Escape from Soul Prison!

Psalm 142

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 20.

When we lived in California, we went to visit Alcatraz, a notorious prison located on a small island over a mile off the shore of San Francisco. The prison’s notoriety was increased by the famous retelling of the 1962 escape attempt in Clint Eastwood’s 1979 movie, Escape from Alcatraz. The prisoners’ isolation on the island, plus the strictly enforced policies of silence and solitude, brought upon the men a profound loneliness.

Loneliness is a condition of the soul, often brought on by our circumstances. David experienced this when he felt abandoned by his companions, hiding alone in a cave from King Saul’s pursuit, as described in Psalm 142:4-7a:

Look to the right and see; for there is no one who regards me; there is no escape for me; no one cares for my soul. I cried out to You, O Lord; I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to Your name.”

David described loneliness as his soul being in prison. This is a powerful image of loneliness; there is a strong urge within every person to break free from soul prison, just as people throughout history have sought to escape physical prisons, like Alcatraz. People will do anything to experience relief from their loneliness, but there is a way that has been made for you to be set free – Jesus has opened the cell door of your soul to God’s eternal presence. 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 142, meditating upon the promise of Jesus Christ – “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). How are you cultivating an awareness of the presence of God in your life today?

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

The Importance of Evening Prayers!

Psalm 141

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 19.

“There was evening and there was morning, one day.” Did you notice the rhythm of the refrain from the six days of creation? If I expect to rise early to spend time with the Lord, of first importance to my day, then I need to make God my priority in the evening. My day doesn’t begin with how I wake up, but with how I go to bed. Psalm 141 invites you into the rhythm of offering God an evening prayer, as David said in verses 2-4:

May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who do iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.

David was comparing his prayers to the work of a priest, who was the only authorized person allowed to burn incense in worship. Therefore, around this priority of offering his evening prayers to God, David petitioned God to help him live every aspect of his life as holy unto the Lord – in his speech, the inclinations of his heart, the company he kept, and the activities he participated. The implication for us today, as a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), is that our very prayers, rightly offered to God in the name of Jesus, are burning incense unto the Lord (Revelation 8:3-4); therefore, we must live every aspect of our lives holy unto the Lord (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:5).

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Preserve Me from Violent Men!

Psalm 140

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, September 18.

There are violent people, driven by evil desires, willing to do whatever to whomever to achieve their ends. How are we to go about our daily lives with such people in the world? Above all, we can’t live in fear of them! In 2001, I was a Captain in the US Army, on orders to Fort Carson, Colorado when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened. I was supposed to travel home that day, but it took days before flights resumed because evil had shut down our nation. A week later, President Bush announced to Congress the War on Terrorism.

Whenever you are anxious for the future or worried about tomorrow, take your emotions as an invitation from the Holy Spirit to petition God for His peace to protect you, as Paul said, “to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). God wants you to trust Him in every circumstance of life, whether in times of peace or war. In Psalm 140, David was opposed by violent men, and the first action step in his plan was to petition God for divine help:

In both instances, David asked God to preserve his life when violent man came up against him. He did not take matters into his own hands; rather, David turned to God for protection. Just as Paul taught in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” In seeking to defeat evil, don’t become like it. Train yourself to respond in faith!

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 140, meditating upon Jesus’ promise to give you His peace – “Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Today’s song focus will be

As The Deer

 Psalm 42:1 (NASB95)                  

“As the deer pants for the water brooks,

So my soul pants for You, O God.

Written in 1981 while attending a summer session at Christ for the Nations

Institute in Dallas, TX, Marty Nystrom was on a quest to recover his joy. He had

been active in ministry while also teaching, but something was missing. His

roommate suggested that he go on a fast to help him recover his joy. So Marty

took the challenge and on the nineteenth day of his fast, he found himself sitting

at a piano, playing some chord progressions when he looked over and saw a

Bible on a music stand that was opened to Psalm 42. After reading through the

passage, he began to sing its message. The song was finished in a matter of

minutes:

 As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee

You alone are my hearts desire and I long to worship Thee.

We need to wake up and renew our hunger and thirst for more of God. It is not

something that anyone else can do for you. Just like you can lead a horse to water,

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

If you would like to listen to this song, click on this link:

As The Deer

Search Me and Know Me!

Psalm 139

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 15.

The first time I had my neck adjusted by a doctor, I was a cadet at West Point. I was miserable from congestion, and upon examining me, the doctor adjusted me, bringing everything into proper alignment. I didn’t know what to expect, but I immediately felt better as a significant amount of pressure was released. God, our Mighty Physician, does the same thing for us through His Word when we come to Him in prayer. Psalm 139 is a prayer of examen, inviting the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the truth of what God already knows about us. You can hear the call of the Spirit from beginning to end in today’s psalm, starting in verses 1-4 and ending in verses 23-24:

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. … Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

I encourage you to start a daily practice of praying Psalm 139 in the evening, inviting the Holy Spirit to reveal the truths of your attitudes, relationships, and decisions, seeking to know the motives of why you did what you did throughout the day. Don’t be deceived, the hardest form of deception to root out is self-deception. Ask God to align you to His good, acceptable, and perfect will for your life today (ref. Romans 12:1-2).

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

The Promise of Completion!

Psalm 138

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 14.

When I was young, I used to enjoy the adrenaline of a good roller coaster ride. Not anymore, now I prefer the rest found in floating down a lazy river. I’m content to sit in my innertube, letting the current take me to my destination. I see too many people who are on a roller coaster ride with God, not knowing where they stand with Him on any given day because they experience God’s love based on their performance. Honestly, they don’t look like they are enjoying a single moment of it. It doesn’t have to be that way when your relationship with God is grace-based, focused on His promises and where He is taking you in life. Psalm 138 teaches us one of my favorite promises of God – the promise of completion, found in verses 7-8:

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting; do not forsake the works of Your hands.

God is going to get you to the finish line of your faith! This promise is found in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Your relationship with God was bestowed upon you by God. It wasn’t your idea, and you didn’t initiate it! Your walk with God is not a religion you must maintain, but a relationship you get to have because He has chosen you to be part of His family. There is a world of difference between the two – religion and relationship, so choose wisely!

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 138, meditating upon the relationship God has bestowed upon you (John 15:16; 1 John 3:1). Find rest for your soul, trusting God to get you Home (John 14:1-6).

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Pray Real-Life Prayers!

Psalm 137

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 13. Please join me in wishing a happy birthday to Vinny Slover.

The psalms teach the faithful how to handle their real-life emotions. Psalm 137 captures the profound pain of Israel during Babylonian exile, starting in verses 1-4:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps. For there our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

What trauma and anguish it must cause to have witnessed your nation destroyed, with cities razed to the ground by your captors, and people murdered by your tormentors? What a horrific existence to then be demanded by those same people to sit by the edge of their home rivers, providing entertainment for them with the songs of your former happiness while all those memories stream on the big screen of your mind. Let us not judge the psalmist for the rage found in today’s psalm.

By the end of today’s heartbreaking psalm, as described in verses 8-9, the psalmist’s rage has crashed against his captors, like a tsunami plummeting down upon a coastal village, “O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.” It is painful to read these final words, experiencing the raw pain of the exiled. My heart breaks! I am appalled! I weep for the suffering of the abused throughout the world and cry out, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13). Where are any of us to go with such real-life emotions?

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

The Rhythm of Praise and Thanksgiving!

Psalm 136

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 12.

The greatest antidote to so many of life’s struggles is giving thanks – the spiritual discipline of counting your blessings. There is something liberating about an attitude of gratitude. Your perspective is elevated when you praise God and intentionally think about all the ways God is good. Paul commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” That’s a clear focus to live by! Psalm 136:1-4 introduces you to a twenty-six-verse template for the daily practice of counting your blessings:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of gods, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Every verse after this introduction combines a specific thanksgiving with the refrain of praise, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” As you meditate upon today’s psalm, may you experience the powerful rhythm of praise and thanksgiving, liberating your soul from worry, and focusing your mind on the goodness of God. I encourage you to count your blessings every day by rewriting Psalm 136, letting this be your custom-made song of praise and thanksgiving to God for what He has done in your life. Most of the work is already done for you as you will keep the refrain the same, as well as the introduction verses. Prioritize time today to tell God how thankful you are for what He has done for you specifically. There is power in praising God and giving thanks!

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 136, meditating upon the everlasting love of the Lord. Focus on God and all that He has done, and He will elevate your perspective no matter what you are facing today.

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

The Everlasting Name!

Psalm 135

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, September 11.

There is power in a name! People love to hear their name spoken. If you want to get someone’s attention, use their name. Yelling random names across the room may draw people’s attention to you, but it most likely won’t get the attention of the person you are trying to communicate with. If you want to be in a relationship with someone, you need to learn their name. Names matter to God, and names should matter to us! Psalm 135 emphasizes the Old Testament’s usage of the everlasting name of God. Three times, the psalmist states:

The name of God captures His character and personal identity, proclaiming His existence. God revealed His everlasting name to Moses at the Burning Bush, establishing a personal relationship with him (Exodus 3:14); hence, Moses became known as the “friend of God” (Exodus 33:11). While God was given many names in the Old Testament, He has revealed to us the only name by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12). In fact, the everlasting name of God was “bestowed on” Jesus for this very purpose (Philippians 2:9). Jesus took on the everlasting name of God, by which He saves us, as He prayed in John 17:11-12, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me.”

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 135, meditating upon Jesus Christ, “the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9-10). Cry out to God using His everlasting name, for Jesus is the way to the Father (John 14:6). There is power in the name!

God bless you!

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.