Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “There is profit in all hard work, but endless talk leads only to poverty.” Proverbs 14:23 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Just get started”   In yesterday’s devotional I encouraged us to not settle for “good-enough,” and I referred to the classic leadership book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Well, here’s another encouraging thought for us, and this one comes from the great Christian writer G.K. Chesterton from the late 1800s. Chesterton was a large man with a big bushy mustache and a fun, engaging personality. He was known for his sharp wit and his good humor. He was funny, blunt, convicting, and challenging, all at the same time.   He once said something about procrastination that at first blush seems a bit confusing. We can find ourselves scratching our heads and wondering what in the world Chesterton means. But upon further reflection, we realize there is great wisdom in it. Chesterton said, “If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.”   Say what? If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly? Does that mean it’s okay to do things badly? And how does that square with what we learned from Jim Collins about not being content with mediocrity or simply being “good-enough?”   Actually, it’s all part of the same mindset. Yes, we want to be our best and to never settle for mediocrity. But we also don’t want to set the bar so high right out of the gate that it is intimidating to the point that we’re afraid to even attempt the thing. The point Chesterton was making was that if a thing is worth being done, then do it. Just do it to the best of your ability. Even if your initial efforts are not very good, so what? If it’s a worthwhile thing, then doing it badly is better than not doing it at all. If you’re making an effort, you can reasonably expect to get progressively better at it as you continue doing it. That’s better than not doing the thing at all.   With respect to progressive sanctification and the process of transformation the Holy Spirit wants to take you through – just get started. You’re not going to instantly be some kind of super-saint. So what? If you are a little better today than you were yesterday, then you have made progress. So, pray – even if you pray badly, just pray. Read your Bible – even if you don’t understand a lot of it, read it anyway. Go to church – even if the preacher does have more hair in his nose than on his head and he’s a little odd in his mannerisms, go anyway.   You get the point. Just get started. It’s better to do it poorly than to not do it at all. Your praying, understanding, acts of service to others, and all the rest, will all get better with time. (The preacher I’m not so sure about, but the rest of the stuff will get better.) So, don’t procrastinate. Just get started.   God bless, Pastor Jim     (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Don’t settle for good-enough”   In 2 Peter 1:5-8 the Apostle Peter was essentially describing the ongoing process of progressive sanctification. He was calling his readers to develop daily habits of spiritual discipline that would result in the Holy Spirit slowly transforming them into a better reflection of Jesus. Peter reiterated that call a couple of chapters later when he wrote in 2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” There it is again, “grow,” “change,” “transform,” and become better than you have been.   In 1989, while I was still serving as a Naval Officer, I went to graduate school at night in my off-duty hours to earn a Master of Science degree in curriculum development for business. The idea was for the curriculum developer to go into an industrial or business setting that was not producing acceptable results. The developer would then meet with the leadership team to determine what the best-case scenario would be. In other words, “In a perfect world, what would be the ideal outcome that you would like to have?” Once that ideal was identified we then knew what the goal was. The next step was to work with the subject matter experts to develop training for the organization that would take them from where they were, and get them progressively closer to where they needed to be.   Could we say it was progressive sanctification for business? Perhaps. But that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does with us. He identifies where we’re at, compares it to where we need to be, and then starts walking us through a process that is designed to take us from where we are and move us closer and closer to where we should be.   The business leadership guru Jim Collins once wrote a book about this that was an international best-seller. It was called “Good to Great” and it was based on the premise that too many businesses and individuals settle for just being good when they could be great. We decide that what we are and where we are is good-enough. But that then keeps us from ever moving forward to becoming what we could be.   Too many Christians are simply good when they could be great. The Holy Spirit wants you to be great in your spiritual maturity. He doesn’t want us to settle for “good-enough.” You are capable of much more. In terms of your spiritual development, you may be good, but you could be great. I encourage you not to settle for good-enough.   God bless, Pastor Jim    (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Live until you die”   So, I have some “old man issues” going on. Nothing serious. They’re all minor. But I had two doctor’s appointments in the same day the other day, and I’m currently wearing a knee brace for the first time in my life. There’s other stuff too. Overall, I think I’m pretty healthy, but I’m about to turn seventy and the old body is showing some signs of wear and tear.   I often hear people complain about getting older, but I usually try to avoid doing that myself. I’m grateful to have lived long enough to get old. Many never get the chance. But if you do live long enough, you will get old and your body will wear out. As a matter of good stewardship, we should do our best to take good care of the body God has given us so that we can continue to use it for His kingdom-building purposes for as long as possible. But still, if you live long enough you will get old and your body will wear out.     However, on the flip side, as Paul described in 2 Corinthians 4:16, if you are doing this Christian life right then the older you get the stronger and healthier you will be spiritually. As your physical body withers and declines, your spirit gets bigger, better, stronger, healthier. As your outer person is wasting away, your inward person is being renewed day by day, getting ever-stronger.   Far too often Christians use physical decline as an excuse for withdrawing from ministry, and sometimes from church altogether. But that shouldn’t be. Physical changes in your mortal body may necessitate a change in the kinds of ministry activities you can participate in, but the progressive sanctification taking place in your spiritual person enables you to be even more effective for the cause of Christ in other ways.   Personally, I have great respect for older people who, while declining physically, still have a great attitude and they are still full of life. They are upbeat and positive, they are great encouragers of others, they are sources of wisdom and good counsel, and they are often fun to be with. Such people have decided to live until they die. They live fully, with passion and vigor. I want to be like that too.   As Jimmy Buffet once sang, “I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead.” I agree. I encourage all of us to live until we die. Really live.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “He comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”  2 Corinthians 1:4-6 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Give them some of your strength”   Throughout the years of my ministry, I have had the privilege of knowing Christians who were especially gifted at comforting others. They were men and women who were empathic at a deep level and they had a unique gift of being able to enter into someone else’s pain and suffering with them, sharing the burden and offering comfort.   I have great admiration for people who have the strength to carry other people’s burdens like that. They offer some of their own strength to help that person deal with that heavy load. In those cases, there is essentially a transfer of strength taking place. The comforting person is giving the hurting, struggling, grieving person an infusion of strength to help them carry on.   In almost every case like that, the gifted comforter is a person who has suffered greatly themselves. They are people who have overcome serious illness, suffered through the pain of the death of a loved one, endured the long-term agony of a wayward adult child, or something similar. Sometimes many times over. The Bible teaches in multiple passages that such suffering of our own, can and should make us stronger so that we can then be a source of strength for others as they endure similar things.   The process of progressive sanctification, and the transformation that comes from it, is the result of different and varied kinds of work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But part of the process involves the Spirit using our times of trial and suffering to make us stronger. That new strength will certainly be of benefit to us when we endure trials of our own, but as Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 1:4-6, our strength can also be used as a source of strength and comfort for others who are suffering.   I encourage you to be willing to share your strength with others. Ask the Lord to make you aware of a suffering, struggling, hurting person today (they’re all around you), then find a way to be a source of comfort and strength for them.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “A new, improved, and better you”   2 Corinthians 5:17 is one of the classic go-to verses we typically include when explaining God’s plan of salvation to an unbeliever. In the moment a person places their faith in Christ they are a new creation. Their sins are forgiven and wiped away; their spirit is reborn as a new creation in Christ; and in the eyes of the Father, the person is a brand-new creation. It is a wonderful promise filled with hope and joy, and it applies specifically and directly to salvation.   But it is also true that all believers in Christ have an opportunity to become a new and better person every day – different and improved from who you were yesterday. This is part of the adventure of living the Christian life. If you are a serious disciple of Jesus Christ, and if you have incorporated the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian life into your daily routine, then you will be growing spiritually and the Holy Spirit will be in the constant process of molding you, shaping you, and transforming you into a new and improved person. You will be different and better from who you were ten years ago, and even from who you were just yesterday.   One of the most uplifting and encouraging passages in the Old Testament was recorded by the prophet Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations. In Lamentations 3:22-23 we read, “Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!”   God has new blessings, new words of encouragement, and new spiritual insights waiting for you every day. As you experience them, you will come to know God better and you will grow a little more. And when that happens, you will have changed. You will have grown spiritually and you will be a little different and a little better than you were yesterday. You might not be an entirely new creation from who you were yesterday, but you will be a slightly new, improved, and better version of you.   The Christian life lived well is a great adventure of discovery, growing, and serving. God has more for you every day. Go to Him now. Present yourself before the Holy Spirit and let Him mold you and shape you. It will result in a new, improved, and better you.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:13-14 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “What’s holding you back?”   If my illustration this morning seems a little crude, please pardon me and make allowances for an old sailor. Many decades ago, when I was a young sailor serving my first enlistment in the U.S. Navy, I heard a somewhat colorful response to a situation that I found both convicting and motivating. It was a challenge that was sometimes said to those guys who were always talking about what they were going to do, but never actually doing it. It was, “Well, I don’t see an anchor tied to your rear-end. What’s holding you back?” (The actual language was a little more colorful. We were sailors, after all).   But the point is well-taken. What is holding you back from doing the thing you know you should do, and you need to do, but which so far, you’re just talking about?   In yesterday’s devotional I urged us all not to waste any of the years of our lives. Unfortunately, many of us do waste precious time by thinking about what we’re gong to do, talking about what we’re going to do, but then making excuses instead of actually doing it.   Once we begin procrastinating and making excuses it becomes a pattern that is increasingly hard to break free from. Sometimes we will feel guilty about it, and we regret the lost time and the wasted opportunities. But we can get mired in that regret as well, and that too can become like an anchor or, to shift metaphors, like quicksand sucking us down and holding us back.   The Apostle Paul allowed for none of that in his life. Instead, he shrugged off the past, cut the tether to the anchor, and kept moving forward. That’s the result that progressive sanctification should be having in our lives. It should be the thing that keeps us moving forward. This is why we intentionally do our part by engaging in the daily spiritual disciplines that place us in a position before the Holy Spirit whereby He can mold us, transform us, and keep us moving forward. If we are growing spiritually and therefore being transformed, we will not be standing still and making excuses.   If you are feeling stuck in the mud in life, or perhaps, feeling as if there is something acting as an anchor holding you back, the solution is to ramp up the practice of your faith. If you do your part, the Holy Spirit will break you free and move you forward in life.   What’s holding you back? The answer should be, “Nothing. Nothing is holding me back. I’m moving forward.”   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “For I am being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:6-7 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Don’t waste any of the years of your life”   Bob Buford is in heaven now but during his lifetime he accomplished two important things. First, he made full use of all the seasons of his life. As a young man, he was a successful entrepreneur who worked hard, built businesses, invested wisely, and made a lot of money. Then, second, in middle-age he shifted gears and decided it was time to move from success to significance. He realized that a life that makes a real difference is about much more than just making money and having lots of possessions. Success gets you things, significance makes a difference for good in the lives of others.   So, Bob wrote a book about that which became an international best-seller. It was called “Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance.” He then spent decades leading seminars and mentoring people as they made the shift from success to significance. Finally, he followed that with another best-seller called “Finishing Well: The Adventure of Life Beyond Halftime.” That book was all about remaining significant in the last season of life, what is often referred to as “the retirement years.”   In “Finishing Well” Bob tells the story of a study that was conducted by Fuller Seminary which helps to illustrate the danger of living without passion and purpose. They looked at one hundred people in the Bible and how they finished life. The conclusion the study arrived at is that only one-third of those Biblical figures finished life well. Two-thirds of those people failed in some big way in the last season of life, and the primary reason for it was that they got lazy – lazy in life in general, and in the practice of their faith. They got lax about applying the truth of Scripture to their lives; then they stopped serving God and other people; and finally, they made excuses for their conduct.   A similar pattern can be seen in Christians all around us. They live without a clear purpose and without a passionate commitment to making a meaningful difference in the world. This tends to become even more of a problem in the retirement years. They become less productive; they have no real purpose in life anymore that gets them out of bed in the morning; and they become less passionate about the practice of their faith and participating in ministry activities.   This is sometimes referred to as the “retirement mode” and it is aimless and without focus. Studies show that people who retire without a new purpose they are passionate about and which gives them a sense of making a meaningful difference in the lives of others, die on average in less than seven years after retiring.   God calls His people to be significant in all the seasons of life. We are not to waste any of them. The Apostle Paul was a man who lived well – he made a difference in life and he finished well. Paul didn’t waste any of his years, and neither should we.   God bless, Pastor Jim     (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you requested to be included in the Daily Devotional email reader group. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them; but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” Deuteronomy 29:29 (NLT)   Our thought for today: “We are responsible for knowing what God has revealed”   There is much about God and the spiritual realm that we cannot know. Such knowledge is beyond our human capacity for understanding and will therefore remain secret to us until we are one day in heaven. But there is also much we can know. In the Bible God has revealed to us everything we need to know in order to live our best life.   We are not held accountable by God for the things we cannot know because they are beyond us; but we are held accountable for the things that we can and should know. As Moses explained to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 29:29, God expects us to know and live by all the truth He has revealed to us.   This is where your full involvement in the life of a good church comes into play. Solitary prayer and Bible study are important, but it’s not enough. The Christian life is to be lived in community. Except for short periods of solitary withdrawal for the purpose of communing with God, there are no examples in the New Testament of followers of Jesus isolating themselves from other believers and it having been a good thing. In both the Old and New Testaments, a healthy spiritual life for the people of God is always portrayed as taking place in community.   When we are gathered with fellow believers for Bible study and worship, God speaks to us through the instruction in Sunday school, through the music in worship, and through the words of the preacher in the sermon. Those are all ways the Holy Spirit makes us aware of and teaches us about the things that God has revealed to us and for which we are therefore responsible for knowing and obeying.   The exciting news is that God always has some new lesson, some new revelation prepared for you. Every time you walk through the doors of the church you have a new opportunity to discover, learn, and grow.   Today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday. Will you be attending the gathering of your church? If not, I wonder what you will miss. I wonder what new insight God had prepared to reveal to you, something you are responsible for and which He does expect you to know, but which you won’t be there to discover.   We are responsible for knowing what God has revealed. He does hold us accountable for what we can and therefore should know.     God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 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: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “We all, with unveiled faces, are looking in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “A little less like me; a little more like Jesus”   2 Corinthians 3:18 is one of the clearest and most helpful of all the verses that teach about progressive sanctification. It speaks of gazing upon and contemplating the glory of God, and as we do, we are progressively transformed more and more into the image we are contemplating.   This is one of the reasons God tells us in Psalm 46:10 to “Be still, and know that I am God.” What God was calling for in Psalm 46:10, and what Paul was teaching in 2 Corinthians 3:18, is that we need to spend time simply sitting before God, thinking deeply about who He is and what He is like. Consider His goodness, His grace, His mercy, and love. Think about how you have personally experienced those qualities of God manifested in your own life. Dwell on it; contemplate it deeply. Then consider the extent to which those attributes are becoming increasingly true of you.   A. W. Tozer once described it this way: “Only to sit and think of God, oh what a joy it is! To think the thought, to breath the Name; Earth has no higher bliss.”   Sitting quietly before God in contemplation and deep appreciation of who He is and what He is like transforms us, and is therefore for our own good. But it’s not only for our own good; it’s also for the good of those around us. Being transformed more and more into the image of Jesus will produce a sense of humility in us. It will sand down and smooth out the harsh edges of our personality and bring out mercy, grace, and love instead. Not only are we better off for it, but those around us are also impacted for good by the transformation God is bringing about in our lives.   With each little advance in transformation, as each of us as individuals become a little more like Jesus, the world is a slightly better place and everyone is better off. So, my goal for today is to be a little less like me, and a little more like Jesus.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you requested to be included in the Daily Devotional email reader group. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “Sanctification”   Our Bible verse for today: “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.” 2 John 3 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God”   I once knew a man who was practically a walking encyclopedia of the Bible. I could cite verses I had memorized, but he could site entire passages and even entire chapters from memory. And, he always had an answer. Regardless of the issue, he could tell you something the Bible had to say about it.   However, the man was also reserved and somewhat unapproachable in his demeanor. He was often blunt, sharp, and unkind in the way he spoke to people. He was impatient with others and frequently came across as critical and judgmental. Yes, he was a walking encyclopedia of the Bible, but I saw little of Jesus in his manner. I often wondered if he was truly saved. I saw little of the grace, mercy, peace, and love that John wrote about in 2 John 3 above.   Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. In yesterday’s devotional I wrote about Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life. I explained that He is the Truth in that He is the embodiment of truth, and by means of His Holy Spirit living in our heart and serving as teacher, counselor, and guide, He opens our eyes to truth. But simply knowing facts and having lots of information (even true and accurate information), is not the same as truly knowing Jesus. As James reminds us in James 2:19, “Even the demons believe – and they shudder.”   Regarding Scriptural truth and the impact it should have on us, author Alan Fadling observed, “Knowing the truth is having a heart, mind, soul, and body that are increasingly in harmony with kingdom reality.” When we truly “know” Jesus, we become changed people. As His disciples we progressively become more like Him in character and manner, and our lives display that. We don’t just talk like we’re saved – we live like we’re saved.   Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. If you have the Holy Spirit of God living in your heart it should be evident to all – not just by the things you say, but by the way you live.   God bless, Pastor Jim   (If you like what you’re 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 © 2024 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you requested to be included in the Daily Devotional email reader group. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571