Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Establish boundaries and stick to them”   Yesterday we considered Solomon’s lesson from Ecclesiastes 3:1 primarily with respect to setting priorities. We learned that some things in life are more important than others and therefore they deserve priority in terms of when they get our attention, how much of our attention they get, and what things will be allowed to sometimes displace them on our priority list.   When applied to New Years resolutions, goals, and plans, we realize that some matter more than others. My goals for spiritual maturity are more important than my financial goals for the year. My plan to guard my health by maintaining good nutrition and getting daily exercise is more important than my two big home improvement projects I have planned for the year.   Yesterday we also considered how it is that the “tyranny of the urgent” can intrude on our priorities. The thing that seems urgent but which isn’t really an emergency, can get in the way of the thing that is truly important if we allow it to. So, we must have boundaries to protect the things that are truly important. For instance, Monday is my one day off each week. It is protected time. It’s an important part of my resolution to take proper care of myself (which includes rest and relaxation). If you call me on Monday regarding a church matter, I won’t take your call. Maybe if it’s an emergency, like Jesus is coming back but you’re not sure He’s coming for you, or your hair is on fire and you can’t find a fire extinguisher, I’ll talk to you. Otherwise, your call will go to voicemail and I’ll call you back on Tuesday. This is a firm boundary based on an important priority.   Unfortunately, we are sometimes bad at establishing boundaries and then sticking to them. We are much more likely to give-in to the tyranny of the urgent, allowing the phone call from a telemarketer to interfere with the conversation we were having with our spouse. Or, we keep making excuses for missing our time with God each morning, or for skipping church Sunday after Sunday, or for not going to the gym again today. There are reasons we make those choices but are they good reasons?  I think you see what I mean. If we allow it to happen, all sorts of events and people will intrude on our priorities and get us off track.   Years ago, there was a great book written by Henry Cloud and John Townsend regarding establishing and maintaining appropriate boundaries in all areas of life. It was “Boundaries: When to say “yes” and when to say “no” to take control of your life.” It’s an excellent book. Very helpful. It is still in print and I recommend it to you.      If we are going to achieve our most important goals, we will need to have firm boundaries established and we will have to stick to them.   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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Establish priorities and boundaries”   This morning, I want to return us to our thinking from yesterday regarding the Apostle John’s teaching in 3 John 2 about a “whole” life that is healthy in all the right ways. In that devotional we considered the fact that there are four essential elements which together make us whole people. Those elements are physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. To be truly and fully healthy, we must be healthy in all four of those areas. New Years resolutions made and kept help us to achieve that.   However, not all resolutions are equally important and therefore not all goals should be allowed to carry the same weight. As Solomon taught in Ecclesiastes 3:1 (above), there is a proper time and place for everything. In other words, for our purposes, in addition to paying proper attention to resolutions we make and goals we set regarding our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health (or any pertaining to any other subject), we also need to get them in the right order. We need proper balance.   By way of example, I will tell you my own priorities in life. Nothing in my life is more important than my relationship with God. Therefore, that’s the first thing I tend to every day. God gets the first and best of my time. First thing in the morning, before anything else can happen to get in the way, I spend time with God in prayer and Bible study.   My second priority in life is my family. I think about them, I consider their needs, I determine what things I will do that day to ensure they are getting an appropriate amount of my time and attention. Third is myself. I make sure I have a plan for the day to take proper care of myself. That includes eating right, exercising, leisure, and sufficient sleep (If you don’t take proper care of yourself then you won’t be around to take care of others. Or, at least, your capacity to do so will be diminished.) Then, once I have assured myself that those three most important priorities are properly cared for, I turn my attention to my work. In my case, that’s my church (Yes, my dear church members, church is only number four on the list. Sorry.)   It’s essential that we have proper priorities established in life. Otherwise, we will get off track. We will be victimized by what is often called “The tyranny of the urgent.” I’m talking about things like the ringing telephone that pulls us away from an important conversation with our spouse or children. My friend, that conversation is more important than the ringing telephone. Ignore the telephone. Let it go to voicemail. Stick with the conversation.   I think you get the point but, how do we do this? How do we set and maintain appropriate boundaries that protect our most important priorities? That will be the subject of tomorrow’s devotional.   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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: Dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health, just as your whole life is going well.” 3 John 2 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Four essential parts of you”   The Apostle John wrote the little letter of 3 John very near the end of his long life. Scholars estimate it was around the year 90 A.D. As verse one tells us, it was to his dear friend Gaius, a leader in one of the churches in Asia Minor. We believe John was essentially a supervising senior pastor over many small churches in the region and he served as a mentor to the younger pastors.   What’s interesting and helpful for our purposes here this morning is the comment John made in verse two. He wrote that he prayed his friend was prospering “in every way,” including in terms of physical health. He even wrote that he believed Gaius’ whole life was going well. What’s being described there is a life that is balanced and healthy in all the important ways.   There are four ways in which we humans need to be healthy if our “whole” life is going to be going well. Those four ways are physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When we talk about the physical person, we’re talking about the life of the body. For optimum well-being, your body needs to be reasonably healthy for your stage of life. Few things will negatively impact your life more than bad health.   The mental aspect refers to the life of the mind. This is all about remaining intellectually sharp and engaged. And just like physical health, there are things we have to do in order to keep the mind healthy. Endless hours of television and computer scrolling dulls your intellect and turns your mind to mush. Reading, study, learning new things, solving puzzles, and other intellectual pursuits help to keep your mind sharp.   Emotional health refers to the life of the heart. This is a matter of emotional stability and is described for us by Scripture passages like Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, patience …), and 1 Peter 3:3-4 (a gentle, quiet spirit). This is the kind of emotional health Paul urges us in Philippians 4:8 to intentionally cultivate by controlling the influences we allow into our heart.   Spiritual health refers to the life of the spirit within us. Not the Holy Spirit (He is alive and well, thank you very much). This is about your spirit. Is your spirit healthy? Are you properly caring for the life of your spirit?   A healthy life will include a good balance of health in those four key areas. You are a whole person. You are more than your body, you are more than just a brain on a stick, you are more than just a bundle of nerves and emotional energy, and you are even more than your spiritual self. This is a complicated and deep subject that bears more discussion, so we will come back to it 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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Like a puppy on the freeway”   In addition to writing daily devotional messages, I also read devotionals written by others. Currently I have three that I read every day. One is by a fellow daily writer who has a blog on one of the websites that my devotional appears each day (WordPress). Another is a devotional for pastors called “Apples of Gold.” It was given to me as a gift from some friends and I’m being blessed by it. It is deep and rich; insightful and helpful.   The other devotional I’m using each day this year is called “Restoration Year” by John Eldredge. It’s for people who are trying to pick up the pieces and put their lives back together after some kind of a tragic loss (such as the death of a loved one). In one of those devotionals, John was writing about the importance of being thoughtful and intentional about how we approach life – especially about how we approach the subject of healing and restoration.   Eldredge refers to Jesus’ illustration in Matthew 10:16 about being like sheep among wolves. He notes that few of us in the modern world have ever spent time caring for sheep, and most of us have never encountered a wolf in the wild. Therefore, Jesus’ illustration about how dangerous our world is, isn’t easily transferable to the world we live in.   So, substitute the picture of sheep among wolves for puppies on a freeway. That’s how dangerous life is for those who are unprepared to deal with it. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus warned us that we are not to be uniformed and naïve about the challenges and dangers we will face each day as we live in this world. Instead, we are to be alert and wise; intentional and smart (as shrewd as serpents).   If you are just casually meandering through life, clueless and without direction, you will be like a sheep among wolves (you will get eaten up), or, like a puppy on a freeway (you will get runover by life). This is one of the reasons we are spending so much time here at the beginning of the new year thinking about purpose, plans, and resolutions.   Don’t be like a puppy on the freeway of life, because you will get run over. Another way of putting it is don’t just do life and don’t just let life happen to you. Be alert; be smart; and be intentional.   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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” 1 Timothy 5:23 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Move it or lose it”   1 Timothy 5:23 has nothing to do with the debate about whether Christians should ever consume alcohol as a beverage. In terms of Christian history, that’s a relatively modern debate which has developed largely over the last several hundred years. For most of the history of Christianity wine was used as a beverage because it was one of the few liquids that was consistently safe to drink. Beverages like water and milk were frequently contaminated or spoiled but wine, because it was fermented, was usually safe and wouldn’t make you sick.   But that’s not the context of 1 Timothy 5:23 anyway. In Paul’s day wine was also medicinal. It was used as a medicine and that was why he was instructing Timothy to drink some – it was to settle his stomach. But the larger point, and the one that we need to consider today, is that it was something Timothy needed to be doing for the sake of his physical health. He had a responsibility to take care of himself so he could continue in ministry.   Us too. We have a responsibility to take care of ourselves. That obviously means we have to feed our body on good nutritious food rather than on junk. It also means we should take medicine when we are sick, and in our day of medical science (which is a gift from God), we are to go to the doctors when needed, get our regular screenings, and accept the procedures that will correct our medical problems.   Also, one of the easiest and most helpful things we can do to stay healthy is to simply stay active. You may remember from high school science class that Isaac Newton’s first Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest, unless an outside force acts on it to make it move. And a body in motion will stay in motion unless an outside force acts on it to make it stop. If we apply that thinking to physical fitness it means that you will stay there on the couch watching reality shows unless you force yourself to get up and get moving. But once you have developed the habit of being active, you will stay active because it becomes your new normal.   The old saying, “Move it or lose it” applies as well. If you move your body, it will stay healthier longer. But if you don’t stay active, your body will become fat and listless and you will probably die younger that you otherwise would have. Move it or lose it.   The point is that there are things we need to do to take care of ourselves and one of those things is to stay active. Put that body in motion and keep going! Move it or lose it!   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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CB)   Our thought for today: “As healthy as possible for as long as possible”   This morning, we will return to our thinking from yesterday regarding the important truth revealed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 about the fact that our physical body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul even says in that passage that your body was purchased by Jesus at a price – His own death on the cross. That means that on the cross Jesus not only purchased your eternal soul to be in heaven, but He also purchased your physical body to be used by Him as a place for His Holy Spirit to live now.   That makes you a walking, talking, mobile temple of the Holy Spirit of God. Everywhere you go, you take the Spirit with you. And not only is He living inside of you, but He accomplishes things in this world through you. The Spirit uses you as the hands and feet of Jesus. Through you the Spirit speaks words of truth to a lost and confused world. Through you He feeds the hungry, houses the homeless, visits the sick and the incarcerated, and a thousand other acts of compassion and mercy all done in the name of and for the sake of Jesus. On the cross Jesus purchased your physical body to be used in that way.   So, returning to our thought from yesterday – each of us has a responsibility to take good care of this temple which houses the Spirit of God for the purpose of carrying on the work of Jesus in this world. Just like a physical temple building made of construction materials will grow old, deteriorate over time, and eventually no longer be functional, so too with your physical body. That’s just the way of the material world. But again, like that physical building, we the owners of that temple have a stewardship responsibility to maintain and take care of it, keeping it in the best condition possible for as long as possible.   As you age, your body will progressively become weaker, sicker, and less capable. But there are things we can all do, at every stage of life, to maintain this temple of the Holy Spirit in the best condition possible for as long as possible. Tomorrow, we will consider some of those ways. For now, resolve that you will do the things necessary to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible.   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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CB)   Our thought for today: “Take care of that temple”   I have an old friend who is a medical doctor. Once I was visiting with him in his private office and I noticed on the bulletin board next to his desk a newspaper cartoon he had cut out. The scene was in a doctor’s office. On the examination table was a very old man – bent, shriveled, and in obvious pain and discomfort. We are left to imagine what his ailments are – probably all the aches and pains common to advanced old age.   The doctor is standing next to him and he says, “For all the decades that I have been your doctor you have been telling me about the extra effort you made to take good care of yourself so that you might get an extra ten years of life. Well, these are them.”   Granted, that’s dark physician humor and it is funny, but it also helps to reinforce the point that as we age our bodies decline until eventually, they stop functioning altogether and we die. No matter how well you take care of yourself, your body will become increasingly frail until someday you will die anyway. True, but is that a good reason to not take care of ourselves? Of course not. We are to do our best to stay as healthy as we can for as long as we can.   There are many reasons that makes good sense. For one thing, being healthy feels a lot better than being unhealthy. You should want to be as healthy and mobile as possible so you can enjoy life to the fullest. And no matter your age, there are things we can all do to be as healthy as possible at every stage of life.   Also, your family and loved ones need you to take care of yourself. There are few things in life that cause us more anguish than to witness the premature diminishing health and/or early death of someone we dearly love. Your loved ones need you to take care of yourself!   Beyond that, your physical body is a gift from God that is to be cared for and used properly for His purposes. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 reveals that your physical body is actually a temple of God’s Holy Spirit. Yikes! A temple of the Holy Spirit of God! That’s serious business. And that being the case, we must have a serious responsibility to take proper care of that temple, wouldn’t you think? The answer is “yes,” we have a responsibility to care well for the temple of God’s Holy Spirit.   We will come back to this passage and this truth tomorrow and explore it in greater depth. In the meantime, do you have at least one New Year’s resolution that involves taking better care of yourself physically? I hope you do. There are some pretty good reasons that you should.   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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It’s the story of you”   And so, the story of you continues. Welcome to 2025! It’s a new year and an opportunity for a fresh start. As I noted in my sermon at Oak Hill Baptist Church last Sunday (December 29th), 2024 was probably a mixed bag of good and bad for all of us. For some of us it was especially challenging. But the past is past and we can’t re-live it. There is no going back, only forward.   Good, bad, and in-between, 2024 was a chapter in the story of your life. Now, in 2025, the story of you continues. The story of your life is still being written and God has things He wants to do in you and through you in the coming year. That’s the message He sent to the nation of Israel through the words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 43:18-19. They had had a rough time too, but God was planning to renew and restore them. A new day was dawning, something new was coming. God was making a way forward in the wilderness of life, and there was going to be rivers of blessing flowing through the desert.   For you too. That promise is for you too. But are you ready? Can you see it coming? Are you expecting it? Are you preparing for it? Have you set some goals and made a plan to do your part?   God had something good planned for Isaiah and for the nation of Israel but they were going to have to believe Him; they were going to have to embrace the promise; and then they were going to have to do their parts by moving forward into that future, doing the things they needed to do for the promises of God to become a reality in their lives.   That’s true for you and me too. The fulfillment of God’s promises doesn’t happen by magic. Although miracles without our involvement do sometimes happen, most of the time the fulfillment of God’s promises in our lives is a joint effort between Him and us. He requires us to believe, plan, and then act in faith – not just sit there waiting for Him to do all the work.   Your story, “the story of you,” is still being written. 2025 will be the next chapter in that story. I hope you are looking forward to it with eagerness and anticipation. God is about to do a new thing in your life. It’s coming. It’s the next chapter in your story.   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 © 2024 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: “A fresh start in a new year”   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: “This is the most important thing”   As Peter closed out his letter of 2 Peter, he did so with an exhortation to his readers to do the things necessary to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter’s purpose in writing this letter was to encourage and strengthen his readers in their faith. He included sections about growing in the faith, trusting in the prophetic word of God, guarding against the poison being spread by false teachers who were twisting Biblical doctrine, and being ready for the second coming of Jesus. With those thoughts in mind, he closes with verse 18 which exhorts us to be intentional about our spiritual growth.   This is the most important thing. On this eve of the New Year, as we lock-in the New Year’s resolutions that will serve to guide us throughout the year, number one on the list should be a plan for spiritual growth. Nothing will have a greater impact on your life than the depth of your relationship with Jesus. The stronger that relationship is, the better your life will be. And that will be true regardless of any other event that unfolds (good or bad).   As we go through life, dealing with the situations and circumstances that are common to all people, we need to be firmly grounded in the deeper reality of a strong relationship with Christ. This is the center, the anchor, the firm foundation upon which our lives need to be established and lived.   Far too many Christians are way too casual about the practice of their faith. For them, prayer and Bible study is hit-or-miss most days; attendance at church is also uneven and spotty. They also could not claim to be fully invested in the full life of their church, including a ministry that is theirs. That’s a casual and half-hearted practice of the faith, not serious discipleship.   What changes will you make to the practice of your faith in 2025? In what ways will you ramp it up? One good practice would be to use a good study Bible such as The Experiencing God Study Bible” or “The Swindoll Study Bible” for your daily personal study time. Also, I encourage you to make a resolution to get fully involved in the life of your church by faithful attendance on Sunday, joining a small group Bible study, participating in special church events, and participating in a ministry in the church.   The single most important thing any of us can accomplish in 2025 would be to makes significant progress in spiritual maturity by growing more in the grace and knowledge of our Lord 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 © 2024 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: “A fresh start in a new year”   Our Bible verse for today: “Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Approach it with eagerness and anticipation”   As I write this, we are less than forty-eight hours away from the start of the new year. Granted, January 1st is just a day on the calendar and there really isn’t anything magical about it. If you want a fresh start, you can begin at any time not just on the first day of the new year. And yet, there is great symbolic significance in turning the page and beginning a new calendar year. We can make the beginning of the new year the starting place for our fresh start.   Yesterday at Oak Hill Baptist Church I preached our New Years sermon to launch us into 2025. If you weren’t there in-person or online, I encourage you to go to our YouTube channel and watch the sermon. But this morning, as we rapidly approach the beginning of the new year and what will be a fresh start for many of us, I want to repeat a few of the key points from yesterday’s sermon.   First, as you think about the 365 days that the Lord has laid out in front of you, frame your thinking in a Biblical perspective. In other words, think about the future the way the Bible describes it. Lamentations 3:22-23 encourages us to view it with trust, eagerness, and anticipation. Jeremiah 29:11-14 reminds us that God has prepared the future for us and He will be there in that future waiting for us when we arrive there. Proverbs 3:5-6 and Matthew 11:28-30 remind us that He will even walk through our days into the future with us, side-by-side, helping us along the way.   It is also true that we should have an attitude of gratitude regarding the life we already have and where God has brought us to so far in life. We then realize that the plan God has for us going forward will be built upon the foundation He has already formed in our life. Another important point regarding our thinking about 2025 is that we are to value our time. Our life is made up of the minutes, days, weeks, months, and years the Lord has ordained for us. We are not to waste our time, nor should we allow others to waste our time either. Your life is made up of your time. If you waste your time, you are wasting your life.   Finally, we should resolve to make a difference each day. Since God has chosen to let you continue living, He has a reason for it. There are things He wants to accomplish in you and through you in 2025. For a fuller explanation of each of those points, please watch the sermon.     I hope you are approaching 2025 with a great sense of eagerness and anticipation. Remember the lesson from a previous devotional in this series that we tend to get what we expect. In other words, our subconscious mind works to create the circumstances our conscious mind is focused on and expecting to get. So, expect good things. You have a good God who loves you and who wants the best for you. Trust Him. Be looking forward to what He has planned for you in 2025.   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 © 2024 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571