’s much more about God that I don’t know or understand. The longing is still there.  However, in heaven the limits and restrictions between God and His people will be removed. Then we will see Him as He is, and being in His presence will be our primary joy. It won’t be our only joy – as we have learned in this series, we will spend eternity exploring and enjoying a spectacular perfected creation. But being in the presence of God and seeing Him as He really is will be the best thing about eternity. In that day, there will never be a time when you are not aware of His presence, and the longing for Him which you have always had will be fully filled.  You will see God and know Him as He really is.  God bless, Pastor Jim  (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at http://www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “… the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.” Romans 8:21-22 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Eternity will not be boring”   No, eternity will certainly not be boring. We will have lots of interesting and wonderful things to do – and the new earth will feature prominently in our activities. As Romans 8:21-22 reminds us, the old earth and all creation has been marred by sin and is therefore spoiled in many ways. But the new creation will be perfect and we will spend all eternity enjoying it. In his book “Heaven” author Randy Alcorn made an important observation about God’s creation. He wrote, “… by finding happiness in God’s creation we will find happiness in him.”   This is an important and helpful observation. It tells us something about eternity. But it also provides insight that is helpful to us now as we enjoy life on the current earth. Perhaps you have heard it said that we will spend eternity worshiping and praising God. That’s a true statement, but a big part of that worshiping and praising will consist of simply enjoying and appreciating what He has created.   God’s creation is His beautiful and wonderful handiwork. His creation is a source of joy and pleasure for Him. When we His people enjoy and appreciate what He has created, that is a form of worshiping and praising Him. That’s true now in this lifetime (even in our fallen and broken world), but it will be even truer in eternity as we enjoy and appreciate a redeemed and perfected creation forever.   Also, when the current creation passes away it’s not that God is going to replace it with things that are entirely different, but rather that God will make all things new. He will take what exists and improve it to the point of perfection. The current creation is a reflection of the creation to come. It will be similar but perfect. Think for a moment about how much you enjoy God’s current creation. When you appreciate and enjoy what He has created, that is an act of worship and praise. That will be true in eternity too but to a much greater extent.   In eternity you will be with friends and loved ones enjoying the perfect existence you have always longed for. You will laugh and sing; you will eat and drink; you will rejoice and enjoy endless pleasures; you will marvel at all the good and perfect things our wonderful God has created. If you are enjoying God’s creation now, you will really enjoy it then!   Next, we will think about what our relationship with God will be like in that day and then we will end our series with some thoughts about what impact all of this should have on how we live now.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle. The infant will play beside the cobra pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den. They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.” Isaiah 11:6-9 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Will your pets be in heaven with you?”   So, will Fluffy the cat and Sparky the dog be with you in heaven? I hope so. I love animals and I have loved every pet I have ever had. I would love to know that my pets will be with me in eternity.   Isaiah 11:6-9 describes the New Earth, and it is filled with animals. That shouldn’t surprise us because God has always valued and enjoyed animals – He created them! He created them before He created us and when He sent the great flood during the time of Noah, He saved many more animals than humans. In this scene from Isaiah, we see a time when there is no longer any conflict between God’s creatures. Animals that were once dangerous are now tame; snakes that were once poisonous are now harmless; creatures that used to be natural enemies now graze together in peace; and human children are in the picture too.   So, there’s little doubt that animals will be with us in eternity. But will “my” animals be with me? Will I be reunited with Duffy, Lady, Missy, Kiki, Roxy, and Melody the dogs? How about my cats Midnight and Sam? And let’s not forget Henry the duck.   It’s a difficult question. The Bible does tell us that animals have the breath of life in them (Genesis 1:30, 2:7, 6:17, 7:15); and the Hebrew word used to describe that breath of life in them (nephesh) is the same word used to describe the breath of life in us. Also, that word is commonly understood to describe our soul. However, I don’t think animals have souls like ours. They were not created in the image of God as we have been. But yet, they are God’s created creatures too and they do have the breath of life breathed into them by God.   There is strong evidence in the Bible that there will be animals in eternity, but there is nothing that tells us anything about our specific pets. Therefore, all we can do is speculate about it. In his book, “Heaven,” author Randy Alcorn writes, “Animals aren’t nearly as valuable as people, but God is their Maker and has touched many people’s lives through them. It would be simple for him to re-create a pet in heaven if he wants to. He’s the giver of all good gifts, not the taker of them. If it would please us to have a pet restored in the New Earth, that may be sufficient reason (for Him to do it).”   I don’t know if my actual pets from this life will be there in eternity with me or not. I hope so. But I do know there will be animals – lots of them, and in my opinion, that’s a beautiful thing.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “While he was still speaking with the crowds, his mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’ He replied to the one who was speaking to him, ‘Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ Stretching his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Matthew 12:46-50 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Who will be there with you?”   In the passage we just read from Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus was not being unkind or disrespectful towards His mother, brothers, and sisters. They were his biological family and He loved them. His comments in that passage were designed to teach a larger spiritual truth. Biological relationships are important but spiritual relationships are more important. Your biological ties to parents, siblings, and relatives will end at the death of your mortal bodies. But your spiritual bonds to your brothers and sisters in Christ will last for all eternity.   That being the case, the spiritual bond with your brothers and sisters in Christ is more important than your biological bonds with your flesh-and-blood family because it is your spiritual family that you will spend eternity with. Hopefully your biological family members are also part of your spiritual family and they will therefore be with you in eternity too. If that is not the case, then I encourage you to make their salvation a high priority in your life. Pray for them, witness to them, and serve them in the name of Jesus. You want them to enjoy eternity with you.   At the end of the previous devotional, as we gave some thought to what life on the new earth in our resurrection bodies will be like, I suggested that we also consider who will be there with us. It will be all those who have ever placed their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. I realize this seems like a no-brainer but we don’t give enough serious thought to this important truth. As we consider the amazing eternity Jesus has prepared for those who are His, we need to realize there are many who will never get to experience that.   In this series I haven’t talked much about hell but make no mistake, hell is as real as heaven. And just as the Bible reveals a lot about the new heaven and the new earth, it also tells us about hell. If someone is not with you in eternal paradise, it will be because they are in eternal hell – and eternal hell will be every bit as bad as the eternal heaven will be good.   There is still more for us to learn about eternity in paradise but before we do, please spend some time thinking and praying about those you know who are not currently headed to heaven. Make an extra effort today to reach out to someone with the Good News that God will forgive their sins through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “But based upon his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:13 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Earth will still be earth, only new”   As we continue to consider what life in eternity is going to be like for us in our resurrection bodies, it really is important to understand that the new earth is going to be like the current earth, only perfect.   Author Randy Alcorn did a good job explaining this in his excellent book “Heaven”: “By calling the New Earth “earth,” God emphatically tells us it will be earthly, and thus familiar. Otherwise, why call it Earth? … the word “new” is an adjective describing a noun. The noun is the main thing. A new car is first and foremost a car. A new body is mainly a body. A new Earth is mainly an Earth … The Earth spoken of in Scripture is the Earth we know – with dirt, water, rocks, trees, flowers, animals, people, and a variety of wonders. An Earth without these things would not be Earth.”   Christian poets, authors, and songwriters have often described this earth as just a shadow of the one to come and that in this world we get glimpses of the next. Biblically that is accurate. This world gives us a foretaste of what’s to come. Think about the things that bring you the most pleasure and joy in this world – the beauty of a sunset, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, colorful flowers, laughing babies, the taste of ice cream. Now magnify those joys and pleasures millions of times and you begin to get a feel for how great eternity on the new earth in a resurrection body is going to be.   I once read a statement written by “The Old Country Preacher” Dr. J. Vernon McGee. He was commenting on what he believed eternity will be like for us in our resurrection bodies. Dr. McGee was fascinated by outer space – the planets, stars, and galaxies. He always wanted to be an astronaut who could explore deep space. So, his fantasy for eternity was to spend the first 10,000 years just enjoying being in the presence of Jesus, and the second 10,000 going from planet to planet, star to star, galaxy to galaxy, exploring the wonders of God’s amazing universe.   I don’t know if Dr. McGee will get to do that or not, but I think he is probably not far off in his imaginings about the possibilities that will be available to us in that day.   Next, we will consider who we will get to do all those amazing things with.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time …” 1 Corinthians 15:6 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “The new earth in your resurrection body”   The primary reason Jesus remained on earth for forty days after His resurrection was to provide physical proof of His resurrection. His followers in those days had the almost impossible task of spreading the new Christian faith and starting churches in communities across the land, and they were to do it in the face of skepticism and opposition. So, they needed to have their faith bolstered by having personal, physical encounters with the resurrected Jesus.   But that’s not the only reason He stayed on earth for that time. As was true of Jesus’ entire earthly life, one of His purposes on earth was to teach us lessons through His personal example. That’s true of His forty extra days on earth too.   In his very helpful book “Heaven,” author Randy Alcorn proposes that, “Jesus walked the earth in his resurrection body for forty days, showing us how we would live as resurrected beings. In effect, he also demonstrated “where” we would live as resurrected beings – on Earth.”   The resurrected Jesus walked the earth. His feet touched the dirt road and the dust got between His toes. He walked on a beach and felt the sand beneath His feet. The resurrected Jesus talked to people, and they talked to Him. He started a campfire, He cooked a meal for His friends, and at one point we even see Him eating. His was a resurrected body that was both physical and spiritual, and in it He experienced physical earthly things. That is probably a picture of what eternity will be like for us in our resurrection bodies.   But this is different from what people normally assume will be true about our existence in eternity. We assume that eternity means a non-earth; that it is some kind of mystical spiritual ghost-like existence. But that’s not the picture the Bible gives us. Instead, the Bible describes a new-earth, not a non-earth. It is a new earth that is like the current earth in many ways and which will therefore be familiar to us. In John 14:1-3 Jesus seems to be telling us that we will feel right at home there.   Spending eternity in our resurrection bodies on a new and redeemed earth is going to be fascinating and exciting. There will be much exploring, learning, and activities to keep us occupied. What kinds of exploring, learning, and activities – and with whom? That’s a good question and we will spend some time considering it in the devotionals yet to come.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571