The blog contains daily devotions and notes from the weekly messages.  We encourage you to review the notes during the sermon or through the week!  Most of the posts will have an audio and/or video link at the end of the notes.  From time to time the pastors will share other insights and devotions here.
 
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Seize the Moment – Day 1128

Confession of Sin!

Psalm 32

 

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

 

Psalm 32 was Saint Augustine’s favorite psalm. Before he died, he had it inscribed on the wall next to his bed, so that he could meditate on it better. He testified about it, “the beginning of knowledge is to know oneself to be a sinner.”[1] Psalm 32 is a song of instruction, as the title suggests, “A Psalm of David. A Maskil.” David’s desire was to teach God’s people the importance of confessing their sins to God. In verses 3-4, David started with his own testimony, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.” Can you relate to these damaging effects of sin from your life experience?

 

Often, as a stubborn and stiff-necked people, we must learn these things the hard way! I don’t know about you, but experiencing the heavy hand of God was the necessary first step of my walk with God. As Psalm 110:10 explains, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Until we are convinced of the consequences of sin in our lives, and the eternal judgment that is to come for sin, we will not confess and repent of our sin. David gave us the right response in Psalm 32:5b, “‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.” Bring all your sin and suffering to God’s throne of grace – confess your sin and be set free (Galatians 5:1).

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 32, meditating upon the open arms of Jesus Christ, who invites you to come and receive the forgiveness of your sin; He promises to remove it from you, “as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12-14).

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

 
 
 

FOOTNOTE:

 
[1] James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 277.
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1127

Commit Your Spirit!

Psalm 31

 

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

 

At the time of His death on the cross, Jesus quoted from Psalm 31:5, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.” We find this in the Gospel of Luke 23:46, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands, I commit my spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.”

 

The Bible teaches that our bodies are only a temporary dwelling place, so while our bodies are committed to their resting place in the ground, our spirits are committed to God. Paul explained this in 2 Corinthians 5:4-8:

 

For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

 

With your spirit in the hand of God through faith in Jesus Christ, you will be immediately ushered into the presence of the Lord upon taking your last breath in this body. Jesus explained 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?” Jesus Christ is the “first fruits” of all who will be raised (1 Corinthians 15:20-26; Colossians 1:18).

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 31, meditating upon the hope you have through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:50-58). He is risen!

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1126

Pray for Healing!

Psalm 30

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 17.

 

When you are sick, pray for God to heal you. Persevere in prayer because God is our Jehovah-Rapha (Exodus 15:26; Psalm 103:3; Jeremiah 30:17). When you get better, thank God for healing you. Praise God for He is worthy! Psalm 30 captures a time when David was sick and in need of God’s healing touch, so David prayed for healing and then rejoiced in God for healing him, as witnessed in verses 2-5:

 

O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.

 

I have been with people when they wished for death in a moment of great suffering. Not everyone who wishes for death truly wants to die. Often, they just want relief, so, when they are healed from their acute crisis or receive relief from their chronic pain, they are filled with a great joy for life and a profound thankfulness to God for their healing. Trust God for your healing by asking in the name of Jesus who, according to Isaiah 53:5, “was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 30, meditating upon the power of God’s healing presence in your life – “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever” (11-12).

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
 
 

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Grow Strong in God’s Grace Wk 8

The Transforming Power of Faith

Hebrews 1:1-3 (NAS95)

 
 
 
 
 
 

We have learned the strategy of a hard-working farmer. If the faithful farmer hopes to harvest a large crop yield, he must diligently work the following four steps:

 

  1. Cultivate the soil.
  2. Sow the good seed.
  3. Care for the maturing plant.
  4. Reap a harvest.

 

As God’s faithful farmers, let’s apply what we have learned from the natural and apply it to the supernatural – the life of faith! We cultivate the soil of a person through love and prayer; we work the ground in preparation of sowing the good seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do so with the hope that we will produce in like-kind, that the faith we sow into a person will transform their stories and they will grow into a Christian, a person who lives according to their faith in Jesus Christ. In the same way that farmers cultivate the soil, plant good seeds, and care for the maturing plants with the expectation of having good crop yields, we do the same, trusting the grace of God to do what only God can do through the power of His Holy Spirit.

 

While a farmer does these things, he works hard to do his part, but he knows he’s not the one who makes the seed grow into a plant or causes the plant to bear good fruit. The miracle of life does that – God does it! God’s grace is the power to bring something from nothing! All a farmer can do is use good seed, provide the right environment for growth, and trust in the miracle of life. In other words, trust God who is the giver of life! We do the same thing in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed, we build healthy relationships defined by love and prayer, and we trust the Holy Spirit to do what only God can do through His grace.

 

We are now going to move into the next phase of this sermon series. We spent seven weeks laying a firm foundation for it and we are now going to walk through Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith to learn the great stories of faith. This will teach us how to grow strong in God’s grace; we will learn how to apply what we have learned from the faithful farmer to transform stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11:1-3 starts with a clear definition of faith:

 

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

 

God started the story of all things with three big words, “In the beginning…”:

 

  • Genesis 1:1-3, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

 

  • John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

 

If you can believe Genesis 1:1, everything else in the Bible is easy because it all points back to one word – Faith! This is exactly what the author of Hebrews is communicating to us: If you can believe there is a God that can speak all things into existence from nothing, then everything else that God does falls within His scope of power to do. In fact, nothing falls outside of God’s scope because “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” When God creates all things form no things, then nothing is outside of the boundaries of what God can do!

 

If God created all life, then why couldn’t God be able to impregnate the Virgin Mary with the good seed of the incarnate Word, or why couldn’t God raise Jesus from the dead after three days? In the same way that those are perfectly logical to assume of an all-powerful God, so is transforming our stories through the grace of God – God heals the sick! God gives sight to the blind! God casts out demons! God sets the captives free! God forgive sins! God reconciles broken marriages! God restores rebellious children to their parents! God bears good fruit in the lives of ordinary people!

 

God is in the business of transforming stories through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to grow strong in God’s grace as active participants in the world He created and entrusted us to work as His Harvest workers! William Shakespeare famously wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,”[1] but I say to you, “All the world’s a field, and all the men and women merely farmers”! We are called to cultivate people with faith, sow the good seed of God’s grace (the gospel) into their hearts and minds, care for them as the seed of faith takes root in their lives, and reap a harvest of praise through the church of Jesus Christ. As a harvest worker of God’s kingdom, every time you walk through this farmer’s strategy you will grow stronger in God’s grace, and help others do the same.

 

CULTIVATE THE SOIL WITH FAITH

 

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1-2 defines faith for us and its importance to our lives, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.” Why is this important to us as New Covenant believers? Ephesians 2:8-10 clearly explains:

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

 
Just like you and me, today, the “men [and women] of old” were real people, with real faith, in real history, and even their stories must have a starting point that is the same as ours today – Faith! It’s faith in God and God’s ability to create something out of nothing! You look at your life, just like a farmer looks at a field, and you envision a great harvest. You cultivate the soil with faith! It is the faith given to us through God’s grace that makes all this possible, as Hebrews 11:6 states, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

 

Who cultivated your soil with faith, hope, and love? Whose soil are you cultivating?

 

SOW THE GOOD SEED OF GOD’S GRACE

 

When did you first “experience” faith?

 

Faith is a resolute conviction, a wholehearted trust, that God can and will do that which God promised – “It is done” in Jesus’ name!

 

God loves to make something out of nothing! He enjoys this so much that God anticipates, looks forward to, doing it in and through us! When we tell the stories of our something, that which we have done by our best efforts, the only one who gets glory for that is us, but when we tell the stories of how God took our nothing and made it into something, then that brings glory to God and amplifies the quality of the good seed of faith! That proclaims the Gospel! We see 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.

 

Faith gives substance to that which is not yet visible – the kingdom of Heaven on Earth! God’s grace at work in our lives proclaims (SOWS!) the assurance that God can and will do that which God promises to do!

 

When does the Gospel start working its transforming power? When you first believed and put your trust in Jesus Christ; that is the efficacy (power) of the good seed of faith! Paul expressed this in 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.” The new has come, a new life of faith has been formed, now we move to the second step of the farmer’s strategy.

 

CARE FOR THE MATURING PLANT

 

Where are you experiencing transformation through the renewal of your mind? Paul taught in Romans 12:1-3 that once we have become new in Christ, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must respond:

 

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

 

God has planted a good seed of faith into your life, now you are to grow strong in God’s grace. The gospel changes things: it transforms the landscape of hearts, minds, souls, lifestyles, and relationships… It transforms your story to point to the best story ever told – the gospel!

 

Next week, we will start learning from the stories of the great people of faith who are named starting in the very next verse of Hebrews 11 – “By faith Abel…” (4). We will learn that our names can be mentioned alongside their names. We must begin to realize that each of our stories has the power to glorify God, proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, and manifest the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our midst! That is what Paul called us to in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, in response to becoming a new creation through the good seed of faith:

 

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

 

This is God’s grace at work in each of our lives! As an ambassador of Christ, you no longer represent yourself. Through your reconciliation with God, your life now bears the good fruit of the Spirit for people to taste and see that the Lord is good! That takes us to the last step to realize that every transforming story is intended to bring God glory. We exist to reap a harvest of praise!

 

REAP A HARVEST OF PRAISE

 

 

What is the good fruit of God’s grace in your life? How are you making God’s grace visible? Who is flourishing because you are actively involved in their lives? What is thriving because you are involved in a certain activity or working on a certain project?

 

This week, I encourage you to read Hebrews 11, get a foretaste of where we are going with this sermon series. We are going to learn the power of a life that is strong in God’s grace, and we are going to learn how to grow strong in God’s grace so that our lives reap a harvest of praise to God! In 2023, we are going to learn how Hebrews 11 is a gift from God to each of us to see how each of our stories are called to point to the gospel of Jesus Christ! Each of the people included in Hebrews 11 is a real person, with real faith, in real history, whose story points to God. Their stories give us hope, strengthen our faith, and give us the courage to tell a better story with our story! Do you have confidence in what God has done for you, is doing in you, and will do through you because of God’s grace, the faith He has given you? Are you growing strong in God’s grace? It is my hope that you will, and in doing so, we will reap a harvest of praise!
 
 

You can watch this message by clicking HERE.

 
 
 

FOOTNOTE:

 
[1] William Shakespeare, As You Like It, spoken by Jaques, in Act II, Scene VII, Line 139.
 
 
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1124

Today’s hymn focus will be

How Firm a Foundation

 
 

Hebrews 13:6(NASB95)              

 

“so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”

 

In 1787 Dr. John Rippon and his Minister of Music, Robert Keene, developed a church hymnal for Carter’s Lane Baptist Church in Bristol, England. While the author of the hymn only bears the letter “K”, many hymnologists and scholars attribute the song to Keene.

 

The power of this hymn is because the verses are based on biblical promises, starting with the first stanza of the sufficiency of God’s Word for our faith. It goes on to personalize more promises from His Word for each and every one of us.

 

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord.

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said

To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

 

We need to wake up each and every day by standing on the promises that God has given us. And you can only know what those promises are when you make it a habit of reading His Word to start your day. What is the best vitamin for a healthy Christian life? B -1!

 
 
 

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 Ken reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

 

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

 
 
 

How Firm a Foundation

 
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word
What more can He say than to you He hath said
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled
 
Fear not, I am with thee; oh be not dismayed
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand
 
When through the deep waters I call thee to go
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress
 
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie
My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine
 
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1123

Praise God in the Storm!

Psalm 29

 

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

 

I write today’s devotion during the spring storm season in Indiana, a time of frequent and powerful storms rolling across the Midwest. Whether it is the roaring sound of thunder, the electrifying display of lightening, or the sheer terror of a tornado, storms are powerful reminders of just how little control we have in our lives. Psalm 29 captures the power of God through the imagery of a storm, as verses 3-5 describe:

 

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

 

Today’s psalm is considered one of the finest poems in the Bible. The imagery is exquisite; it captures the majesty of God in the power of a storm. Spurgeon described the beauty of Psalm 29:

 

Just as the eighth Psalm is to be read by moonlight, when the stars are bright, as the nineteenth needs the rays of the rising sun to bring out its beauty, so this can be best rehearsed beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements. The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts. God is everywhere conspicuous, and all the earth is hushed by the majesty of his presence.[1]

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 29, meditating upon the power of praising God in your storms – “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in holy array” (2). The next time you are experiencing a storm, read this psalm out loud to yourself and to your family.

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

 

 
 

FOOTNOTE:

 
[1] C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 27-57, vol. 2 (London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.), 29.
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1122

Persevere in Prayer!

Psalm 28

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 13.

 

Have you ever felt discouraged in your prayer life? I want to encourage you to never give up, no matter what, keep praying with a faith that can move mountains (Matthew 17:20). Jesus illustrated this point with a parable in Luke 18, which started with this introduction in verse 1, “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” In the parable, Jesus shared about a persistent widow who was able to move a wicked judge to give her legal protection through her tenacity. Jesus summarized the point in verse 7, “will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” Jesus’ parable instructs us to pray at “all times … day and night.” As Paul commands in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”

 

It requires faith in God to persevere in prayer. As Hebrews 11:6 teaches, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” If you don’t believe God will respond to your prayer, you will falter in your resolve and quit asking. Your faith in Him compels your perseverance! David learned this through personal experience with God, as he testified in Psalm 28:6-7, “Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplication. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him.”

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 28, meditating upon David’s perseverance in prayer. “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1121

This One Thing is Necessary!

Psalm 27

 

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

 

One of the greatest disciplines a person can learn is to prioritize the important over the urgent – to remain focused on what matters most. Do you know the difference between what is urgent and what is important? An easy example of this is lived out every morning of your life. Do you choose to pray, and read your Bible, before you check your emails, scan the social media feeds, or search the news headlines? How do you guard your heart and mind from all that has been designed to capture your attention?

 

David learned how to prioritize the important over the urgent. He petitioned God accordingly in Psalm 27:4, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” This is not only something David asked of God, but as we learn in verse 8, it was what God asked of him, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.’”

 

This was a lesson two sisters had to learn from an encounter with Jesus. After welcoming Jesus into their home, Martha scurried about to make sure everything was just right; she was the ideal hostess. Mary was the opposite; she sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teachings. Martha grew impatient with her sister, so she sought support from Jesus; surprisingly, He responded in Luke 10:41-42, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 27, meditating upon the one thing that is necessary – “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33a).

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1120

Pray for Stability in All Your Ways!

Psalm 26

 

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

 

Are you stable in all your ways? Praying Psalm 26 will help you strengthen your mental health and emotional well-being. God’s desire for your stability is expressed in the first and last verses of today’s psalm. Verse 1 begins, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” Verse 12 concludes, “My foot stands on a level place; in the congregations I shall bless the Lord.” Pastor James Montgomery Boice explained of these bookends, “they unify the psalm, teaching that the one who trusts God will have a level foundation on which to build a life, while the one who does not trust God is on steep, slippery terrain.”[1]

 

Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we read about the stability found through obeying God’s Word. Habakkuk 3:19 portrays the life of faith, “The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places” (cf. Psalm 18:33). This is the imagery of standing firm upon the rock, as found in Psalm 40:2, “He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.” Jesus used this language in Matthew 7:24, for those who build their lives on obedience to His teachings, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” This is how you find stability in all your ways – by listening to and obeying Jesus’ commands! Your mental health and emotional well-being are intimately yoked to your spiritual vitality (Matthew 11:28-30).

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 26, meditating upon the firm foundation of your faith, “which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

 
 

FOOTNOTE:

 
[1] Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 230.
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 1119

Pray through the Alphabet!

Psalm 25

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 10.

 

Psalm 25 is a twenty-two-verse acrostic poem, just like Psalm 119 is a twenty-two-stanza acrostic, both walk us through the twenty-two characters of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 25:4-5 emphasizes David’s purpose in doing so, “Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day.” He said it twice – “teach me.” The acrostic formatting was intended to be a learning device to assist in the memorization of this psalm.

 

God is our teacher, and His Word is the primary text from which He teaches us how to follow His ways. God desires for us to learn how to be in a relationship with Him – to learn from Him and to trust Him in every situation of our lives. David expressed this in verses 8-9, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way.”

 

This is why Jesus Christ came from Heaven to Earth – to show us the way to the Father (John 14:6) and to teach us how to walk in His ways (1 John 2:5-6). Jesus not only provides access to God through the forgiveness of our sins, but He lived before us the ways of God. Jesus’ life is a teaching tool greater than any acrostic poem; in fact, Jesus is the alpha and the omega (Revelation 22:13), the A to Z of what it looks like to live a life that pleases God. We must study His life and learn to walk in His ways.

 

Seize the moment and pray Psalm 25, meditating upon God’s goodness through every letter of the alphabet. Pray from A to Z, thank God for all the people, places, and things that come to your mind.

 

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.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
 
 

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