Oak Hill Baptist Church

There is no place that God is not

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The awesome reality of the presence of God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me.” Psalm 139:7-10 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “There is no place that God is not”

The term “omnipresent” is a fifty-cent theological word that simply means God is everywhere always. There is no place that God is not. From the very beginning He has always been everywhere all the time. That’s what King David was writing about in Psalm 139:7-10. There was no place he could go where God would not already be.

That was true for David, and it’s true for you and me as well. It has always been true for every human being who has ever inhabited this planet since the time of creation. No person has ever not been in the presence of God.

However, as history has unfolded, God has made Himself increasingly personal and relatable. Once, He was simply present and detectable in a somewhat vague and general way in creation itself. Paul writes about that in Romans chapter one. Then, in the time of Abraham, God began to interact with special individuals in a more personal way. Then in the days of Moses He began to interact with an entire group of people (the Jews). They then had the opportunity to know God and to share Him with others in ways that had never been possible before. But with the incarnation of Jesus everything radically changed. Suddenly God was physically and visibly present with humanity in the body of a flesh and blood person. And then after Jesus it got even better with the coming of the Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of the followers of Christ. This month we will consider all of that and more.

What more could God have done? How much further does He have to go in order for us to be aware of and to appreciate His presence with us? And yet, we struggle with this. We still doubt Him and wonder if He is really here, simply because we can’t detect Him with our five human senses. What a great loss for us! God is here with us simply because He says He is, and that’s true whether we’re aware of it or not and whether we believe it or not.

This month, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas and the incarnation of Christ, we will spend the month considering the awesome reality of the presence of God. Hopefully we will each end this time with a much greater awareness of the truth that God is indeed here with us.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

It’s your life, it’s your responsibility

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “For each person will have to carry his own load.” Galatians 6:5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “It’s your life, it’s your responsibility”

In yesterday’s devotional I made the statement that faithfully practicing the basic disciplines of the Christian faith is the second-most-important point we’ve considered over these last two months regarding how to deal with anxiety and despair in our lives. I said that as unlikely as it might seem, there is actually another element that plays an even bigger role. That element is personal responsibility.

You see, it’s one thing to know what we need to do, but it’s something else to actually do it. Knowledge without action is useless. If you don’t do something with what you know, then the fact that you know it really doesn’t matter much.

I’ve mentioned in previous devotionals that my favorite “attitude” book is “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. It’s a fictional story about a man named David Ponder. David’s life is a train wreck and he is virtually paralyzed by anxiety and despair. In a dream God takes David on a journey through time to encounter significant historical figures. From each of those figures he learns an important life-lesson about personal responsibility. He ends up making seven vital decisions that will guide his life from that point forward. Below I summarize one of them for you, which pertains directly to the subject of this devotional.

“I am a man of action: I will not dwell in a pit of despair and I will not waste time regretting lost opportunities. I will take the action necessary to make my life better. When faced with a choice of doing something or doing nothing, I will always choose to act.”

I’m going to stop us there. There are six other important points, including “The buck stops here; I will seek wisdom; I have a determined heart; I choose to be happy; I am a forgiving person; and I will persist and persevere without exception.” I encourage you to read the book to learn more about them. But I want us to stop this morning by considering that important phrase, “I will take the action necessary to make my life better.”

Each of us has a personal responsibility to take the action necessary to deal with our own problems. Nothing will help more to relieve anxiety and despair than to do something about it. Just do something constructive to deal with it. Anything. Just move. Any step forward is a step that brings you closer to relief. Take action to make your life a little bit better, one small step at a time.

We’ve just completed two months of devotionally considering how to deal with anxiety and despair. But remember, knowledge without action is useless. Now it’s time to move forward. Be a person of action. It’s your life, it’s your responsibility.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

May your roots run deep

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: ‘The person who trusts in the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water; it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “May your roots run deep”

As we near the end of what has become a two-month study about dealing with anxiety and despair in our lives, I want to return us to the second-most important point we have covered this month.

In Jeremiah 17:7-8 the prophet describes a person who has deep spiritual roots and whose life is therefore like a healthy tree planted close to a clear cool refreshing stream. The tree’s roots run deep into the moist fertile soil on the banks of the stream, and as a result, regardless of what the outer environment brings – be it wind or storms or drought – the tree stands firm and strong, healthy and vibrant, well-watered and nourished.

The way a person achieves that kind of spiritual health and vibrancy is through the consistent practice of the basic spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith. These include daily prayer and Bible study, worship, fellowship with other Christians, and service to others in the name of Jesus. When those practices are done from a heart that truly loves Jesus and which is simply seeking a deeper relationship with Him, our spiritual roots grow deep and we will be spiritually healthy and vibrant, regardless of our momentary external circumstances.

An important add-on to those basic practices involves our sources of entertainment. We live in an entertainment-oriented culture and we are used to having our attention captured by books, television, movies, and music. So, in addition to the basic disciplines of the Christian life described above, include in your entertainment time the reading of good Christian books (these come in all genres including lifestyle, history, biography, fiction, and fantasy). Also include Christian television programs and movies, and of course, Christian music.

All of those things help to nurture your relationship with Christ, causing your spiritual roots to grow deeper and stronger, and that will go a long way towards helping to eliminate anxiety and despair from your life.

But I said that being faithful in your practice of the faith was only the second-most important point about dealing with anxiety and despair. What’s the most important? You might be surprised by the answer. We’ll think about that tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t be a people-pleaser

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body whether by life or by death.” Philippians 1:20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t be a people-pleaser”

In his great little book, “The Ragamuffin Gospel”, author Brennan Manning offers helpful insight regarding finding release and freedom from the tyranny of people-pleasing. “Freedom in Christ produces a healthy independence from peer pressure, people-pleasing, and the bondage of human respect. The tyranny of public opinion can manipulate our lives. What will the neighbors think? What will my friends think? What will people think? The expectations of others can exert a subtle but controlling pressure on our behavior.”

A big source of anxiety and despair for a lot of people is their preoccupation with what they believe others think about them. So much of our lives end up being driven by our desire to be thought well of by others, and we therefore end up striving to do or say things likely to gain their approval. People-pleasing is an insidious trap because we’ll never be able to please everyone. There will always be critics, naysayers, gossip mongers, and slanderers.

Another reason that people-pleasing is a fruitless pursuit is because much of what we believe other people do or don’t think about is wrong. Our imagination takes over and convinces us their thoughts about us are worse than they are, or that they matter more than they really do, and that they are more frequent than they are. The truth is other people don’t think about us anywhere near as often as we believe they do.

But the most important reason that people-pleasing is wrong is because other people aren’t the standard that our conduct should be measured by, and therefore their approval isn’t what matters most. Our conduct should be measured by Biblical standards and our goal should be to please the Lord. This is what Paul was explaining in Philippians 1:20 (above). His goal was to honor God. People could like that or not and approve of it or not, but as long as the Lord was pleased, that’s all that mattered to Paul.

I encourage you to focus on living your life in a manner that is consistent with Biblical principles, and therefore pleasing to the Lord. That’s the standard that matters. When you are doing your best to live like that, you can then walk-through life with a quiet sense of confidence and peace. Anxiety and despair find little room in the life of a person who is committed to pleasing God rather than people.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Did you really give it to Jesus?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Did you really give it to Jesus?

In her book, “The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life” author Hannah Whitall Smith says that “Even more incompatible than oil and water is trust and worry.” She then goes on to ask us to consider the following scenario: If you entrust something to a friend for safekeeping, but then you stay up all night worrying about whether or not your friend is really safeguarding the thing you entrusted to them, are you really trusting your friend? Would you call that trust? Likewise, if you entrust something to God but then you continue worrying about it, do you really trust God?

In our sanctuary at Oak Hill Baptist, we keep a large wooden cross on the stage. The cross is mounted on a raised, 3×4 foot platform. Next to the cross is a bin of good-sized stones. Each stone is intended to be a symbol of a burden a person has been carrying and which is weighing them down. We encourage people to come to the cross, pray about the burden, and surrender it to Jesus. Then they take a stone from the bin and place it at the foot of the cross, symbolically giving that burden to the Lord and leaving it at the foot of the cross. But the caveat is that once they’ve done that, they have to leave the stone and the burden at the cross. They can’t have it back.

This is what Paul is teaching in Philippians 4:6-7. There he instructs us to bring our burdens to the Lord, surrender them to Him, and in complete trust and with full assurance leave them with Him. If we will do that, Paul says, we will experience the peace of God flooding our mind and heart. And if you don’t experience that peace, you need to ask yourself whether or not you are really trusting the issue to God, or if perhaps you are doing what Hannah Whitall Smith described above, saying that you trust Him but then still worrying about the thing.

God is fully trustworthy. He gave us those instructions and the associated promise in Philippians 4:6-7 for a reason. The instructions are reliable and the promise is certain. Surrender it to the Lord and then enjoy the peace of God.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Remember the past but don’t dwell on it

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. 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. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.” Philippians 3:13-15 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Remember the past but don’t dwell on it”

I’m sure at some point someone has probably counseled you to “forget the past and move on from it.” That sounds so wise, but actually it’s impossible to do. We can’t really, truly, “forget” the past, in the sense of not remembering it. Unless you have amnesia, the past is firmly planted in your memory bank and it will remain there forever. You couldn’t forget it if you wanted to. And, you shouldn’t. The past is part of you. All the things from your past have contributed to bring you to this place and time in your life. Together they add up to who you are.

But with that said, your past doesn’t have to define you, nor does it have to determine your present or your future. We need to learn from the past, understand its role in forming us and bringing us to this time and place in life, but then we need to move on from it. We can’t change the past. We can’t undo the things that we did do, nor can we go back and insert things we should have done but didn’t. All we can do is learn from the past, live well now in this moment, and then move forward into the future.

That’s what the Apostle Paul was describing in Philippians 3:13-15. He did not mean that he didn’t remember his past. He did. Paul had a deep dark past, and he even wrote about it several times in the Bible. He was complicit in mass murder. As a Pharisee he had been appointed to serve as an inquisitor and persecutor of Christians. In that capacity he had instigated and overseen the persecution and murders of many Christians. There was nothing Paul could do to change his past. All he could do was remember it, remain conscious of the hard lessons he had learned from it, and use those lessons to live well now and on into the future.

Paul remembered his past but he didn’t dwell on it (and neither should you). Don’t beat yourself up about it. Like Paul, repent of it, repair what damage from it that can be repaired, remember the hard lessons you have learned, and then move on with life. And don’t forget the important truth of Philippians 1:6 that you are a work in progress. Realize that you are not yet the man or woman that God wants you to be, but thank God you are no longer the person you used to be.

I encourage you to remember the past but don’t dwell on it. Learn the lessons, live well now, and move forward into the future God has planned for you.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Jesus isn’t cold in the attic

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 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 1:3-6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Jesus isn’t cold in the attic”

There was a grandfather who was a good godly man, kind and compassionate. He had a grandson who was also a professing Christian, but the young man was one of those Christians who was a stickler for religious detail and for piously going through the motions of faith. But there was a hard edge to him, especially with respect to people in need. He just didn’t seem to have much empathy or compassion, and that bothered the grandfather very much.

One day, the young man was helping the grandfather go through some of the things he had in storage up in the attic when he came across a framed picture of Jesus in a corner behind some boxes. The grandson commented on what a shame it was that Jesus was confined to a cold dark attic. To that the grandfather softly replied, “Son, Jesus isn’t cold in the attic. But He is cold in the body of a poorly clothed child.” The grandfather was referring to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40 “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

That reminded me of another story that happened right here in Cumberland County, TN just the other day. Our partner church in the coal-mining region of eastern Kentucky contacted us to say that they were in desperate need of winter clothes for children, and they asked if we could help. We then put the word out to our church and to the Christian community in our county. A men’s Bible study group known as “The Cake Club” responded. They took $1000 out of their ministry funds, added another $1900 out of their own pockets, went to Walmart, and purchased almost $3000 worth of new winter clothes for those cold and poorly clothed children in need.

The men of “The Cake Club” are all Christian men who have walked through some deep and dark valleys in their own lives. Now, as a band of brothers, they walk the Christian life together, supporting one another and working together to bless others in the name of Jesus. Those men have been radically saved by Christ (from their sins and from their former lives), and now they are being transformed as the Holy Spirit continues His work in their lives (Philippians 1:3-6). Out of a deep sense of thanksgiving for what the Lord has done for them, they are joyfully and generously being a conduit for the blessings of God to flow to others. That’s simply what they do. It’s how they live.

One of the best and most effective ways we can deal with deep dark stuff in our own lives is to take our eyes off of ourselves and our own issues, and focus instead on being a blessing to others in need. It’s what the Lord has called us to do (Matthew 25:35-40).

This morning my family and I want to wish you and yours a happy and blessed Thanksgiving. I also want to encourage you to intentionally demonstrate your gratefulness to the Lord by being a blessing to someone in need. Remember, Jesus isn’t cold in the attic, but He is cold in the body of a poorly clothed child. In other words (to quote the Bible writer James), “Faith without works is dead”.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Laugh again

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Laugh again”

I love the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It might be my favorite book of the Bible. I say that with some hesitation because, seriously, how do you pick a favorite book of the Bible? It’s like trying to pick your favorite Beatles song. They’re all good. But just as for various reasons one song might be more meaningful to you than all the others, one book of the Bible can be special for the same reason.

Philippians is known as “The epistle (letter) of joy”. It’s a letter just bursting with joy and gratefulness and positive thinking. It’s chock-full of faith and hope. I love it. The message of Philippians is so needed in our lives today, and it’s such a great “pick me up” when we’re struggling with anxiety or despair.

My favorite commentary on the book of Philippians was written decades ago by Pastor Chuck Swindoll. The title of the commentary is “Laugh Again”, and that’s the approach Chuck takes as he helps us to digest the lessons found in this helpful little letter of Paul’s. You can tell what’s coming in Chuck’s book simply by looking at the picture on the back of the dust jacket. There you see Chuck and his wife Cynthia sitting on Chuck’s Harley Davidson motorcycle, dressed in black leather, and both with huge grins on their faces. The personalized license plate reads, “The Sermonator!” The commentary takes off from there and it’s a lot of fun.

You can also tell what’s coming in Paul’s letter. In his case the clue is found in the word of greeting he begins with in 1:2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” That was Paul’s purpose in writing this letter. He wanted to communicate to his readers a sense of grace and peace coming to them from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ – and he succeeded!

Philippians is such a joyful and helpful study that we’re going to spend a few days exploring its important lessons. I encourage you to consider using this little letter as your go-to remedy whenever you’re feeling down, anxious, or despairing. Along with the Apostle Paul, Pastor Chuck, and millions upon millions of other readers of Philippians, we can come to the point where we can indeed “laugh again”.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Train yourself to be strong

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into the house. The windows in its upstairs room were opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” Daniel 6:10 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Train yourself to be strong”

This morning I want to continue our discussion from yesterday regarding how it is that God uses our difficulties to make us stronger. Let’s consider the Old Testament example of Daniel. Daniel was one of the young Jewish men taken into captivity by the Babylonians. He was taken from his home in Judah to a life as a slave in Babylon. But Daniel was a strong man of faith and even though he was immersed in a hostile pagan culture which sometimes demanded he surrender his own beliefs and engage in practices contrary to his faith, Daniel refused – multiple times. Instead, he resolved to stay faithful to God no matter what.

In Daniel 6:10 we read of one of those times. In this case the advisors to the king had convinced him to issue an order declaring that anyone caught praying to a god other than the king himself, would be thrown into the lion’s den. They did this specifically to set a trap for Daniel. They were jealous of him because of the influence he had with the king, and they knew he wouldn’t comply with the king’s edict.

Long story short, Daniel once again refused to compromise his faithfulness to God, and once again God honored Daniel’s faithfulness by making him strong and delivering him from danger. The point of the lesson though, is that throughout his life Daniel was faced with repeated difficulties and dangerous situations which challenged the practice of his faith and in each case, he resolved to remain faithful to God. As a result, Daniel continued to grow stronger and stronger in character and integrity. He was fearless. And the older he got, the more that was true of him.

It’s simply a fact that God uses our tough times to make us stronger, but we have to cooperate with Him in this. We have to resolve, as Daniel did, to face our trials and difficult situations with rock-solid faith in God and with a firm resolve to use the current difficulty as an opportunity to bring honor and glory to Him through the way that we handle it. When we do that over and over again, God continues to make us stronger and stronger – just as He did for Daniel. But Daniel’s focus was always on God’s strength and on God’s faithfulness. Daniel didn’t rely on himself, he relied on God. He knew that if he was just faithful and if he trusted God, God would enable him to be strong.

One of the primary causes of anxiety and despair in our lives is weak faith and wrong focus. We face our difficulties by thinking about whether or not we are able to handle it, not whether or not God is able to handle it for us. But our strength comes from God. Our resolve and fortitude are a product of, and is determined by, our faith in God not our faith in ourselves.

I encourage you to train yourself to be strong by training yourself to rely on God.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

God is making you stronger

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The end of anxiety and despair”

Our Bible verse for today: “He has made his people strong …” Psalm 148:14 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “God is making you stronger”

For most of my adult life I have included weight training as part of my overall workout routine. Once upon a time it was five days a week using heavy weights. These days I’m down to two days a week using much lighter weights. The other days I do mostly cardio.

Weight training is also known as resistance training. The idea behind it is to intentionally create a significant amount of resistance that you have to push back against. Doing so forces your muscles to stretch and strain, and that then leads to muscle growth- the muscles grow larger and stronger as a result of pushing back against the resistance.

Problems in life often serve the same purpose. They create a resistance that we have to push back against and when we do, it makes us stronger. Our problem is that today we live in what author John Eldredge refers to as “the comfort culture”. Everything is so much easier for us than it used to be. We don’t have to hunt for our food – we just go to the store to buy it. We don’t have to fix our own cars – mechanics do that for us. We don’t have to actually do math in our head – the calculator on our smart phone does the math for us. And on and on it goes. We have gidgets and gadgets and experts to take care of almost everything for us.

As a result, we can become soft – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually soft. One college administrator, commenting on the maturity and resilience of the average college student these days was quoted as saying, “Eighteen is the new twelve. Our students are emotionally underdeveloped. They’re much less resilient than any we’ve ever encountered …”

In Psalm 148:14 we learn that God makes us strong. That usually doesn’t happen magically. Sometimes He might simply infuse us with instant strength we didn’t have a moment before, but usually the strengthening is a process that occurs over an extended period of time. He either has to initiate actions in the lives of His people specifically designed to challenge us and to make us strong, or He allows tough situations to exist that will challenge us and stretch us. The concept is the same as that of weight resistance training. We need to grunt and groan; we need to face challenges, exert extra effort, and push through the difficulties in order to become strong.

The fact is that God uses the difficult times in our lives as a way of strengthening us. The key is for us to recognize our struggles for what they are (opportunities to grow) and then learn our lessons, gain the strength, and come out of it stronger and better. This is an important understanding and so we’ll explore it a little further tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim