Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Everything is possible to the one who believes.” Mark 9:23 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Strong faith is a powerful thing.”

I love the children’s story of “The Little Engine That Could”. It’s the story of a small sized railroad train engine whose regular job was to simply reposition individual railroad cars and move them around the railroad yard. It was the job of the larger more powerful engines to pull the long heavily loaded freight trains long distances.

But one day there was a string of cars that needed to be pulled up a steep mountain grade.  One after another the larger and stronger engines made excuses for why they weren’t available to do the job. Finally the little engine was approached and asked to try. Without hesitation he agreed. As he huffed and puffed and struggled up the mountain, towing this impossibly long line of heavily loaded freight cars, he repeats to himself over and over again, “I think I can … I think I can … I think I can …” And then, once he crests the top of the steep mountain and begins to cruise down the other side, “The Little Engine That Could” changes his chant from “I think I can … I think I can.” to “I thought I could … I thought I could ..” And then of course, he did.

It’s an old story with an even older theme. Strong faith is a powerful thing. That was Jesus’ point in Mark 9:23. In this case a desperate father asked Jesus to free his son from the clutches of a demonic spirit. Jesus’ reply to the man was that if his faith was strong enough not only could the demon be banished from the boy, but such a faith would enable many more miracles in the man’s life as well.

Christian author Joyce Myers once wrote, “Positive minds full of faith and hope produce positive lives.” I’m convinced that is true.

Unfortunately, too many people live life far below their potential. They’re like the big engines in the children’s story which made excuses for not even trying, rather than tackling the tough task with faith and then just doing their best. But with faith in Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can all be much more like the Little Engine That Could. With strong faith in Christ the story of your life can be, “I thought I could, and then I did.”

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “What then shall we say brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:26 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Regular participation in the life of a good church helps to strengthen your faith.”

Recently one of our newer members at Oak Hill Baptist made a comment to me that was guaranteed to warm a Pastor’s heart. The person said, “Probably the thing I love about this church the most is that it is such a close loving family. Everybody obviously cares about each other, everybody goes out of their way to help each other, and everybody seems to be so happy here. There’s a lot of love in this place.”

And they were right. Oak Hill Baptist is a special place and I’m grateful to be a part of it. When you’re involved in a church family like that, it helps to strengthen your faith. Everyone lifts up and encourages one another and it’s the kind of environment where the Holy Spirit can really go to work in individual lives. That then makes church attendance an enriching and refreshing experience that you don’t want to miss.

King David felt like that about his church. In Psalm 122:1 he wrote, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go up to the house of the Lord.”

If you’re not actively involved in the life of a good church family, I urge you to find one to join this Sunday. If you’re anywhere near Cumberland County, Tennessee, I invite you to visit with us. One of the best practices you can have to help strengthen your faith is to be part of a good church.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Your faith has made you well, go in peace.” Luke 8:48 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Faith is a powerful healing force.”

Numerous studies over the years have shown conclusively that people with strong faith tend to be happier and healthier than those without faith. A strong faith leads to a positive attitude about life in general and that then relieves stress, chases away worry, and produces an overall healthier life.

But strong faith is also a key component in the healing process. People of faith tend to deal with sickness better and heal from it faster. In my ministry as a Pastor I’ve witnessed this too many times to count. Much of my time is spent with people who are sick – many times seriously so. Without fail I’ve discovered that those with the strongest faith always deal with the sickness best, and they have the greatest chance of healing from it quicker and completely.

Two years ago my friend Regina Randolph had to contend with oral cancer. The surgeons had to actually remove part of her tongue and then she had to endure months of agonizing radiation treatments in her mouth. It was awful. But Regina is a woman of great faith and she trusted God every step of the way. Her attitude through it all was positive, and sure enough, she recovered faster and more completely than most people suffering from the same ailment.

This morning Regina is having a hysterectomy. She’s approaching it with the same strong faith and positive spirit that she always demonstrates. She is fully trusting in the Sovereignty of a loving and powerful God. I just prayed with her a few moments before I wrote this. True to form, rather than thinking about her own imminent surgery, she was concerned about me because I was coughing and hacking while I was speaking with her on the telephone. She’s not overly concerned about her own situation because she has great faith in God’s watchcare and provision for her life.

Corrie ten Boom once famously wrote, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

I encourage you to sit still today and just trust the Engineer. He will get you safely through whatever you are facing.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 5:18 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “We must choose to see with eyes of faith.”

Saint Augustine was one of the greatest theologians the Christian church has ever produced. He lived and ministered about 300 years after the time of Christ. To this day his work is studied, referenced, and quoted by Bible students across the globe.

With respect to faith Augustine once wrote, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of faith is to see what we believe.”

He was referring to “seeing with eyes of faith.” An excellent example of seeing with eyes of faith is answered prayer. We pray about something, it happens, and we see the answer for what it is – the response of God to a genuine heartfelt prayer. But not everyone will see it that way. Many people will attribute it to “coincidence”. They will conclude that that particular event would have occurred whether we had prayed about it or not and the fact that we did pray about it, and it did happen, is mere coincidence. Such people do not see with eyes of faith.

Another example of seeing with eyes of faith will be the subject of the sermon at Oak Hill Baptist Church this Sunday. It is the issue of divine appointments. I personally believe that there are no coincidences in the life of a child of God. I believe that God is Sovereign over all the events of our lives and that He is always at work orchestrating events to bring about His good plan for us. People who believe this will view the events of their lives with “eyes of faith”, and they will see the hand of God at work in the middle of seemingly routine and common occurrences.

This is what Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 5:18. He was urging us to live with an awareness of the fact that there are always things happening in the spiritual realm which we cannot see, but which are real and which are happening nonetheless. And it is what Augustine meant when he wrote that the reward of faith is that we eventually gain the ability, the spiritual sensitivity, to see the things in which we believe.

I encourage you today to be intentional about seeing with eyes of faith.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Faith is a secure belief in God, even though we can’t see Him.”

In the late 1970s, during the early part of my career in the U.S. Navy, I was stationed in Pensacola, FL on the U.S.S. Lexington. It was an old WWII aircraft carrier which at that time was being used to train student pilots. Pensacola was the location of the U.S. Navy pilot training school.

From time to time I would have a reason to be inside the pilot school building. Up and down the hallways mounted on the walls there were floor to ceiling posters which explained the various principles of flight. These were simplified explanations of the principles of physics which made it possible for an airplane to actually fly.

As I wandered down those hallways reading those posters, the thing that impressed me was that every one of those principles involved invisible forces that could not be seen, they could only be experienced. The forces of thrust, acceleration, lift, and gravity were invisible to the naked eye and yet, the evidence of their reality was clear in the fact that the airplane could fly. The young pilots knew from experience that the invisible forces of flight were real.

That’s actually a pretty good description of the Christian faith too. The spiritual realm is invisible to us. As noted yesterday, our human senses are incapable of detecting or experiencing it. Likewise, God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all invisible to us. And yet, the reality of their existence is proven by experience. Over thousands of years untold millions of people have had their lives radically transformed by means of faith in Christ. The physical experience of this invisible reality is too powerful to deny.

Without faith, those young pilots would remain earthbound forever. But with faith in the invisible realities of the principles of flight they gain the power to soar through the air at 35,000 feet and to do it faster than the speed of sound.

Likewise, without faith human beings live stunted, small lives. But with faith in the invisible realities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Christians have the power to live lives now that are profoundly different and better than any life they would have had otherwise and, they even gain life for all eternity.

There’s a lot to be said for living by faith and not by sight.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Faith is a deep sense of confidence about things not seen.

Every baseball fan knows about the Baseball Hall of Fame located in Cooperstown, NY.

If you go there you will see displays, memorabilia, and films which tell the stories of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. It is inspiring and motivating.

Hebrews chapter 11 has often been called “The Faith Hall of Fame”. Here we find the stories of some of the all time greats of the Christian faith; people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Rahab, Samuel, David, and so many more. For those of us who would like our own faith to be deeper and stronger, this Hall of Fame is also inspiring and motivating.

In verse one of chapter eleven the writer tells us that this kind of faith involves being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. He’s talking about a deep inner sense of confidence, a firm conviction that is not based on things in the visible world. It’s a deep trust in God and in His promises that leads us to live in ways that may be contrary to the conventional wisdom of the world.

Billy Graham once wrote that, “Faith is not anti-intellectual. Faith simply reaches beyond the limits of our five senses.”  This is an important point. The kind of faith being described here is based on an understanding that reality involves more than just what our five human senses are able to detect.

Even though faith in God and in His promises requires us to embrace a reality that is beyond the capacity of our human senses, doesn’t make it any less real. Other worldly though He may be, the evidence for God is actually very strong. The results of it can be seen in the lives of those who have had the deepest faith in Him. That’s why God gave us this chapter in Hebrews.

I encourage you to set aside some extra time today to slowly read Hebrews chapter 11. Take a walk through the Faith Hall of Fame. Let the examples of those giants of our faith be a source of inspiration and motivation for you.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, Yahweh, and I will live by Your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear Your name. But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth.” Psalm 86: 10-11; 15 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “God has a pretty God track record.”

As I write this I have just returned from a two week mission trip to the Andes Mountains in Peru. It was a wonderfully successful mission. A team of twenty-four from the USA and Canada joined in partnership with a team of four American missionary kids who served as translators for us, along with six Peruvian Christians who also served as translators, as well as two Peruvian pastors and a Peruvian medical doctor.

Our team conducted seven free medical and dental clinics which also included distribution of reading glasses, a spiritual pharmacy where people received spiritual counsel and prayer, distribution of hundreds of evangelistic tracts and Bibles, and a recreational ministry for the children. It was one of the most successful mission trips I have ever had the privilege to lead. We served over 850 medical patients, more than 200 dental patients, we dispensed almost 2500 free prescriptions, gave out approximately 400 pairs of reading glasses, prayed with approximately 500 people, and witnessed more than 100 profess faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

But I have to admit that during the months and weeks leading up to the mission trip I was anxious about it. As a busy pastor who was also serving as the mission planner, I was worried that I was forgetting something, or that important details would be missed, or that someone else wouldn’t do their part, etc. I forgot that the mission trip was really God’s not mine, and that He was more concerned about the successful outcome of it than I was. And, He was much better able to pull it all together than I would ever be. In short, I wasn’t living (or mission planning) by faith.

In Psalm 86 King David addressed a great truth that helps us during times when we’re relying on our own abilities rather than God’s faithfulness. Essentially David reminded himself that “God is God, and I am not.” “God is great and He performs wonders and miracles, while I am not great and I do not perform wonders and miracles.” As David noted, God is compassionate and loving and gracious, and what David needed was an undivided, undistracted mind that was focused on God rather than on himself and his on own abilities.

How did David know these things to be true about God? The same way I should have known them to be true regarding the planning and execution of the mission trip – by experience. The fact is that God has a pretty good track record. With respect to mission trips, He has always come through before. Therefore I should have known that He would preside over the details of this mission trip too.

The same is true in your life regarding the issues you are facing. God is Sovereign over it all. He is there and He is involved. And, He has a pretty good tract record of working things out in your life too. Therefore you can have faith in Him for today, and for all of your tomorrows too.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I leave on a two week mission trip to Peru. I will be taking a twenty-five member team to conduct free medical and dental clinics in the Andes Mountains north of Cusco.

Usually when I go on these mission trips, in the weeks before the trip, I double-up on my daily writing. Therefore by the time I leave the country I have all the daily devotional messages for the next two weeks prepared in advance. Then Allen Foster sends them out for me each day. Unfortunately this time I wasn’t able to do that. Life and ministry has been so busy that I simply did not have the time to write the extra devotional messages.

That being the case, this will have to be the last daily devotional until I get back in two weeks. I plan to resume sending them on Monday July 20^th. Thanks for your understanding. Please pray for our mission team. Please pray for safe travel, that all of our supplies will make it through Peruvian Customs ok, and please pray for fruitful ministry.

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the Lord of hosts?” Zechariah 8:4-6 (NRSV)

Our thought for today: “With the Lord there is always the promise of better days ahead.”

In yesterday’s devotional we considered the sad state of affairs the people of Israel found themselves in. The city of Jerusalem was still in ruins. The Temple had yet to be rebuilt. They were surrounded by hostile people who conspired for their ruin. The prospect of rebuilding the city and restoring the Temple seemed impossible.

But with God there is always the promise of better days. God has a plan and a future for those who belong to Him and who love Him. As we learned yesterday, our job is to simply be faithful in the little things – day-by-day, and trust the future to the Lord. That’s what Zechariah was calling the people to do and so in this passage, he gives them a preview of what their faithfulness will lead too – a rebuilt city, a restored Temple, safe and contented old people, and happy children playing in the streets.

Here are two additional encouraging thoughts the Lord had Zechariah deliver to His people on His behalf:

“Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you.” Zechariah 1:3

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6

Even in the midst of life situations that seem hopeless, with God there is always hope, there is always the promise of better days ahead. Return to Him, be faithful, trust in His might and in His power rather than in your own. In His time the sun will shine again, the birds will sing, the children will play in the streets, and your life will be back on track.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.” Zechariah 4:10 (NRSV)

Our thought for today: “The battle of faith is won in the small things of life.”

Zechariah was one of the minor prophets of the Old Testament. He was sent by God to the people of the Jewish nation during a time when the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were in ruins. Under the leadership of the good Governor Zerubbabel the people were tasked with restoring the city and rebuilding the Temple, but the prospects of success seemed dim at best. The task was huge, and they were surrounded by enemies who wanted to deter and even destroy them.

Through a series of visions Zechariah delivered to the people a message of hope and encouragement. Part of that message involved simply being faithful to God, day-by-day, in the small stuff of life. Instead of focusing on the ultimate goal of a restored Jerusalem and a rebuilt Temple (tasks which seemed formidable and nearly impossible), Zechariah urged them to just continue being faithful in the small things. Persistent faithfulness in small things adds up to big results over the course of weeks, months, years, and a lifetime.

Richard Foster once wrote, “Frankly the battle is won or lost precisely in the trifling areas of life … It is the small fidelities that are most helpful in training the heart toward God. These thousands upon thousands of little actions of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit slowly but surely change our heart. More than any other thing the small corners of life reveal who we truly are.”

Faithfulness in small things leads to faithfulness in big things and ultimately, to the success God wants us to have.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Faith”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “At once the father of the boy gave (an eager, piercing, inarticulate) cry with tears, and he said, Lord, I believe! (Constantly) help my weakness of faith!” Mark 9:24 (The Amplified Bible)

 

Our thought for today: “Lord increase my faith!”

 

I can relate to the father in Mark 9:24. I often feel as if my faith is seriously weak and I desperately need the Lord’s help to make it what it should be.

 

The father in this scene had a son who was demon possessed. For years an evil spirit had tormented the boy and caused him serious mental and physical problems. The father was crushed with grief over his son’s suffering and desperately wanted the boy to be healed. Jesus’ disciples tried to help but were unsuccessful. So the father now appealed to Jesus directly. Jesus gave a hint of hope when he told the father that all things were possible for those whose faith is strong enough. The problem was that the father knew his faith was not strong enough. He knew he was tired and weak and doubtful. So in anguish he cried out to Jesus to help him have stronger faith. The Amplified Bible does a good job of bringing out the man’s sense of helplessness and frustration.

 

This is me. In big things and in small, my faith is too weak. The good news is that Jesus honored the genuine desire that this man had to be stronger – to believe more, and so He granted the man’s request and healed his son. That father walked away with what he asked for – a healed son and a stronger faith.

 

This story is in the Bible for a reason. It’s there to show me that Jesus will also honor my genuine desire for stronger faith. I just need to be honest with Him, admit my weakness, and ask for His help. It’s true for you too.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim