Oak Hill Baptist Church

It’s a matter of the will

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “It’s a matter of the will”

More than twenty years ago an old friend gave me a wonderful little devotional book as a gift. The title is “Disciplines of the Inner Life” by Bob Benson and Michael Benson. On the flyleaf in the front of the book, to set the tone for the study, they offered this observation, “If you wish to live richly, deeply and spiritually, you must cultivate the “world within.” It is a thrilling world … with the Heavenly Father as our companion …”

They go on to say that, “Down through Christian history various spiritual principles, rules, disciplines and practices have aided the believer in the quest for a deeper knowledge of God.” The rest of the book is all about putting those time-proven principles and disciplines into practice.

One entire section of the book is dedicated to identifying and overcoming common obstacles to developing that deeper life with God, and the number one obstacle is gaining control over your will. Our human will is a stubborn thing. We want what we want and we are usually determined to have what we want, and one of the things our nature leads us to want is the path of least resistance. That means avoiding things that are hard or which take extra effort (like developing the habit of getting out of bed early to spend 30 minutes with God in prayer and Bible study or, being in church on Sunday instead of doing something else or going somewhere else). Gaining control over your will, disciplining it and making yourself do the things you know you should do, is a key element to living by faith.

Now, as we will learn in coming days, once we develop the habit of practicing the faith on a regular and consistent basis, we discover that we love living this way and we wouldn’t want to go back to our old habits. But initially, breaking old patterns and developing new ones can be hard work.

Coming to faith in Jesus is relatively easy. Living by faith is much harder. It’s a matter of gaining control over your will and training yourself to do the things necessary to experience the spiritual growth you need in order to live by faith. We’ll think more about this tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

He rewards those who seek Him

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “He rewards those who seek Him”

“A long obedience in the same direction” is a life principle that has been around for ages. It simply means that to succeed in any area of life we have to be committed to it and we have to apply ourselves to it over the long-term.

More than forty years ago Pastor Eugene Peterson wrote a book by that title in which he showed us how to apply that principle to the Christian life. The Christian life is not an endless series of ecstatic mountaintop spiritual experiences. Instead, it consists of daily discipline and discipleship. It is the steady and repeated practice of basic spiritual disciplines, applied on a daily basis, which help us to stay spiritually healthy and to grow.

It’s the habit of beginning each day with a quiet time of prayer, Bible study, and devotions (and doing so even if you’re tired and even if don’t feel like doing it). A long obedience in the same direction also consists of things like faithful attendance at the gatherings of your church family; participation in acts of ministry; and intentionally sharing your faith with others; all participated in on a regular and consistent basis. It’s an act of the will. We do it precisely because we have made a decision to believe in God and to trust Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. We do it because we want to know Him better and we want to please Him.

The first step to living by faith is to trust Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. The second step is to incorporate the practices of the faith into your life. Make them part of your daily routine. This is the gift you have to offer God; this is what you bring to Him – your heart, and the daily demonstration of your faith in Him.

I encourage you to make it your habit to demonstrate your faith to God by spending time with Him daily. Don’t allow excuses or distractions to deter you. In return, He will honor your faithfulness. Remember, as Hebrews 11:6 reminds us, He rewards those who seek Him.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

If I were a betting man …

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “If I were a betting man …”

I don’t know if Blaise Pascal was a gambling man or not, but I do know he is famous for something known as “Pascal’s Wager”. Blaise Pascal was a famous French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, and theologian who lived in the 1600s. He was a great Christian thinker and he wrote many books, articles, and pamphlets designed to make the case for Christianity, and to help strengthen the faith of believers.

His last great work, which was published after his death, was titled “Pensees” (Thoughts). It was a collection of his notes and thoughts about probability theory (which helps us to decide if something is probably true or not, and if it is likely to happen or not). In that work Pascal applied probability theory to the question of whether it makes sense to believe in God or not.

When applying probability theory to that question Pascal concluded that a rational person should live as though God exists and should seek to believe in God. They should do so because if God does not exist, such a person will have only a finite loss of some pleasures and luxuries in this lifetime. Whereas, if God does exist, the person stands to gain an eternity of blessings and rewards (as opposed to an eternity in hell).

That line of thinking has become known as “Pascal’s Wager”. It makes more sense to wager on God’s existence and to live accordingly, than it does to deny His existence. If I’m wrong and God doesn’t exist, so what? But if I’m right and He is real, then yay for me! I won the lottery.

As we’ve learned in our devotionals in this series up to this point, God has gone to great lengths to convince us that He is real and that we should have faith in Him. He created us with eternity in our hearts; He has shown Himself in the wonders, splendors, and complexity of His creation; He has gifted us with the miracle of the Bible which, as Luke tells us in Luke 1:1-4, is a thorough and orderly account; and now we learn that believing in Him is a better bet than not believing. What you lose for being wrong is miniscule compared to what you will gain if you are right. So, when it comes to living by faith, we choose to put all our chips on God.

Tomorrow we’ll begin exploring what this “living by faith” looks like in actual practice in everyday life.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Don’t apologize, but do be a good apologist

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” 1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Don’t apologize, but do be a good apologist”

“Apologetics” does not mean apologizing. It’s exactly the opposite. Apologetics is actually a form of discourse and debate that involves providing well-reasoned arguments in justification of something. It’s an explanation and defense of a position or belief. Although this form of discourse is very common and is used to explain and defend virtually every subject, the term “apologetics” is most commonly used in reference to explaining or defending religious theory and doctrine.

Christian apologetics is the discipline of explaining and defending the Christian faith by means of systematic, logical, and well-constructed lines of reasoning. It’s what Peter was referring to in 1 Peter 3:15 (above) when he told us we should always be prepared to explain our faith, and it’s something every Christian should learn to do at some level. We should all be able to provide a clear explanation of what we believe and why we believe it.

It’s true that there is a formal field of Christian apologetics that is advanced, and for which men and women receive years of training. It’s actually a subspecialty in the world of Christian ministry for which colleges and seminaries award advanced degrees. But you don’t need a Bible College education to do this. Any time we explain or defend our faith we’re engaging in apologetics. A clear, thoughtful, logical explanation of Christianity is the way in which many people need to be approached. For them, the faith has to make sense on an intellectual level.

For people like that, Lee Strobel’s book “The Case for Faith” will be helpful. It is an excellent, clear, and easy-to-read case for faith in God. It would be a good book to give as a gift to the people you know who are struggling to believe.

We don’t have to apologize for our faith, but we do need to be good apologists for it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Faith in Jesus makes good sense

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.” Luke 1:1-4 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Faith in Jesus makes good sense”

In our study of learning to live by faith, I have begun by establishing a foundation for why we should have faith at all. So far, we’ve learned that God created us with an inborn awareness that He is real and He created us with a desire to know Him. And we have learned that the creation itself provides abundant proof for a Creator. Those two proofs by themselves are more than enough for any person to know there is a God.

But then God goes even further in His efforts to reach out to us and to convince us that He is real and that we must place our faith in His Son Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. In addition to creating us with a sense of yearning for Him; and in addition to revealing Himself in profound and convincing ways in every aspect of His creation; God has also provided us with a convincing case for faith based on logic and reasoning.

Yes, faith in God makes perfect sense from a intellectual perspective too. We see that in the opening of Luke’s Gospel. Luke was a physician. He was a man of science. He was a thoughtful intellectual who investigated things in order to understand them and to know what is true about them and what is not. That’s the approach Luke took to investigating Jesus and to constructing the story he wrote about Him, and that’s the investigative approach Lee Strobel took when he researched and wrote his bestselling book “The Case for Faith”.

There’s actually such a good and strong case for faith in God that although God hasn’t actually unzipped the sky, poked His face through and said “hello”, He has stopped just short of doing that. When Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is a matter of believing in things we cannot see or actually prove, that’s true – but it’s just barely true. God has constructed for us such a strong case for faith in Him that the “leap of faith” that is so often talked about, really isn’t much of a leap at all. It’s more like a short step from one side to the other.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you more about Lee’s excellent book and the strong case that can be made for faith based on logic and reasoning. For today, I encourage you to spend some time prayerfully thinking about what great lengths God has gone to prove Himself to you.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Astrophysicists for Jesus!

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “… since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Astrophysicists for Jesus!”

Over the last two days we have learned that God created us with an intuitive understanding that He does exist, there is a spiritual world, and this life is not all there is. We have also learned that our soul is who we really are, and it is our soul that makes us aware of God. That right there is enough to create within each person a yearning for God and to lead a person to faith in Him.

In today’s Bible passage we learn from the Apostle Paul that in addition to creating us with that inborn desire to know Him, God has also made Himself known through His creation. We see evidence of God everywhere. The evidence of God in creation is so overwhelming that Paul declares all people to be without excuse for not believing. If you would like to learn more about how God reveals Himself through His creation, I recommend Lee Strobel’s book, “The Case for a Creator”.

The evidence for God seen in the wonders of His creation is strong. Sarah Salviander discovered that to be true. As a teenager and young adult Sarah was fascinated by science, and especially astrophysics, which she went to college to study. She was quickly surprised to discover that some of the best physics professors at her college were also Christians. When she questioned them about what she believed to be the conflict between science and faith in God, her professors helped her to see that the amazing complexity and order, the sheer beauty of the universe, had to be the result of a Supreme Being, a Creator.

In time, Sarah discovered that many scientists in all fields, but especially those who study deep space, do in fact acknowledge the strong case for a Creator. Ultimately Sarah earned her doctorate in astrophysics, and she also came to faith not just in a Creator, but in the One True God and in His Son Jesus Christ.

Not surprisingly, Sarah’s favorite Psalm is Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2 (NIV)

The creation itself is proof enough for any person to know there is a God.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

You are a soul who has a body

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 (NKJV)

Our thought for today: “You are a soul who has a body”

This morning I want to continue our thinking from yesterday regarding the important truth that God has created human beings with a sense of eternity in our hearts. Deep down we just know that there is a spiritual world and that there is more than just this lifetime. It’s because God created us with a sense of eternity in our hearts, and it’s actually the presence of your soul that makes you aware of it.

In his book “The Case for Heaven” Lee Strobel explores the question of what a soul is and what it does. He writes, “The soul is considered to be the seat of our consciousness, the locus of our introspection, volition, emotions, desires, memories, perceptions, and beliefs. It’s the ego – the “I” or the self. The soul is said to animate and interact with our body, though it is distinct from it. ‘When we speak of the soul, we speak of our essential core,’ said philosopher Paul Copan.” Lee goes on, “The soul is that which makes us more than matter, more than advanced primates, more than simply brains. The soul is the impenetrable core of a person, given by God.”

It was the great Bible scholar J.P. Moreland who once said, “I am a soul, and I have a body”. In other words, our soul inhabits this body of flesh and bones but the real you is that magnificent spirit that will live for eternity. For now, your soul lives in this body of flesh and bones; someday, it will live in a resurrection body; but the real you is your soul.

This is what Paul was referring to in 2 Corinthians 5:8 (above). To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The moment this body of flesh and bones ceases to function, the soul is released from it and the real you goes off into eternity.

As we learned yesterday, we know this to be true. We sense it deep down in our hearts because that’s how God created us. So, again today I want to encourage you to trust what you sense to be true about you. You are a soul who has a body, and it is your soul that causes you to yearn for God and to choose to have faith in Him.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Trust what you sense to be true

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of man.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Trust what you sense to be true”

Anthropology is the scientific study of human beings down through the ages of history. Anthropologists research and analyze cultures and societies, past and present, to understand human behavior down through the ages and across geographical, language, and cultural boundaries. And one thing anthropologists have discovered to be true regarding humans in general, is a belief in a spirit world and in life after death. That tends to be true in almost all cultures down through history.

But why? Where does that belief come from? How could it be that regardless of the period of human history being considered, and seemingly despite geographic, language, and cultural issues, the overwhelming majority of humans have believed in a god or gods, a spirit world, and life after death?

The answer is that God has created humans with a sense of eternity in our hearts. That’s what Solomon meant when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has set eternity in the hearts of man.” God created humans with an innate and intuitive understanding that there is more than just the physical dimension we experience with our five senses, and there is more than just this lifetime.

That’s where faith in God comes from. Even if a person doesn’t know Him as the One True God; and even if they haven’t accepted His Son Jesus as personal Savior and Lord; human beings still have a sense deep down in their heart that there is a God, they do want to know Him, and they do want to please Him because they want to go to heaven.

Faith is born in the heart and is the result of a deep longing for God. God created us to want a relationship with Him. It’s part of our DNA. This is what the early theologian Saint Augustine meant when he wrote, “You have created us for yourself, oh God, and our hearts are searching, restless, until we find our rest in you.” It’s what the French philosopher Blaise Pascal was getting at when he wrote, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of man that can only be filled by God.”

Deep down in your heart you know there is a God and you yearn to have a close relationship with Him. I encourage you to trust what you sense to be true.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Further up and further in!

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Further up and further in!”

Before we go any further exploring our adventure in faith, I want to whet your appetite for our study this month by telling a story and sharing a quote.

In their wonderful little devotional book “Finding God in the Land of Narnia”, Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware relate the scene at the end of the last volume in the Narnia series, “The Last Battle”. In this scene Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Eustace, and Jill are finally arriving in the real Narnia (Heaven). The wars are over; Aslan reigns supreme; the children and their troop of odd and unusual Narnian friends (fawns, fairies, unicorns, dwarfs, eagles, etc.), are on the outskirts of paradise; and Aslan is waiting.

As they’re running into Narnia, going deeper and deeper into it, experiencing one wonder after another, Farsight the Eagle is flying above and in front of them urging them on, leading them in, and calling out encouragement, “Further up and further in!”

In my mind that joyful scene depicts the journey of faith we are all on. As we mature in Christ and journey deeper and deeper into the person of God, we experience new things and we come to new understandings about God and His ways as mysteries are revealed and our spiritual eyes are opened.

One of my favorite quotes about the adventure of living by faith comes from author Jim Peterson in his book “Lifestyle Discipleship”. He writes, “One of the greatest gifts God has given us is the infinite opportunity for spiritual growth. But however much we have matured, there is always more beyond. It is in this that we find the adventure of living. There will always be new, unexplored dimensions of His person beckoning to us. The possibilities go off the chart.”

Living by faith is an adventure that leads to ever-increasing spiritual growth as we learn and grow and experience God in deeper and more revealing ways. So, let’s get to it. We have an entire month in front of us of learning to live by faith. “Further up and further in!”

God bless,
Pastor Jim

What is faith?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Living by faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “What is faith?”

What does it mean to have faith in anyone or in anything? The dictionary says that faith is “the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” Synonyms for faith are belief, confidence, conviction, certainty, assuredness, and dependency.

The dictionary further says that when that definition is applied to God it means, “a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.” That last phrase is a crucial part of our understanding of what faith is and how it develops, “…based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.” “Spiritual apprehension” means that faith grows as we mature spiritually and as we gain a better understanding of spiritual things. As our understanding of God and His ways increases; as our personal relationship with Him deepens; and as we experience Him at work in our lives in more and more ways; our confidence in Him, our conviction and certainty about Him, and our dependance on Him continues to grow.

In Hebrews 11:1 the Bible tells us that faith is being sure and certain of things we cannot actually experience with our physical senses. We can’t see, hear, touch, taste or smell such things, and yet we are certain of them. How can that be? How does it happen? Where does such belief come from and how do we get more of it? Does it even make sense to believe in things our senses can’t detect and for which we don’t have direct physical proof?

The answer, of course, is “yes”. The case for faith in God is very strong, and the case for living by faith is strong as well. Living by faith is the only lifestyle that makes good sense. So, all this month we will consider what it means to live by faith. We will think about what faith is, how we get more of it, and how we incorporate faith into our lives in practical ways that make a real difference.

The life of faith is an exciting adventure and I’m looking forward to exploring it with you.

God bless,
Pastor Jim