Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

Our Bible verse for today: “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and He struck him dead because he had reached out to the ark. So he died there in the presence of God.” 1 Chronicles 13:10 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “God’s will must be done in God’s way.”

Have you heard the story about the man who robbed the convenience store of $500 and then in church the following Sunday gave an offering of $50? Why did he do that? Well of course because God commands us to tithe on our income.

Seems silly doesn’t it, to steal and then to try to honor God with a tithe from the stolen loot? And yet, we do things like that all the time. How often do we tell a little white lie in an attempt to protect the other person’s feelings? While it’s admirable to be sensitive to someone else’s feelings, a lie is a lie regardless of the reason it’s told.

I was asked to attend a meeting one time where a man was going to be dismissed from a ministry position because of a long pattern of misconduct and poor performance. However the leader who set-up the meeting didn’t want the man to know why he was being invited to the meeting because he thought the man might not come if he knew the truth. So he lied to the guy about the purpose of the meeting just to make sure he came. The purpose of the meeting was to carry out the will of God by dismissing the man from a ministry position he was no longer qualified to hold, but the meeting itself was facilitated by the telling of a lie, which could not possibly have been consistent with the will of God.

In 1 Chronicles 13:10 we find the Israelites attempting to transport the Ark of God in a manner that was inconsistent with the instructions God had given them. It was indeed God’s will for the Ark to be moved, but it was not being moved in the manner God had prescribed, and so people died.

As the editors of the Daily Walk Bible note, “God’s will, done in something other than God’s way, is not God’s will.”

If you instruct someone to take an action that is good and proper, but your instructions to them are laced with profanity, you have told them to do the right thing but you have said it in the wrong way.

The rightness or wrongness of an action consists not just in what we do, but also in how we do it. Even if you’re sure of what to do, make sure you also know how to do it. If you have doubts then check with God in prayer and in the Bible. God’s will, done in something other than God’s way, is not God’s will.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 19:11 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “It’s usually better to just let it go.”

 

Some people go through life looking for reasons to be offended. More than just being thin-skinned and therefore being easily offended, these folks seem to thrive on being offended and they look for it. Other people may not actually look for opportunities to be offended, but they sure are quick to take offense anyway.

 

Personally I believe that how easily a person is offended is a measure of their spiritual maturity. A spiritually mature person is thick-skinned and has the ability to simply shrug off offenses. The more easily offended a person is, the less spiritually mature they are.

 

But that’s not to suggest there aren’t things we should find offensive – there are; and there are times when offenses need to be addressed. I find foul language offensive, especially when someone uses the Lord’s name as a curse, and I will usually say something about it. So there are things we should be offended about and which we should speak up about. But more often than not, most things aren’t that important and therefore should simply be overlooked, at least for a while.

 

Sometimes offensive behavior persists and although it was appropriate to shrug it off for a while, eventually it has to be addressed. Doing so will sometimes take care of it, but not always.

 

I think of a situation in my own life that has been persisting for more than a decade. It involves an offensive attitude on the part of an individual that has been ongoing and which has been addressed with the person several times, but which seems to defy resolution. The principle taught in Proverbs 19:11 has been immensely helpful to me and it’s the reason the relationship has been able to last all these years despite the unresolved issue.

 

We do not have to put up with offensive behavior endlessly, but we should be very slow to take offense and we should shrug it off if we can. And if it’s a situation that does need to be dealt with, it should be done so in a way that honors God.

 

We need to know when to address an offense and when to let it go. If in doubt, most of the time the best response is to let it go.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verses for today: “Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:42 (HCSB) “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10

 

Our thought for today: “When to give, and who to give to, can be confusing.”

 

As Christians are we Biblically compelled to provide for everyone in need and to give to whoever asks from us? It’s a question many Christians struggle with. Realistically nobody can give to every cause or to every person in need. And it’s also true that the world is full of scam artists who play on the sympathies of good people.

 

The Bible provides guidance about being generous, but also at the same time about not enabling those who are seeking to get something for nothing or who are being irresponsible. Here’s a Biblically based decision-making structure that I frequently use to help me arrive at a Spirit-informed decision about when to give and who to give to:

 

1. First and foremost, each individual has personal responsibility for meeting his or her own needs. There are many scriptures which teach this principle, especially in the Proverbs, but 2 Thessalonians 3:10 is also very helpful. If a person can work then they should work. And if they don’t work, when they get hungry enough they will work.

 

So my first question is always “What’s this person doing to help themselves?” I also take into consideration whether or not this person’s situation is a result of their own irresponsible behavior, and whether or not it is ongoing and long-term. “Does this person frequently seek help from others and if so, would my assistance be helping or enabling?”

 

2. Second, the person’s family has a responsibility to help them. If the person has sincerely done everything they can to help themselves, and if their situation has not been caused by irresponsible behavior on their own part, then next it’s the person’s family who has a Biblical responsibility to help them. “If any believing woman has widows in her family, she should help them, and the church should not be burdened, so that it can help those who are genuinely widows.” 1 Timothy 5:16.

 

No person should come to the church or to other Christians for help until they have first done everything they can to help themselves, and until their own family has done everything they can do to help them. If a person has family, especially family members who are themselves Christians, and if they have not requested help from those family members, they need to go to them first before they seek help from other Christians or from the church.

 

3. Third, it could now be time for an individual Christian to help if they can. Jesus’ injunction in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:42 (see above) is a general principle which applies here – we should help if we can. However, it’s still true that realistically nobody can help everybody. There’s a world full of needs out there and none of us can meet them all. So even at this third step we still have to make a Spirit-led decision about what we can and cannot do to help this person in need.

 

4. Then fourth, we come to the responsibility of the church as a body. The church should have ministries established which are equipped to provide assistance to both members of the church, and to outsiders who are in need as well. Acts 2:41-46 provides a pretty good model of a generous body of believers taking care of those in need.

 

In my experience I’ve discovered most Christians to be big-hearted and generous. Therefore they have a desire to bless those in need when possible. And yet, we all struggle with what’s appropriate in any given situation regarding how much help we should give, and how often. Hopefully you will find the guidance above to be helpful.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching.” Titus 2:7 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Your good example will have a positive influence on others.”

 

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of knowing some very fine men and women of God who lived simple lives of faithfulness. They were ordinary men and women, most of whom didn’t have a lot in terms of worldly possessions or achievements, but who consistently conducted themselves with dignity and integrity, kindness and mercy.

 

Interestingly, many of them had stories to tell of mothers or fathers, grandparents or other older people they were close to, whose own quiet lives of faithfulness had had a profound impact on them, and which had contributed greatly to making them into the man or woman they had become.

 

Recently I re-read the story of Susanna Wesley. Susanna was the twenty-fifth child in her family. No kidding, the twenty-fifth! She went on to have a very hard life. She married a man who was a lifelong pastor but who was also argumentative and difficult, and so their marriage was always stormy. She gave birth to nineteen children of her own, but nine of them died. At one point her house burned down; at another time her barn fell down; her health was always bad; and she lived in constant poverty.

 

However Susanna was known as a person of great kindness and compassion, and for her strong faith in Jesus. Her wise counsel was often sought by others who were struggling in life. Therefore her home (the parsonage) was always filled with visitors seeking counsel, or with others who just enjoyed spending time with her.

 

But the crowning achievement in Susanna’s life was that two of her sons went on to become some of the greatest and most influential evangelists and church leaders of all time. Together John and Charles Wesley shook-up the church in England, and then in America, and they went on to establish what is known today as both the Wesleyan and the Methodist denominations of churches. And both of them said that their mother was the most profound influence in their lives.

 

One of the most common doubts Christians often wrestle with is whether or not their lives are amounting to much. If we haven’t achieved success by worldly standards then it’s easy to think not. But as the example of Susanna Wesley and so many others demonstrates, in the big picture it’s not worldly standards that matter. It’s character and integrity that matter; it’s great faith in Jesus and kindness towards others that matters. And God will use your good example to have a positive impact on others – far beyond what you realize.

 

I want to encourage you to simply be a man or woman of strong faith and godly character. If you are, it will be noticed by many and I promise you, your good example will make a difference.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Doubt feeds on loneliness.”

 

One of the worst things we can do when we’re struggling with doubts, unanswered questions, and difficult situations is to isolate ourselves from other Christians. But that’s often exactly what some people do. When we’re going through tough times it’s sometimes hard to be around others who aren’t struggling, and so we might be tempted to withdraw and just stay home.

 

That’s exactly what Satan wants you to do. There’s strength in numbers. There’s encouragement and comfort and possibly even answers to be found when you spend time with your Christian brothers and sisters. So Satan will encourage you to withdraw and stay home. And when you do, your doubts and fears will increase, your faith will be weakened even more, and your frame of mind will be worse not better.

 

That’s why in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 the Apostle Paul reminds us that one of the important reasons we gather together as a church family is so we can encourage and build each other up. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews expressed this same thought and for the same reason. In Hebrews 10: 24-25 we read, “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

 

Resist the temptation to isolate yourself. Doubts feed on loneliness. That often leads to depression. One of the best steps you can take during such times is to keep attending church and stay close to other Christians.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Your situation is not too big or too hard for God.”

 

Mary was just a teenage girl from a small backwater village called Nazareth. She was probably uneducated, lived a simple life, and had little more to look forward to than many quiet years of raising a family in their sleepy little village.

 

But then God sent the Angel Gabriel to tell her that she was about to become pregnant by the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit and that she would give birth to the long-awaited Messiah.

 

I don’t know about you but if I had received news like that I’m sure I would have had serious doubts about what I was hearing and whether or not it would actually happen. But Mary believed that anything was possible with God and that if He said it – that settled it. “For nothing is impossible with God.”

 

What situation do you have going on in your life that seems too big for anyone but God? Our God is the God of the impossible. He can cause a virgin to give birth; He can part the Red Sea; He can bring water from a rock; He can raise the dead; and He can deal with your situation too, whatever it is.

 

Sometimes God resolves impossible situations in a moment, with no delay. More often the resolution comes slowly over time. Mary had to wait nine months for her baby. Moses had to wait forty years in the wilderness before he was ready to begin the mission God had been preparing him for his entire life. You will probably have to wait too as God prepares to resolve your impossible situation. What should you do in the meantime? Here are some ideas:

 

1. Sometimes the reason for the delay is that God wants to do something in you so you will be ready to receive the answer. That was the case with Moses. He needed forty years of preparation before he would be ready. So spend this time of waiting by asking God to show you what you should be learning and how you should be growing and changing as He prepares to do some wonderful thing in your life.

 

1. Sometimes the reason for the delay is because God is waiting on you. Often there are things we’re supposed to be doing to help resolve our own situation and God is waiting for us to get moving. So ask Him to show you what actions you should be taking in order to be a part of the solution to your own problem.

 

1. Sometimes the reason for the delay is that God intends to use another person (or persons) to be a part of the answer to your situation but they aren’t ready yet. So now you’re waiting while God accomplishes things in the lives of other people to get them to the point that they are ready to be part of God’s plan in your life. In that case you need to be praying for them. You might not even know who they are, but you can be praying that God will have His way in the lives of others who He intends to use in the resolution of your situation.

 

Those are just a few suggestions for how you can be thinking about this “impossible” situation in your life as you continue to wait patiently for resolution. Don’t doubt that God has a plan, and that it is a good plan. Also don’t doubt that His timing is perfect. And, He is the God of the impossible. He can and will deal with whatever your situation is.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Rely on the counsel of others.”

 

As I mentioned in a previous devotional in this series, the primary way in which God speaks to us in our day is through the Bible. If you have doubts about a course of action you’re considering, the first step you need to take is to open your Bible and see if this action would in any way conflict with a Biblical principle or command. If it does, then you have your answer. God will never direct you to do anything that in any way conflicts with the Bible.

 

But as was also noted in that same devotional message, another way God commonly speaks to us in our day is through the counsel of other Christians. Four times in the book of Proverbs Solomon stresses the importance of seeking good counsel as we make important decisions.

 

Conversely, God repeats the caution, over and over again, that we are not to trust in our own understanding alone. For instance, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding … “Proverbs 3:5. And, “Do not be wise in your own eyes …” Proverbs 3:7. And also, “He who walks with the wise, grows wise.” Proverbs 13:20.

 

Even conventional wisdom warns against trusting exclusively in our own counsel: “He who serves as his own attorney has a fool for a lawyer.”

 

In my own life repeatedly been blessed by the good counsel of others. My closest and most trusted counselor is my wife. She knows me better than anyone and she is a very wise woman. Throughout the course of our forty years together, at the most strategic times in our lives, when the most important decisions had to be made, she was the one who had the most penetrating and valuable insight into the situation. It has been said that “The man may be the head of the home, but the wife is the neck that turns the head.” I have certainly found that to be true in my life. Linda has become so good at this that she can direct me without me even realizing I’m being directed!

 

I also learned a long time ago the value of having a small group of trusted friends whose spiritual maturity and insight I trust and respect, and who I turn to when I need help thinking about and praying through difficult decisions.

 

Additionally, in my role as a pastor I have always had a small group of trusted Deacons or a Church Council to help me see things clearly and to make wise decisions.

 

When it comes to working through doubts and making good decisions about important issues, we all need the help of wise counselors. Do not trust just in your own understanding. Seek the counsel of others.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: Once saved, always saved.”

 

One of the most common doubts many Christians wrestle with at one time or another is whether or not they are truly saved; and also, whether or not they can lose their salvation.

 

Personally I believe strongly in the doctrine known as “The Security of the Believer”. This doctrine holds that once you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you are saved and nothing can ever change that. Jesus paid too high a price for your eternal soul to allow you to be lost again once you are saved. And the Holy Spirit works constantly, all throughout a person’s life, to draw that person to Jesus. That being the case, after all that effort on God’s part, once you are saved He’s not going to let you go. There is a solid body of Scripture that supports that belief and I want to share just a few of those passages with you this morning.

 

First, you need to know that it doesn’t take a lot of faith in order to be saved. Even a little bit of faith is a very powerful thing. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed …” Jesus said in Luke 17:6. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” And then of course John 3:16: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Salvation occurs in a moment of time when you make a heartfelt, sincere, and intentional decision to turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.

 

Second, once you are saved you are saved for all time. Jesus will never let you go. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish –ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:28).

 

“For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:38-39). (Please note that in this verse Paul effectively stated that there is nothing in the physical creation or in the spiritual dimension that can ever separate us from God once we belong to Him through Christ Jesus.)

 

“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:11-13).

 

Yes, even in John’s day there were those who doubted their salvation. So John wrote this letter to reassure them that if they have placed their faith in God’s Son Jesus, they are saved for all eternity. “I have written these things … so that you may “know” that you have eternal life.”

 

In this devotional I’ve cited a handful of the most convincing passages which clearly teach about the eternal security of the believer. There are others, but the point is that there is a solid body of Scripture which supports this important doctrine.

 

Like John in 1 John 5:11-13, I have written you these things this morning “… so that you may know that you have eternal life.” If you have placed your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you should never again doubt your salvation.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “There are good answers for the hardest questions.”

 

Lee Strobal was an award-winning journalist and a committed atheist. He had no patience for the claims of Christianity and he considered the faith little more than a crutch for weak people. But then, the worst thing that could have happened to Lee (from his perspective) did happen – his wife became one of those Christians.

 

In an attempt to convince her that Christianity was false, Lee turned his considerable intellect, and his well-developed investigative reporting skills, to uncovering proof that Christianity was a big fat lie. He conducted massive amounts of research and much to his surprise, the deeper he dug into it the more convinced he became that Christianity was in fact true. Eventually Lee also placed his faith in Christ and he went on to become a best-selling Christian author, a teaching pastor at a mega-church, and a popular conference speaker.

 

What Lee discovered in his research was that there were indeed some very good answers for all of his doubts and questions. So-much-so that he ended up writing three best-selling books based upon his research. They are “The Case for a Creator”, “The Case for Christ”, and “The Case for Faith”. Each of the books deals with the most common questions and doubts that people have about God, Jesus, and the Christian faith. The books provide well thought-out and easy to understand answers that are helpful to anyone who is sincerely seeking answers to tough questions of faith.

 

This is important because we all have doubts and questions about issues of faith. “Why does God allow pain and suffering?” “Why do good people suffer while bad people prosper?” “Would a good and loving God really send people to a place like hell?” Christians and non-Christians alike wrestle with such questions but as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 above, we as the followers of Christ have a Biblical responsibility to seek the answers. We must do so in order to strengthen our own faith, but also so we will be prepared to help non-believers in their search for answers.

 

On Sunday August 14^th at 6:00 at Oak Hill Baptist Church we will begin a Sunday evening Bible study of “The Case for Faith”. The book provides excellent, well-researched answers to some of the most perplexing questions and doubts people tend to have regarding issues of faith. I encourage you to plan to join us.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Doubts”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Living without faith can be a miserable experience.”

 

The other day I began reading Os Guinness’ new book “Impossible People”. Surprisingly, the “Impossible People” he’s writing about are bold, courageous, faithful Christians. The point he makes is that we live in an increasingly secular world that is humanistic, fatalistic, and pessimistic. In such a cultural setting people who insist on clinging to, and living by, a strong faith in the God of the Bible are viewed by society as being “impossible people” – people who are needlessly difficult and uncooperative; people who refuse to do the logical thing (so they say) of just going along in order to get along. In the eyes of the culture such people are simply “impossible”.

 

To help illustrate the sense of despair and meaninglessness that more and more permeates our culture as a result of such widespread humanistic and fatalistic thinking, Os begins the book with numerous quotes from influential non-Christian thinkers. Here’s a gem from German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Fichte lived and wrote in the 1700s but his writings are still popular and influential among secular humanists in our day:

 

“Should I eat and drink, only in order to hunger and thirst again, and eat and drink, merely until the open grave under my feet swallows me up as a meal for the earth? Should I create more beings like myself, so that they can eat and drink and die, and so they can leave behind beings of their own, so that they do the same as I have already done? What is the point of this continual, self-contained and ever-returning circle, this repetitive game that always starts again in the same way, in which everything is, in order to fade away, and fades away in order to return again as it was – this monster continually devouring itself in order to reproduce itself, and reproduce itself in order to devour itself?”

 

Do you hear the utter sense of meaninglessness and despair regarding the purpose of life in Fichte’s lament? That sense of despair and meaninglessness is widespread in our world today. Sadly, sometimes even the people of God experience it. King Solomon himself went through many years of that kind of doubting and questioning and searching for answers. That’s what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about.

 

But go back to the beginning of this devotional message and read Solomon’s ultimate conclusion again. Eventually he found the answers to his doubts and questions and no surprise, the answers were found in God.

 

On Sunday August 14^th at Oak Hill Baptist Church we’re going to begin a Sunday evening Bible study based upon the great book by Lee Strobal entitled “The Case for Faith.” It will be taught by Scott Lacy and you will find that it very effectively addresses some of the most difficult questions spiritual searchers, and committed Christians too, commonly wrestle with.

 

More about “The Case for Faith” tomorrow.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim