Seize the Moment – Day 812
The Opportunity of a Lifetime!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, June 7.
If God gave you the opportunity to ask for anything you want, what would you ask for? Before you give a flippant response to this question, take time to think deeply upon this opportunity of a lifetime. Your answer reveals your heart and determines the way in which you will walk.
Solomon is the new king of Israel, and, in his great wealth, he offered a large sacrifice to God, after which the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Ask what you wish me to give you” (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon’s response, in 1 Kings 3:9, pleased God: “Give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
A thousand years later, in Mark 10:51-52, a blind beggar was crying out to Jesus from the side of the road when Jesus responded, “‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to Him, ‘Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.”
Two men, one a rich ruler and the other a poor beggar, are given the opportunity of a lifetime. The first received the ability to hear with his heart and the second the ability to see with his eyes. Both, in response, are invited to follow in the way to demonstrate that they have received the true gift – a relationship with the Gift-Giver. Today, God is offering you the same opportunity of a lifetime.
Seize the moment and “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it” (Psalm 37:4-5).
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Seize the Moment – Day 811
Deal with the Enemy Within!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, June 6.
Have you ever felt like the greatest threat to your own happiness and well-being was not from the outside, but from the enemy within?
In his final charge to Solomon, King David commanded the new king, to deal with the enemies within his own gates; he started with these instructions recorded in 1 Kings 2:2-4:
I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying, “If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.”
Wisely, David gave Solomon God’s instructions for a king from Deuteronomy 17:18-20 and passed on to his son God’s covenantal promise from 2 Samuel 7:12-16. David believed the greatest threat to Solomon would be the enemies within the gate, including Joab and Shimei (1 Kings 2:5-9).
By the end of this chapter, it looked as if the enemies within the gate had been dealt with successfully. Except for one! Solomon seemingly didn’t deal with the worst of the enemies within the gate that David warned him of – himself! As we will see in the very next chapter, Solomon sowed the seeds of his own failure, not from a lack of wisdom, but from a lack of submission to God’s ways in the most intimate places of his life (Deuteronomy 17:17; 1 Kings 11:1-6).
Seize the moment and “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23; Mark 7:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Romans 7:21-23).
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Seize the Moment – Day 809
Today’s hymn focus will be
Old-Time Power
Acts 1:8 (NLT)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
The youngest son of a Baptist preacher, Charles Tillman had a passion for church related music. With his eclectic collection of music, he had a knack for adopting material and flowing it into a mix that we know today as southern gospel. He was assisting his father with a tent meeting in South Carolina when he heard a spiritual “The Old Time Religion” and was inspired to write the words and rudiments for this hymn. While G.B. Pike was the first to publish part of this hymn in 1873, the full hymn was later published by Tillman and had a more mnemonic cadence that helped it to be the more popular style to sing this hymn.
O Lord, send the power just now, O Lord, send the power just now
O Lord, send the power just now and baptize every one.
Just like Tillman, we need to wake up and realize we are not able to do this on our own power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives each and every day. Surrender to His leading and guidance as you make each day a day the Lord can use you!
YOUTUBE:
Old-Time Power
They were all with one accord,
When the Holy Ghost descended,
As was promised by the Lord.
O Lord, send the pow’r just now,
O Lord, send the pow’r just now,
O Lord, send the pow’r just now,
And baptize ev’ry one.
With the sound of rushing wind;
Tongues of fire came down upon them,
As the Lord said He would send. [Refrain]
To our fathers who were true;
This is promised to believers,
And we all may have it too. [Refrain]
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Seize the Moment – Day 808
Men Plot and God Wills!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, June 3.
As we begin a new book of the Bible (1 Kings), we start with the same old story of people acting out of their fears, manipulating current events, and plotting to gain power. Not much has changed over the last three thousand years. As David laid on his death bed, Adonijah, like Absalom before him, took the initiative to make himself the next king of Israel. The heart of the drama is found in 1 Kings 1:13-14 where Nathan organized a plan with Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, to counter Adonijah’s conspiracy:
So now come, please let me give you counsel and save your life and the life of your son Solomon. Go at once to King David and say to him, “Have you not, my lord, O king, sworn to your maidservant, saying, ‘Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne’? Why then has Adonijah become king?” Behold, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.
Nathan the prophet had access to David and used it to bring about God’s will for the building of His temple through Solomon, as foretold to David (1 Chronicles 22:9-10). This was of paramount importance to David, as it was on his heart to do this for God. In the 2 Samuel 7 account, Nathan had mistakenly given David permission to build the temple but was given a word from God that forbade David from building the temple but secured a dynastic succession. Adonijah, as the eldest living son of David, thought that he could put himself on the throne of Israel, but that was the way of men. God is the one who establishes authority (Romans 13:1). Men plot and God wills!
Seize the moment and stop your plotting, trust God’s sovereign rule over the nations (Psalm 22:28; 47:8; 1 Chronicles 16:31).
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Seize the Moment – Day 807
Costly Mistakes Require a Costly Sacrifice!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, June 2.
Have you ever made a costly mistake?
King David did! He ordered a census, which took over nine months to complete (2 Samuel 24:1-9). His costly mistake brought judgment upon the nation of Israel. God confronted David and offered him three options on how that judgment would unfold and David choose pestilence because he trusted that God’s mercy would prevail in the end (2 Samuel 24:10-14). As the king, he knew that the only way to reconcile the situation and see God relent from judgment was to bear the cost himself, as seen in 2 Samuel 24:24-25, the last verses of Samuel:
However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the Lord was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.
This foreshadows the ministry of Jesus, and what He did for all people; Jesus bore the cost of God’s judgment for humanity’s sin upon Himself, as expressed in 1 Peter 2:24, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Jesus, who knew no sin, took on our sin, so that we might be reconciled to God and experience His healing. In response to this great act of mercy, are you willing to make a costly sacrifice to God?
Seize the moment and “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1).
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Seize the Moment – Day 806
The Hope of a Sunrise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, June 1.
When was the last time you set apart time to enjoy the sunrise? As part of my rhythm of writing these daily devotions, I intentionally stop to watch the first light of the morning as the sun crests the horizon in the East. For me, it is a time of hope and awe – a daily promise of God’s faithfulness! As you may know about me, by now, I believe that every promise of God comes with a praxis for my daily life – the sun rise is a time of covenant renewal to live faithfully, with faith, hope, and love, once again, today.
The “last words of David” are recorded by Samuel as a song of praise to God for establishing a covenant with His house. In typical Davidic style, as evidenced by his writing of over half the psalms, David poetically expresses the validity of his own kingship and the security of God’s covenant in 2 Samuel 23:3-5:
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, “He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain.” Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?
Every day that the sun rises, you, too, can experience the reminder of God’s covenant faithfulness and rejoice in His promises (Lamentations 3:22-24). Additionally, like David, every day your life can shine like the rising sun, bringing life and flourishing to all that you touch. Like the sunrise, every day you are called to be a hope-bearer.
Seize the moment and embrace the covenant renewal opportunity that comes with each sunrise – live faithfully by shining God’s light!
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Seize the Moment – Day 805
Walk with Complete Dependence and Absolute Loyalty!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, May 31.
David pens a psalm of praise for God’s deliverance in his life, expressing his complete dependence and absolute loyalty to the God of Israel, starting with these words in 2 Samuel 22:2-4:
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my savior, You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
This song of David is virtually identical to Psalm 18, so why do we find it near the end of this book? The author of Samuel was bookending his work, which began with Hannah’s song of praise for God’s provision, starting with these words in 1 Samuel 2:1-2:
My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.
In the Hebrew Bible, Samuel was originally in the format of one book, not two. The author’s intent was to encourage the people of the divided kingdom to walk with the Lord in covenant faithfulness – with complete dependence and absolute loyalty to Him in all circumstances.
David and Hannah’s songs, the bookends of Samuel, emphasize the sovereignty of God, who is powerful to act, bringing about His purposes from their dire circumstances, for the good of God’s people and His glory. God, Israel’s rock, was the only hope in their time of dire need!
Seize the moment and praise God for His power and provision to bring about His purposes in all circumstances, put your hope in Him alone!
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Seize the Moment – Day 804
Train the Next Generation!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 30. Have a good Memorial Day. Remember, freedom is never free!
One of my hobbies is training for and competing in USA Track & Field Masters competitions. Even with a few national championships under my belt, I will be the first to tell you that as I get older, I am not able to throw the 16-pound Olympic hammer as far as when I was younger. This is one of the reasons why being a coach makes sense at this point in my life. It’s time to pass on the knowledge gained from my former successes to aid the next generation to be even more successful.
There is a reality to getting older that requires one generation to entrust to the next generation their skills and responsibilities. We must pass it on! As David matured in his kingship, we witness a critical turn of events happen in 2 Samuel 21:15-17:
Now when the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David went down and his servants with him; and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary. Then Ishbi-benob, who was among the descendants of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, was girded with a new sword, and he intended to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel.”
At one time David was the only one in Israel who had the courage to face the giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17). That was no longer true, and praise God it wasn’t, because if David hadn’t trained the next generation to defeat the giants, he may not have survived that day of battle.
Seize the moment and train the next generation to face their giants (Psalm 78:6).
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Train to Live on Mission – Week 16
Battle Drill #16:
Accept the Commander’s Correction!
Proverbs 9:7-10 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Accept the Commander’s Correction!”
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 9:7-10:
He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
Wisdom is crying out for you to walk in a habitual lifestyle of covenant faithfulness with God. The Hebrew word translated, “Come,” in verse 5, is הלך (hālakh), used in an imperative form, meaning it is a command. God’s people must “walk” in a habitual lifestyle of covenant faithfulness to God and His commandments, as explicitly used in Deuteronomy 10:12-13:
Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? [italics added]
The key to walking in covenant faithfulness is to obey the greatest commandment, as given to us by Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Because the essential ingredient to a life that submits to the Commander’s correction is love! Jesus Christ made this connection very clearly in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
Jesus commands people to a lifestyle of covenant faithfulness when He invites them, “follow Me,” as in Mark 1:17, or to “Come to Me,” as in Matthew 11:28-30. The Hebrew word of hālakh, and all of it implications of walking in the habitual lifestyle of covenant faithfulness, is the foundation of Jesus’ invitations. Check out the connection between the use of this word in wisdom’s calling in Proverbs 9:4-6 and the prophet’s calling in Isaiah 55:1-3:
Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.
It is not just the wisdom of God and the prophet of God who is calling, Jesus is calling! There is a further connection between these Old Testament passages and Jesus’ words in John 7:37, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” Furthermore, listen to Jesus’ words from the throne of Heaven in Revelation 21:6-7, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
We are to accept the Commander’s correction in the same way, and for the same purpose, that a child heed’s his parent’s discipline. Listen to Hebrews 12:7-11:
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Did you hear those final words, “those who have been trained by it”? What are we to be trained by? You’ve got it – the Commander’s corrections (i.e., discipline). We must train into our minds and hearts the importance of accepting the Commander’s correction, as a posture of our hearts and minds, because He loves us and we love Him. That takes us to the third action step.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
Apart from the respect, reverence, and awe of God as the Sovereign King, the Ruler of all creation, the Supreme Commander of Heaven’s armies, then there can be no training of wisdom, or instruction in righteousness, for us as the good soldiers of Christ Jesus. We must know who it is we are seeking to please with our lives; therefore, we must train into our minds and hearts a complete submission to the one who saved us, called us to be His, and chose us to be a part of His plans – His search and rescue mission to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
This is what Paul teaches his protégé in 2 Timothy 2:3-4, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Your salvation is your enlistment as a soldier of Jesus Christ. If you are going to live on mission as an active-duty soldier, then you must learn to accept the Commander’s correction because He is trying to help you stay focused on the mission at hand and be effective and fruitful in the mission.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
Our mission is to love as God first loved us. When we don’t do this well, we should expect to be corrected by the Commander. I don’t know about you, but I don’t love as well as God. Unlike God, my love is impacted by selfishness, defensiveness, insecurity, and fear. Therefore, if I am ever going to live on mission for God in a way that is fruitful and effective for the Kingdom of God, I better expect His discipline and accept His corrections whenever I fall short. How I respond to Him is really the point of this whole battle drill. Listen again to Proverbs 9:7-9:
He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.
How do you respond to correction? Are you quick to get defensive and rationalize your actions, protect your ego, and blame others? If so, then welcome to the party of fools and scoffers. Today is the day to humble ourselves before God to become wise and righteous through the way we listen to feedback and accept correction. Are you already good at listening and learning from the correction, knowing that you can get better because of it? If so, you are wise and righteous. Continue to yoke with Jesus and become like Him – gentle and humble in heart.
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