Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Excellence”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Just be the best you can be.”

 

The writer John W. Gardner once observed, “Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach.”

 

I agree with that. We all have it within us to be excellent in whatever it is we’re doing. And we should. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that every student can always get straight A’s, or that every worker will always produce a perfect product, or that every song that a musician performs will be a number one hit. I think that in much of life “excellence” should be determined more by effort and sincerity than by a single rigid standard imposed on everyone all the time. Here’s an example of what I mean:

 

For several years I’ve been a fan of the workout program P90X. In that DVD series the trainer and coach, Tony Horton, leads us through a somewhat extreme series of workouts which are designed to help us attain the best level of physical fitness we are personally capable of achieving. But what that level of physical fitness is for each individual depends on many factors including age, health, physical abilities, etc.

 

One segment is called “Plyometrics” and involves a lot of high impact jumping, leaping, reaching, and stretching. One of the participants in the DVD is a man named Eric who has only one leg. His right leg is a prosthetic leg. Therefore his mobility and leaping ability is limited. At one point Tony was coaching him and urging him to try harder and to jump higher and Eric responded, “I’ll do my best.”

 

I’ll never forget Tony’s response to that. He stopped what he was doing, looked directly into the camera and said, “Did you hear what he just said? He said, ‘I’ll do my best.” And then speaking to Eric Tony said, “That’s always enough man. That’s always enough.”

 

Athletes at the “Special Olympics” are awarded gold medals, just as the athletes at the regular Olympics are. The results of their achievements are different because their abilities are different, but in each case the athletes excelled. “Excellence” is doing the very best you can with what you have to work with and as Tony said, “That’s always enough man. That’s always enough.”

 

All this month we’re going to explore this subject of being excellent by doing your best. I look forward to striving for excellence along with you.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.” 2 John 13 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “I’m planning to see you soon.”

 

By the time you read this I will already be on my way to Haiti with a mission team. We are going to the Carrefour region of the Port-au-Prince district to conduct free medical and dental clinics. Our team will also spend much time visiting in the orphanages assisting with orphan care, we will prepare and serve hot meals for hundreds of children every day, and we will also help to complete the construction of a girls transition home so young adult girls who can no longer stay in the orphanage will have a safe place to live until they are ready to get married.

 

Our team will be gone for a week and during that time I will not be writing these daily devotional messages. I plan to focus my full attention on the work of our team and I’m asking you, our faithful readers, to hang onto this devotional and use it each morning to prayer for our team. The next daily devotional message will come to you on Monday October 3^rd.

 

However, as the Apostle John wrote to his readers in 2 John 13, even though I won’t be writing to you I am looking forward to seeing you face to face. On Sunday evening, October 9^th, at 6:00, our mission team will give a mission presentation at Oak Hill Baptist Church, 3036 Genesis Road in Crossville. We would love to have you join us. We will show pictures and tell stories about all that God is doing in that part of the world. Please join us!

 

In the meantime, please plan to pray for us.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content – whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.” Philippians 4:11-12 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Plan to rely on Jesus.”

 

The Apostle Paul certainly had his share of both good times and bad. He had times when he was treated like a superstar and was lauded by the people, and he had times when he was chased out of town and stoned. There were many occasions when his fellow Christians loved him, but there were also times when some of them hated him. There were periods when he was well fed and safely housed, and other times when he was homeless, hungry, lonely, and even shipwrecked.

 

Paul went through it all. But as we read in Philippians 4:11-12 (written while he was in prison), Paul had learned the secret of being content in whatever his circumstances were. What was that secret? He tells us in verse 13, “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

 

In all situations, good and bad, Paul looked to Jesus. That was his secret. And don’t miss the fact that he had learned it. Over time and through experience Paul had learned to constantly look to Jesus. And when he did that, he discovered that along with Jesus he could handle whatever the situation was.

 

I once read a statement about the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah that expressed a similar truth about his life. If you read Jeremiah’s story you discover that his ministry years were a lot like Paul’s, only worse. Paul had lots of good times to balance the bad times. Jeremiah had mostly bad times. He was scorned, persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, and ended up witnessing the total destruction of Jerusalem. It was a tough life. And yet, he never lost faith and he never gave up. One Bible commentator said of Jeremiah that “He lived above his circumstances, not under them.”

 

That’s exactly what Paul was writing about in Philippians 4:11-13. He had learned to live above his circumstances, not under them, and he did it by keeping his eyes on Jesus. You can too. Whatever your situation is – the answer is Jesus. There’s nothing you’re dealing with that He can’t help you with. Life will always be better with Him than without Him.

 

This is where faith and planning come in. You have to have decided in your mind and heart that Jesus is in fact the answer and when you are faced with tough times, you will always look to Him to get you through.

 

Like Paul you learn through experience that Jesus has always been there for you in the past, and He will always be there for you in the future. You know that no matter what you face, you can do all things through Him who strengthens you, and therefore your plan for dealing with it will always be to look to Him for help and guidance. Now that’s a good plan for handling whatever circumstances life brings your way!

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and His robe filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “God will fill the emptiness with His own presence.”

 

Uzziah is commonly remembered in the history of Israel as “good” King Uzziah. He was a man who loved the Lord and who had a desire to serve Him well. For decades Uzziah looked to Isaiah for counsel and for spiritual leadership and consequently, the two were very close. When Uzziah died it must have been difficult for Isaiah. A friend whom he loved and who he had spent much time with for many years was now gone. That must have left a huge hole in Isaiah’s heart and in his life.

 

It was during this time of loss that Isaiah had this magnificent vision of the Lord that’s recorded for us in Isaiah chapter six. I personally believe the Lord was helping to fill the loss in Isaiah’s life with an increased awareness of His own presence. In the commentary notes that go along with this passage in Isaiah, the editors of the Daily Walk Bible offered this observation, “Every loss leaves a space that can be filled by God’s presence.”

 

I was startled when I read that because I have used almost those same exact words numerous times over the years as I have ministered to those suffering with the loss of a loved one. More times than I can count I have prayed that God would fill the emptiness in their lives with an increased awareness of His own presence, and I have counseled the individuals to deal with the loss by dedicating a lot of extra time to being with the Lord.

 

That statement is truer than we realize. “Every loss leaves a space that can be filled by the presence of God.” But we have to seek the presence of God. Whether the loss we’re experiencing is the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a debilitating health problem that has taken away some of our physical ability, or any one of a number of other kinds of losses, God will move right in and fill that empty place in our lives – if we ask Him to. We have to seek Him. We have to plan for it. In other words, we have to make the adjustments in our lives to spend extra time with God, in a wide variety of ways, and invite Him into that empty space.

 

That plan can and should include more time in prayer and Bible reading, increased attendance at the gatherings of your church family, and increased time spent with other Christians. God will fill the empty places in our lives that are created by a loss, but we have to invite Him into those places.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Again and again the Lord has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention. Each time the message was this: ‘Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing.” Jeremiah 25:4-5 (NLT)

 

Our thought for today: “We must plan to learn and grow.”

 

Do you have a “plan” for learning and growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ? Most Christians don’t. Many Christians do have a habit of attending a worship service on a somewhat regular basis, and that’s a good starting point, but many do not have a well thought-out plan in place to actually learn and grow in their faith.

 

Instead, they end up like the Israelites the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was speaking to. In their case the Lord had repeatedly sent them messengers to preach and teach the Word of God, and the people had listened, but the message did not sink in and there was no transformation in their lives. Instead, they left the Temple at the end of the service and went right back to their sinful lives, as if they had never heard the message to begin with.

 

They were hearing but they weren’t learning, and they certainly were not growing.

 

As the followers of Jesus we need to be intentional about discipleship. We have to have a plan for it. Here are a few tips that you might find helpful in developing a plan of your own:

 

• Give God the first part of your day. As soon as you wake up in the morning immediately go to prayer and Bible study. That way, no matter what else happens throughout the day you will have started the day with God.
• Use a Bible reading plan. For daily Bible reading I have found it helpful to use a Bible that is divided into 365 daily readings. There are many formats to choose from but each accomplishes the same thing, it leads you to read the Bible cover-to-cover in a year.
• Be a member of a small group or Sunday school class and actually attend it. Then, once you are there, participate in the class. Follow along with the lesson, ask questions, and participate in the discussion.
• Faithfully attend worship services every Sunday and fully participate in them. Sing the songs to God. Listen closely to the sermon, following along and taking notes.

 

Those are just a few things we can each do to make sure the practice of our faith is more than just mindless and meaningless routine. We have to be intentional about learning and growing. We have to have a plan for it.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Plan to fill your days with the things that matter the most.”

 

I read a statement the other day which caused me to pause and think about the things I allow my days to be filled up with. The statement read, “Unless the heart is full, even a rich person is poor.” That is so true! We have all known of many rich and famous people who were so unhappy they were miserable, sometimes to the point of suicide. And we’ve also known many other people of little means, but who radiated with warmth and joy and peace.

 

It’s all a matter of what your focus in life is and how you spend your time. Many, many people fill their days with the pursuit of worldly achievement such as educational pursuits, career advancement, acquiring money and possessions, relationships, and hobbies, only to find that those things don’t really satisfy. Somehow, no matter how much of that stuff they acquire, they discover that they’re still empty inside.

 

There’s nothing wrong with education and careers and all of those other things. In fact, they’re often necessary. But if they become the central focus of a person’s life they will prove to have been futile pursuits that were not really fulfilling and which did not satisfy.

 

The answer is to have a full life in the sense that Jesus meant it in John 10:10. First and foremost, Jesus offers us life for eternity in heaven. That’s the best life there will ever be. But He also offers us the best life we can have now, in this lifetime. That’s a life that finds fulfillment and happiness from within, not from without. It’s the secret that was discovered by the people I mentioned earlier, the ones who seem to radiate warmth and joy and peace, irrespective of the other things they do or don’t have.

 

The Apostle Paul taught us about this in Galatians 5:22-23 when he wrote, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Those are all the things the heart is yearning for to begin with, but which people are trying to achieve through all those other pursuits. Unfortunately, they’re looking for love in all the wrong places. Those other things won’t fill the emptiness in the heart. Only God can do that.

 

And that brings us to the subject for today’s devotional. What are you filling up your days with? School and job and relationships are all important and necessary, but only God will provide you with the fruit of the Spirit, and only the fruit of the Spirit will give you that glow that comes from within and then radiates out.

 

I encourage you to make your relationship with the Lord the central focus of your life. Plan for it. Structure your days so that the Lord gets the first and best of your time each morning. Then actually plan to include Him in your life all throughout the day by means of times of prayer, Bible reading, listening to worship music, acts of service, and repeating Bible verses which you have memorized.

 

Our days will necessarily be filled with the activities of life. But the more of the spiritual disciplines you incorporate into your daily routine the more your life will be focused on God. That will always lead to the fullest and best life a person can have.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Seek the Lord’s will, not your own.”

 

The Proverbs of Solomon are intended by God to be general principles that apply to life in a broad sense. Proverbs 16:3 is a case in point. Here we are instructed to first commit to the Lord whatever it is we are thinking about doing and then, once we have turned to the Lord first to discover His will, we can count on our actions being successful.

 

The key is committing the situation to the Lord first. Desire only His will rather than your own, truly seek it, then once you understand what His will is, you obey it rather than proceeding with whatever it is you might prefer to do instead. If you seek His will and then obey it, He will guide you along the path of success as He has determined it to be.

 

That’s a general Biblical principle which applies to all of life and which is repeated numerous times throughout the Bible – Proverbs 3:5-6, Proverbs 16:9, Isaiah 30:21, just to name a few.

 

How do we go about seeking the Lord’s will and not our own when it comes to making plans and carrying them out? First of all, you will need lots of prayer. Second, search the Bible for verses and passages which speak to your situation. And third, ask for the counsel of other Christians. Review your situation with them and ask them to prayerfully think it through with you.

 

All of this takes time but it is well worth it. If you don’t invest the time to discover God’s will instead of your own, you could end up like the person in Jimmy Buffet’s song with “a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.”

 

For instance, in a moment of anger you punched a guy in the nose and now you’re in jail for assault and battery and you’re going to have a criminal record? If you had checked with God first He would have told you count to ten and walk away.

 

You thought it was a good idea to get your girlfriends name tattooed in big block letters on your forearm for everyone to see but now she has left you for another guy and you’ve still got her name permanently on your arm? I’m thinking God would have helped you to make a better decision than that to begin with.

 

You’re already struggling to make ends meet but you just signed a six year loan contract with $600 a month payment on a really cool new truck? Did you pray about that? Seriously?

Someone once wrote, “A person should give a lot of thought to a sudden decision.” I would amend that to read “A person should go to God for guidance rather than making a sudden decision at all.”

 

I want to encourage you this morning to seek God’s will rather than your own.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Israel, prepare to meet your God!” Amos 4:1:2 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Have you prepared yourself to meet God? Do you expect to meet Him?”

 

I’m guessing about this but I suspect that the Old Testament prophet Amos was a scary little dude. We don’t know much about him except that the Bible tells us he was a sheep breeder from Tekoa. So I’m thinking he was a hard-as-nails no nonsense guy who spent a lot of time in the wilderness with his sheep, he could live off the land, he could fight off predators and wild beasts, and generally he was not somebody to mess with.

 

Out of that life he was called by God to go preach a tough message of warning and judgment to a rebellious nation that didn’t want to hear it. That’s the context within which he spoke the words of Amos 4:12 “Israel, prepare to meet your God!” In other words, “God’s coming, He’s not happy, and you’re gonna get it!”

 

Those people needed to get ready for an encounter with God – and so do we. But I mean it in a different way than Amos did. I’m not talking about getting ready for a spiritual spanking from our Heavenly Father (although some of us probably deserve it and need it). Instead I’m talking about getting ready to meet Him in worship.

 

Today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday. When you go to church are you going there prepared to meet your God? Are you expecting to meet Him? Are you planning for it? It may seem like a silly question but I’m convinced that many people go to church, attend Sunday school, sit in the worship service, and then go home to their lunch of fried chicken and potato salad having never encountered God at all.

 

When we participate in worship services we have to go there planning to meet God in the act of worship. Our heart needs to be yearning to connect with Him. We must be seeking Him, singing to Him, and listening to teaching from His Word with the understanding that He is speaking to us through it. Not only should we go there wanting to encounter Him, we should go there expecting to encounter Him, and being satisfied with nothing less.

 

So let me ask you again, are you prepared to meet your God? In eternity yes, but more immediately in the act of worship? I encourage you to attend church tomorrow with the words of Amos ringing in your ears, “Prepare to meet your God!”

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Her sons rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her: ‘Many women are capable, but you surpass them all!’ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.” Proverbs 31:28-29 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Plan your legacy”

 

So, how will people remember you? When you’re dead and gone and your life is just a memory to those you have left behind, how will they remember you?

 

Here’s a little test you can conduct right now to help illustrate my point. How do you remember others? Quick now, what’s the first thought that comes into your mind when you remember them? Depending on the individual in question you might remember a smiling and happy person, or someone of deep faith, or perhaps he or she was a driven person who was always busy with some work-related issue, or maybe the person was angry and mean and that’s the memory about them that lingers.

 

Although every life is multi-faceted and complex, and although every person’s life is a mix of good and bad, positive and negative, there is a character trait that dominates and that is what people will remember first about you.

 

So, how will they remember you? You are actually determining that right now by the way you live. The words you say, the actions you take, the priorities you have established, a thousand little choices every day, they all add up to how people will remember your life.

 

The “Proverbs 31” woman is remembered as a strong woman of faith who put others first and who lived a life that was focused on others. She had a positive impact on those around her. I’ve been blessed to know women and men like that and the memory of them always makes me smile.

 

Over the years I’ve preached a lot of funerals. At every funeral I always try to focus on the positive aspects of the person’s life and to help everyone remember the good things about them. Sometimes that’s easy, but other times not so much. I once saw a funny line on a church sign that read, “Live in such a way that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral.”

 

Yes please. Funerals are hard enough. Don’t make me have to lie about you. Live in such a way now that it will be easy to say nice things about you then. Your legacy is your responsibility and you are establishing it everyday by the things you say and do. Give careful thought to how you want people to remember you and then live that way now.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Planning”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Jesus told them, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Do you have a plan for eternity?”

 

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 the author (probably King Solomon) observed, “He (God) has also set eternity in the hearts of men.”  What Solomon was referring to is the fact that God designed the human heart with an innate awareness of eternity. At the very core of our being we just know there is more than just this lifetime. That’s why every society down through the ages has always had gods they have sought, and it’s why people have always demonstrated a yearning for contact with the spiritual realm. We just know there is something more.

 

And, of course, people are correct. There is something more; there is a spiritual realm and there is life after death. Every person is a spirit who will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell and, we just know it to be true.

 

That being the case, every person needs to plan for eternity. There’s an old saying that goes, “Death is certain, and eternity is a long, long time, so you had better get this right.” That’s true because there’s no room for error here and it’s too important to take a chance on getting it wrong.

 

That’s why in John 14:6 Jesus made the issue so clear for us. He explained there that He is the only way to the Father. There is no other way and if those words of Jesus are true, that must mean that eternal salvation does not come to us by means of any other faith or any other god. It is not a matter of being a good enough person, or giving enough money to charity, or performing the correct religious rituals, or any other thing. If the words of Jesus are true then eternal salvation comes through faith in Him or not at all.

 

So, what’s your plan for eternity? Do you have one? There’s no room for error here. Once a person passes through the moment of death and enters into the spiritual realm their decision has been made. Jesus has explained the choice for us in the plainest language possible. He left no room for misunderstanding. He is the only way.

 

People on their deathbed commonly have lots of regrets. It’s not uncommon for them to use their last moments in life to ask forgiveness from those they have wronged and to seek to restore broken relationships. But I’ve never heard of anyone repenting of being a Christian on their deathbed. That’s the one decision nobody ever regrets.

 

Let me end this morning by asking you again, “Do you have a plan for eternity?” The issue is too important to leave unresolved, and Jesus is the only way to heaven.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim