Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes …” Romans 1:16 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It’s more than salvation – it’s transformation”   Sound doctrine really does lead to strong faith. Having an accurate understanding of the faith we profess to have provides the foundation for right living. One of the most important understandings for a Christian to embrace is that faith in Jesus doesn’t just save us from an eternity in hell, it transforms us now and it changes the way that we live.   John Newton is a great example of that. In the early years of his life, he was a brutal slave-trading sea captain. He was known for his cruelty and his indifference to human suffering. But then he came to faith in Jesus Christ and went from that, to being a pastor, preacher, teacher, author, and the writer of numerous hymns, including the best-loved hymn of all time, “Amazing Grace”. He wrote that hymn about himself. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” That happened because of faith.   Another example would be Chuck Colson. He was a very hard-shelled, mean-spirited political operative who worked for President Richard Nixon. Chuck was known as Nixon’s hatchet man. He did much of Nixon’s dirty work for him. But then Chuck came to faith in Jesus Christ and his life was radically transformed. He ended up founding the most extensive prison ministry in the world, and he wrote many very good Christian books. That happened because of faith.   Then there is Lee Strobel. A journalist and lawyer, he was also an atheist who was determined to use his considerable intellect and his investigative skills to prove Christianity was a lie. It turned out that he ended up convincing himself that there’s no way it could not be true and therefore by faith he turned to Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins. Lee even wrote many very good Christian books about all that he discovered in his own search for the truth – including the book “The Case for Faith”.   My point is that there is transformative power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it comes through faith. It is a choice we make based upon a decision to believe.   Paul also said in verse 16 that he was not ashamed of the Gospel. That’s a crucial point and one that becomes very important to living a life of faith. This is a tough world and there are many opponents of the Gospel. If you are going to live by faith, and if you are going to be bold about it, you will encounter opposition, skepticism, ridicule, or maybe worse. The power of the Gospel – the conviction that God is real and the Bible is true, gives you the courage and the confidence to face that.   When I was the Pastor of Bancroft Baptist Church in Spring Valley, CA back in the 1990s, our children’s ministry was built around the AWANA program. AWANA stands for “Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed”. That comes from here, in Romans 1:16 but also from 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.”    The goal of the AWANA program is to teach our children, from an early age, to have faith, to live by faith, and to do so boldly and with confidence – not being timid, passive, or ashamed but confident and bold. That’s what Paul was writing about here. Faith leads to salvation and transformation characterized by courage and conviction.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “The transforming power of faith”   One of the reasons God requires us to live by faith is because faith is transformative. We certainly see that in the life of the Apostle Paul. Verse 16 is both the theme of this letter to the Romans and the theme of Paul’s life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ – the Good News that God will forgive your sins, that you will have the promise of eternity in heaven, and also that the Holy Spirit will enter your heart now and begin a lifelong transformation to change you from the person you were into the person God wants you to be – that’s the story of the Gospel. It is the best news the world has ever heard. That Good News is for everyone, and it is such a powerful truth that anyone who chooses to embrace it, by faith, will experience the power of God at work in their lives.   That is the message Paul drives home in this letter, but it was also the story of his own life. By Paul’s own estimation he was the worst of all sinners. In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul wrote this about himself, “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I am the worst of them. But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life.”   Paul was referring to his own radical conversion to faith in Christ. We read about it in Acts chapter nine. Up to that point Paul had been one of the most fanatical and fearful Pharisees. He hated Christians; he persecuted them; he hunted them down; he even presided over their executions. When he said he was the worst of all sinners he wasn’t exaggerating.   But then he had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. He placed his faith in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, was saved, and then radically transformed. Paul went from being the biggest enemy of Christianity to being a missionary, evangelist, preacher, teacher, church planter, mentor to other pastors, and God used him to write that largest portion of the New Testament. It was a radical transformation that illustrates the power of faith.   No matter how lost a person is and how far they are from God, no one is beyond the reach of the Holy Spirit. If that person is still breathing there’s a chance for them to come to faith in Jesus, and as we have seen in the life of the Apostle Paul, faith in Jesus is a powerful force. It brings about a radical transformation.   Tomorrow we will consider some additional examples of this important truth. For today, I encourage you to never give up on anyone – no matter how far away they seem from God. Pray for them; witness to them; believe that they can be saved and transformed.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: the righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “What is faith?”   As we continue our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we’re still in chapter one laying the foundation for all that is to come in the letter. Paul has a lot to teach us about sound doctrine that will lead to strong faith, but there are some important principles that must be learned first, and one of the most important is the nature of faith itself.   What is faith, and how do we live by faith? More precisely, why do we have to live by faith? Those are important questions for Christians to wrestle with and to have answers for. They are also common stumbling blocks that sometimes prevent people from coming to faith in Christ at all.   What is faith? The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 that “… faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” The Amplified Bible is a little more descriptive, “Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen (the conviction of their reality – faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses).”   The Greek word for reality that was used in this verse is “hypostasis” which means “a firm confidence”. So, having faith in the Biblical sense is a firm confidence that God is real, the Bible is true, and we are convinced of that even if we don’t have visible physical proof of God that our five senses can detect. Faith in God requires us to go one step beyond what our human senses can confirm for us but to have that firm confidence anyway.   Now, although there is no direct confirmation of God provided for us by our five human senses (in that we cannot actually see God and we cannot actually touch Him), there is lots of indirect evidence that our senses can detect and which helps to build the case for faith in God. We don’t have time this morning to go into detail about all that evidence but it comes to us through God’s amazing creation, through the Bible, through thousands of years of Biblical history, through the evidence of transformed lives, and through the circumstances of our lives as we experience the Holy Spirit of God interacting with us personally day-by-day and moment-by-moment.   So, although we don’t have direct evidence of God in that we cannot see Him, touch Him, or audibly hear Him, there is a mountain of indirect evidence that helps to give us that internal confidence that there’s no way this cannot be true. Faith is coming to the point where we are willing to go one step beyond what our human senses can confirm for us, and to have confidence and assurance in God anyway. It is a choice that leads to a decision to believe.   That’s what faith is. Tomorrow we will think about how we live by faith.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things that you hear but didn’t hear them.” Matthew 13:16-17 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “You have a lot to tell”   This morning I want to continue our thinking from yesterday about Paul’s assertion in Romans 1:1-3 about the privilege it was for him to be called and equipped by God to tell the Good News of the gospel (that the promise of God, given down through the ages that the Messiah would come and He would save the world from their sins, had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ). It was Paul’s mission in life and his great privilege to share that Good News and to tell that story – and it should be our mission too.   The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is centered on and revolves around God’s promise to provide a Savior. That story is ours to tell, but in addition to everything that is written for us in the Bible, we today can also tell people all about the amazing impact the church of Jesus Christ has had on world history over 2000 years and is continuing to have today. We can talk about the billions of people who have placed their faith in Christ. We can talk about all the good works that have been accomplished – the hospitals and schools and churches and cathedrals; the charitable foundations; the humanitarian relief work; and much more. We can talk about the fact that there are more professing Christians on this planet today than at any other time in world history.   In fact, no group of Christians have ever had as much Good News to share with others as we do today, and no group of Christians have ever had more money, more technology, and more tools available to us to do it with.   Around A.D. 30 Jesus said to those of His day, recorded in Matthew 13:16-17, “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things that you hear but didn’t hear them.”   How much truer is that for us today? We have the entire Bible, along with almost 2000 years of Christian history. You are a participant in the promise, and you have a lot you can tell people about it. God chose for you to live in this age of history, and He has placed you geographically where He wants you to be. He has equipped you with talents, skills, and abilities you can use as tools to serve others in His name and to then use that service as a bridge to share Jesus with others. You have a lot to tell, and you are called and equipped by God to do it.   Paul understood that, and I hope we do too. It is the greatest story ever told and I hope you will be passionate about telling it.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures – concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 1:1-3 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Share the story”   What Paul wrote in these three verses is the Good News that was promised by God, and which was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in verse 2 that the Promise was given by God through the Old Testament prophets and recorded in Scripture for us. God gave us the promise in multiple ways through multiple spokesmen, and we can trace it throughout the entire Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.   The Promise was the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He was the promised Messiah, the Savior the world had been waiting for. It was Paul’s great privilege to spend the rest of his life proclaiming this Good News to the world. It is our privilege to do so too.   Do you realize what it is we have and can share with people? Think about this: over the course of about 1500 years God progressively revealed more-and-more spiritual truth to the world, doling it out in small chunks over time. It began in the early chapters of Genesis in limited ways with Noah and those of his generation; it got more specific in the times of Abraham; then it got much more revealing and began being put into writing in the times of Moses; and then over more than 1000 years prophets, sages, and leaders like David and Solomon revealed more and more, until finally, we had the entire Old Testament. Then John the Baptist ushered the world into the New Testament age by announcing the coming of the Messiah.   Then over the course of about sixty years the New Testament unfolded, providing us with even more spiritual insight, until finally, somewhere in the A.D. 90s, the Apostle John gave us the final book of the Bible, Revelation, and then God was done.   The Bible itself is closed. It is complete. There will be nothing more added to it. But the book of Acts itself is still being written. The book of Acts is the story of the New Testament church, on-mission with Jesus in the world, and that has been going on for 2000 years and is continuing in our day. So, in that respect, the book of Acts is still being written. That does not mean that anything is being added to the Bible. But it does mean that the history of the New Testament church is still being written, and you and I today are adding to that history.   It’s an exciting and fascinating story and so I will have more to say about it tomorrow. For today, think about the wonderful promise from God that has been fulfilled in history, and then go tell somebody about it.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong fatih”   Our Bible verse for today: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:7   Our thought for today: “Be like Charlie”   We ended yesterday’s devotional with the understanding that God has called you and set you apart for His special purposes. He has also equipped you to do whatever it is He is calling you to do. In that message I offered some Scriptural proof of that truth. Here are a few more passages you can add to that body of proof that God has called and equipped you for some special purpose:   Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” That command from Jesus is to all His followers and it clearly states that (1) we have been called by Him for a specific purpose and (2) we will be empowered and equipped to help with that Great Commission in some manner.   1 Corinthians 12:7 “A manifestation of the Spirit has been given to each one for the common good.”   Philippians 1:6 “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   The point is that God has called you for a purpose. He has placed you where He wants you; He has equipped you with skills, abilities, talents, resources, and relationships; all of which can and should be used by you to do your part for the cause of Christ on earth.   Pastor Tony Compolo tells the story of a friend of his who he hadn’t seen in a while and when they did run into each other, the man said that he finally found his true calling in life. He had been an English teacher in a small college, but he left that to become a mailman. Tony was a bit surprised by that move, but he encouraged his friend by saying, “Charlie, if you are going to be a mailman, then be a mailman for Christ and be the very best mailman you can be.”   To that Charlie replied, “Tony, I’m a lousy mailman. I’m the last one to get back to the Post Office at the end of every day and truth be told, I’m having trouble sleeping at night.” When Tony asked why that was his friend said, “There are so many lonely people on my route and everyone wants me to stop and chat with them for a few minutes. It just breaks my heart to see how lonely they are, and they seem to get so much joy from the attention I give them. So, I stop and talk to each one who wants to talk, and that slows me down a lot. And beyond that, let me ask you, have you ever tried getting to sleep at night after you’ve had 15 cups of coffee during the day?”   Those lonely people needed a kind, compassionate, Christian mailman who would slow his route down and spend a few minutes talking with each person – and Charlie was the man for that job.   My friend, God has called you and set you apart to do something specific for Him too. Do you know what it is? I encourage you to find out and then, like the Apostle Paul and like Christopher Columbus (who’s examples we considered in previous devotionals), and like Charlie the mailman, throw yourself into it with enthusiasm, passion, and dedication.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God …” Romans 1:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “You have been called and set apart for this”   Paul wrote that he was a servant of Jesus Christ who had been called by God to be an Apostle, and he was set apart by God for a specific task related to the gospel. If you are familiar with Paul’s story, then you know that God ended up using him as the catalyst for spreading the Christian faith throughout the Roman empire. Paul was an evangelist, preacher, teacher, missionary, church-planter, and mentor of other preachers, pastors, and leaders. God also used him to write the majority of the New Testament. That was Paul’s specific calling, and he was uniquely equipped by God for it.   But originally, he was the anthesis of that. By his own admission, Paul was a Pharisee’s Pharisee. He was more legalistic and more obsessive about keeping every jot and tittle of the laws, rules, and regulations of the Pharisees than any of the others. He was consumed with hatred for Christians, and he was obsessive about hunting them down, arresting them, overseeing their torture, and even their executions. Paul was passionate and committed to terrorizing the Christian community and wiping out the Christian faith.   But then he had an encounter with the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus and he did a complete 180. He went from being the biggest enemy of the Christian faith to being the most committed and effective proponent of the faith who has ever lived.   Now, you may be thinking that under those extraordinary circumstances it’s easy to see why Paul was so committed, passionate, and dedicated to the cause of Christ. But that was Paul, it’s not you and it’s not me, right? Well, no. Not right. Those same general truths apply to us as well.   The fact is that at some point you did have an encounter with Christ, and it did change the trajectory of your life – and of your eternity. And it’s also true that God has a great plan for your life. He has called you for a specific purpose, and He has equipped you for whatever it is He’s calling you to. The Bible offers plenty of proof for that:     Jeremiah 1:5 “I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born.” God spoke those words specifically to the prophet Jeremiah, but they are also true for you and for me and for everyone. God chose you and set you apart for His purposes.   Jeremiah 29:11-14: “For I know the plans I have for you – this is the Lord’s declaration – plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you …”   Now again, those words were spoken directly and specifically to Jeremiah, but we know they pertain to us too because they articulate a general Biblical principle that is taught in many other places in both the Old and New Testaments.   We will continue thinking about this tomorrow. For now, just know that God has called you and set you apart for His special purposes. Thank Him for that.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Confidence leads to boldness”   I read an interesting article about Christopher Columbus the other day. It was entitled “What Was Driving Columbus?” It was about the tremendous sense of confidence and certainty Columbus had regarding his vision to sail the seas and discover new worlds, and where that motivation came from. Here’s what Columbus himself wrote about that:   “I prayed to the most merciful Lord about my heart’s desire, and he gave me the spirit and the intelligence for the task: seafaring, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, skill in drafting spherical maps and placing correctly cities, rivers, mountains, and ports. I also studied cosmology, history, chronology and philosophy. It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy spirit, because he comforted me with … the Holy Scriptures … encouraging me continually to press forward, and without ceasing for a moment they (the Scriptures) now encourage me to make haste.”   Think for a moment about what he wrote there. He was certain that his calling to do this was from God. He was able to point to all the skills and abilities that God had equipped him with to carry out the mission, and he diligently searched the Scriptures to find confirmation and encouragement regarding his God-given mission. That’s what was driving Columbus, and that’s what kept him going.   All of that combined to give Columbus not just a clear vision of what it was he was called to do for the Lord, but also it gave him incredible passion for it – rock-solid confidence – and the strength to persevere and carry on in the face of rejection and ridicule.   The Apostle Paul also had that kind of vision, passion, and confidence regarding his own call from God. You see, when someone clearly understands what it is God has called them to do, and they have realized that God equips them and empowers them to do whatever it is He is calling them to do, and they know that He goes before them and goes with them – that understanding then becomes the driver, the motive force, that gets them going and keeps them going.   That was certainly true of the Apostle Paul, and of Christopher Columbus, but it’s also true for you and me. Paul was called, equipped, empowered and guided by God for a specific purpose, and so are we. Your strong faith, which is built upon sound doctrine, will be the driving force in your life and that confidence will give you boldness.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth …” Romans 1:18 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “False teaching is spiritual poison”   I have a book on my bookshelf that serves to remind me of just how critical sound doctrine is – and how damaging false teachers can be. It is a book written by a leading voice in a very liberal wing of the Christian community. He is the pastor of a large church in a denomination that promotes unbiblical beliefs and practices. His book is designed to help professing Christians who disagree with some of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith to rationalize departing from them.   For instance, in the book the author declares that the Bible is the Word of God, but it is also the word of man. It is a mix of both. In his opinion, in the writing of it the human writers inserted their own opinions and personal biases along with the words from God. So, for instance, when we read the words of Moses in the Old Testament, and Paul in the New Testament, which condemn the practice of homosexuality, we need to realize that that was just Moses and Paul inserting their own cultural biases into the Scripture and we should not take that to mean that God condemns homosexual conduct. So, according to the author, it’s necessary for the enlightened reader of the Bible in our day to thoughtfully discern which statements in the Bible are from God and obey them; and which are from the human writers, and disregard those.   Another example of false and destructive teaching that author puts forward is when Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the light; no one comes to the Father except through me.” The author maintains that statement is true, but it is true for everyone regardless of their faith. No matter what faith you adhere to here on earth, even if you have no faith, when you pass from this life into the next you will stand before Jesus and you will discover that John 14:6 is indeed true and that Jesus has already paid the penalty for you sins so you don’t have to. Jesus is the way for everybody, regardless of their faith – or lack of it.   Those are just two examples from that one book by that one author. Our society today is awash in all sorts of twisted and false teaching which purports to be acceptable Christian doctrine. But it’s not. It’s not Biblical and it is not acceptable. It is spiritual poison that destroys people’s faith and leads them away from God. That’s why sincere Christians today need and hunger for good teaching on sound doctrine. It’s a desperate need in our society today.   There is a lot of bad theology being taught out there today. A lot of easy-believism, twisting of Scripture, and a lot of culturally modified and selective application of Scripture. Sincere Christians are hungry to be instructed in sound doctrine. Paul’s letter to the Romans provides us with exactly that. Our study of this letter will help us to appreciate the truth that sound doctrine is an essential element of strong faith.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning, everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”   Our Bible verse for today: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God – which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord …” Romans 1:1-3 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Thank you, Martin Luther”   Let me be clear upfront that I am not one of those Baptist preachers who bashes Catholics. My mother was a lifelong Catholic and she was one of the finest women I have ever known. I was raised as a Catholic and it was because of that that the seeds of the Christian faith were planted deep in my heart and where there, ready to bloom into strong faith many years later. I am not a practicing Catholic, I’m a Baptist, but I am grateful for my Catholic roots.   To some extent, you should be grateful for Catholicism too. In fact, it’s probably not too much of a stretch to say that were it not for the book of Romans, we would all probably be Roman Catholics, if we had faith in Jesus at all.   But the book of Romans is responsible for a massive shift in Christian understanding. The reason I say that is because all evangelical Christianity has grown out of what is called the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was a major movement that took place in Europe beginning in the early 1500s. At that time the Catholic Church, under the authority of the Pope, was really the only major denomination there was. Almost everyone was a Catholic.   But there was so much abuse of papal authority, and so much corruption among church leaders at all levels, and so many teachings that went beyond what the Bible itself actually says, that more and more church leaders, theologians, and everyday people in the pews were getting increasingly exasperated with it.   Although there had been rumblings and minor rebellions before this, the big shift started in 1517 with Martin Luther, an ordained Catholic priest. Luther was grieved over the abuses in the church, but as a well-educated theologian and Bible scholar he was especially vexed by all the extra-Biblical rules and practices that the Catholic church had invented to go along with the Bible. Over the centuries church officials had done to the New Testament essentially what the scribes and Pharisees had done to the Old Testament for the Jews – they created all sorts of beliefs and practices that went beyond what the Bible itself requires of us.   Luther agonized over this and finally came to the realization that salvation is by means of faith alone, in Christ alone, and by no other means. So, he wrote what has been called his “Ninety-five theses, which were 95 inditements, abuses, or errors being promoted by the Catholic church, and it was widely distributed and embraced by many.   In 1521 the pope excommunicated Luther and put him on trial. The court demanded that Luther recant and retract his document, which Luther refused to do. That’s when he reportedly made his famous statement “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Out of this, the Protestant Reformation gained steam and took off. This is, in my opinion, what helped to get Christianity back on track in terms of pure doctrine and right focus.   It was primarily Luther’s study of the book of Romans that formed his thinking and drove his convictions. He said, “Romans is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.”   If you are an evangelical Christian today it is in part because of the revelation and insight God gave to Martin Luther through his study of the book of Romans. Join with me in saying, “Thank you, Martin Luther!”   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

Copyright © 2026 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571