Seize the Moment – Day 431
Today’s hymn focus will be “The Comforter Has Come”
John 14:16 (ESV)
“And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Helper,
to be with you forever,”
Frank Bottome was born in Derbyshire, England in 1823. In 1850, he moved to America where he entered ministry in the Methodist Episcopalian Church. He began writing hymns and, while the circumstances that inspired this hymn are unclear, it was written during a time of great spiritual awakening.
While this hymn is celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit, it is also a proclamation of the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to have God send the Holy Spirit to comfort and dwell within us. This allows the Holy Spirit to do His work in glorifying Jesus Christ in our lives.
The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come! The Holy Ghost
From heaven, the Father’s promise given. O spread the tidings ‘round
wherever man is found. The Comforter has come!
It’s time we wake up and know that the Holy Spirit is more than just a comforter, like a warm blanket. He is also the One that is walking with us and working in us so that we can bring glory to God in everything we do!
YOUTUBE:
The Comforter Has Come
Wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!
The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father’s promise given;
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
The Comforter has come!
To every captive soul a full deliverance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings:
The Comforter has come!
To wondering mortals tell the matchless grace divine:
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!
The Comforter has come!
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Seize the Moment – Day 430
Hard Work and Honesty!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 21.
What are some of your greatest witnessing tools?
Genesis 39:2-3 narrates Joseph’s life as a slave: “The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.”
Joseph worked uncompromisingly hard for his master and was above reproach with all of his master’s possessions and affairs. In a scandalous turn of events, Joseph was framed and thrown into jail because he would not compromise his integrity, but even in jail Joseph’s hard work and honesty testified of his God.
Joseph had every reason to grumble or dispute, but instead he got back to work and he brought glory to God!
Genesis 39:22-23 testifies to Joseph in prison: “The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.”
Joseph is an illustration of God’s command to every believer from Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
Seize the moment and shine brightly with your hard work and honesty. Whether you are working to financially support yourself or your family or volunteering to make a difference in your community or church, never forget that you are there to shine as a witness of God’s glory!
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Seize the Moment – Day 429
Judah, Tamar, and Jesus!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 20.
Genesis 38 interrupts the story of Joseph to tell the story of Judah, one of Joseph’s older brothers. Interestingly, it was Judah in Genesis 37:26-27 that saved Joseph’s life, but led him to be sold into slavery to the Egyptians. Ironically, in Genesis 46:28, Jacob chooses Judah to lead the entire family to Egypt where Joseph waited to save them all from the seven-year famine.
Did you know that Genesis 38 is important also to understanding the genealogy of Jesus Christ?
In Matthew 1:3 we read: “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” Do those names mean anything to you?
Who is Tamar? She is his daughter-in-law and the disregarded widow of Judah’s deceased first and second sons, Er and Onan, who was withheld from his third son, Shelah.
Genesis 38:27-30 captures the birth of these famous twins to Judah through Tamar.
It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb. Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But it came about as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. Then she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez. Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah.
Revelation 5:5 describes Jesus as “the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah.”
This is one of the triumphant names of Jesus, but have you read recently the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38? Birthed through sordid details of this ancient story came the One who rescued all of humanity from their sins.
Seize the moment and trust God with your past, present, and future. Truly, our God gives beauty for ashes!
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Seize the Moment – Day 428
Faith in the Pit!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, May 19.
Do you have a favorite Bible story?
Genesis 37 begins my favorite Old Testament story—the story of Joseph! This is a long story, one that will take us to the end of Genesis. It is my favorite story because I know how it ends. I don’t envy Joseph for the events of his life, but I do deeply desire to live my life faithfully, like Joseph, trusting God no matter how dark the circumstances of my life.
The story begins with Joseph as a teenager, seventeen years of age. God entrusted him with great responsibility at a young age—God gave Joseph dreams. Listen to Genesis 37:5, “Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.”
Joseph was young and inexperienced and he didn’t know how to steward this responsibility at first. In his youthfulness, he did not show discretion and his brothers hated him and were jealous. But Joseph remained the favored son of Israel.
It was from this position of power that Joseph had to fall in order to become the man God would use to rescue the future nation of Israel.
Unfortunately, the formation process of the great people of faith very often starts at the bottom of a dark pit.
Joseph’s pit began with his brothers’ plot for his downfall, found in Genesis 37:23-24a: “So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; and they took him and threw him into the pit.”
Sometimes we dig our own pit and other times we are thrown in the pit by others, but regardless of how we get there, never forget that great faith is very often developed in the deepest, darkest holes of life.
Seize the moment and trust God no matter how deep or dark the hardships of your life.
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Seize the Moment – Day 427
Love Your Neighbor!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, May 18.
Do you remember Jacob’s twin brother Esau? He is the son of the patriarch Isaac and his wife Rebekah. He feels like a secondary character in the Bible, though, an “also-ran” after Jacob.
Esau is important; he represents the fulfillment of God’s promise to Rebekah. Listen to God’s promise to her in Genesis 25:23: “Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body…”
Esau is important to God and Genesis 36:9 captures the purpose of this long chapter: “These then are the records of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.”
Yes, you’ve got it, Genesis 36 is 43 glorious verses of genealogy of a people who don’t even feel like the main point of the Bible, but are important to God because God always keeps His promises.
God is investing significant time in the Bible to remind us about one of His beloved children.
Esau’s life is the fulfillment of the Genesis 17:6 prophecy to Abraham: “I have made you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.”
Did you notice the plural—nations and kings?
Esau is the king of the Edomites, where his brother Jacob, whose name was changed, is the father of Israel. Kings have come from the barren womb of Sarah because of God’s miraculous power and covenant faithfulness.
God faithfully loves all of His children. This chapter is not a waste of your time because it practically demonstrates God’s love for all people—even those who feel like “also-rans.”
Seize the moment and love your neighbor as yourself.
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Seize the Moment – Day 426
Power Plays!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 17.
The world loves a good power play!
Jacob’s oldest son, Reuben, made a power play after the death of Jacob’s favored wife, Rachel. Whether this had to do with him being the first born of all Jacob’s children or simply the first-born of Jacob’s scorned first wife Leah, we don’t know. But what we do know is that Jacob had just named Rachel’s son, Benjamin, a powerful name meaning, “son of the right hand” and shortly after this Reuben made his move against his father.
Had Reuben finally had enough and took matters into his own hands?
Genesis 35:19-22 records Reuben’s power play:
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.
Why would he do this? In 2 Samuel 16:20-23, Absalom does the same exact power play in his rebellion against his father, King David.
In both cases, the sons of these powerful men are marked forever by their failed attempts to seize power from their fathers. We can learn from their failures and don’t need to make the same mistakes in our lives.
God warns His people in 1 Peter 5:6-7, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
Seize the moment and trust God to be the one to raise you up. Power plays may be the way of corporations and politicians, but they should not be the way of God’s people and churches. Humble yourself and trust God to lift you up at the right time.
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Live Like a Champion – Week 20
The Promise of Intercession!
Romans 8:34b (NAS95)
Read: Acts 1:1-11.
Where is Jesus? Right now, where is Jesus and in what state does He exist and what is He doing? Has Jesus returned to a pre-incarnate Spirit-state? Does He live in your heart? For that matter, where and what is Heaven and what would it even mean if Jesus was there right now?
“Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
In Tuesday’s daily devotional phone call based on Genesis 31 I asked if God still intervenes for His people today as we saw Him do over and over again in the Bible. The answer is a resounding yes—absolutely! The primary way God does it is through today’s promise: God’s intervention is through Jesus’ intercession and that is only possible because of the ascension!
Right now, Jesus is at the right hand of God, in the throne room of Heaven, praying for you! Ascension Day is the crowning event of the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but is often hidden in the shadow of our proclamation of His crucifixion and resurrection.
We skip over the triumphant reality of Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father, yet we declare His imminent return in the second coming of Jesus Christ. We leave the “where is He now” and “what is He doing in this present age” kind of unclear. Right now, at the right hand of God, Jesus is praying for you! Here is another way of talking about this: The Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, and Jesus, who is at the right of the Father in Heaven, are speaking with one another and with the Father about you. God exists in a perfect relationship with perfect communication for His glory and our good, for eternity.
Today, I want to teach you the importance of Jesus’ ascension so that you can live with even greater confidence in your daily prayer life and the promises of God for His intervention in your life.
“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God.”
“So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”
“By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
On the fortieth day after Easter, Jesus ascended (bodily rose, “taken up in glory”) to heaven before His disciples’ very eyes. Jesus did not leave behind his physical body, resurrected in the flesh, glorified in the Spirit, so that He could take His place at the right hand of the Father. No, very importantly, Jesus in His glorified and resurrected flesh, is now at the right hand of God, praying for us!
The ascension is filled with theological significance and practical implications for our faith and practice.
First, for our faith in Jesus and His Kingdom rule, Jesus’ ascension demonstrates the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy—Jesus’ rule will never end. Listen to the ancient prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14:
I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Hebrews 1:1-4 affirms Jesus’ fulfillment of this prophecy:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
What does it mean that Jesus “sat down at the right hand”? It means that Jesus has the respect and authority of the Sovereign! To be at the right hand is to be the trusted agent of the will of the King. Heaven is the control room of creation from which the Sovereign Creator rules over all things in heaven and earth. Do you know the awesome news? God’s control room is one day coming to earth in the New Heaven & Earth.
Jesus has the authority of Heaven in earthly and heavenly affairs. From 1 Peter 3:22, Peter declares that Jesus “is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him” (cf. Ephesians 1:18-23; Philippians 2:9-11).
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Our relationship with God and our work for Jesus in His Church rest in His rightful authority, not in the authority of any man or denomination. Living and working under rightful authority (headship) is an essential reality and one that God cares very deeply about—not just for His Son, but for all of His children and all of creation, for all time.
Are you living under the authority of Jesus Christ? How far reaching are the implications to your answer?
Second, Jesus’s ascension to the right hand of God is a guarantee of our own bodily resurrection. Our hope is not simply in this life, but for eternal life; Jesus’ resurrection and ascension are essential to our hope and critical to our understanding of this body and its future, along with all creation, in the New Heaven & Earth.
All who are in Christ Jesus are promised participants in His ascension. Paul states this in Ephesians 2:4-7,
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
We are no longer bound to this earth, our place in Heaven is already being prepared for us. Speaking of His own future ascension in John 14:1-3, Jesus taught us how this is important for all those who follow Him:
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
These are the comforting words of Jesus Christ, made possible through His ascension. We can share these words with others because we know Jesus is alive, ascended to the right hand of God, in a place of authority.
Third, Jesus’ ascension means that the One who rules with such great authority from Heaven, prays for us based on His firsthand human experience of temptation and suffering upon the earth.
We don’t have a distant God, but a personal One. The Bible teaches us this in Hebrews 4:14-16,
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus prays for us continually and His prayers are effective, not only because of Jesus’ authority, but also because of the intimate knowledge of Jesus’ experiences as a person who walked on the earth!
So don’t feel guilty and heavy-burdened if your prayer life is lacking, just remember to never stop starting in your conversation with Jesus, who is already praying for you. What a powerful truth that fuels my prayer life with desire to be with this God who loves me and gave Himself for me. In fact, our very prayer lives are empowered by the presence of God in us, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are joining in the conversation between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Prayer is sharing in God’s eternal community.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
In conclusion and in preparation for next Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost Sunday, with the ascension of Jesus Christ, the stage is set for the miracle of Pentecost, when the power of the risen Christ comes upon the Church of Jesus Christ through the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is keeping His promise to His followers that He will always be with us. Jesus’ ascension does not leave us alone in this world.
“This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”
God is with us through His presence and power living in us! May God be exalted in and through His Church!
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Seize the Moment – Day 424
Today’s hymn focus will be “I Need Thee Every Hour”
2 Corinthians 3:5 (NLT)
It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.
Annie Sherwood Hawks was an associate pastor’s wife, working with Reverend Dr. Robert Lowry at Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, where she was encouraged to write Sunday School songs for children.
On a bright June morning in 1872, she was busy about her regular household chores when suddenly, she became filled with a sense of nearness to Jesus. She wondered how anyone could live without Him, in either joy or pain, and began writing the words. She gave the words to Pastor Lowry, who wrote the tune and the chorus in the church parsonage. He later took it to the National Baptist Sunday School Association meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, where it was sung for the first time, and then published in a hymnbook the next year.
I need Thee every hour, Most gracious Lord
No tender voice like Thine, can peace afford.
I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.
We need to wake up and realize that Jesus is always there! He promised to never leave us or forsake us. That promise should bring peace to our hearts, whether we are faced with pain or joy.
YOUTUBE:
I Need Thee Every Hour
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford.
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
Ev’ry hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.
Stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their pow’r
When Thou art nigh.
In joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide,
Or life is vain.
Teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises
In me fulfill.
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Seize the Moment – Day 423
The Next Generation!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 14.
How were you shaped by your childhood?
The decisions of others impact who we become. That is never a defense for our own choices as we each are accountable for our own decisions, but it does help us understand what influences us to think or act the way we do.
Jacob recently had a personal encounter with God, but, unfortunately, his kids have been shaped by a lifetime of watching Jacob deal with their grandfather, Laban, and their moms (Jacob’s wives and their handmaids).
Should it be of any surprise to us that there are some troubles in this Brady Bunch?
The next installment of the patriarch’s soap opera comes from Jacob’s children, the new kids on the block in Shechem, where the family settled after Jacob’s reconciliation with Esau.
In a tragic turn of events, Jacob’s daughter Dinah is deeply wronged by a man from Shechem.
Genesis 34:13 records the brothers initial words in their plot for vengeance, “But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.”
To our horror, their twisted plan for vengeance is not just against the man responsible for the crime, but against every man in the town. The scene turns gruesome and all they say in defense for their behavior is, “Should he treat our sister as a harlot?” (Genesis 34:31).
From deceit and trickery, the family moves to murder and mayhem.
The problem with generational sin is that, like all sin, it progresses with each successive generation. Until there is repentance based on an absolute standard of right and wrong, each generation justifies their behavior relative to the starting point of the previous generation’s choices.
Seize the moment and repent today. Little ears are listening and little eyes are watching. How is your life shaping the next generation?
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Seize the Moment – Day 422
Capture the Moment!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 13.
I am so happy and proud of Jacob in this triumphant scene. He wrestled with God and God changed his name to Israel. But after all we have seen from Jacob, is a name change anything more than window dressing?
Yes, Jacob does the right thing in a difficult and dangerous situation. Jacob put his life in jeopardy in order to reconcile with Esau. Genesis 33:3-4 captures this touching scene: “But he himself passed on ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”
I feel like a proud father watching his child make an important decision and follow through with it. I want to capture this moment and celebrate it!
This is the promise of new creation from 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Jacob is now Israel! His name has been changed and now we see the first fruits of his new life.
Each of us needs to the capture the moments of life transformation when we act more like Jesus. We will not live a perfect life once we become Christians, but we will have moments that capture the truth that we are a new creation in Christ.
Every believer in Christ is being transformed from the inside out. We are a new creation and a name change to Christian is not window dressing, it’s the beginning of living a new life.
Seize the moment and celebrate that God is making all things new and has already begun to fulfill that promise in each of our lives.
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