Oak Hill Baptist Church

The righteous will live by faith

Good morning everyone,

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

Our Bible verse for today: “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The righteous shall live by faith”

The dictionary tells us that faith is, “1. The complete trust or confidence in someone or something. 2. Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” Think about that. Faith is “the reality” of what is hoped for; and it is the “proof” of what is not seen. There’s that “spiritual apprehension” the dictionary was referring to. The faith God is calling for from His people is faith in a reality that we cannot see with our physical vision, and it is gained through spiritual apprehension (spiritual maturity). That’s how we come to appreciate the reality of it. In Romans 1:17 the Apostle Paul tells us that “the righteous shall live by faith.” There are dozens of other verses in the Bible which also teach that same important truth – God’s people are expected to live by faith.

This is the other reason I referred to in yesterday’s devotional about why God only shows Himself to us in indirect ways. It’s because He wants us to live by faith rather than by sight. Faith is a crucial element in our love for God. If God did show Himself to us in a direct way – if He did peel back the sky and poke His face through and speak to us directly face-to-face, we would no longer have to have faith in Him. We would now have direct physical proof and there would no longer be a need to believe in what is not seen, as Hebrews 11:1 calls for.

But that would also lessen or even eliminate our love for Him. If we had concrete proof like that; if we did gaze directly on His awesome majesty without it overwhelming us and causing us to drop dead on the spot; we would then obey God out of fear rather than free will. Our free will would have effectively been taken away from us because we would be completely and thoroughly intimidated into submission.

But that’s not the relationship God wants with us. He doesn’t desire submission out of fear, He desires relationship out of love. So, He appeals to that place in our hearts that Solomon wrote about in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (He has placed eternity in their hearts), and then He woos us and lures us with just enough evidence of His presence to stoke the flames of desire in our hearts, and to draw us deeper and deeper in our desire to know Him and to have a close relationship with Him.

Faith is a choice. It’s a decision to believe even though I don’t have direct, solid, concrete evidence, and even though I cannot fully grasp all the intricate details of God and of the spiritual dimension. I choose to believe anyway. That’s faith and that’s what God desires from us.

And yet, as much sense as that makes, and despite the great lengths God has already gone to in order to draw His children to Himself, He did more. There’s still the incarnation, and there’s still Pentecost, and that’s where we’re going to go now in our study of the awesome reality of the presence of God.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

You couldn’t handle it

Good morning everyone,

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

Our Bible verse for today: “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live… Here is a place near me. You are to stand on the rock, and when my glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back, but my face will not be seen.” Exodus 33:20-23 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You couldn’t handle it”

So far in our study about the awesome reality of the presence of God we’ve considered the truth that God is omnipresent – He is present everywhere, all the time. As King David made clear in the Psalms, and as the Apostle Paul explained in Romans Chapter one, the indirect evidence for God can be clearly seen in the creation itself. Creation is too marvelous, too miraculous, too complex and intricate, to be the result of anything other than the work of a Creator.

Additionally, we’ve learned that the evidence for God comes to us in thousands of indirect ways including things like the words of Scripture, the flight of a butterfly, the beauty of a flower, the miracle a baby, a miraculous healing, and so much more. We just have to be paying attention and we have to acknowledge that what we’re seeing is evidence of God.

But we also have to wonder why God is so constrained when revealing His presence. Why not show Himself to us plainly and directly rather than by sideways glances and brief flickers that disappear with the blink of an eye? He answered that question for Moses in Exodus 33:20, “…for humans cannot see me and live.”

The truth is that God is so powerful, so awesome, and so majestic, that our five human senses couldn’t handle His presence. It would overwhelm us and probably kill us. A sideways glance is about all we can stand. And still, every encounter like that which we read about in the Bible left the individuals involved either scared out of their wits, trembling and weak in the knees, or in some cases they fell down on the ground as if they were dead. A mere whiff of God is enough to send us reeling.

So, that’s one reason God obscures His presence and shows Himself to us in safer and less dramatic ways – it’s because we couldn’t handle being exposed to His full, direct, unobscured presence.

There’s also another reason, which we will discuss tomorrow. After that we will spend the rest of the month considering the awesome truth that beyond just those dim flickers and sideways glances of His presence, God did two additional things designed to help us see Him and get to know Him – the incarnation and Pentecost. But first, there’s that other reason …

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Christ plays in ten thousand places

Good morning everyone,

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

Our Bible verse for today: “…but the Lord was not in the wind … but the Lord was not in the earthquake … but the Lord was not in the fire … After the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper (and Elijah heard it).” 1 Kings 19:11;12;13

Our thought for today: “Christ plays in ten thousand places”

In 1 Kings 19 the Old Testament prophet Elijah was having a bad day. He was running for his life from the evil Queen Jezebel and he was exhausted, hungry, depressed, and ready to just lay down and die. Although the text doesn’t actually say it, Elijah was evidently unaware of God’s presence there in that moment with him. So, God sent an angel to open Elijah’s spiritual eyes to the reality of the situation.

Interestingly, God did not manifest His presence to Elijah in a dramatic and overt way. There was a fierce wind, but God wasn’t in the wind. There was a ground-shaking earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake. There was a raging fire, but God wasn’t in the fire. The storm and thunder and fire and shaking ground all helped to get Elijah’s attention, but it was only after he was paying attention that he was able to detect the subtle presence of the Lord in the stillness that followed, and by means of a soft whisper.

And so it is with us. Although we would love for God to peel back the sky, stick His face through, and say something audible in a loud clear voice, that’s just not the way He does it. Instead, God shows Himself to us in a thousand indirect ways – a word from Scripture that seems to jump off the page; a lyric in a song that speaks to our heart; the beauty of a sunrise or sunset; the giggle and laugh of a little baby; the warm smile and kind words of a friend.

The phrase “Christ plays in ten thousand places” was used originally in the poem, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” by the writer Gerard Manley Hopkins. He used the phrase to illustrate that God shows Himself to us in thousands of unexpected ways, but we have to be looking for Him and we have to pay attention to our surroundings. God makes His presence known to us in unique and unexpected ways.

If you’re looking for God you need to believe that He is there, but you will have to look closely and you will have to look for the indirect evidence. God plays in ten thousand times ten thousand places. He is everywhere, always, all the time, and He will make Himself known to you. But you do have to be paying attention and you will have to look closely.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Slow down, pay attention, look a little closer

Good morning everyone,

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

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: “Slow down, pay attention, look a little closer”

I’ve always loved the passage from the poem “Aurora Leigh” by the Christian writer and poet Elizabeth Barrett 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.”

That takes us back to yesterday’s devotional about the fact that since God is everywhere all the time, and since we are therefore always in His presence, every place has the potential to be a sacred place where we can encounter Him. The problem is that we’re not aware of His presence because we’re not paying attention. That’s what Paul meant in Romans 1:19-20. There he reminds us that God does make us aware of His presence, even in the creation itself, but too often we don’t see Him because we’re not paying attention.

Is it possible that we have become spiritually dull? Maybe we’re so busy with other things, or so distracted by all the noise and activity we surround ourselves with, that spiritually we’ve become dull and superficial. In his great little book, “The Knowledge of the Holy” A.W. Tozer noted that in our day we Christians have become so busy and so distracted that the words “Be still and know that I am God” mean next to nothing to us. I believe he may be correct.

The point being made by Elizabeth Browning in her poem was the same one Paul was making in Romans 1:19-20, God is present, but we miss Him because we’re not looking for Him. I encourage all of us to slow down, pay attention, and look a little closer.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

Every place is potentially a sacred place

Good morning everyone,

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

Our Bible verse for today: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Genesis 28:16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Every place is potentially a sacred place”

A.W. Tozer was a pastor, author, magazine editor, and mentor of pastors in the early-to-mid 1900s. He was a friendly, down-to-earth, and easily approachable person, but he had such deep spiritual insight that he was often referred to as “a modern mystic”. Tozer’s many books are still widely read today, almost sixty years after his death.

Writing about the awesome reality of the presence of God Tozer once said, “Men do not know if God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew.” Yes, what a difference it would make in our lives if we would remain aware of the awesome truth that God is right here with us. There is never a time when we are out of His presence.

The Old Testament patriarch Jacob needed to learn that lesson. In Genesis chapter twenty-eight we read about a young Jacob on a journey to the land of his relatives to find a wife for himself. One night, out in the wilderness, God gave him a vison in a dream regarding the great future He had in store for Jacob. When he awoke, Jacob declared, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” He concluded that this must be a sacred place so, he named it “Bethel” (house of God), and he quickly built an altar there and worshipped.

The important point that Jacob missed though is that God is everywhere, all the time, and therefore every place is potentially sacred. It’s all sacred space. It’s not that God wasn’t there with Jacob before the dream, or after it, it’s just that during the dream Jacob became aware of God’s presence with Him, and therefore decided it was a holy, sacred place.

We need to learn the same lesson. As Tozer said, what a difference it would make in our lives if we knew, if we remembered, that God is right here with us, in this place, at this very moment. If we did, then we would realize that every place has the potential to be a sacred place where we can encounter God.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

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