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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Seize the Moment – Day 421
God Makes a Way Home!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, May 12.
After narrowly escaping Laban’s wrath, the soap opera immediately focuses on Jacob’s broken relationship with his twin brother Esau. It’s been over 20 years since Jacob’s betrayal of his brother and he is heading back into the hornet’s nest!
How does Jacob respond to this crisis? Will he finally trust the God who has provided and protected him time and time again? No, he doesn’t, Jacob schemes, once again, and this time he willingly puts the lives of his women and children at risk to protect his own life.
Personally, I’m heart broken. How low do the characters in this soap opera go?
But God…
Genesis 32:26-28 records the conversation between Jacob and the God-man after a night of God’s intervention in Jacob’s story:
Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
God sent the God-man to wrestle with Jacob and to get his attention once and for all. The way home for Jacob was not through his scheming and deception, but through God’s mercy and grace!
The same is true for us today! God sent the God-man, His one and only Son Jesus Christ, to rescue us from our soap operas and give us a way home.
Hebrews 4:16 teaches us the way home: “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.”
Seize the moment and trust Jesus with your burdens and fears. No matter how low the pit goes, it is never so deep that God can’t rescue you from it.
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Seize the Moment – Day 420
God’s Intervention for His People!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, May 11.
After six years under the new employment contract, Jacob has fled Laban. He does so in fear of Laban because of his twenty-year track record of deceitfulness. Jacob’s instincts are correct and Laban gives chase, but God, once again, intervenes to protect the patriarch. Not because Jacob earned it, but because of God’s grace!
From Genesis 31:41-42, listen to Jacob’s words to Laban right before they make a covenant with God to not harm one another and to go their separate ways:
These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.
How did God intervene on behalf of Jacob the previous night?
Genesis 31:24 records, “God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, ‘Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.’”
This is not the first time, nor would it be the last, that God used a dream to protect one of His chosen people. Apart from this dream, Laban would have not feared the God of Jacob and tempered his ambition to seize back what he still considered his own (Genesis 31:43).
Is God still in the business of intervening for His chosen people today?
Absolutely! Romans 8:34 reminds us of God’s once-and-for-all intervention, “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
Seize the moment and pray for God’s intervention in Jesus’ Name.
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Seize the Moment – Day 419
The Drama of Dueling Deceivers!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 10.
As the patriarchs’ saga continues, will Jacob be outwitted once again by his father-in-law Laban?
Genesis 30:33-34 captures the signing of an employment contract between Jacob and Laban, “So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” Laban said, “Good, let it be according to your word.”
What we have here is the ongoing drama of the dueling deceivers. Both of their track records are speckled with dishonesty and spotted with deception.
Jacob has completed working 14 years for Laban’s two daughters—Leah and Rachel—and now Jacob is seeking independence to provide for the future financial well-being of his growing family.
Laban eagerly agreed to the terms of this deal and then acts in self-interest. He removed from the flocks that Jacob was tending all the sheep and goats that could breed to produce a greater flock for Jacob. In response, Jacob employs ancient practices of sympathetic magic to attempt to bring about better breeding results for his family’s future.
This is the drama of the dueling deceivers and they have taken matters into their own hands!
Laban is trying to keep Jacob dependent on his wealth so that he can keep his daughters and grandchildren in his household. Jacob is attempting to break the yoke of Laban so he can take his family to the promised land of God.
Both are doing what is right in their own eyes!
Seize the moment and trust God with your family’s future. As we will see in the next chapter, God honors his covenant with Abraham and rescues Jacob, not because of Jacob’s righteousness, but because of God’s faithfulness.
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Live Like a Champion – Week 19
The Promise of Comfort!
Isaiah 66:13a (NAS95)
In this sermon series, we are learning how to live like a champion by learning how to live according to the victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. We live like champions so that others will come to know the One who gave us His Victory—Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again!
“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.”
To comfort means to alleviate sorrow; to relieve distress; to give emotional strength to. To comfort someone is an activity of love from one person to another. I want you to hang on to this definition and understanding of comfort because while this is a divine promise of God, it is one that God incarnates to us and then between us, from one person to another!
A prime example of this is found in motherhood! The love of a mother is great and we celebrate such a love on this day—Mother’s Day! A special, heart-felt blessing over all of our moms.
PRAY OVER AND BLESS ALL THE MOMS, COMFORT THOSE WHO WANTED TO BE MOMS AND FOR THOSE WHO ARE TRYING, CALL FORTH SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD THROUGH MENTORSHIP/ADOPTION/FOSTER CARE, AND GRIEVE FOR THOSE MOMS WHO ARE NO LONGER WITH US OR WHO WERE ABSENT.
While we could spend this entire service testifying to the great comfort and sacrificial love of many women as moms, I want to return our eyes to God, the author of all comfort, who loves us with a perfect love.
In Isaiah 49:15-16a, God says His love is more powerful than even that of a mother’s love for her children: “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…”
Can you imagine that? What love! What compassion!
I hope it is not lost on you that Isaiah, the prophet who was used by God to clearly communicate the coming Messiah, was also the prophet who spoke so convincingly of God’s comfort. Listen to two samples:
- Isaiah 12:1-2: “I will give thanks to You, O Lord; for although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.”
- Isaiah 40:1-3: “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”
In both of these scriptures, we see that the comfort of God’s people is connected to their salvation and that salvation would come, of course, through the coming Messiah—the Christ—Jesus Christ.
Comfort is such a significant promise that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to fulfill it! As Jesus said in John 16:20-22,
Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
Listen to Paul declare God’s comfort through Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the World. This powerful promise of comfort is found in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.
It is with this scripture that we now move to the practice of the promise and the truth of our understanding of comfort—God incarnates His promise of comfort! The promise of comfort, like all the promises of God, is found in Jesus Christ. It is the gift of God to His people—this is God’s magnificent salvation to bring us the comfort Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 40.
If you do not yet understand the depth of comfort Jesus Christ has given us, please join me as I walk with a family through the death and dying process. What comfort there is to be found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ! As Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
We can be comforted because He lives! Because He lives, you can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future and life is worth the living just because He lives.
This is the promise of the resurrection: He is Risen! Comfort comes from believing our own story!
The promise of comfort is so important in the lives of God’s people, especially when we face disease and death, darkness and despair, disappointment in this life and defeat at the hands of our enemies.
We need comfort when the scoreboard at halftime looks desperate, but there is still plenty of time to play!
We need light in this darkness; hope in this despair; healing from this disease, and deliverance from death!
Comfort allows us to play the game of life like champions by living according to the promises of God!
The promise of God’s comfort is found through the promise of the presence of God indwelling us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Just as God put on flesh to dwell with us, He now dwells in us!
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
Jesus Christ has brought comfort to all humanity through salvation. Our salvation is now to bring comfort to the nations through the same comfort He first gave us!
The Holy Spirit ministers this comfort by mediating the presence of God directly to us and through us.
We are now the ones who are to bring that same comfort to others. This is the practice of the promise—in the same way that you have been comforted, now comfort others!
- God reached from Heaven to earth through the incarnation of Jesus Christ to comfort you, now pick up the phone or send a card to comfort another.
- Jesus died on the Cross to comfort you, now make a meal and deliver it to someone to comfort them.
- Jesus defeated death in the resurrection to comfort you, now show up and visit someone to comfort them.
- Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father and is coming again to comfort us, now leave the comfort of your own home to help your neighbor or family or friend or fellow church member in need.
- The Holy Spirit comforts you as your constant companion, now you use words that comfort the clerks in stores and waitresses in restaurants and those who you interact with on a daily basis.
“But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”
This is the gospel ministry of Jesus Christ through men and women, alike. We are to extend to one another the same nurture and love, the same compassion and mercy, the same gentleness and grace as a mother to her child.
We are to do for others what the three persons of the Triune God has done for us!
This is the love that God first gave us and this is the love that will transform the world.
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Seize the Moment – Day 417
Today’s hymn focus will be “My Savior’s Love”
Galatians 2:20 (NLT)
“ My old self has been crucified with Christ.[a] It is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me.
Today’s hymn is also known by the titles “I Stand Amazed” and “How Marvelous” and was written and composed by Charles Gabriel. Born in Iowa in 1856, from a young age he showed a talent and love for music. While he had no formal training in music, he was requested by his pastor to help him find a song to go along with his message. By the end of the week, he had written the words and composed the music for that song.
As you read the lyrics, you can imagine how the passion for Christ that is found in the Gospels vividly revealed itself to him as he penned the lyrics of this hymn.
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be!
How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior’s love for me!
We need to wake up and realize that the Love that God demonstrated to us through the giving of His Son is far deeper than any source that we can ever find. God’s amazing love is marvelous and wonderful!
YOUTUBE:
My Savior’s Love
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how he could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.
How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be;
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!
He prayed, “Not my will, but thine;”
He had no tears for his own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.
He made them his very own;
He bore the burden to Calv’ry,
And suffered and died alone.
His face I at last shall see,
‘Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of his love for me.
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Seize the Moment – Day 416
Your Sordid Story for His Sovereign Glory!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 7.
The story of Jacob continues in Genesis 29. Rebekah sent her son away to protect him from Esau, but he went from the frying pan to the fire as Rebekah’s brother Laban takes over where she left off with the scheming.
Jacob falls in love with Laban’s daughter, Rachel. Yes, she is his cousin. Don’t judge them too harshly as this was very common at that time and place. The real scandal is that after Laban agreed to give Rachel, his youngest daughter, to Jacob in an arranged marriage for seven years of Jacob’s labors, Laban tricked him and gave him Leah on his wedding night. He didn’t realize it until it was too late and Jacob was now married to the wrong woman.
Jacob got a taste of his own trickery. Can’t you hear Isaac laughing all the way back in the promised land? I digress…
Jacob then agrees to work another seven years to receive Rachel as his bride.
If that isn’t enough of a soap opera for you, this scandal is just heating up as Rachel and Leah start competing with one another on who can produce the most children.
Where was God in this story? Listen to Genesis 29:30-31, “Indeed [Jacob] loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”
This chapter ends with Leah conceiving four sons for Jacob—the first four tribes of Israel! What a scandal of God’s grace!
In Genesis 30, the scandal will only intensify as these sisters pull a play from Abraham and Sarah’s playbook and each of their handmaids are thrown in the mix. Hollywood has nothing on this story!
Seize the moment and walk in the mercy of God’s grace upon your story. No matter the details of your life, God can use your sordid story for His sovereign glory.
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Seize the Moment – Day 415
Trust God to Keep His Word!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 6.
Have you ever wondered what motivates people to do what they do?
In a previous episode of the patriarch’s soap opera, we watched Isaac unknowingly bless Jacob because of Rebekah’s plot of deception to put her favored son ahead of Esau. They were discovered quickly and Esau was very angry at Jacob, dangerously so.
When confronted, would their mother change her ways of plotting and deceiving?
Rebekah doesn’t, rather, she protected Jacob from his angry brother by sending him off to find a wife back in her homeland, far away from danger.
The episode ends with a smile on Rebekah’s face as Isaac blesses Jacob before he departs. From Genesis 28:3-4,
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.
In Rebekah’s eyes, her mission was accomplished! What was her motivation to do this?
A flashback scene from Rebekah’s difficult pregnancy gives us the answer to this question. She was in great turmoil and inquired of the Lord in Genesis 25:23, “The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.’”
Rebekah was motivated by God’s prophecy that Jacob would rule over Esau and worked to see the Word of God fulfilled in her family. Her meddling and deception was motivated by a noble desire to see God’s will fulfilled, but what a mess she caused in trying to help God do His job.
Seize the moment and trust God to keep His Word in His time and in His ways.
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