Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It is literally true and profoundly important”   The language Paul uses in Galatians 2:20 is more than just symbolic, it is literally true. It is also profoundly important. When he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ …” It is literally true in a spiritual sense. On the cross Jesus was crucified for your sins and mine. It was your sin being nailed to that cross. In that sense, it was you being crucified. Likewise, when he writes, “and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me …” that is also literally true. By means of His Spirit living in your heart, Christ lives in you (1 Corinthians 6:19).   The name “Christian” means “like Christ.” When you take the name of Christian you are claiming to be like Christ. However, becoming more and more like Christ is a transformation that occurs over time. At the time of your conversion, you received the life of Jesus in you but the likeness wasn’t there yet.   Instead, at that time, sin was still very much present in your life. The sins were forgiven but the residual effects of the sin were still there, as were the habits of sin. At that time sin still had power over you – strong power. In most cases, breaking free from the bonds of those sinful habits occurs progressively over time as we train ourselves to live differently.   This present time of salvation – living as a saved person – is the time during which you move further and further away from who you were and closer and closer to who God wants you to be (more like Christ). This requires daily surrender to Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is an intentional decision on your part to submit to Jesus and to allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in your life. This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It’s about faith in Jesus and continuous surrender to Him as you subordinate your life for His and allow Him to live His life through you.   It is literally true – Christ lives in you and He wants to live through you. I encourage you to surrender more fully to Him today.   God bless, Pastor Jim

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 Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:14 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It was only the down payment”   In his great little book, “The Doctrine of Salvation,” Dr. Darrell Robinson explains, “Salvation encompasses the total life of the believer – past, present, and future. It may be viewed in three stages: as an instantaneous act, a continuing process, and a glorious consummation. The believer can say, “I have been saved” (see Romans 10:9-10), “I am saved” (see 1 Corinthians 1:18), and “I will be saved” (see Romans 13:11).   In Ephesians 1:14 the Apostle Paul writes that the Holy Spirit was given to us as a down payment of our inheritance. A down payment is a first payment that is made to initiate a transaction, and it comes with the promise that more payments will be made and will continue to me made until the full transaction has been completed.   We have already learned that in the moment you were saved you were given the Holy Spirit as a gift from God. When Paul tells us here that the Holy Spirit is the down payment of what we will inherit from our heavenly Father, he means that the gift of the Spirit was just the first part of receiving a full inheritance as a child of God. From that point forward, there will continue to be installments paid out to you as you continue to receive more and more of your inheritance. Those installments come to you during the present state you are currently living in as a saved person. In this lifetime God bestows upon you many of the blessings and gifts He wants you to have. The final installments will be given to you once you arrive in heaven – especially when you receive your resurrection body. Then you will have received your full inheritance as a child of God.   The sad part is that some people are not allowing God to give them their full inheritance. They did receive the downpayment of the Spirit, but since then they have not been open to receiving more from God. They have essentially closed the account and are not allowing Him to make additional deposits into their life.   An important part of the sanctification process is to continue to place yourself in a position before God every day whereby He can deposit into your life all He wants you to have. The gift of the Holy Spirit was only the down payment. There is much more you are entitled to as a child of God and which your heavenly Father wants to give you. Are you receiving your full inheritance?   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 grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” 2 Peter 3:18 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Growing in grace and knowledge”   Over the last two days, we have been thinking about what Paul meant in Philippians 2:12 when he told us to “work out” our salvation. We have also considered Philippians 1:6, where he explained that God will continue His work of molding and shaping us until He has us in heaven and we are the completed person He has always intended for us to be.   The Apostle Peter builds on that theme in 2 Peter 3:18 where he urges us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This present state that we live in as saved persons is a time of growing and changing as God develops us into the people we will be for all eternity. That is known as the process of sanctification.   Sanctification is intended by God to be an ongoing and dynamic experience of growth in Christ that continues throughout our time here on earth. God has decreed this to be so for four important reasons. First, He does it for His own sake. God is holy and He wants us to be holy too (Isaiah 48:10-11). He purifies us over time so we can honor and glorify Him with our lives.   Second, He does it for the sake of the cause of Christ on earth. As John 15:5 helps us to understand (the parable of the vine and the branches), Jesus wants to live His life in and through us. He wants to produce His fruit in this world through our lives. The process of ongoing sanctification results in the fruit of Christ being produced through the life of the follower of Christ.   Third, sanctification is for our own sakes. Galatians 5:22-23 describes the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Those are character traits of Christ that become more and more a part of your own character as you grow in the grace and knowledge and likeness of Jesus. The more progress you make in the ongoing process of sanctification, the more you will be like Jesus and the better your life will be.   And fourth, your sanctification now will have a direct impact on what eternity will be like for you later. The Bible teaches this truth in numerous places. Jesus’ favorite illustration was of rewards the believer will receive in heaven based upon how that person lived their life on earth as His follower (we will address that subject in greater detail later in this series).   The point here is that God wants you to grow spiritually. That’s what the process of sanctification is all about and it is what should be happening in your life now, in this present state of being a saved person.   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 am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “You are going to love it”   Yesterday I told you the story of how at one point in my life I had a goal of becoming a bodybuilder. I never got there. I never even really came close. But I did have a picture in my head of what it might look like if it ever did happen (I was really something in my imagination!)   It’s good for us to have goals regarding what we want to achieve in life and the person we want to become. That’s not a bad thing. But God also has a plan for the kind of person He wants you to become and He is in the process of bringing that to pass in your life. And here’s the really good news: God’s image of you is better than your image of you. His plan for you is better than your plan for you.   In Philippians 1:6 Paul informs us that the One who started a good work in you will carry it on until it is completed in the day of Christ Jesus. The good work that He started in you began on the day you placed your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. That’s when He started changing you into the kind of person He wants you to be. The “carry it on to completion” part is the process of sanctification. The completion happens on that day in eternity when your spirit is united with your resurrection body and you are finally the completed person you will be for the rest of eternity (we will think more about that later in this series).   In Jeremiah 29:11 God assures us, “For I know the plans I have for you – this is the Lord’s declaration – plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” The good and perfect plan God is referring to works itself out over the course of your life and leads you to becoming the person He wants you to be.   Another example God used in the Bible to help us understand what He is doing in our lives is the example of a potter forming clay into the shape he wants it to be. Isaiah 64:8 is a good example, “Yet Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay and you are our potter; we all are the work of your hands.” Being transformed into the person God wants you to be is a huge benefit of having been saved, and it will be a determining factor in the person you will be for all eternity. That transforming process is taking place now and one day, it will be complete.   You are going to love being the person God is transforming you into!   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: “Therefore, dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Don’t skip your workout”   In my twenties and thirties, I was a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not “The Terminator” Arnold, but the “Mr. America” Arnold. Arnold, the bodybuilder. I wanted to be a bodybuilder too. I wanted to have 20-inch biceps and be able to bench press small automobiles.   I had a copy of Arnold’s book, “The Education of a Bodybuilder.” It was filled with suggested workout routines and lots of picture. I had an image in my mind of what I wanted to be like, and I had a plan to follow to help me get there. I never even came close to Arnold’s stature, but for about ten years I was kind of pumped-up and muscular (Linda once told me I was more of a musclehead than a muscleman, but sometimes she got mean like that. Lol)   In Philippians 2:12 the Apostle Paul used the metaphor of working-out and he applied it to the process of sanctification. Paul tells us there that we must work-out our salvation. He does not say we must work for our salvation (we have already addressed that issue and we learned that salvation is by grace not by works.) Paul does say we must work-out our salvation and by that Paul means the same thing Arnold did. If you want big muscles and a big physical stature, you must do exercises to grow those muscles. Likewise, if you want a big spiritual stature, you must do your exercises (the spiritual disciplines that will help you to grow spiritually).   As we learned yesterday, this present state of salvation that we live in during this lifetime is a period of spiritual growth as the Holy Spirit transforms us into the people God wants us to be. It’s the time during which we are supposed to be learning, growing, transforming, and becoming progressively more like Jesus.   Once upon a time, in a different season of life, I wanted to be like Arnold in physical stature. Now I realize it would be much better to become more like Jesus in spiritual stature. Our exercises for this spiritual growth include things like daily prayer and Bible study, worship, full participation in the life of a good church family, acts of service in the name of Jesus, good stewardship, and the other basic disciplines of the Christian life.   When I was trying to grow physically, I relied on Arnold’ book as a guide. If you would like a great book to guide you in learning and applying the basic disciplines required to grow spiritually, I can think of none better (after the Bible itself) than Richard Foster’s classic work “The Celebration of Discipline.” You will find it to be very helpful in guiding and accelerating your spiritual growth.   I encourage you, as part of your daily routine, to work-out your salvation.   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: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy … 1 Corinthians 1:2 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Live different, live better”   Your state of being saved began in the moment you placed your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. If you have had such a moment, then it is a settled fact – a past reality. Although that decision may have taken a long time to arrive at, the actual moment of salvation and the consequent new birth happened in a moment, in a flash, and it is now an accomplished fact.   That brings us to the present. Your present state is that you are saved. In other words, you have been saved, you are saved, and you will continue to be saved. This present state is also where you live-out what is already true of you. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 the Apostle Paul wrote about the new birth, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Now that you are a new creation you should live your life in a new way. What has happened inside of you should result in a change in how you live.   However, the change is not instantaneous. Salvation is instantaneous. It does happen in a flash. But the changed life occurs slowly and progressively over a lifetime. This is the part of salvation known as “sanctification.” Sanctification is a fifty-cent theological word that simply means “To make holy. To dedicate, consecrate, and set-apart for a divine purpose.”   That’s you. Now that you belong to Christ you have been set-apart, dedicated, and consecrated for His divine purposes and you are in the process of being transformed from the person you were into someone who is holy and who reflects the attributes of Christ. That’s what Paul was referring to in 1 Corinthians 1:2 (above) when he reminded the Corinthians (and us) that as Christians we have been called to live holy lives.   Your salvation will be perfected and complete in eternity. But between the moment of forgiveness when you placed your faith in Christ, and your eventual perfection in heaven when you will be the person you will be for all eternity, there is this long process of transformation as you progressively become more and more like Jesus. That is the life of a Christian and it is what should be happening because you are saved.   We are called by Christ to live differently and to live better than we would if we had not been saved. We will think more about this in the days 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

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?” Romans 6:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Grace is free but not cheap”   In one of his songs the singer Jimmy Buffett has a lyric that has become famous over the years. It goes, “Oh there’s a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning!” He’s referring to those who live like the devil all week long but then sing like a saint on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we all know the type. In fact, some Christians are the type!   In 1937 the great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer published one of the most important Christian books of that era. The title was, “The Cost of Discipleship.” In that work Bonhoeffer introduced us to the concept of “cheap grace.” He wrote: “Cheap grace is preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession … grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ …”   “Grace” is the undeserved blessings of God freely bestowed upon us by a loving and merciful God. When applied to salvation, the grace of God is what saves us even though we don’t deserve to be saved. Salvation is the ultimate expression of God’s grace, and it is also by God’s grace that we remain saved (once saved always saved). It’s all true because of the grace of God.   But that truth often creates a problem. This is where “cheap” grace comes from. Cheap grace is what Paul was writing about in Romans chapter six. Some people conclude that since they are saved, and since they can never lose their salvation, they can live any way they want and still go to heaven. That’s a terrible cheapening of grace and it’s the thinking Paul and Bonhoeffer both attempted to correct. It’s also an issue that we will address in upcoming devotionals.   Now that you are saved, and since you can never lose your salvation, does it really matter how you live? The answer is “yes” it does matter how you live and we will now spend a few days exploring the reason it matters.   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: “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgement but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “You are secure”   John 5:24 is another passage in the body of New Testament literature which teaches about the permanence of salvation. Here we read Jesus assuring us that if you have made the decision to place your faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, then you have experienced the new birth He taught about in John 3:3. Such a person has been “born again” spiritually. They have passed from death to life and now will never come under judgment for their sins. And the important thing about being born (physically or spiritually) is that once you have been born you cannot be unborn. Once it happens it is a done deal.   John 3:16 is also a familiar verse for most Christians and it is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching about being born again. In John 3:3 He said that you must be born again. In John 3:16 He said that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish but has eternal life. However, the eternal life Jesus referred to is not something that begins when you get to heaven, it begins the moment you place your faith in Him. It begins in the moment of being “born again” and it lasts forever. Eternal life is by definition “eternal,” it is life that does not end.   In this discussion of the security of the believer we haven’t come close to covering all that the New Testament teaches about it, but I think we have covered enough to make the point.   To summarize what we have learned: God loves you with unconditional love that does not end. Despite your sin, His deepest desire is for you to spend eternity with Him in heaven. So, He sent Jesus to earth to pay the penalty for your sins so that through faith in Him, your sins can be forgiven and it is therefore possible for you to go to heaven. Then God sent the Holy Spirit to convict you of your need to be forgiven and to draw you to faith in Christ. All throughout your life the Holy Spirit works quietly behind the scenes creating situations and opportunities for you to come to Christ.   So, as you can see, God has gone to extraordinary lengths to provide for your salvation – it’s the deepest desire of His heart and He has worked very hard to bring it about (short of making the decision for you). Therefore, once He finally has you, there’s no way He’s going to let you go. You are His and Satan cannot have you back. That’s what Jesus meant in John 10:29 when He said that no one will snatch you out of His hand. Now that you are His, He will not give you up. That’s the assurance we have. Once saved, always saved. That’s salvation as a past event. It has already happened.   Tomorrow we will begin to think about the implications of salvation in the present. What should the fact of salvation look like in the life of the Christian?   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: “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Once saved always saved”   “Once saved always saved.” That neat little phrase captures the essence of an important Biblical principle known as “the security of the believer.” This doctrine teaches that once you have made a sincere profession of faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you are saved and nothing can ever change that.   Some people struggle with this. What if you don’t act as if you are saved? What if you claim to be a Christian but then you act like the devil? Or, what if you really were saved at one time but then you kick the dog, or steal your neighbor’s newspaper, or commit adultery, or maybe even murder? Are you still saved then? Those are good questions.   In John 10:27-28 Jesus made it clear that if you really do belong to Him (if you have made a genuine profession of faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sins), then you have eternal life. Additionally, just for emphasis, He emphatically states that no one (Satan) will ever snatch you out of His hand.   Please note that Jesus made no mention there as to whether you are a good and obedient little sheep. He seemed to be referring even to the black sheep of the family. That passage teaches that if you really are His then you belong to Him for eternity and nothing will ever change that. Here’s another passage that teaches the same truth. It’s from the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:38: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor power, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   Paul ran out of words and rhetorical devices in his effort to explain that if you belong to God in Christ then there is nothing in all creation (nothing in the physical world and nothing in the spiritual world), no angel or demon or anything else, that can ever separate you from God. And that, by-the-way, would include your bad behavior. “Nothing” in all creation can separate you from God once you are His.   The Biblical doctrine of the security of the believer is important and therefore it’s a subject God devoted a lot of ink to in the Bible. There’s much more about it than we can adequately cover in a single daily devotional message. Therefore, we will continue this discussion tomorrow.   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: “In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish.” Matthew 18:14 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “God wants it even more than you do”   When it comes to having a sense of security about salvation the two most common questions people have are, “Am I really saved?” and “Can I lose my salvation?” The answer to the second question is a lot easier than the answer to the first. Tomorrow we will come back to the issue of whether you can lose your salvation but first, let’s be sure you really are saved.   God wants you to be saved. As Jesus taught in Matthew 18:14, it is not God’s desire for anyone to be lost. That’s the starting place for this discussion. God does not want anyone to be separated from Him for eternity. The Bible, from start to finish is all about salvation. It is about God drawing people to Himself. Matthew 18:14 is just one of the many places where Jesus helps us to understand the heart of the Father about this. God is even more concerned about your salvation than you are.   Second, it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to draw people to faith in Christ so they can be saved. That’s one of His primary roles on earth. In John 16:8 Jesus said, “When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment.” And in John 16:13 He goes on, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”   There are other verses that teach the same lesson about the role of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to Jesus but I think you get the point. All throughout your life the Holy Spirit works to create opportunities for you to be exposed to the truth of the Gospel, and He creates situations that help you to understand your need for a Savior – all to draw you to faith in Jesus. This is a direct result of the Father’s desire that none be lost. (This does not mean that all will be saved, but it does mean that the Father wants all to have the opportunity to place their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.)   God wants your salvation even more than you do. Therefore, if you have ever had that moment in time when you made a sincere profession of faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, then you are saved. You were born again in that moment (as we discussed in yesterday’s devotional).   God loves you and He wants you to be in heaven with Him. He sent His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for your sins, and then He sent the Holy Spirit to draw you to faith in Jesus. So, now the question becomes “can lose your salvation?” We will discuss that tomorrow.   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