Oak Hill Baptist Church

God’s goodness and love follows you

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian Community”

Our Bible verse for today: “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “God’s goodness and love follows you”

Psalm 23 is by far the best-known and best-loved of all the Psalms, and for good reason. The Psalm pictures us as much-loved sheep under the watchful care of a Good Shepherd. He cares for us; He feeds us; He makes sure we get proper rest; He leads and guides us; He rescues us; and He leaves us with a sense of being enveloped in His goodness and love to the point that it follows us all throughout this life and into eternity. We are never outside of the protective embrace of God’s goodness and love.

Our awareness of that protective bubble of goodness and love that we exist in should give us a great sense of peace and security. It should chase away our fears and insecurities. It should help us to feel safe, secure, quietly confident, and content. That should be true in general, but it should be especially true during those times when we’re gathered with our church family. Where else should we feel the goodness and love of God more than in church and when we are surrounded by our brothers and sisters in Christ?

In yesterday’s devotional I wrote about how it is that Christians sometimes allow their times of gathering to be contentious and stressful. That happens because we lose sight of the things that are most important and focus instead on things that shouldn’t matter much. Another reason for tension and strife in churches is when members bring their personal fears, worries, and insecurities with them into the fellowship and those things are allowed to infect the atmosphere in the fellowship.

There are two ways that problem can be addressed. First, each of us individually needs to be cultivating the personal relationship with God described in Psalm 23. We all then bring that sense of being enveloped in God’s goodness and love with us into our gatherings. Second, for those who don’t already have that personal relationship and who do therefore bring their issues with them into church, once they arrive, they should be engulfed in and overwhelmed by the sense of peace, love, and security that everyone else has brought with them and which is creating a wonderful spiritual dynamic for the entire group.

Psalm 23 describes the ideal relationship for God and His people. The goodness and love of God follows you all of your life, and that should be especially true in church.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

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Let’s fish instead of fight

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts.” Ecclesiastes 4:9 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Let’s fish instead of fight”

In yesterday’s devotional I told you a little about our worship service at Oak Hill Baptist this past Sunday. I mentioned that it was a mountaintop spiritual experience that helped prepare us to enter back into the valley of everyday life. But something else happened during that gathering of our church family that is worthy of mention as well.

After the service we held a mission committee meeting to plan our mission projects for the spring and summer. There will be a night of service at our local rescue mission; various activities to help at a local Christian camp for disadvantaged children; a mission trip to deliver relief supplies to our partner church in the coal-mining region of eastern Kentucky; and our teens will go on a week-long mission trip of their own. Additionally, we will host a missionary family from southeast Asia; we will also have a week-long Vacation Bible School; and we will have a church picnic and community outreach event at the local State Park.

We are an Acts 1:8 church and mission projects are the heartbeat of our church life. This is also an important element in keeping our church healthy. There’s an old adage regarding church life that says “When fishermen don’t fish, they fight.” It’s a reference to the old days of fishing villages. When the fishermen weren’t out on their boats fishing (as they were supposed to be), many of them were hanging out in the bars instead and drinking heavily. Before long one fisherman would conclude that another fisherman was looking at him crossways and soon a fight would start. Then the friends of each fisherman would jump in to defend their friend and soon there would be a full-fledged brawl.

Church life can be like that. When church members (called by Jesus to be fishers of lost people) don’t fish, they sit around in their Sunday school rooms and fellowship halls looking at each other. Soon enough, someone looks at someone else crossways and before you know it, you have the church equivalent of a barroom brawl. You know the story. Church fights are legendary, and almost always they’re started by bored Christians focusing on silly things that don’t really matter much. The key to avoiding fights is to fish. In church that means being actively on-mission with Jesus outside the walls of the church.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 is true. We’re at our best when we work together in constructive ways to further the cause of Christ. So, let’s fish instead of fight.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at http://www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

From the mountaintop into the valley

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “But be doers of the word and not hearers only.” James 1:22 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “From the mountaintop into the valley”

Yesterday was a good day at Oak Hill Baptist Church. We had a good crowd; the worship was powerful; the fellowship was deep and rich; and mutual blessings flowed in all directions (as discussed in the previous devotional.)

I’ve often thought of the Sunday gatherings of our church family as being a spiritual mountaintop. We are lifted-up and out of regular life and for the time we’re together, we are on a spiritual mountaintop. The air is often electric and there’s a sense that we’re all involved in something special (it’s the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit).

But most of life isn’t lived on the mountaintop, it’s lived in the valley. The mountaintop is a special experience that’s refreshing and renewing, but then we have to go back into the valley of everyday life – just living life, serving others, and sharing the Good News of the Gospel.

We see an example of that pattern set for us by Jesus in Matthew Chapters five through seven. Some of you will remember that those chapters contain The Sermon on the Mount. Talk about a spiritual mountaintop! But note what Jesus did immediately after the Sermon on the Mount was over. Chapter eight verse one tells us that He came down from the mountain into the valley and immediately encountered a crowd of people who needed to be ministered to. His time on the mountaintop was preparation for His time in the valley.

The same is true for us. One of the reasons we come together on the mountaintop on Sunday is so we will be more effective in the valley Monday through Saturday. This is what James was speaking of in James 1:22 when he wrote, “But be doers of the word not hearers only.” You have heard the word, now go put it into practice.

I hope your time on the mountaintop with your church family was as special for you as ours was for us. Now I encourage you to take the mountaintop experience with you back into the valley of everyday life and make a difference for the cause of Christ today.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

The blessings are mutual

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1:11-12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The blessings are mutual”

In yesterday’s devotional I referred to my old friend Dick DeGrow as one of the mentors who had an important impact on me in my early years as a pastor. When I arrived at Bancroft Baptist as a newly-minted pastor beginning my first assignment as a pastor, Dick was already there. He was a retired pastor who was serving as a deacon, Sunday school teacher, and as the church custodian.

I had just finished a career as a Naval officer and I was still very much in the mode of the hard-charging, in control, military man with a “Do it because I said so,” attitude (which doesn’t work so well in a church setting.) Dick, on the other hand, was very calm, mild-mannered, and extremely patient. He quickly (but subtly and gently) took me under his wing (and often followed behind me smoothing ruffled feathers.)

I loved being around Dick. He was so wise and he had such a calming influence on me. He often complimented me regarding my preaching and teaching and he told me what a blessing I was to him and to the rest of the church. But Dick was certainly a big blessing to me as well. The blessings were mutual.

In Romans 1:11-12 the Apostle Paul writes about mutual blessings when he notes that he hoped to be a blessing to the Roman Christians when he was with them, and he fully expected to be blessed by them in return. This is how we grow in Christian community. You bless me and I bless you. You learn from me and I learn from you. None of us grows on our own. God places wise, insightful, and inspirational people around us to help deepen our own faith and to spur us on to greater spiritual growth.

I get to experience this every Sunday at Oak Hill Baptist Church. For my part, I work hard all week to be prepared so maybe I can say or teach something that will be helpful to someone, but in return, I’m always blessed and inspired by others in our church family.

That’s the way good Christian community is. You bless me and I’ll bless you. You help me and I help you. The blessings are mutual. None of us does this alone.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

Walk with the wise

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “The one who walks with the wise will become wise …” Proverbs 13:20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Walk with the wise”

Dallas Willard is the smartest and most spiritually deep person I have ever not known. I say that I have not known him because I never actually met him, although I have read pretty much everything he has written. Dallas is in heaven now but in his lifetime, he was a professor of religious philosophy at the University of Southern California and one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the last one hundred years.

I never knew Dallas in the sense of having spent time with him, but I did come to know him through his writings, and in that way, he had a profound impact on me. He opened my mind and my heart to knowing God in a much deeper way. His two best books were “The Divine Conspiracy” and “Hearing God: Developing a conversational relationship with God.” Henry Blackaby is also in this category of great Christian thinkers who helped to form my understanding of God. It is not an exaggeration to say that his Bible study “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God” altered the course of my life. The writings of Eugene Peterson and Philip Yancy fall into this category as well.

Fortunately, in addition to those mentioned above who I did not know personally but who had an impact on me just the same, there have been others who I did know well and who I did spend much time with, and who also profoundly influenced me for good. My pastor and mentor Oren Teel would be the primary one. My friend Dick DeGrow (a former pastor) also played a key role in my early years as a pastor. And then there have been dozens of very wise men and women, in four churches over more than thirty years, whose wisdom and spiritual insight blessed me and helped me along the road of my own spiritual growth.

I tell you all of this just to provide a little personal commentary regarding the important Biblical principle given to us by Solomon in Proverbs 13:20 that if you want to become wise, spend time with those who are wise. Now, let me be clear that I’m not even close to being as wise and insightful as the men and women I’ve mentioned above, but hopefully I’m getting closer day-by-day and my association with them, through their writing or in-person, has been of great benefit to me.

The value of being around wiser more mature Christians is that some of their wisdom and insight will rub off on you. Sherwood Wirt (the brother-in-law of Billy Graham) once said, “I surround myself with the thoughts of those who have thought much about God.”

This is a vitally important principle when it comes to our spiritual growth, and so we will come back to it tomorrow. For today, I encourage you to seek out and spend time with someone who is wiser than you.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

You’re not a turnip

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him; bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.” Colossians 1:9-12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You’re not a turnip.”

Growth takes time. How much time depends on what it is you’re growing. Alan Falding offers an interesting take on this in his book, “An Unhurried Life: Following Jesus’ Rhythms of Work and Rest.” Falding writes, “It’s hard to argue with the idea that growth happens over time. You might be able to grow a turnip to maturity in a couple of months, but that’s not true for people. It may take nine months for a baby to fully develop in her mother’s womb, but it takes years for that baby to reach maturity, and longer still to reach emotional, relational and spiritual maturity.”

So, you’re not a turnip. You need more than just a few months to reach full maturity. Growth takes time. A baby needs nine months in the womb before its even ready to be born. Then another eighteen to twenty years are needed to reach full physical maturity. More are required to achieve full emotional maturity. And for spiritual maturity – well that’s a lifelong process. It just takes time. And as was noted in yesterday’s devotional, we won’t grow at all if we’re not intentional about nurturing our spiritual growth.

In Colossians 1:9-12 Paul was telling the Christians in the church in Colossae that he was praying for their continued spiritual growth. He wasn’t just praying for them individually, he was praying for them as a church. Spiritual growth is an individual process, that’s true, but it happens in community. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find examples of isolated Christians who are out of community and it being portrayed as a good thing. Always, a full and healthy Christian life occurs in community.

An important part of your lifelong process of growing spiritually is your full involvement in the life of a good church. Settle in, stay there, and grow. You’re not a turnip. Spiritual growth takes time – it takes a lifetime – a lifetime spent in a good church with other growing Christians.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

Are you living the same year over and over again?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Are you living the same year over and over again?”

This morning I want to continue our thinking from yesterday regarding how we are to work out our salvation together – spurring one another on in our spiritual growth. There are many passages in both the Old and New Testaments that refer to the importance of spiritual growth. A quick search turned up over one hundred. 2 Peter 3:18 (above) is just one of them.

But why? Why does God find it necessary to keep reminding us to pay attention to our spiritual growth and to be intentional about engaging in the practices of our faith that help to facilitate spiritual growth? It’s because we forget; and we get lazy; and we lose our passion for God. If we’re not intentional about it we will become stale and spiritually stagnant; we will then stay stuck right where we are rather than moving forward in our growth.

I recently came across a statement written by a man who was reflecting on his own spiritual growth. He had been a Christian for thirty-three years at that point and this is what he wondered, “Have I been growing for thirty-three years with Jesus, or have I sometimes lived the same year over and over again, covering the same ground year after year?”

It’s a good question. Are you moving forward spiritually, or are you stuck in the same place you were last year, five years ago, ten years ago? It’s not uncommon to encounter professing Christians who have spent years and even decades just going through the motions of faith in a superficial and relatively meaningless way, and consequently they are pretty much in the same place now, spiritually, that they were many years ago. They’ve never grown. This is the situation the writer of the letter to the Hebrews was addressing when he admonished his readers in Hebrews 5:12: “Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.”

Returning again to yesterday’s devotional – in a good Christian community we spur one another on to spiritual growth. We encourage each other; we inspire and motivate each other; maybe we sometimes even poke and prod each other; but we try to make sure that none of us are just treading water and staying in the same place.

This is an important element in Christian community and so we’ll come back to it again tomorrow. In the meantime, let me challenge you to prayerfully consider if you are growing and moving forward, or if you’re stuck, just living the same year over and over again.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant of if you are a shut-in, join us online at http://www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

Let’s workout our salvation together

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, my friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Let’s work out our salvation together”

What a strange statement Paul writes in Philippians 2:12 that we are to “work out” our salvation. We’ve all been taught that we don’t have to work for our salvation. Salvation is a gift of grace, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9), so what could Paul possibly mean by “working out” our salvation?

In this case, Paul was referring to salvation as it pertains to sanctification. Sanctification is a theological term which means “to set apart and make holy.” When something is set apart and made holy for the Lord, it is sanctified. As a believer in Christ, you have been set aside and made holy for God through His Son Jesus Christ.

However, sanctification (and therefore salvation as Paul means it here), is a multi-phase process. You are sanctified initially in the moment you place your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. At that moment you are set apart for God and made holy through your relationship with His Son Jesus. But sanctification is also an ongoing lifelong process. As the Holy Spirit works in our lives, moment-by-moment and day-by-day, He is progressively transforming us from the person we used to be and into the person God wants us to be. That’s the ongoing process of sanctification and it is the part of salvation that Paul was encouraging us to “work out.” Then, on the day you reach heaven, you will experience final sanctification. You will then be the person you are going to be for all eternity.

So, what does this have to do with our theme of Christian community? Just that as brothers and sisters in Christ we are to help each other work out our salvation – in the sense of the ongoing process of sanctification that we are all involved in. We are to help each other along, encouraging one another, challenging one another, holding each other accountable, and spurring each other on to greater degrees of spiritual growth.

That’s what Paul was doing for the Philippians when he wrote this letter to them, and it’s what they needed to be doing for each other. It’s also what you and I need to be doing for each other. As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds …”

This is how we grow in Christian community – we help each other to work out our salvation. I encourage you to do that for someone today.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

We make time for what is important to us

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a difficult time.” Proverbs 17:17 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “We make time for what is important to us”

I was in a conversation with a friend the other day and she mentioned an encounter she attempted to have with a mutual acquaintance of ours and her comment was, “He was in his typical “hurry” mode, so it was hard to talk to him.”

That caused me to consider how often I’m in my typical hurry mode, and if people sometimes find it difficult to talk to me because of it. Also, I thought about how it is that our entire society seems to operate in the hurry mode, and we all seem to be far busier than we should be. We tend to cram too many things into our schedules and then we rush, rush, rush, from one thing to the next, from one person to the next. A few years ago, Pastor John Mark Comer published an excellent book on this subject with the title “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” I’ve read it three times so far and probably need to go back and read it again.

However, despite that fact that we are all too busy, it is still true that we all have the same amount of time available to us – sixty minutes in every hour, twenty-four hours in every day, and we all make choices about what we will do with that time. And the truth is, we do make choices. And usually, those choices are based upon our priorities. We make the time for the people and things that are most important to us, and for all the rest we make excuses.

When it comes to Christian community, if a person truly is more important to you than that next thing you were rushing off to, then you will choose to stop and spend some time with that person. If a friend or family member asks you to do something with them and you say you can’t, what that means is you considered the other things you could do with that time instead and came to the conclusion that those other things are more important to you than the thing your friend or family member asked you to do with them. In fairness, the other thing may truly be more important and it may be something you simply cannot put off, but the point holds that a choice was made on your part and it was based upon your priorities.

The truth is we make the time for the things and the people who are most important to us. Despite what we say, it’s the choices we make and the actions we take that tell the real story. An important part of Christian community is that we make time for each other.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)

Let it begin with you, and with me

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Christian community”

Our Bible verse for today: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Let it begin with you, and with me”

In Psalm 51:10 King David was reflecting on the condition of his own wicked heart and the horrible sin he had committed (He slept with another man’s wife and then had her husband killed). That’s the specific context within which that verse was written, but it also teaches a larger and important general Biblical principle which is this: focus less on other people’s sins and shortcomings and more on your own.

David wasn’t casting blame on others and he wasn’t pointing the finger at those whom he believed to be greater sinners than himself. The cry of his heart was: create in “me” a pure heart, O God, renew a steadfast spirit within “me.”

Now let’s apply this principle specifically to the theme of our devotional from yesterday to “Know, speak, and stand, for the truth.” None of us are as knowledgeable, verbal, or as bold and courageous for the truth as we should be. We can all do better. We all need to know more, speak up more, and take a stand more often than we do.

But doing so takes effort and it also takes desire. We have to want to know more; we have to want to speak more; and we have to want to courageously take a stand in the public square for the Biblical truths we know to be essential for the health and well-being of our society; and we have to be intentional about doing so.

This is where we help each other as a Christian community. Personal example can be a powerful motivator. If others see you faithfully attending the gatherings of God’s people; if they know you diligently apply yourself to a deeper study of God’s Word; if they hear you speaking up for sound doctrine and Biblical principles; and if they see you courageously taking a stand for truth and justice; they will often be inspired by your example and they will be motivated to do the same.

It starts with you and it starts with me – as individuals. Let our prayer be: “Lord, create in me a heart that seeks the truth, speaks the truth, and stands for the truth.”

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville)