Oak Hill Baptist Church

Resolve to live more in the moment

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am. In fact, you have made my days just inches long, and my life span is as nothing to you. Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor. Yes, a person goes about like a mere shadow. Indeed, they rush around in vain, gathering possessions without knowing who will get them.” Psalm 39:4-6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Resolve to live more in the moment”

The words found in Psalm 39:4-6 are the reflections of King David regarding the brevity of life. Moses wrote something similar about five hundred years earlier and his words are preserved for us in Psalm 90:10, “Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”

The New Testament writer James had something to say about this as well. In James 4:13-14 we read, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow I will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring – what your life will be! For you are like a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.”

The phrase “live in the moment” is a concept that has been around forever, at least since the days of Moses, but it is becoming increasingly popular in our busy world today. It means we should stop thinking so much about the past, and stop worrying so much about the future, and focus instead on being aware of and appreciating the present.

We waste so much of our lives reliving the past and worrying about the future that we often miss the joy that’s available to us right now. The past is past and you can’t have it back, and the future may never come for you. Today could be your last day on earth. We spend far too much time regretting the past, worrying about the future, and wasting the present.

We will now spend most of the rest of this month devotionally considering how we can more effectively live in the moment. The days of our lives are a gift from God, but they are limited in number and will soon be gone. Let’s resolve to slow down, pay attention, and truly savor each day of life.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Expect the best

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you – this is the Lord’s declaration – plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Expect the best”

Resolve to expect the best. If you believe that Jeremiah 29:11 is true and that God really does desire good for you, then you should expect good things to happen.

For most of human history there’s been an ongoing debate regarding whether it’s better to live as an optimist or a pessimist. One the one hand, the argument in favor of pessimism says that if you’re always optimistic you’re guaranteed of being disappointed. The pessimistic perspective is that life is hard, and then you die. If you’re always expecting the best then you’re simply setting yourself up for sorrow and discouragement. Therefore, the argument goes, it’s better and makes more sense to be pessimistic – expect the worst, and when the bad stuff does happen you won’t be surprised by it and you won’t be disappointed. And if, on those rare occasions when something good does happen, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

But there are multiple problems with that thinking. For one thing, pessimism makes people sour and disagreeable. Therefore, it can be hard to be around a pessimist for very long. Donnie Downer and Debbie the Depressor are just hard people to be with. Also, a basic law of human nature is that we tend to attract to ourselves the things we expect. Bad things tend to happen to pessimists because they expect bad things to happen to them.

But also, pessimism is unbiblical. This is the primary and most important argument in favor of optimism. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of hope. The promises of God are good and they bring joy. The New Testament is the most positive, affirming, hope-inspiring book that has ever existed. An excellent example of that is Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It’s known as “The Epistle (the letter) of Joy”. It’s all about the joy and hope we find in daily life because of our faith in Jesus Christ. The New Testament is unapologetically optimistic. So, Christians should be positive and optimistic too.

I encourage you to resolve to be an optimist. Being optimistic is Biblical. And you will also tend to attract good and pleasant things to yourself by being optimistic because as I said, it’s a basic law of human nature that we attract to ourselves the things we expect to happen.

Let me also say that being optimistic is not being naïve. We can be realistic about the world we live in and still have hope and joy. We can acknowledge and deal with the real problems all around us, but still communicate hope and joy to others as we make our way through this troubled world. If there’s one thing people in this world need today it’s hope, joy, and optimism.

Pessimism gives us a dark perspective on life. What a waste. Optimism is the better way. I encourage you to be optimistic!

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Resolve to reject fear

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: ‘For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline (abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control.)” 2 Timothy 1:7 (Amplified Bible)

Our thought for today: “Resolve to reject fear”

Reject fear. Let me say it again, reject fear. God’s people are not to live in fear. Let me ask you this: Are you the recipient of God’s love? and, is God’s love perfect? Those are rhetorical questions. The answer to both of them is “yes”. You are the recipient of God’s love and God’s love is perfect. 1 John 4:18 tells us that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” God’s perfect love in you drives fear out of you.

In our individual lives we have to confront and deal with fear in many ways, including with regard to food, shelter, clothing, income, health, the well-being of loved ones, the future, and dozens of other things. One of the ways we train ourselves to combat fear is by memorizing and claiming the promises of God.

In the Bible there are at least 365 verses and passages which instruct and empower us to reject fear (one for every day of the year). Those promises pertain to the full range of issues we have to deal with in life – everything from the promise of provisions, to the promise of His watch-care over us in times of danger, to dealing with temptations from Satan, and so much more. This is why at Oak Hill Baptist Church on Sunday nights we’re studying Max Lucado’s great Bible study “Unshakable Hope: Building your life on the promises of God”. It’s all about living our lives upon the firm foundation of God’s promises.

So how do we, as Christians who are determined to reject fear, deal with this? Let me take you back to 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline (abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control.) Let me add to that Peter’s word of caution from 1 Peter 5:8 to “be sober-minded”. That means to be calm, realistic, reasoned, and reasonable. Not easily excitable. Not given to fear or extreme thinking.

We are the people of God, and we do not live in fear. Do we take proper precautions? Yes. Do we take common sense steps to be prepared to deal with evil and potentially bad situations? Yes. Do we acknowledge that there are bad actors in the world and therefore we cannot and should not be naïve? Yes. But we do it with boldness and confidence as we simply live life and go forward on mission with Jesus.

Don’t waste your life living in fear. Resolve to reject fear – and anything that looks like fear smells like fear or sounds like fear.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Receive every day as a gift from God

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:14 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Receive every day as a gift from God”

Over the next few days, I would like to share with you a few points from our New Year’s Day sermon at Oak Hill Baptist Church. If you would like to watch that sermon in its entirety, it’s available on the church website (oakhillbaptist.net). On the homepage just click on the “Listen/Watch” button.

I want to encourage you to resolve in 2023 to receive every day as a gift from God. How you begin each new day will determine to a large extent how that day unfolds for you. Every new day is a gift of life from God, and every new day will be an opportunity to experience God’s mercies and blessings. How you think about the day, and your expectations for it, will go a long way towards determining your attitude all throughout the day.

It is true that there’s a lot going on in the world and in our lives that can cause us to worry and to be anxious. But we can set the stage for a miserable day for ourselves by simply starting the day with a sour outlook and with the expectation of problems – or we can do the opposite.

I read a study one time that found that approximately 80% of the things we worry about never happen. Another 10% do happen, but end up happening good rather than bad. And of the 10% that we worry about, and which do happen and which are bad, they’re usually not as bad as we feared they would be. And yet, we worry about them. We allow those things to give us sour dispositions and negative expectations – often to the point that our sour disposition and negative expectations actually attract bad outcomes to us. It’s a basic law of human nature that we often attract to ourselves the things we expect to happen.

So, are God’s promises true or not? Lamentations 3:22-24 says, “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! I say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.” Is that true or not? Are God’s mercies new every morning? Does every day hold the potential for blessings? Well then, what’s your attitude going to be? Will you join with the Psalmist and declare, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it”?

Now there’s a New Year’s resolution for you! I encourage you to resolve to receive every day of 2023 as a gift from God, and then determine that you will rejoice and be glad in it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Are you hot, cold, or indifferent?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot or cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Are you hot, cold, or indifferent?”

This morning we will continue our thinking from the last two days regarding the problem of apathy in our churches and in the Christian community in the USA. Yesterday we learned that there’s a thick cloud of apathy that has settled upon Christianity in the USA. It’s evident in many ways including declining Biblical literacy among Christians, inconsistent church attendance and involvement, reduced financial giving, embracing immoral cultural standards, and much more. Especially alarming is the way so many Christians excuse themselves and rationalize their decisions. The word from Jesus, as we learned yesterday, is “Wake up!”

The day before that we considered Jesus’ hard and stark lesson from the Sermon on the Mount regarding pearls, pigs, and priorities. The point of that lesson was that we have to make good choices about how we spend our time. Many people and activities are not worthy of our time and resources. And even if something is good, it could still be taking us away from what is best.

Jesus hates apathy and indifference and rationalizing and excuse-making. Seriously, He detests it. Just read what He said in Revelation 3:15-16. The reason He used such strong language and stark illustrations, such as vomiting in this passage, or dogs and pigs in Matthew 7:6, or the stern command to “Wake up!” in Revelation 3:2, is precisely because once we have been lulled into apathy and we are essentially sleep-walking through our faith, we fool ourselves into believing that we have good reasons for our choices and that our choices make sense, at least in our case.

But even if the thing itself is good (extra sleep, working overtime, extra money in savings, recreational activities etc.), if the good things are consistently and repeatedly pulling us away from the best thing, then we have a problem.

I want to challenge each of us to consider if we are hot, cold, or indifferent. I’m asking us to critically examine the choices we’re making, the actions we’re taking (or not taking), and the ways in which we are spending our time and our resources. As was noted yesterday, talk is cheap. Actions tell the real story.

I know this is strong stuff, but the problem is critical. Apathy is a spiritual disease that’s killing our churches. Churches in America are struggling, and it’s our fault. How we Christians use our time matters very much, especially on Sunday mornings.

Today is Saturday. Tomorrow is Sunday. Will you be in church tomorrow? Not only do you need to be there for your own benefit, but your church needs you to be there.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Jesus says: “Wake up!”

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of God.” Revelation 3:2 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Jesus says: “Wake up!””

Are you becoming apathetic in the practice of your faith? I’m willing to bet most of you just answered, “No, I am not apathetic about the practice of my Christian faith.” Okay, but wait. Let me ask a few more questions. Do you find yourself making excuses for not praying and reading the Bible enough? Do you skip church fairly frequently so you can participate in recreational activities, family events, or because you just felt like sleeping in? Do you give little to the church but spend a lot on creature comforts, recreational activities, fast food, and things like that?

In short, are you in the habit of making excuses for not doing what you know you should do, and for not being where you know you should be?

Every year in January the magazine Christianity Today publishes their annual “Book Awards” edition. In it they rate the best books of the previous year, by category, and give awards for the best four in every genre. They also choose one book as “The book of the year”. The book of the year for 2022 was “Overcoming Apathy” by Uche Anizor.

The book addresses what many Christian leaders consider to be the number one malady in the Christian community in the USA today – apathy. A deep sense of apathy and indifference is becoming an increasing problem in society in general, and it is impacting the Church as well. Christians just don’t care as much as they used to. Oh, they would never admit it. They would protest and insist they do care. But words are cheap, it’s actions that tell the true story.

And the true story is alarming. The church in the USA is becoming increasingly inept and ineffective. Church attendance is at an all-time low; Bible literacy among Christians continues to decline; and believers increasingly accept and practice immoral cultural standards. Consequently, the Church in our country is slowly withering away.

The words of Revelation 3:2 were spoken by Jesus to apathetic Christians in an apathetic church in that day, but they pertain to all Christians in all church in all ages. We don’t become apathetic overnight, but slowly over an extended period of time. And eventually it comes to the point where we are essentially sleep-walking through our faith. To that Jesus demands, “Wake up!” “Your faith is slipping away from you.” Your churches are dying and you don’t even realize it!”

That’s true of Christians and churches today, and it’s really about choices. It’s about how we decide to spend our time. We often make poor choices with respect to the practice of our faith and then we make excuses and rationalize our choices. One of our favorite ways of rationalizing our excuses is to pat ourselves on the back for doing other things we consider to be good in instead. “I may miss church a lot but at least I read my Bible and pray.” “I may not give financially very much or very often, but I do pass out bulletins on Sunday morning.” You get the idea.

Apathy is a spiritual disease that is spreading across our land and infecting millions of Christians, many of whom are convinced they are actually faithfully engaged, but they’re not. Instead, increasingly, they’re missing in action, they’re uninvolved, and they’re making excuses. As a result, our churches are withering away. The command from Jesus to us is, “Wake up!”

We’ll think more about this tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Of pearls, pigs, and priorities

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Of pearls, pigs, and priorities.”

Sometimes life requires us to make difficult choices. We can’t do everything, all the time, for everyone. We only have so much time, emotional energy, and resources. Priorities have to be set and choices have to be made. The Bible is filled with stark contrasts and sometimes strong language, all designed to move us to make the hard choices and to do the hard things. This is one of those lessons.

Right up front let me point out that the terms “dogs” and “pigs” used in this illustration were Jesus’ words not mine. He used them in the Sermon on the Mount to make a critical point. Dogs in His day were vicious mongrels who attacked and injured other animals and sometimes people. Pigs were unclean animals that were filthy and disgusting. Pearls were precious and valuable, and therefore should not be treated with contempt and simply tossed into the mud with the pigs.

Jesus applied this analogy to enemies who hate God’s people and who will harm them if they can. The pearls and holy things Jesus referred to are all the precious resources (including your time) which God has entrusted to His people. The terms dogs and pigs, when applied to people, sounds harsh and unkind but Jesus had a critical point to make and an important lesson to teach, and He wanted to be sure we didn’t miss it.

This isn’t about pearls and pigs. It’s about being smart and making good choices. In the “Experiencing God Study Bible”, with respect to this parable, Henry Blackaby asks us to consider, “Are you giving God’s precious treasures to people who despise and demean them?” The application is that we are not to waste our time on people and activities that aren’t worthy of it. Your time is a little piece of your life. When you give people your time, you are giving them a piece of your life. That’s a precious treasure. It’s a gift from God. Is the recipient worthy of such a gift? Will they appreciate it? Or, will it be wasted? Even Jesus turned away from people and places where His time and effort wasn’t welcome or appreciated.

Satan is a leech, a bloodsucker. He will suck the life right out of you if you let him, and he will do it by bringing into your life people and activities who meet the criteria of Jesus’ analogy of dogs and pigs. According to Jesus, they are unholy and unworthy because they will take advantage of you, manipulate you, and harm you if given the chance. The point of the parable is that we have to be smart when it comes to making choices about which people and activities we will give our time, attention, and resources to.

We do, of course, need to err on the side of grace. We do need to be kind, compassionate, and merciful. And we do need to give people a chance. But we are not to be naïve either. We are not (as Jesus said) to toss our pearls before pigs.

This is a hard lesson. It sounds harsh. But it’s also reality. Not everyone is equally deserving of your time, attention, and resources. Choices have to be made – and Jesus calls us to be smart about it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Sometimes it’s a child who shows us the way

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “… and a child will lead them.” Isaiah 11:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Sometimes it’s a child who shows us the way”

For all my years as a Pastor I have always had the habit of praying on Friday mornings, by name, for every member, attender, and recent visitor in our church. I use the pictorial directory, and I also refer to a written list for those I don’t have a picture of. I think about the person, consider any special needs in their life, and then I pray for them.

This past Sunday (New Years Day), in children’s church, the children made a list of their New Years resolutions. Then they brought them to me after the worship service and asked if, when I prayed for them, would I pray that God would help them to keep their resolutions? I was touched and honored. And of course, I will pray for those issues for them.

The lists were cute and contain the kinds of things you would expect from young children – obey my parents, be nice to my brother or sister, do better in school, and, admirably (considering the age we live in), spend less time on my cell phone.

Isaiah 11:6 is about the Christ-child not about your child. And yet, it is true that often children lead us as adults to be aware of important things we might be missing. In this case, the children understand the importance of having goals for personal improvement, and writing them down. Not to mention the importance of asking other people to pray for you to achieve your goals.

Have you begun the New Year with a list of goals and objectives? I mean things to accomplish or ways to improve? If not, I encourage you to do so. Too often we end up wandering willy-nilly through our days, just shuffling along without giving a lot of thought to where we’re headed, what we’re accomplishing, and how we’re using our time. The old saying “Aim at nothing and you’ll hit it every time” is really true. If you’re attempting nothing, you’ll accomplish nothing.

We humans thrive when our lives have clear purpose and good structure. I encourage you to prayerfully set some goals for achievement and improvement in 2023. And, if you would like me to pray for those things for you, just send them to me. I’ll gladly include your list of resolutions right along with the lists from the children.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t waste your time

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “How to inhabit time”

Our Bible verse for today: “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.” Psalm 90:12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t waste your time”

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2023. If you were at Oak Hill Baptist Church for the New Year Day service, or if you watched online, then you know that the sermon was about how to make the most of the time God will give us in 2023. The moments of our lives are a gift from God – every moment of every day. It’s all grace. It’s all a gift.

In front of you there are 12 new months, 52 new weeks, 365 new days, 8,760 new hours, 525,000 new minutes, and 31,536,000 new seconds. How will you use them? Will they pass you by in a blur as you rush through life from one activity to another? Will you waste your time dwelling on the past and worrying about the future? Will you do things of consequence that make a difference for you and for others?

I confess upfront that I borrowed the title for this month’s theme. It comes from a book I read last year with the same title, “How to inhabit time: Understanding the past, facing the future, living faithfully now.”, by James K.A. Smith. Smith is a professor of philosophy at Calvin University, and as a philosopher, he tends to spend a lot of time thinking about things like “how to inhabit time”. His book is insightful and thought-provoking, and I’ll refer to it from-time-to-time throughout the month. We need to understanding how to live fully and live well.

I will also draw from John Mark Comer’s excellent work “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, and from “Three Mile an Hour God” by Kosuke Kayama, who is in heaven now but in this lifetime, he was a respected and influential Japanese theologian and philosopher. Kayama taught that God walks with us through life at our speed (three miles an hour) and if we go too fast, He slows us down so we can appreciate and savor the moments of life.

The point is that life is too precious and too short to waste our time regretting the past, worrying about the future, or rushing through our days. We also want to be sure that our lives matter and that they make a difference. Let’s resolve that in 2023 we won’t waste our time but will instead, make the most of it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

See Him and He will be found by you

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 right hand will hold on to me.” Psalm 139:7-11 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Seek Him and He will be found by you”

I want to end this month where we began, by thinking about the omnipresence of God. He is everywhere, always. There is no place in all the universe where God is not. That was David’s point in Psalm 139:7-11 above. In your entire life there will never be a moment when you are not in the presence of God.

I also want to remind us of the great truth Henry Blackaby so thoroughly explored and unpacked in his Bible study, “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”, that God wants to be known by His people and God wants to be heard by us. Therefore, He goes to extraordinary lengths to reach out to us – through His creation; on the pages of the Bible; in the person of Jesus Christ; through the Holy Spirit living in the hearts of and working through the lives of the followers of Christ; and ten thousand times ten thousand other ways. God wants to be known by us and He wants to be heard by us, and He goes to great lengths to connect with us.

But I also want to remind us of the wonderful insight shared by the poet Elizabeth Barret Browning, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” God is there, do we see Him? Are we even looking?

This is the last day of 2022. Tomorrow we will begin a new year. First, I want to wish you and yours a happy and blessed 2023. Then, I want to challenge all of us to make 2023 a year of discovery when we are much more alert to the presence of God all around us. He has promised that if you seek Him, He will be found by you: “You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you …” (Jeremiah 29:12-14).

God bless,
Pastor Jim