Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Acts 26:19 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “You will either live out of your vision or you will live out of your circumstances.”

 

The Apostle Paul had a vision for his life. It was given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus at the time of his conversion. You can read about it in Acts chapter nine. Paul knew that from that point forward his life was to be one of service to the Lord and to others. That vision then became the driving force of Paul’s life.

 

As we follow his story through the book of Acts, and then through his letters as they appear in the New Testament, we discover that Paul’s circumstances were often extremely difficult, but he never let his circumstances deter him from pursuing his vision. Paul lived life out of his vision, not out of his circumstances. That’s what we’re reading about in Acts 26:19. Paul was on trial before King Agrippa and he was in the process of explaining to Agrippa why he (Paul) had lived the life he had lived and why he had engaged in the acts of ministry he did. It was because of his vision.

 

Personally I can relate to Paul’s story. While I’m certainly no Apostle Paul, and my life has been nothing like his, I did receive a vision from the Lord almost immediately after my conversion. It was an understanding that the rest of my life was to be spent in some sort of professional Christian ministry. At that time I didn’t know what form that ministry would take, but I did know I was destined to spend the rest of my life in service to the Lord and to others and that it would be my profession. My wife Linda confirmed her belief in that vision and has lived it with me ever since. It has been that shared vision that has kept us on-track and in-service despite many, many difficult circumstances.

 

God wants you to have a vision for your life too. It will be a vision that is centered in serving Him and in serving others. Once you have that vision, it will become the focal point of your life and from that point on you will find yourself empowered to live based upon your vision, not on your circumstances.

 

God may not be calling you into ministry as a profession, but He is calling you into a life of service to Him and to others. Your vision of what God wants your life to be will probably be different from the vision God gave to Paul, and different from the one He gave to me.

 

I know a fine Christian woman whose vision for life includes being a godly grandmother. She talks to her many grandchildren about the Lord, she prays with them, she reads Bible stories to them, she teaches their Sunday school class, and she sets a good example for them by the way she lives her life. She has many challenges she has to face in her life. But as she deals with the difficulties she remains very conscious of the example she is setting for her grandchildren as she does so. She is living life based on her vision not on her circumstances.

 

You can too. Ask God for a vision of what He wants your life to be. Then pursue that vision with passion and determination. Let the vision be the thing that motivates you and keeps you on track. Live out of your vision, not out of your circumstances.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Live life large.”

 

Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most popular and encouraging verses in the Old Testament. Christians read that promise (spoken by God to Jeremiah but which is also true for us), and we are rightly encouraged to know that God has a great plan for our individual lives.

 

Unfortunately people often imagine that great plan to center around things like having a good career, making lots of money, finding Mr. or Mrs. Right, and then settling down into a comfortable life in a cute little house with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids, a mini-van and a dog.

 

While it could turn out that those things do describe the life God has planned for you, it’s not the kind of life Jesus described for His followers when He said in Matthew 16:24 that we are to take up our cross and follow Him. In the New Testament Jesus painted a picture of disciples who are fully committed to a life of service to God and to others. He described that life as a full life, a life of challenge and great adventure, but also one requiring sacrifice and faithfulness over the long-term. He described such a life as one greatly pleasing to the Father (Well done, good and faithful servant …).

 

Years ago I heard a preacher challenge his listeners to “live life large”. He was talking about embracing the Christian life as a great adventure and then serving God and others with gusto and enthusiasm. That service could include exotic adventures like going on overseas mission trips, or it could be as simple as visiting in a nursing home, taking a meal to a sick person, or teaching a Sunday school class.

 

In the book “The Sender”, the main character Charlie was battling a rare form of cancer and he had no idea if he would beat it and live, or if the remaining number of his days on earth were short and coming to a quick end. One of the anonymous notes of encouragement he received from “The Sender” said, “Charlie, we all die in the end, just don’t die in the middle. Don’t live a small self-centered life.”

 

That right there is the key to living life large, to living the full and adventurous Christian life that Jesus intends for you to have – don’t be small and self-centered. Don’t live a boring life that is all about you and that makes God yawn as He watches you. Instead, be active and alive and focused on making a difference in the lives of people all around you.

 

Live life large. Live until you die. The best way to do that – the Biblical way to do that – is to live a life of service.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “ …then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Choose your rut carefully.”

 

So much of life is simply a matter of habit! As humans we tend to be creatures of habit. We develop comfortable patterns for daily life and we tend to stick with them for a long, long time.

 

The Australian Outback is a desolate and dry place that extends for more than a thousand miles. It seldom rains there but when it does, the rain comes in torrential downpours and creates huge mud bogs. Those who live in the Outback commonly drive very large four wheel drive vehicles with huge knobby tires that will get them through the mud bogs.

 

Unfortunately, driving through those mud bogs with those big tires creates deep ruts in the roads. When the land dries out the ruts remain, often for hundreds of miles. The ruts are deep and almost impossible to get out of once you’re in one. So when you choose to drive in one of those dried out ruts you’re doing so with the understanding that you’re going to be in it until it ends, perhaps hundreds of miles from where you start. In one place there’s a large sign, intended mainly for visitors and those not familiar with the terrain. It reads, “Choose your rut carefully. You will be in it for the next 400 miles!”

 

That’s a metaphor of life. We must choose our habits carefully because habits become ruts and once we’re deep into them, we’re going to have them for a long time and they will be tough to get out of. Behavioral scientists tell us that if we will stick with an activity for 21 days it will become a habit. Then the longer we stick with it, the more deeply ingrained that habit becomes and the harder it is to get out of it.

 

When it comes to a life of service to the Lord and to others we want it to become a deeply ingrained habit. The way we do that is we determine to stick with an activity until it simply becomes a part of us. We become so familiar with it, and so used to doing it, that it essentially becomes a rut, but a good rut.

 

However when it comes to the practice of the Christian faith the opposite is true too. If you allow yourself to fall away, even for a short time, your unfaithfulness becomes your new rut. Stay out of church for three straight Sunday’s (21 days), and you will find it increasingly difficult to get started again. Stop participating in regular acts of ministry, and you will become lazier and lazier in your church life – stuck in a rut of inactivity.

 

You get the picture. Ruts (habits) are simply part of our human nature. There are good ruts (habits) and there are bad ruts (habits). And you are the one who chooses what yours will be. When it comes to who or what you will serve, you can serve yourself and the world, or you can serve God and His people.

 

You do have to choose, and no choice is a choice. So be careful what you choose because your choice could quickly become your rut and you could find yourself stuck in it for a long, long time.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “We must pass the faith on to the next generation.”

 

Os Guinness, in his book “Impossible People”, tells a story from the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. In the relay races Team USA was highly favored to win gold medals. They had the fastest runners, they were the best trained, and the relay races were events that American runners had dominated for decades. But in the 2008 Olympics Team USA won no medals in relay races. Here’s why:

 

“Again and again spectators in Beijing and around the world heard the eerie sound of a hollow aluminum tube hitting the track. The American runners had dropped the baton. The US teams had the speed and the strength, but not the art of the handoff. They were brilliant individual runners, but swift though they were, they were not a relay team.”

 

Increasingly Christians in the USA are not a relay team either. We have lost the art of the handoff. We are not effectively passing the faith on to the next generation and consequently we are losing the race to influence our culture.

 

I’m convinced that an effective life of service for the cause of Christ on earth has got to include effectively passing the faith on to the next generation. Adult Christians must not only faithfully practice the faith themselves, but they must make it a point to involve the children and teens in their lives in the practice of the faith as well.

 

They should hear you pray, and they should pray with you. They should see you reading your Bible, and they should hear you talk about it. You have to go to church, and you must bring them with you. You should participate in ministry activities, and you should involve them in those same activities with you. If you want the faith to be a vital part of their lives, they must see that it’s also a vital part of yours.

 

One of the things I love about our church, Oak Hill Baptist, is that because we are a small church, age distinctions are less of a factor in our church life than is commonly true in larger churches. Rather than being always divided and separated into age-distinctive groups for church activities, we have everyone involved in everything all the time. Young people are as much a part of the overall church life as are adults. Children serve food and bus tables at our Rescue Mission Sunday nights; teenagers serve as greeters and ushers and worship dancers; we often have children and teens singing in the choir right alongside adults;  and on it goes.

 

As a Christian community an important part of our life of service for the cause of Christ on earth is to pass the faith on to the next generation. To accomplish that, we must involve them in all aspects of the practice of the faith. If we do, it will become as much a part of their lives as it is in ours.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.” Matthew 5:13 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Christians should be the glue that holds society together.”

 

Last Sunday Scott Lacy preached an excellent sermon at Oak Hill Baptist Church about the importance of Christian values in our society, and the impact the church should be having in our nation. You can hear that sermon online at www.oakhillbaptist.net.

 

His sermon reminded me of a passage I read recently in Os Guinness’ latest book “Impossible People”. In the book Os makes the case that God’s people often seem “impossible” to society because our Christian values make us counter-cultural. But that’s a good thing. The world needs to see Biblical values in actual practice in the lives of Christians. There should be a noticeable difference in how we live. That difference should capture the attention of the people around us, appear compelling and winsome to them, and cause them to want what we have.

 

In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus shifted metaphors and explained that our example can and should have the same effect on society that light has on darkness. Just a little bit of light chases away a whole lot of darkness. Likewise, just a little bit of Biblical truth will defeat and overpower a lot of demonic falsehood. If we will just boldly proclaim our faith and live our values in the public square we can have a profound impact on society.

 

Unfortunately that’s happening less and less these days. To a large extent Christians are embracing cultural values more and more, and Biblical values less and less, and are therefore no longer the force for good that we should be. Os explains in his book that since America was founded on Biblical principles, and since we have now drifted far from those foundational values, our society is decaying and collapsing, and Christians are largely at fault:

 

“The former Jewish and Christian covenantal agreements that were the center of American life have been assaulted and have collapsed. The covenant is broken … so America is presently decentered, centerless, unbonded or unglued …”

 

Christians professing and living Biblical values are intended by God to be the glue that holds our society together. But since as a Christian community we’re no longer doing a good job of practicing and promoting Biblical values, our influence in society has greatly diminished and our nation is becoming unglued.

 

What does this have to do with living a life of service? There’s an old saying that goes, “They don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” One of the best ways to earn an audience with people so we can tell them the Good News about Jesus Christ is to first serve them. If we go out of our way to meet a need the person has, they are much more likely to listen to what we have to say. This is why Jesus taught us to be servants of all. We are to pay attention to the needs and struggles people have, find ways to help and serve them, and then use that act of service as an opening to share Jesus.

 

By living and promoting Biblical values Christians should be the glue that holds society together. Kind and compassionate acts of service can provide us the opening we need in order to have that kind of influence in the lives of others.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good morning everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” Philippians 1:21 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “How will you spend the rest of your life?”

 

The Apostle Paul was a man with a vision for his life. He knew what his purpose was. There was no doubt in his mind about how he wanted to spend the remaining days, weeks, months, and years of his life. He was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and he was determined to serve Him and others well.

 

This was his passion. It was what got him out of bed in the morning and it is what kept him going all throughout the day. It’s what empowered him to persevere through tough circumstances, and he had a clear vision of the reward that waited for him at the end of life’s road. Let’s read some more of that passage from Philippians chapter one:

 

“Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ – which is far better – but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that, because of me, your confidence may grow in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.” Philippians 1:22-26

 

Paul knew that his place in heaven was assured and that it was going to be glorious, so he was eager to get there. But he was also fully aware of how the Lord was using his life to be a blessing to others. Paul could see it all around him everyday. God was using him to teach others, to encourage them in their own faith, and to help them grow as disciples of Jesus. God also used Paul to bless people in physical ways, such as healing them of sickness and even, on one occasion, raising a man from the dead. So Paul could see the fruit of his life in Christ and he found it rewarding and fulfilling. It was a life well-lived, and it was a life worth living.

 

In all probability you’re not the greatest evangelist the Christian church has ever known like Paul was. And you probably will never raise a person from the dead like Paul did. And yet, if you are committed to a life of service then God will use you in many, many ways to bless others and to bring glory to Him. As you witness for Christ, He will use your words and personal example to lead others to faith in Christ. As you offer words of encouragement to someone who is struggling with a difficult life issue, you will often see their spirits lifted. As you provide food to a hungry person, financial aid to a family going through a period of unemployment, or bless someone in any other way, your will see the results of it and you yourself will be encouraged.

 

You could choose to live the rest of your life focused on yourself and on your own wants, needs, and desires, but that would be selfish and shallow and it will eventually show itself to have been fairly meaningless. Or you could choose to spend your life in service to Christ and to others.

 

So, I ask you again, “How will you spend the rest of your life?” It’s actually a rhetorical question. The answer should be obvious. There’s great joy and fulfillment to be found as we serve the Lord and others in His name. I urge you to commit yourself to a life of service.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Please God, rescue me! Come quickly Lord, and help me.” Psalm 70:1 (NLT)

 

Our thought for today: “You might be God’s answer to someone’s plea for help.”

 

I have a friend who is a paramedic. When someone in distress calls 911 for help, my friend is one of the first-responders who will be dispatched to the scene to render assistance. Interestingly, his wife is an emergency room nurse and so there are been many occasions over the years when he has rendered emergency assistance on the scene, transported the person to the ER, and then handed them off to his wife to continue providing emergency medical care. Together theirs is a life of service to people who are in physical distress and in need of emergency medical assistance.

 

Psalm 70 is sometimes referred to as a 911 prayer. King David was in dire straits. He needed help and he needed it fast. So he dialed-up a 911 distress call and pleaded for God to “send help!” The text doesn’t tell us exactly what David’s situation was or in what way God answered his urgent plea for help. There is some indication in verse two that somebody was trying to kill him, perhaps many enemies at the same time.

 

In what way did God send help? We don’t know. Maybe there was some miraculous intervention by an army of angels. Maybe God opened a crevice in the earth and swallowed up David’s enemies. Or maybe He dispatched a squad of heavily armed soldiers to assist David.

 

Sometimes God answers our 911 prayers with miraculous intervention, but more often than not He uses other Christians to bring the deliverance and assistance we need. Maybe it will be a friend who senses the urging of the Holy Spirit to give you a call at just the right time. Or maybe someone shows up at your door with a meal for your family the night before payday when there’s no food in the house. Or … there could be a thousand other examples.

 

The point is that when someone makes a 911 distress call to God, He usually responds by dispatching one of His first-responders, someone who will obey Him and who will be the source of assistance and aid the person needs.

 

In Isaiah chapter six the Prophet Isaiah had a vision of the throne room of heaven. Suddenly he heard God issue a call for a faithful servant who would go out into the world on His behalf. God phrased the call in the form of a question, “Who will go for us?” And Isaiah famously answered, “Here am I Lord, send me.”

 

Would that have been your response, “Here I am Lord, send me.”? Will that be your response the next time God receives a 911 prayer of distress and He needs someone to quickly respond? If you are committed to a life of service then God wants to use you as one of His first-responders.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “It takes time.”

 

All this month I’ve been urging you to consider committing to live a life of service to others. In recent days I’ve narrowed that focus a bit and asked you to consider a life of service which revolves around being an encourager of others. And, I’ve also encouraged you to become “a noticer”, someone who is especially sensitive to and aware of the struggles others are facing.

 

But all of this takes time. We don’t change over night. Even if you are willing to live a life of service; even if you are determined to be an encourager of others as a lifestyle; and even if you want to become very good at noticing when others are in distress; it’s a learning process and a transformation that takes place in our own lives over time.

 

The way to help bring this about is to focus on taking little steps in the direction you want to move in. For instance, if you would like to be more like Jones, in the book “The Noticer”, someone who has a deeply developed sensitivity to what other people are going through, that ability won’t come to you overnight. But you can pray about it and ask God to make you more sensitive to others and more aware of what they’re going through. And when you do notice, you can then immediately take a step to bless and encourage such people. If you do that often enough, your level of sensitivity to others will deepen and you will progressively become more and more aware. So rather than focusing your thoughts and desires on one day being a Jones, just focus on the next step of praying in this moment, and then looking for a person you can bless now.

 

That lesson holds true for any manner of serving. The more you serve others, the better a servant you will be. The more you serve others, the more it becomes a way of life for you.

 

So just focus on the next step for today. Then tomorrow do it again, and then again the next day, and the next, and … well, you get it. It takes time but if you just start doing it, over time God will change you into the noticer and the encourager that He wants you to be.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “You were created for this.”

 

For the last few days we have been considering some lessons out of the great little book “The Sender” by Kevin Elko. The primary lesson taught in that book is about living a life of service by being an encourager of others. But as I mentioned yesterday, in order to do that, especially to do it consistently and persistently as a way of life, you have to be tuned-in to what other people are going through. You have to be sensitive enough, and paying enough attention, to notice when others are in need of a lift. You have to be “a noticer”.

 

Andy Andrews, the author of “The Traveler’s Gift”, which some of you have read, also wrote another book entitled “The Noticer”. The main character in the book is an old man named Jones. Not Mr. Jones, just Jones. That’s all he goes by. Jones has a unique gift of being able to notice things about other people that they themselves are missing. The things Jones notices are deeply insightful and very important, and if the individuals would just notice those things about themselves, it would change their lives.

 

The entire story revolves around Jones helping others recognize and appreciate the things that he notices about them. He then encourages them to change their beliefs about themselves and to make decisions and take actions based upon those new deeper insights.

 

To be “a noticer” of what other people are going through requires a sensitive heart and a desire to help, as well as a good deal of wisdom. It’s a skill that has to be cultivated and developed over time. It’s based upon a spirit of empathy (that unique quality that enables us to understand and identify with another person’s situation, feelings, and emotions), and then enter into that situation with them with the goal of helping them through it.

 

Now work with me here for a moment as we connect the lessons from both books, “The Sender” and “The Noticer”. What if you prayerfully asked God to help you become more sensitive to what other people are going through, to the point that you become “a noticer”, one of those special people who is so in-tune with others that you “notice” when something isn’t quite right with them. And then what if you follow that up by being “a sender” as well – someone who sends notes of encouragement, or finds other ways to lift-up, support, and perhaps even hold-up the arms of someone who is so worn down by their circumstances that they feel they can no longer go on?

 

If that was you then you would be a very special person indeed. You would be a person the Lord uses to bring blessings and hope into the lives of people who just need to know that someone notices and cares.

 

Today is Friday. On Sunday you will be gathering with your church family. I can promise you there will be people in your congregation who are hurting and in need of encouragement. Will you notice? And will you be the conduit through which the Lord sends a blessing to that person? You were created for this. Make it a point to notice. And then make it a point to encourage.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A life of service”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “People need you.”

 

I’ve always like the song “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” by the Hollies. Some people think it’s a little sappy but I think there’s something about the storyline that speaks a great truth – we need each other. All of us need the help of kind and caring others to help us make it through. Here are a couple of lines from the song:

 

“The road is long, with many a winding turn, that leads us to – who knows where, who knows when.

But I’m strong, strong enough to carry him. He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

So on we go, his welfare is my concern; no burden is he, to bear, we’ll get there.

For I know, He would not encumber me. He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother …”

 

It’s not a Christian song but it is based upon a Biblical theme. God wants us to help each other get through the tough times in life. Two days ago I wrote about the example from Exodus Chapter 17 when Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses. Moses was standing on a high hill observing the army of Israel engaged in battle. As long as he held his arms high in a gesture of blessing, the Israelites prevailed. But when he lowered his arms the tide of battle shifted and the Israelites began to lose.

 

So all day Moses attempted to keep his arms raised, but the effort exhausted him and he just couldn’t hold them up anymore. But then, along came Aaron and Hur. They moved a big rock for Moses to sit down on. Then they stood on each side of him and held his arms up for him. The way the text reads, they probably did that for hours. The end result was that the nation of Israel was blessed and they won the battle, but Moses could not have done it without their help.

 

In the book “The Sender” our friend Charlie had a transformative moment during which he decided he would spend the rest of his life holding up the arms of those who could no longer hold them up alone. In other words, he would look for those who were so beaten down by the circumstances of their lives that they just couldn’t keep going on their own. I’m talking about people who were physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted and they just could not keep going. Enter Charlie. He might not be able to solve all their problems for them, but he could be their friend; he could offer words of comfort; he could look for small ways to bless and encourage them. He was determined to help hold up the arms of those who could no longer hold them up themselves.

 

You could do this too. You could ask the Lord to open your eyes and help you notice those in your world who are so overwhelmed, so beaten down, that they can no longer hold up their own arms. And, you could help them. What a great act of service that would be. In fact, what a great life of service it would be for anyone to make it their purpose in life to help hold up the arms of those who simply cannot do it by themselves anymore.

 

But in order to do that your eyes have to be open, you have to pay attention and notice who in your world is in that shape. Tomorrow we will turn our thoughts to noticing.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim