Seize the Moment – Day 1037
Remain Calm in your Storm!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, January 18.
Have you ever found yourself crying out to God, “Why is this happening?” Whether it was something happening to you or a loved one, it is not uncommon for people to struggle with God when a storm hits close to home.
Job wanted his day in court with God, but recognized the futility of his request, as testified by his words in Job 9:2, “In truth I know that this is so; but how can a man be in the right before God?” He knows in his mind that Bildad was correct about God – unlike people, God is right and just in all that He does! Knowing this truth didn’t stop Job from wanting an opportunity to talk with God and find out why he was suffering so much. There was a storm brewing and it raged between Job’s mind and his heart, as heard in Job 9:17-20:
For He bruises me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not allow me to get my breath, but saturates me with bitterness. If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him? Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.
In our suffering and pain, there is often a deep chasm that separates our heads (what we know is true) from our hearts (what we are feeling is true). How does your belief in Jesus help you in times such as this? There was a time when the disciples were fearful and thought they were going to be drowned, literally, by their storm. They cried out to Jesus, and He responded, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” (Matthew 8:23-27).
Seize the moment and remain calm. Trust Jesus to quiet your storm and give you His peace (Philippians 4:6-7).
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 1036
Observe Creation to Learn about the Creator!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, January 17.
God has revealed Himself to us in nature, as Paul teaches in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” When we observe creation, we learn about the Creator.
Bildad the Shuhite, the second of Job’s three friends, responded to Job’s lament in Job 8. To do so, he called upon their ancestral teachings about God (8-10), which provided three examples from creation to describe the fate of the ungodly:
- The papyrus of Job 8:11-13, “Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the rushes grow without water? While it is still green and not cut down, yet it withers before any other plant. So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the godless will perish.”
- The spider web of Job 8:14-15, “Whose confidence is fragile, and whose trust a spider’s web. He trusts in his house, but it does not stand; he holds fast to it, but it does not endure.”
- The vine of Job 8:16-19, “He thrives before the sun, and his shoots spread out over his garden. His roots wrap around a rock pile, he grasps a house of stones. If he is removed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’ Behold, this is the joy of His way; And out of the dust others will spring.”
Jesus made a similar point to his disciples in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” God has made Himself known to us because He wants us to know Him and to enjoy Him forever.
Seize the moment and learn from God’s creation about the One who designed you for abundant life (John 10:10b)! As King David proclaimed in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
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 1035
Finding Hope in your Hopelessness!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, January 16.
Have you ever been racked with pain? The Rack was an ancient torture device in which a person was attached to a frame then slowly stretched. This idiom means that you are being stretched or burdened beyond your capacity to bear the pain, often leading to feelings of hopelessness.
Have you ever come to the end of your hope?
The end of his life dominated Job’s mind, as it does most people when they are racked with pain. In this moment, Job directed his attention to God, as we hear in Job 7:17-18, “What is man that You magnify him, and that You are concerned about him, that You examine him every morning and try him every moment?” In his hopelessness, Job looked to God.
Seize the moment and find hope in your hopelessness – look to God in your suffering (Psalm 34:18; 147:3).
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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Train to Live on Mission – Week 39
Battle Drill #39:
Communicate the Mission!
Proverbs 29:18 (NAS95)
This month, I am finishing our 2022 sermon series, “Train to Live on Mission Today: The Battle Drills of a Christian Soldier.” After laying a firm foundation from 2 Timothy 2:1-4 so we can properly understand how the Bible uses the soldier imagery as a metaphor for the Christian life, we have then taken a year-long journey through the book of Proverbs.
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Communicate the Mission!” It is standard military practice to ensure that all soldiers know the mission so that even if they are the last soldier remaining, they can seek to accomplish their unit’s objectives. In fact, leaders communicate the mission of the next two levels of command so that soldiers, when necessary, can take on an even great responsibility to ensure the mission is accomplished. A common military example of this is when a higher-level commander knows that the ultimate purpose of his unit is to gain control of a specific bridge to ensure the army can successfully get across a river. He communicates this mission so that a soldier doesn’t think guarding an intersection on the way to the bridge is the only thing that needs to be done to accomplish the mission. While guarding an intersection is important, and it needs to be done without distraction, it serves the larger purpose of helping the unit seize the bridge so that the general can move his forces into position for what comes next. Every task must work toward the accomplishment of the larger mission! That same is true for the church!
For us to CM, continue the mission, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we must train ourselves to communicate the mission so that we know how what each of us is called to do fits into the larger purposes of God. So, whether you greet people, help collect the offering, hold babies, teach children, work with youth, teach a class, prepare and deliver foods, send cards, help others with practical assistance, provide counseling, make videos, do visitations, care for the facilities, cut grass, fill potholes, keep the books, manage a webpage, send emails, or run a sound board may all that you do be to the glory of God, as Paul said in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” Let’s turn to the Field Manual and take the first step of a soldier’s training regimen.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
But isn’t that every good father’s desire – to watch their children fulfill the purpose of their lives? John said in 3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” My brothers and sisters, John wasn’t talking about his spiritual children – the Church, and that is the whole purpose that I as your pastor must train all of us as a congregation to keep communicating the mission to one another and to our youth and our children. Because we will have no greater joy that to hear of one another, our youth, and our children walking in the truth. Yes, that includes you as parents teaching your children in the Way of Jesus because you are the primary disciple-makers of your children. You bear the responsibility, but we, your church family, are your partners in accomplishing this mission. The mission of God that we all must know, not just missionaries and pastors, was given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “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.”
This is the mission we must keep communicating! We hear Jesus proclaim His great rescue mission in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Then again in Acts 1:7-8 when Jesus spoke of the coming Pentecost:
“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Our battle drill for today comes from Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.” Allow me to show you something that is going to bring today’s teaching together for you – the word “vision” is actually best translated, “revelation.” It is not talking about our plans, but God’s Word! Listen to this short explanation of Proverbs 29:18:
The familiar KJV “where there is no vision” is misleading. The word “vision” is the revelation (ḥāzôn) a prophet receives. Also the KJV translation “the people perish” does not refer to unsaved people dying in sin. The verb pāra‘ means to cast off restraint. So the verse is stating that without God’s Word people abandon themselves to their own sinful ways. On the other hand keeping (obeying) God’s Law (cf. 28:4, 7) brings happiness.[1]
Or said more plainly, Tony Evans taught it this way:
Without the wisdom God’s Word gives, people are prone to throw off all restraint. This, in fact, is a description of our culture today: people are running into walls and down blind alleys for lack of truth. The remedy to the problem is found in hearing and receiving biblical instruction.[2]
Interestingly, the Greek word for “truth” in 3 John 4 is used right before today’s proverb in Proverbs 29:14, “If a king judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever.” Talk about a strong position for a king to be in to win the game, better than castling to protect your King in the game of chess is for a king to judge the poor with truth, to stay on mission according to God’s Word. Why is this important? Because if the people don’t know the truth, then they will go astray, throw of restraint, live outside of God’s purposes for their lives and miss out on the many blessings of knowing His Word and living according to it!
We have a lot to learn about ministry in the church from the game of chess. If we are going to communicate the mission through our lives, then we need to know not only the ultimate goal – the King, but we also need to know what we are to do as one the unique pieces on the table, whether a pawn or bishop, a knight or rook, and how we each fit into the strategy of God’s plan. That brings us to the third action step of a good soldier of Jesus.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
“Where there is no vision” (v. 18) refers to the absence of an open revelation of the word and will of God. It does not necessarily mean that if there are no plans being made, the people will perish. Rather, it calls for prayer, preaching, and consecration, so that God’s plan for life may be known.[3]
This is exactly how I see my calling. I am going to share with you two Scriptures that undergird my ministry philosophy – how I answer my pastoral calling. The first is from Acts 6:4, which captures the collective voice of “the Twelve” when they were calling forth the deacons of the Church (Greek for “servants”) to do the work of ministry, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” I am convinced that I am, through the Word and prayer, and the ongoing work of the Spirit to consecrate the congregation, that I am not to lead you in trusting our plans or initiatives, but in trusting God’s Word and Spirit to lead us in the mission of God. Therefore I pray, “Lord, please don’t bless our plans, but bless us to be a part of your plans, and to know the difference.” I put no hope in the integrity of my (our) ways, but in the infallibility of God and the inerrancy of His Word – His vision for His people will never perish!
Second, Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:11-16 shape my calling as your pastor because they show me how we, each of us, fit into God’s mission purposes for sending Jesus Christ from Heaven to Earth to show us the way to salvation:
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
It is a revelation (“vision”) from the Lord which keeps a person and a people in the way. Outside of the way, we perish, we fall, we stumble. What is it we are to bring to one another, to encourage one another, to lift one another up, to equip one another? Is it our own strategic plans filled with mission and vision statements, goals and ambitions, marketing schemes and church growth strategies? No, there can be no worldly or humanistic approach to doing church. Rather, our scripture lesson is clear that it is the vision of God, given to us through the revelation of God, His Son Jesus Christ, as Paul taught us in Colossians 1:13-20:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
You were blessed to be a blessing! That is what I’m trying to communicate to you and that is what I want your life to communicate to all who know you – you are to communicate the rescue mission! This leads us to the final action step of our soldier’s training regimen.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
We communicate the mission because that is how the mission is accomplished, as revealed to us at the end of all things in Revelation 12:10-11:
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. (emphasis added)
We CM when we keep the vision of God, His Word, in our hearts and on our tongues, when we meditate day and night on His Word, when we are like trees planted by streams of water, when we are like fruit-bearing branches abiding in the Vine – the One who is the source of the vision, when we find rest for our souls in the easy yoke of Jesus, the Fulfiller of the Law. We have been blessed to a blessing! We have been enlisted to communicate the mission of God!
You can listen to the message by clicking below:
You can watch this week’s message by clicking HERE.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 968.
[2] Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible, 2019), 743.
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Seize the Moment – Day 1033
Today’s hymn focus will be
Goodness of God
1 Thessalonians 5:24 (NASB95)
“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
Written in 2018, this song of worship and declaration of the faithfulness and goodness of God came to Jenn Johnson while she and her husband Brian were amid an adoption process of a baby boy, who would be their fourth child. Her heart welled up with praise as she reflected on where God had brought them and where He was taking them. She shared the song with her husband, and fellow songwriters Ed Cash, Jason Ingram and Ben Fielding. It was recorded by Bethel Music on the VICTORY album in 2019.
Cause all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God
As we begin this new year, we need to wake up and fuel the fire that brings forth our heartfelt worship. I encourage you to surround yourselves with nothing but Christian music until the end of the month. Seek Him first in everything each and every day! It will change your life!
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:
Goodness of God
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Seize the Moment – Day 1032
Be a Refreshing Friend!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, January 13.
God has blessed me to help thousands of people over two decades of ministry. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to refresh people during their times of grief, heartache, confusion, and conflict. It takes discernment to know when to speak and what to say because often the best thing we can do for someone is to be a prayerful presence who listens well.
Job’s three friends spent seven days and nights comforting Job in silence (Job 2:11-13). That’s an amazing gift! I think most of us could remain silent for seven minutes, but most likely not seven hours, and definitely not seven days. Honestly, we probably wouldn’t know what to do with a person who wouldn’t go away after seven hours, nevertheless, seven days.
Seize the moment and refresh your friends by giving them “living water” for their souls (John 7:37-39)!
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 1031
Don’t Kick a Man when He is Down!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, January 12.
Have you ever had someone add insult to injury? The last thing any of us needs when we are in a position of weakness and vulnerability, like when we our suffering, is to be kicked when we are already down.
Job 4:1-2 introduced Eliphaz the Temanite and the first of the dialogues between Job and his friends that will compose most of the book, “If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?” After silently sitting with Job for seven days (Job 2:11-13) – a wonderful gift of friendship – Eliphaz could no longer restrain himself from talking, especially after Job lamented his own birth. Honestly, people generally get nervous when a friend laments life and wishes for his or her own death.
As we see in Job 5:17-18, nearing the end of his forty-eight verses of counsel to Job, Eliphaz may have been correct in what is he is saying about God, but he was inaccurate in his application to Job’s unique situation, “Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands also heal.” Eliphaz was right and wrong at the same time.
Job responded that a friend should not kick a friend when they are down, saying to Eliphaz in Job 6:14, “For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; so that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.” When people are suffering, they need mercy and compassion from their family and friends, not judgment and accusation. They need you to help them have the courage to get back up, not kick them back down.
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 1030
Put your Hope in God!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, January 11.
Where do you put your hope in times of suffering? Do you trust that you can get yourself through the situation or do you call upon God to deliver and rescue you? In Job 4:3-6, the first of Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, responded to Job’s lament with a similar question:
Behold you have admonished many, and you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have helped the tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
There is a reality that Eliphaz’s question reveals to me as a caregiver – How will I handle my own suffering and grief when it is my turn to walk through the valley of the shadow of death? Will all the counsel I offered others through their difficult times strengthen me to walk through my own challenging circumstances with faith, hope, and love, or will my words evaporate like mist under the scorching sun of a summer day?
There is only one way to guarantee that our counsel offered to help others is not like the dross that will burn away, and that way is to point people to hope in God as their sole source of confidence. My hope is not in the integrity of my ways, but in the infallibility of God’s Word (Isaiah 55:11). May all the help we give to others point them to the Lord – “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2).
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.
Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.
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Seize the Moment – Day 1029
Experience the Power of Lament Prayer!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, January 10.
Lament is a form of prayer. It’s honest. It’s direct. It’s personal. Lament is not a pity party, as some would see it, because it is directed to God, like when a baby reaches out for its mom. There is a purpose to our lament just like there is a purpose behind a baby’s cry. A baby cries because it believes someone cares enough to answer. That is the true power of lament prayer – it is a declaration of our faith that the One we are praying to cares enough to respond.
Instead of cursing God as Satan argued Job would do (Job 2:5), and his wife advised him to do (Job 2:9), Job lamented. Job cursed the day of his birth, crying out in Job 3:1-5:
Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said, “Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ May that day be darkness; let not God above care for it, nor light shine on it. Let darkness and black gloom claim it; let a cloud settle on it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.”
You don’t need to worry about whether you are right or wrong in how you cry out to God in your suffering. The key is to trust that you have a relationship with the One to whom you are crying out. I heard a heartbreaking story of an orphanage where the babies no longer cried in their cribs. It wasn’t that they no longer needed anything, but they had learned that no one cared enough to respond. God loves you, and He cares enough to respond to your cries.
Seize the moment and experience the power of lament prayer – “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
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 1028
Face your Crises with Integrity!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, January 9.
How do you respond in the moment of great suffering? In our journey with Job, we are going to watch him suffer both in a moment and over a long stretch of time. These first two chapters capture his resolve to remain righteous in the initial crisis. Chapter 1 brought about the loss of all his animals and children, which represented the loss of his wealth and future security. In this chapter, we observe the onset of a painful illness, which will lead him to wish he was never born.
The heavenly wager intensified in Job 2:3-4, after Job remained faithful to God, even though he had suffered many great losses in a single day:
The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
When you are in pain, do you sin with your lips? How do you accept adversity from God?
Seize the moment and face your crises with integrity – “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
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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