Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life …” Proverbs 10:11 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Speak words of life”   Yesterday I told you the story of Eliza Doolittle from the movie, “My Fair Lady.” Her story was an illustration of the psychological phenomenon known as “The Pygmalion Effect” or, the self-fulfilling prophecy. What you believe to be true about yourself can have a powerful impact on what ends up being true about you. We also learned that we can help to shape someone else’s self-image and alter what they believe to be true about themselves by the words we speak to them.   There were two individuals in my early life who had that kind of impact on me. The first was my fifth-grade teacher Roberta Ryder. I was a troubled kid with a poor self-image. I had been told repeatedly in those early years that I was stupid, and I believed it. But Ms. Ryder saw something in me. She gave me special attention and lots of encouragement. She noticed that I liked to read and write, and she often told me that she believed I had what it took to be a writer, perhaps a newspaper reporter. Her belief in me and her words of encouragement were balm to a hurting child’s soul and I have remembered it to this day.   The other person who had a significant impact on me was an educational counselor named Mr. Peppard. He worked for the Navy Educational Office on the Navy Base in Philadelphia, PA. He was also the cousin of the actor George Peppard (The A Team). As a young man in my 20s, I was still trying to figure out what to do with my life and I went to see Mr. Peppard for some career counseling. He had me take an aptitude test to help me discover what career field I was most likely to enjoy and be successful in. Much to my surprise, number one on the list came back as “priest or minister.”  At that time, as a young sailor, I was very far from resembling a priest or minister and the thought seemed laughable to me. But Mr. Peppard gently and kindly urged me to just tuck the idea away for now and let it sit with me for a while.   Well, here I am today, sixty years after my time with Ms. Ryder and more than forty-five years after Mr. Peppard. I have never forgotten either one of them or their wise words of counsel and encouragement, and it turns out that I have had a long and successful career as both a pastor and as a writer.   You can have that kind of impact on people too. With the Holy Spirit of God living in your heart, you have within you the ability to have a profound and positive impact on the people God brings into your life. Please do not underestimate the power or your words to speak life into someone’s confused and hurting soul.   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 © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TM 38571

Good morning everyone,   Our theme for this month: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “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.” Philippians 1:6 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Believe the best about yourself”   Are you familiar with the psychological phenomenon known as “The Pygmalion Effect”? It comes out of Greek mythology. Pygmalion was a sculptor who crafted a beautiful statue of the perfect woman. He then fell so in love with his statue that he fantasized she was a real woman. His belief was so strong that the statue ended up coming alive and his belief in that reality became a self-fulfilling prophecy.   Although the story is fiction, it illustrates an actual truth about human nature. The stronger we believe something to be true, the more likely it is to become true for us. That’s especially so with respect to what we believe to be true about ourselves. And that being the case, if we can help to shape someone’s belief in themselves, we can potentially change the course of their life.   That’s exactly what the classic movie “My Fair Lady” was all about. In that story, Eliza Doolittle is a simple and uneducated young woman from the lower class of London. Henry Higgs is a professor who attempts to help her modify her self-image and come to believe that she can present herself as a confident, cultured, dignified lady. He then goes about showing her how to be that lady and in due course, that is what she becomes.   As Christians the Holy Spirit is in the process of transforming us into the person God wants us to be – the person God knows we can and should be. Our job is to believe that we can become that person. We are also to believe that others can become their best selves too and we are to help them achieve that. We do that by believing in each other, encouraging one another, lifting each other up, and helping each other along in this process of transformation.   The Greeks had it right and to a large degree, Pygmalion’s story is all our stories. What we believe to be true about ourselves can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy and with words of encouragement and inspiration, we can help one another to believe the best about ourselves. We can help each other to believe that God is in the process of transforming us into our best selves.   What we believe to be true about ourselves is often what comes to be true about us. I encourage you to believe the best about yourself, work towards becoming your best self, and then help others to be their best too.   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 © 2025 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: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “The tongue has the power of life and death.” Proverbs 18:21 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Are you a builder or a wrecker?”   Have you seen the meme on social media of an enraged father towering over a trembling little boy as the father spews angry words of criticism and rebuke? We get the feeling that this father is something of an ogre and that this is a regular occurrence in the boy’s life. The scene is especially disturbing because unfortunately, many children do grow up in dysfunctional homes with abusive parents who habitually say cruel things. Over time children come to believe those things about themselves and it has a profound negative impact on the formation of their self-image. Many people end up spending much of their adult lives trying to get over their childhood precisely for this reason.   Perhaps you’re familiar with another story of two men standing side-by-side observing workers constructing a new house. One man turns to the other and asks why he is so interested in the construction process. The other answers that he makes his living demolishing old homes that must be torn down. He explained that he finds it ironic how he can tear down in a day what it took skilled laborers six months to build.   Both of those stories illustrate the same point. It’s easy to tear down and destroy. And once you have torn down or destroyed, it can be difficult or even impossible to put the thing back together again – whether the thing is a building or a child’s psyche.   Words are like that. Words can build up or they can destroy depending on how they are used. Solomon tells us in Proverbs 18:21 that the tongue has the power of life and death in it. He meant that we can use our words to speak life into people by encouraging them and lifting them up, or we can cut them down, hurt them, maybe destroy them.   Words are powerful and we need to be careful how we use them. Therefore, we will spend the rest of this month considering the power of the words we use and how we can use them for good rather than bad, for blessing rather than cursing.   For today, I want to ask you to give careful prayerful thought to how you most often use your words. Are you a builder who uses your words to lift people up, or are you a wrecker who tears people down? Be honest with yourself. Invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you about this.   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 © 2025 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: “The Power of Words”   Our Bible verse for today: “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Unspoken words are important too”   A friend once referred to me as “the word guy.” She said it as a compliment because words are my business and I use them in preaching, teaching, praying, and writing. I have shared with you before a statement once made by pastor and author Eugene Peterson about himself, but which resonated with me to the point that I wrote it down and claimed it as my own: “I am a pastor and I am a writer. Those are not separate vocations competing for my time and attention, they are both part of a unified calling. I am a pastor and a writer; it is a single coherent identity. My artistic medium is words, written and prayed and preached.”   I love that statement and I think it is true about me, but sometimes words fail me. Especially on Mondays. My work week starts on Tuesday and is filled with word-related tasks such as writing sermons and Bible studies and daily devotionals, as well as leading in prayer, counseling, writing letters and emails, making phone calls, and more – all of which culminates on Sunday with preaching and teaching.   As a result, on Monday (my day off), I often find myself worded-out. I’ve got nothing. Even finding the words to pray can be a challenge. But that’s okay because the Holy Spirit has my back on this. As Paul explained in Romans 8:26-27, the Spirit searches our heart, knows us at the deepest possible level, and then prays for us. For my part, my prayer may be nothing more than a groan. But the Holy Spirit takes the groans, the befuddled and foggy mind, the wordlessness, and makes something meaningful out of it before the throne of God for me.   That being the case, some of my best prayers are the ones I can find no words for. In those cases, the Spirit prays for me (and I have no doubt that He prays for me a lot better than I pray for myself.) Mondays are often my Psalm 46:10 day. “Be still, Jim, and just know that I am God.” So, I sit out on the back deck early in the morning, maybe with a fire in the firepit, and I just sit still and quiet before God letting the Spirit search my heart and pray on my behalf.   Sometimes words aren’t needed. Sometimes silence speaks louder than words. Sometimes less is more. Unspoken words matter too and sometimes what we don’t say is better than what we do say.   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 © 2025 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: “The Power of Words”   Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:9:12 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Pray like this”   We all want our prayers to be powerful and effective. We want our prayers to be meaningful and to accurately express our thoughts, feelings, and concerns to God. But sometimes we simply don’t know what to pray for or how to pray it. For those times a model prayer can be helpful.   In Matthew chapter six, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught a lesson about praying. In it He gave us a model for prayer that we have come to call “The Lord’s Prayer.” Jesus didn’t necessarily mean for us to pray these exact words (although it is okay to do so). More than that, He was giving us a structure to guide our praying. Let’s break it down and see how we could use it as a guide for our own praying:   “Our Father in heaven” – Take a moment to think about God. Consider who He is and what He is like. Think about His glory and majesty. Just worship Him.   “Your name be honored” – Say: “Father, I love You and I want my life to honor you. I want you to be pleased with me. It is my desire for people to see your holiness reflected in my life.”   “Your kingdom come” – Pray about ways in which you can serve others in the name of Jesus and share the Good News of the Gospel with them. Affirm to God that you want to be a part of His kingdom-building work on earth.   “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – You could pray: “Help me to put aside my own will, my own preferences, priorities, and desires, and to genuinely seek your will.”   “Give us today our daily bread” – How about something like this: “Thank you Father, for the way you have blessed me in the past. I trust today, tomorrow, and all my tomorrows to You.” (Read Matthew 6:25-34 then claim that promise too and ask God to fulfill it again today in your life.)   “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” – This is about sins and offenses. Ask God to forgive you for your sins against Him, and affirm to Him that you will also forgive others for the offenses they have committed against you.   There are many model prayers in the Bible. There are also many other prayer guides and pre-printed prayers available to help guide our praying. As we grow in spiritual maturity our praying should become increasingly deep and meaningful. Models for prayer help to increase the power and effectiveness of our prayers. The words we say to God matter.   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 © 2025 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: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “Test me in this way,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10 (NIV)   Our thought for today: “Let’s test God”   Have you ever tested God? I mean, have you ever challenged Him to keep a promise and then stood back to wait and see if He would do it? In Malachi chapter three the prophet was teaching an important lesson on the principle of stewardship. Through Malachi God told the people to be faithful tithers by bringing the first 10% of their income and giving it back to Him to help finance His kingdom-building work. And if they did that, God in turn would bless their socks off. Perhaps that would include financial blessings, but more likely and more often the blessings will be spiritual and they will come in multiple ways.   Essentially God was saying “You will be better off living on 90% with My blessing than you will be with 100% without my blessing.” He then urged them to test Him and see if He would be faithful to the promise He was making to them. If they obeyed God in this manner, over the long-term they would find that the promise was indeed true and God would bless their faithfulness in multiple ways.   The promises of God are always true and it is always okay for us to claim the promises He has made to us. We can even do that in prayer. Although the figure varies depending on how “promise” is defined, most estimates conclude there are between 7000-8000 promises from God to mankind in the Bible. And every one of them are true. Over-and-over again in the Bible we find the people of God claiming the promises of God and moving forward in faith that God would keep His promises.   I own a little book called “The Bible Promise Book.” It contains over 1000 promises from God organized by category. So, if I want to read some promises from God about protection, or provision, or peace, I turn to that section and there are 8, 10, 12 Bible passages pertaining to that promise from God. I once went through that little book and put a checkmark next to each promise that had already been fulfilled in my life. At other times I have prayed a promise back to God and asked Him to fulfill it in my life.   The promises of God are powerful and if the proper conditions are met, they will always come true. It’s perfectly fine to pray the promises back to God in prayer and then wait for Him to fulfill them in your life.   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 © 2025 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: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “Let’s learn how to pray”   Are you satisfied with your prayer life? Most of us aren’t. I’m not. I want to be a better pray-er. I pray often, and I pray in faith, but I want to be better at talking to God. I believe that’s probably true for you too.   As we have already learned, reading the Bible is more important than praying because it’s more important for me to hear from God than it is for God to hear from me. But with that said, God does want to hear from me, and He wants to hear from you too. Depending on the translation, the Bible refers to prayer or praying more than 600 times. That’s a pretty good indication that God wants His people to pray.   During this month of study about the power of words, we will continue to consider the power of the words God has spoken to us, and we will spend much time considering the importance of the words we speak to others, but we also need to think about the words that we speak to God.   In Luke 11:1 the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Please remember that these were religious men. They had been raised as good Jews with a strong faith in God and therefore, they had been praying their entire lives. But after observing Jesus Himself in prayer and seeing how powerful and effective His prayers were, they realized they still had a lot to learn about praying – and they were eager to learn. That needs to be true of us as well.   Early in my Christian life I was fortunate to have had two important books about prayer recommended to me, both of which helped me to establish good prayer practices. One was “The Disciples Prayer Life” by T.W. Hunt, and the other was “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala. I recommend them both to you.   It’s true that in its simplest form, prayer is just a conversation between a Father and a child. But just as a child will have deeper and richer conversations with their father as the child matures, so too our prayer conversations with God need to progress beyond childish simplicity.   What God says to us is of supreme importance. But what we say to God matters too. We will think more about this tomorrow.   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 © 2025 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: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “I rejoice in the way revealed by your decrees as much as in all riches. I will mediate on your precepts and think about your ways. I will delight in your statues; I will not forget your word.” Psalm 119:14-16 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “It’s what God says that matters”   In yesterday’s devotional we learned that the most important and powerful words of all are those given to us by God in the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God and He is speaking to us through it in the most clear and direct way. He gave us the Bible because He wants to be heard and understood so we can then obey Him and live in a way that honors Him. Also, as we learned yesterday, the words of the Bible are more than just words on a page. Instead, they are spiritually supercharged; they are alive by the power of the Holy Spirit.   In the Bible God provides us with lots of very clear directives in the form of dos and don’ts. The Ten Commandments are the most famous of those lists. So, if you’re wondering if it’s okay to commit murder, or adultery, or to steal, the Bible will quickly clear that up for you. Beyond that, in the Bible God gives us lots of general principles to guide us. Whereas a direct command (Do not commit murder) is specific to certain situations and actions, general principles are guidelines that apply broadly across the spectrum of life and they are taught in many places and in many ways all throughout the Bible. Speaking to people with kindness and respect is one of those general Biblical principles (Colossians 4:6; 1 Peter 3:14-15).   Taken together, the direct commands and the general principles found in the Bible form what we call a Biblical worldview. It provides us with the guidance we need from God so we can know how to live in this world.   Our worldview is comprised of the ethics and values which inform our thoughts and guide our actions. A Christian worldview comes from God and is based on the direct commands and general principles given to us in the Bible. Therefore, we take everything we are seeing, hearing, and being told to do by the world, and we lay it alongside the Bible. We want to know how it compares to what God has said. That then helps us to know if the thing we are seeing, hearing, or being told to do by the world is consistent with God’s guidance. The rightness or wrongness of anything is determined by how it stacks up to the Word of God. That’s a Biblical worldview and it is the guide for Christian living.   It’s essential for Christians to have and maintain a Biblical worldview and to then live life according to it. Regardless of what the world says, it’s what God says that matters. .   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 © 2025 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: “The Power of Words”   Our Bible verse for today: “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “The most important and powerful words of all”   Henry Blackaby, the author of the famous Bible study “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God,” was once asked, “Which is more important, praying or reading the Bible?” To which Henry answered, “Reading the Bible. It’s much more important for me to hear from God than for God to hear from me.”   Amen! God already knows everything about me, but I don’t know everything about Him. I can’t tell God anything He doesn’t already know, but He can tell me a lot that I don’t know. It’s much more important for me to hear from God than for God to hear from me, and the primary way God speaks to me (and to you) is through His written word – the Bible.   As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews explained in Hebrews 4:12, the words of the Bible are alive. Much more than just being words on paper, they are spiritually supercharged, infused with the power of God and used by the Holy Spirit to cut right through the lies of Satan (as well as through all my excuses).   I can’t count the number of times that I’ve been minding my own business, casually reading the Bible (without consciously thinking about the fact that God was speaking to me through those words), when suddenly the words jumped off the page, grabbed me by the collar, and shook me up real good! It turned out the words were alive and they demanded my attention – they pierced my heart, they poked me in the eye, and they kicked my butt. The words were indeed alive and they came after me!   In this study we will consider the power of words with respect to what God says to you, and what you say to God, and what you say to others. But the most important thing is what God says to you, and most of what He has to say to you will come through the Bible.   The words of the Bible are the most important and the most powerful words of all.   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 © 2025 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: “The power of words”   Our Bible verse for today: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word. I have sought you with all my heart; don’t let me wander from your commands. I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.” Psalm 119:9-11 (CSB)   Our thought for today: “You need as much as you can get”   I love Psalm 119. It’s the longest chapter in the Bible and it’s all about the Bible. The writer spends 176 verses expressing his love for the Word of God. He writes of his complete dependence on it and the value of being immersed in it.   Almost thirty-five years ago, as a new Christian, I had the good fortune to stumble upon a biography about the life of the famous missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. One thing in his story that had a deep impact on me at the time, and which has stayed with me ever since, is something that happened to him as a young man as he was responding to his call from God to be a missionary. Hudson realized that many of the great men and women of God who he admired all seemed to have one thing in common – they all had the habit of reading the Bible cover-to-cover, over-and-over again. Some of them had read the entire Bible fifty times, seventy-five, even one hundred times.   Taylor resolved that he was going to develop that habit as well. His goal was to read the Bible cover-to-cover at least forty times in his lifetime. (I believe he ultimately did it more than that.) When I read that about Hudson Taylor, and realized that so many others have had that habit too (to their great benefit), I decided I would adopt it for myself. I resolved to read the Bible every day, and to read it cover-to-cover at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. That was almost thirty-five years ago and I continue that practice to this day.   Now, let me be quick to point out an obvious danger here: It’s easy to fall into the trap of simply reading for milage instead of for depth. In other words, you assign yourself a certain number of chapters to read each day and then you power through it to quickly get it done. I encourage you to avoid that. Read the Bible like the story it is, yes. Read it like you would read any other book. But also, be sure to study it. Read large volumes of it, but you should also be conducting a deeper study of individual books or passages. You need to go deep as well as wide in your reading.   Reading the Bible like a book and simply immersing yourself in large volumes of Scripture every day, is of immense value. Just like watching your favorite movie numerous times, or listening to a favorite song over-and-over again, reading and rereading the story of the Bible makes it more-and-more your story, one that you know well and treasure in your heart.   I encourage you to immerse yourself in the Word of God every day. You need as much of it as you can get.     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 © 2025 Oak Hill Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Oak Hill Baptist Church 3036 Genesis Road Crossville, TN 38571