Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Your rewards will be waiting for you”   In yesterday’s devotional we considered the truth that our spiritual stature in heaven is determined by how much we grow spiritually in this lifetime. The truth is that we won’t all have the same experience in eternity. It will vary from individual to individual based upon how we live now. We will all thoroughly enjoy eternity in heaven – to our maximum capacity for spiritual appreciation and enjoyment, but our capacities will be different.   Another way the Bible teaches this lesson is by describing rewards each person receives in heaven based upon how they lived in this lifetime. There are more than one hundred Scripture references, in both the Old and New Testaments, regarding the subject of rewards in heaven. Jesus taught about it on numerous occasions.   In Matthew 6:19-21, in the Sermon on the Mount, the illustration He used was that of storing up treasures in heaven. Most of us try to store up treasures on earth. We put money in savings accounts, build up retirement funds, invest in houses and property, we collect valuable coins, and so on. Many of us put great thought and disciplined effort into storing up for ourselves treasures here on earth. But Jesus tells us to shift our focus and to do the things necessary to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.   What an intriguing thought. You put money on deposit in The First National Bank of Hometown USA so you will have it for the future. Is it possible to put treasure on deposit in The First National Bank of Heaven so it will be there for you in eternity? According to Jesus, the answer to that question is emphatically “yes!”   This is vitally important. We need to be investing now for our future in heaven. This subject is so important that Jesus returned to in numerous times in His teachings. The body of Biblical literature on the subject is extensive. The Bible teaches so much about the next life (the current heaven, the new heaven and the new earth, the resurrection body, and how to prepare for it all), that we simply do not have enough days left in the month to cover it all – but we will make a good run at it! We will think more about 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: “Salvation past, present, and future”   Our Bible verse for today: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It is determined in this lifetime”   The consummation of the salvation process happens in two stages, both of which occur after the death of the physical body. Stage one occurs at the time of death when the spirit is released from the body and goes to join God in heaven. At that time, you will be a spirit being (2 Corinthians 5:1-6), and at that point, you will have the spiritual stature that will be yours for the rest of eternity. The second stage occurs later, after the second coming of Christ, at which time all believers will receive their resurrection bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 1 Corinthians 15:52). (We will think more about the resurrection body in a future devotional).   Life in heaven will essentially be a continuation of your life on earth. Your eternal life with God began the moment you placed your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. The physical death of your mortal body simply results in a change of address. Your abode shifts from earth to heaven. There will be many differences between your life on earth and your life in heaven, it will be a great improvement, but there is a direct connection between the two.   In his helpful little book, “The Doctrine of Salvation,” Darrell Robinson explained it this way, “Believers will enter heaven as the same persons but as transformed persons … the persons we are at death or at the second coming of Christ we will continue to be in heaven. This life is the time for developing Christlikeness in character. All of God’s children will be true children of God and will share the same eternal life, but we will not be of the same spiritual stature. Capacity for God and for spiritual experience is an important factor for enjoyment in heaven. Maturing in Christlikeness is central in our developing a capacity for enjoyment in heaven. A Bible professor illustrated this point by comparing the Christian life to containers. One person, having developed in Christian maturity, has become like a gallon container. Another has developed a life like a pint container. In heaven each will be filled to overflowing. Each fully enjoys heaven according to their capacity for spiritual appreciation.”   The transition out of this life and into the next is where all the stages of the salvation process meet and converge. Sanctification leads to consummation and the nature of the consummation is derived from the process of sanctification. How you live in this life has a direct impact on what eternity will be like for you. Jesus taught this truth in several places in the gospels, and tomorrow we will look at one of those.   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: “It’s building to something glorious”   All last month and now into this new month we have been refreshing our understanding of the important doctrine of salvation. We need to know this for our own sake, but we also need to have such a good understanding of salvation that we can quickly and easily explain it to others. That’s why we are engaging in this two-month review of things many of us have already been taught but which perhaps we have forgotten or don’t remember well.   The fact that we are saved is of course of supreme importance, but the greatest and most glorious aspect of salvation is what it’s leading to. Having been saved and living as a saved person leads us to the best part of salvation – eternity in heaven. This is the future of salvation and it is what we will spend the month of March thinking about.   In his book, “The Doctrine of Salvation,” Dr. Darrell Robinson likens our salvation experience to the flow of the mighty Mississippi River. The Mississippi begins as a small trickling stream way up north near the Great Lakes. As it flows south, it slowly picks up volume from other sources as it continues to grow larger and larger. By the time it finally arrives at its destination in the Gulf of Mexico, it comes crashing in with all the volume of a huge mighty river.   Interestingly, the river’s path is not a straight line from north to south. Instead, it winds and curves around mountains and obstacles; it meanders through valleys; and it goes up and down through various elevations by means of locks and canals. It constantly flows towards its ultimate destination, but the journey is a crooked path at best.   That’s a pretty good illustration of our salvation experience. We begin in the moment of salvation with a trickle of faith and a small spiritual stature. But then we begin the lifelong process of sanctification and as we progress on our journey, navigating life’s many challenges, praying and studying, participating in worship and fellowship, serving and being served, always growing, always maturing – we pick up great spiritual volume and we continue to increase in spiritual size and stature. Finally, we arrive at our ultimate destination (heaven) fully developed and ready to be the person God has always intended for us to be for all of eternity.   Be encouraged my friends. This Christian life you are living is headed to a glorious fulfillment and I assure you, it is going to be good!   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: “And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Don’t become spiritually malnourished”   You need your church and your church needs you. It has always been God’s plan that His people would congregate in groups as a community of faith. There are no examples in the Bible of Lone Ranger Christians (Christians being alone, out of fellowship with other Christians, and it being a good thing). Jesus was in the desert alone, but that was only for forty days. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness, but great crowds of people went out to be with him (they had church in the desert!)   As Hebrews 10:24-25 teaches, God wants us to gather on a regular basis so we can look out for each other, love, support, and encourage one another. Our time together is also to be a time of teaching, equipping, group worship, and planning for works of service.   This life as a saved person is a time for growing in spiritual maturity as we become more and more like Jesus. The church plays an important role in our growth as Christians. Church is where we most often engage with our preachers, teachers, counselors, and friends. The role the church plays in our lives is often subtle, and the benefits of it are realized a little at a time over a long period of time.   You may have heard the story of the elderly deacon who encountered a younger man who had been absent from church for a long time. The deacon asked him why he had stopped attending. The man replied that on most Sundays he just didn’t feel as if church attendance was doing much for him. He said, “I can’t even remember most of the sermons I have ever heard.”   To that the deacon wisely replied, “You know, I’ve been married for fifty-five years. My wife has prepared a meal for me every day of those fifty-five years but I can’t remember most of them. However, each of those meals nourished my body and helped to keep me healthy. If I hadn’t eaten those meals I would have been malnourished and physically sick. The same is true about every sermon you hear. It nourishes your soul and helps to keep you spiritually healthy.”   You need to be in church. It’s an important part of the transforming work God wants to be doing in your life. Otherwise, over time, you will become spiritually malnourished.   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 him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ.” Colossians 2:11 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “You need to get circumcised”   Let’s talk about circumcision. You know, the surgical procedure that involves taking a sharp knife to the male penis and cutting away the excess foreskin surrounding the head. It is bloody and it is painful. However, in addition to the physical and hygienic function it serves there’s also spiritual symbology associated with it.   In yesterday’s devotional we read in Ephesians 5:15 where the Apostle Paul instructed us to Pay careful attention, then, to how you live – not as unwise people but as wise- making the most of the time …” Then he went on to teach us what it means to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. In that passage he was telling us that there should be something different and special about how we as the followers of Jesus Christ live our lives. That brings us to the spiritual significance of the symbol of circumcision.   In Genesis chapter seventeen, God directed Abraham to circumcise all the males in his household as a physical sign of the spiritual covenant He was making with them. It was a symbolic gesture which marked them as belonging to God. Later, in the time of the Exodus, God reconfirmed circumcision as a marker to identify His people. However, in Romans 2:25-29, and again in Colossians 2:11, the Apostle Paul explained that true circumcision is circumcision of the heart, not of the flesh. It involves cutting out of our lives anything that does not honor and please God. Physical circumcision isn’t required for New Testament Christians. It’s circumcision of the heart that marks us as the people of God.   What does this have to do with our theme for this month about salvation? Just that circumcision of the heart is an important part of the present state of salvation, which is known as sanctification. Now that you have been saved (salvation past), you are in the process of being transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus (salvation present). This will involve spiritual circumcision – cutting out of your life anything that does not honor and please God.   So, if you do happen to have one of those male appendages it does not need to be circumcised. But your heart does. So, please don’t run to your doctor to get physically circumcised (unless you really want to). As a matter of faith, it isn’t necessary. But please do circumcise your heart. Cut out of your life anything that does not honor and please God.   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 be filled by the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18b (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Continue being filled with the Spirit”   Yesterday I made the point that it is critical for us to maintain a close relationship with Jesus. We considered Jesus’ illustration of the grapevine and the branches from John 15:5 and we thought about some of the attributes of Jesus that should become increasingly evident in the life of the Christian as you grow and mature spiritually. In Galatians 5:22-23 the Apostle Paul referred to that as “the fruit of the Spirit”.   In today’s Bible verse (Ephesians 5:18b) Paul continues that theme by referring to something known as “being filled with the Spirit.” The fuller passage in which this partial verse appears teaches about consistency in the Christian life. Paul starts the passage out with the command, “Pay careful attention, then, to how you live – not as unwise people but as wise – making the most of the time…”  It is within that context that the phrase “but be filled with the Spirit” appears.   In New Testament Greek the term “be filled” is in the present tense. It indicates an ongoing action. That clues us into the fact that although the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart in the moment of conversion, there is something more that is supposed to be ongoing in your life with respect to the presence and work of the Spirit.   This is not a “second anointing” of the Holy Spirit. That’s not what Paul is talking about. In the moment you placed your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins you were filled with the Holy Spirit – and you got all of Him there is to have. But the idea that we are to “continue” being filled with Him on an ongoing basis means that you are to practice the necessary spiritual disciplines every day so that you remain in-tune with His work in your life, and you are fully submitted to His will. “Continuing” to be filled means that you cultivate your relationship with the Holy Spirit so you are sensitive to His presence, you seek His guidance, and then you follow it.   The ongoing daily experience of being filled with the Spirit is a moment-by-moment walk of obedience with the Father through the ministry of the Spirit, and it is an important part of this process that is progressively making you more and more like Jesus.   I encourage you to seek to be filled with the Spirit again today. Renew and nurture your relationship with Him.   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 the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” John 15:5 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Nurture that relationship”   Are you familiar with the term “life verse”? A life verse is a Bible verse that speaks to you personally in a deep way and which plays an important role in helping you to live the Christian life well. There are 31,102 verses in the Bible (23,145 in the Old Testament and 7,957 in the New Testament). And as Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, they are all given to us by God and they are all important and helpful.   But a life verse is one that is particularly special and helpful to you personally. I have six life verses and over the next few days, as we continue to consider our present state of being a saved person and one who is in the process of being sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit, I will refer to a few of my life verses and tell you why they are so special to me.   In John 15:5 Jesus used a grapevine and the branches that grow from it to help us understand the spiritual reality of Him living His life in us and through us. The grapevine lives its life and produces its fruit through the branches that grow from it. The life of the vine flows through the branches, and the branches then produce the fruit of the vine. As long as the branch stays attached to the vine it will produce the fruit of the vine. But if the connection between the vine and the branch is broken, the fruit will no longer be produced through the branch.   Likewise, by means of the Holy Spirit living in our hearts, the life of Jesus flows in us and through us. The fruit of Jesus is then produced in and through our lives. Some of that fruit is described for us by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. He called it “the fruit of the Spirit”: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Those are attributes of Jesus and He wants them to be present in our lives too. He wants you to experience and enjoy those things in increasing measure, and He wants the world to experience those fruits from you. His fruit produced in and through your life. I want this to be true of me and that’s why these are two of my life verses.   As you maintain a close relationship with Jesus day-by-day, the fruit of the Spirit becomes more and more a reality in your life. That’s a natural result of the ongoing process of sanctification and it is progressively making you more and more like Jesus. This is part of your salvation and that’s why it is critical to maintain a healthy relationship with Jesus.   Stay firmly attached to Jesus. Spend some time today nurturing your relationship with Him.   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 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