Devotional for Monday July 21st

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Jesus reclined at the table

 

Our thought for today: “We need to savor the special moments”

 

Have you ever noticed that you can’t pay attention in a hurry? When you’re in a hurry and both your body and your mind are racing, it’s tough to pay very close attention to anything. At such times it’s also virtually impossible to soak in and truly savor special moments. I wonder how many special moments I’ve missed or failed to appreciate in my life because I’m often in such a hurry.

 

Jesus was never in a hurry. Even though the crowds were frequently pressing in upon Him and even though the demands of ministry were usually intense, He always seemed to have time for people and for the things that were truly important – like reclining at the table and simply enjoying His friends.

 

If you read the Gospels you realize that this was something Jesus did fairly frequently. Evidently to Him one of the most valuable things He could do with His time was to simply sit back, relax, and enjoy being with people. He didn’t feel pressed to get through a meeting so He could move on to other ministry tasks. He just relaxed, soaked it in, and enjoyed it. Sometimes this is referred to as “The gift of loitering.” Just hanging out with your hommies.

 

Recently I spent a couple of hours visiting with some friends. They live out in the country on a nice piece of land. It was a warm summer day and there was a slight breeze blowing. We were sitting in the back yard in the shade, gazing out over a serene country scene, drinking iced tea and just talking. As I was sitting there soaking it in and truly enjoying it, it occurred to me how seldom I have times like that. I remember commenting to my friends, “This is really good. I need to do more of this.” One of them responded, “Yeah, me too. I’m usually way too busy.”

 

That relaxing time of just hanging with my friends was deeply satisfying and was good for my soul. I want more of it. Lance Witt once remarked, “I want more slow and deep in my life, and less fast and shallow.” Yeah, that’s me. That’s what I want – more slow and deep and less fast and shallow.

 

How about you? Would it do your soul good to have more slow and deep and less fast and shallow? We would all benefit from being more like Jesus in this respect. We need to cultivate the gift of loitering.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday July 19-20

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So the father came out and pleaded with him. But he replied to his father, “Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.” Luke 15:28-30 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Self-pity poisons the soul”

 

In the parable of the Prodigal Son the elder brother was consumed with envy, bitterness, and self-pity. Rather than being joyful and celebrating the repentance and restoration of his younger brother, the elder brother was consumed with thoughts of how he imagined himself to have been neglected and cheated. The result was an angry and self-absorbed young man.

 

It has been said, and I believe it to be true, that self-pity is the worst of all human emotions. It is so selfish! The great devotional writer Oswald Chambers once wrote that “Self-pity is of the Devil!” Amen brother! Satan uses the human emotion of self-pity to turn our thoughts fully upon ourselves. He convinces us that we have been unfairly short-changed and cheated, and that we have a right to be angry and bitter about it. He then quietly and cunningly urges us brood about it. We chew on the perceived wrong like a bull dog on a bone.

 

And the soul slowly withers and dies. It marinates in a toxic stew of resentment and self-righteous indignation and it evolves into a mean and ugly thing. How much better it would have been for the elder brother to have joined the celebration. His doing so would have been a blessing to his little brother and it would certainly have been better for the elder brother himself. Rather than making himself a miserable and lonely outcast, he would have instead been right in the middle of the joy and festivities. 
Yes, self-pity poisons the soul. It is indeed the worst of all human emotions. It is petty and small and so terribly pathetic. I encourage you to avoid giving in to self-pity. It’s bad for your soul.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday July 18th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear.” 1 John 4:18 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “God’s answer to fear is love”

 

The dictionary defines fear as “A feeling of agitation and anxiety; a feeling of disquiet or apprehension; a reason for dread.” Obviously if you have feelings of agitation, anxiety, disquiet, apprehension, and dread then your soul is unsettled and you are not at peace. Something is creating a sense of fear in you.

 

I love the statement Rick Warren makes in his book “The Daniel Plan”: “God’s answer to fear is love. God enables us to love the fear out of one another.”

 

What a great thought, “God enables us to love the fear out of one another.” Rick wrote that statement within the context of illustrating the importance of having a good church family or support group of fellow Christians who love and care about you. “The Daniel Plan” is all about creating and maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle. One of the key elements to doing that is to surround yourself with the right friends who share your values and goals, and who are committed to helping you achieve them.

 

This is essential. To live well, and to cultivate and maintain a healthy soul, we must surround ourselves with like-minded friends who love us, care about us, and who will support and encourage us. Fear lays waste to the soul. Fear robs our joy, stunts our growth, and poisons the heart. But love drives out fear. God’s answer to fear is love. And when we’re part of a group who loves one another, we can love the fear right out of each other.

 

Rick goes on to write, “We drive fear from our community (the church) by loving one another so supportively that each person feels safe inside the group.”

 

Can you think of times when your church family loved you so supportively that it drove your fear away? I’m sure you can. Have there been times when you’ve done that for others? I hope so. A soul that knows it is loved is a healthy soul. Being enveloped in the love of God and in the love of God’s people is the best thing you can do for your soul. If you already have a good church family who loves you, supports you, and encourages you, then I urge you to meet with them every chance you get. If you don’t have such a church family then I invite you to visit us at Oak Hill Baptist because you will find one there.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Thursday July 17th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.” Isaiah 26:3-4 (NLT)

 

Our thought for today: “Staying focused on God helps to keep our soul at peace”

 

If we allow them to, the problems and stresses of life can rob us of God’s peace. When the issues of life are pressing in upon us it’s a natural response to give them our attention, but that’s not necessarily bad. In fact, if we ignore real problems we’ll be in denial about them and they will probably just get worse. So I’m not suggesting that we pretend they don’t exist. It’s when we dwell on the problems, and when we look to ourselves and to others for the resolution instead of to God, that’s when we surrender the peaceful state of our soul and we become unsettled and distraught.

 

I think of that scene in Matthew 14:22-31 where Jesus comes to the disciples walking on the water, and Peter, once he gets over his fear of seeing Jesus walking on water, asks Jesus to make it possible for him to walk on the water too. So Jesus commands Peter to get out of the boat and come to Him. Peter does and sure enough, he walks on the water too. Until he takes his eyes off of Jesus. As soon as Peter’s attention shifted off of Jesus and onto the wind and the waves he started to sink, and Jesus had to reach out and save him. Peter was fine as long as his focus was on Jesus. It was when he shifted his focus to the problems that everything fell apart for him.

 

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us: “Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 12:2 (HCSB).

 

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, not on the problem – that’s what Isaiah meant in 26:3-4. Pray, recite key verses of scripture over and over again, meditate as you visualize God handling your problems for you, and then pray some more. Staying focused on God instead of on our problems will go a long way towards keeping the soul at peace.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Wednesday July 16th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Luke 2:52 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Spiritual formation occurs over time as a result of soul-care”

 

In Luke 2:52 Luke gives us a very brief summary of Jesus’ growing-up years. Over a period of years He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with men. It didn’t happen over night. Not even for Jesus. It was a process that unfolded as the weeks, months, and years passed. It certainly involved physical growth, but also emotional maturity, intellectual growth, and spiritual development. We usually don’t think of Jesus as having needed those things but this verse reminds us that although He was God, He was God in a human body, and he therefore experienced everything we experience. That includes the necessity of growth and development.

 

When it comes to spiritual formation and soul-care, what was true for Jesus is also true for us. It takes time. It’s a process which theologians call “sanctification”. Sanctification is a fifty-cent theological word which simply means “set-apart and made holy”. That’s what we are to be – set-apart and made holy for God. In one sense, Scripture teaches that we are set-apart and made holy for God in the moment of conversion. 1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:11, and Ephesians 5:25-26 are all passages which teach that sanctification is something which we already have because we are “in Christ”.

 

But the New Testament also describes the spiritual formation of sanctification as an ongoing process which is to be pursued by us. Ephesians 1:4, Philippians 3:12 and Hebrews 12:14 all illustrate this ongoing process.

 

The lesson is clear that although at the moment of conversion we are set-apart and made holy for God, we are to then embark on a life of spiritual growth and transformation – and that requires cooperation and participation on our parts. Just as the human Jesus grew and developed and transformed physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually over time, so must we.

 

Author Eugene Peterson once referred to the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian life as “a long obedience in the same direction”. In a variety of ways each day we obediently place ourselves in a position before the Lord whereby He can mold us and shape us into the people He wants us to be. Our obedience in these essential practices, over a long period of time, takes our soul in the direction it needs to go in terms of growth and development.

 

Spiritual development occurs over time as a result of taking proper care of our soul. If you don’t already have those practices in place in your life, I encourage you to begin today.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Tuesday July 15th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk – not as unwise people but as wise – making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16

 

Our thought for today: “To take good care of our soul we must make wise use of our time.”

 

One of the most common excuses people make for not engaging in the basic disciplines of spiritual formation and soul-care is “I don’t have time.” They think they’re too busy for prayer and Bible study and attending the gatherings of the church family. But that is of course, not true. They do have time. In fact, they have just as much time as anyone else does – 24 hours in every single day. Each of us gets the exact same amount of time every day. The President of the United States has the same 24 hours that you and I do. The difference is found in what we choose to do with those hours. The choices we make about how we will spend our time is what makes the difference between one life and another.

 

Even if you spend ten hours a day commuting and working, that still leaves fourteen hours in every day. Then if you actually get a full eight hours of sleep, you still have six discretionary hours available to you. If your family takes even half of those left over hours, three of them every day, that still leaves you three more discretionary hours that you can make choices about what to do with. I could go on but I think you get the point. Is it really true that you can’t carve out thirty minutes for prayer and Bible study? You can if it’s important enough. You will spend the thirty minutes on something. Why not on soul-care? Really, what’s more important than taking proper care of your soul?

 

The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough time, it’s that we don’t make proper use of the time we have. Each of us has all the time we need to do the things God desires us to do. To take good care of our soul we must make wise use of our time.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim
 

Devotional for Monday July 14th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth.” Colossians 3:2 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Soul-care involves setting correct priorities”

 

“Hi, my name is Jim and I’m a multi-tasker.”

 

Yes, it’s true. If there was a support group for habitual multi-taskers I’d be the president. It’s not unknown for me be in the middle of a phone call while checking a text message while reading an email and munching on a sandwich. And even though we think otherwise, multi-tasking really is not productive. When we’re distracted with multiple things we’re not really focused on anything, and that’s when mistakes get made. Multi-tasking actually makes us less effective and less productive, not more.

 

The problem, really, is an inability to set priorities. Rather than deciding that one thing is more important than another, and therefore paying attention to that one thing rather than the others, multi-taskers tend to treat all things as being equally important and rather than prioritize, they just try to do it all – all at the same time!

 

While multi-tasking is bad for life in general, its death when it comes to taking care of the soul. You cannot multi-task your quiet time. While it is true that we are to pray at all times and in all situations – including in the middle of a busy work day, or in a crowd; and we can in fact sing praise songs and have worship time while we’re driving our car in heavy traffic; that’s not really “quiet” time. We absolutely have to have time with the Lord which is not shared with anything or anyone else. 

 

This is why they came up with the old-fashioned notion of a “prayer closet”. People used to actually go into a closet and close the door so they could be alone with God. Now-a-days it’s much more common for someone to simply have a special quiet place of solitude that they may figuratively refer to as their “prayer closet”, but which is actually just a quiet and private place for them to meet with God. I once read about a busy Mom with a large brood of kids, she would periodically go sit in a corner and draped a towel over her head in an attempt to shut out the noise and distractions for a few moments. When she did that the kids knew they’d better be quiet because Mom was having private time with God. 

 

In Colossians 3:2 the Apostle Paul urges us to be intentional about shutting out the things of earth so we can focus exclusively on the things of heaven. Soul-care involves setting correct priorities. Sometimes that will mean saying “no” to the things of the world so we can say “yes” to the things of God.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Saturday and Sunday July 12-13

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.” Romans 12:5 (NLT)

 

Our thought for today: “We are to help each other take care of our souls”

 

One theme the New Testament emphasizes repeatedly is the fact that we need each other. God does not intend for any of us to be “Lone Ranger” Christians. He intends for each of us to be part of a close-knit church family and He intends for us to support, encourage, and help one another.

 

The New Testament portrays the people of God has a family of believers on a journey through this world on our way to our real home in Heaven. We’re to make the journey together and we’re to help each other along the way. That’s why the Apostle Peter reminds us that we are not of this world (1 Peter 1:1). The writer of Hebrews teaches that the people of God are actually strangers and aliens on earth (Hebrews 11:13-16), and that while we are here we are not to neglect our times of gathering together (Hebrews 10:24-25). Paul tells us that we are actually citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). And Jesus promises that He will have a special place prepared for each of us once we arrive there. 

 

This world can be rough on our souls because we aren’t really designed for life in this world. We’re just passing through but because it can be such a tough and dangerous journey, and since our souls do get weary along the way, God puts us together in little groups called church families so we can help each other.

 

In the original New Testament Greek, the word that was used to describe the kind of fellowship God wants His people to experience among themselves is “koinonia”. It’s a rich word which includes things like love, intimacy, deep commitment, genuine communication, and a sense of community and belonging. In an environment like that the soul is nurtured and rejuvenated.

 

This is God’s desire and intent for His people and it is within the embrace and shelter of such a church family, that our souls find nurture, comfort, and restoration. Numerous studies have shown that loneliness is one of the most destructive and unhealthy experiences a person can be faced with. It hurts us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and it even takes a physical toll. Regular and full participation in the life of a good church family is God’s solution for loneliness. When you connect with a loving community of brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord ministers to your soul in a deep way. If you don’t have that kind of a church family, then I invite you to visit us at Oak Hill Baptist.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Devotional for Friday July 11th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “…casting all your care on Him, because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Our problems can draw us closer to God.”

 

It can be tempting to think that our problems and difficulties make it harder to do the things necessary to take proper care of our soul. A busy schedule, relationship problems, financial difficulties, failing health, can all become major distractions that keep us from spending time with God.

 

Or not.

 

Looked at from another perspective, those can be the very things that draw us to God. In fact, I believe that God sometimes allows difficulties into our lives precisely for the purpose of drawing us to Himself. Those things often cause us to recognize our need for Him and they end up being the very things that bring us to our knees. As Peter expressed in the passage above, God calls us to cast all of our cares upon Him. He wants us to do it.

 

Also, there’s absolutely no reason for us to wonder whether or not God is willing to help us, He is. Here’s how Paul explained it in Romans 8:31-32, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?” (HCSB)

 

When it comes to making the time and doing the things necessary to take care of the soul, many times it turns out to be the problems and difficulties of life that become the catalyst which propels us into the arms of God. Make no mistake about it, God cares for you, He is willing and even eager to help you deal with the issues of life, and He even calls you to cast all your cares and worries upon Him. If the problems you are currently dealing with, and which you wish were not in your life, end up being the very thing that drives you into the arms of God, then you will end up with a stronger and healthier soul as a result.   

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Devotional for Thursday July 10th

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Your thoughts impact the health of your soul”

 

Probably one of the most important steps we can take to improve the health of our soul is to change what we allow into our mind. The influences we allow into our mind determine what we think about, and what we think about determines what we say and what we do. The fastest way to bring about any kind of change in our lives is to refocus our minds. This is what Paul was writing about in Romans 12:2. When our mind is renewed and refashioned with new patterns of thinking, it transforms us.

 

To renew your mind you have to stop allowing negative influences in, you have to let go of old thought patterns, and you have to dispense of the old images of yourself that you have been living with and which have been holding you back. You fill your mind instead with wholesome Godly influences such as Paul writes about in Philippians 4:8. You also refuse to indulge in negative and destructive patterns of brooding. And you ask God to give you an image of the man or woman He wants you to be. It is a well-proven fact of human nature that our mind moves us in the direction of whatever we allow it to focus on. Hold an image in your mind of the man or woman you want to be, dwell on that, and the mind will naturally move you in that direction.

 

In his book “The Daniel Plan” Pastor Rick Warren recommends a book entitled “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life” by Dr. Daniel Amen. I have not personally read that book but it sounds interesting and helpful – Pastor Warren certainly seems to think it is. If thought patterns, negative influences, and destructive self-images are holding you back from becoming the man or woman you would like to be, then you might want to check out Dr. Amen’s book.

 

Soul-care brings change at the deepest level of our being. That then affects every other part of who we are. Changing your thinking by the renewing of your mind might turn out to be the most transformative thing you have ever done.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim