Seize the Moment – Day 772
Trust God’s Providence!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 28.
Have you ever been denied an opportunity only to find out later that it was the best thing that could have happened to you?
David and his band of fighting men were sent away by the lords of the Philistines in 1 Samuel 29. David was upset! They were rejected and cast off, but it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened because while they were gone the Amalekites had raided their homes in Ziklag. It was a desperate situation for David as recorded in 1 Samuel 30:2-3:
They took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way. When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.
If David had not been rejected by the Philistines, they would have missed the opportunity to rescue their families, restore their animals and possessions, and capture a great spoil that David would use to secure alliances with key leaders in Israel (20-31).
Seize the moment and trust God’s providence. What may feel like rejection or denial in the moment may be God’s greatest opportunity for your life.
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Seize the Moment – Day 771
The Power of a Reputation!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 27.
What is your name worth to you? I have learned the power of a reputation. People anticipate what you will do based on what you have done. For example, growing up in a small town in Connecticut, I was a successful student-athlete, an Eagle scout, and a leader in the Civil Air Patrol. It did not surprise anyone when I got accepted to West Point because my reputation had gone before me, just like a resume goes before a job interview.
Even though David had a good reputation with Achish, the king of Gath, the lords of the Philistines were not willing to put their men at risk by having David fight with them. In 1 Samuel 29:4-5, we see why, David’s reputation had gone before him:
But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, that he may return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men? Is this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands’?”
Seize the moment and build your life on the reputation of the powerful name of Jesus.
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Seize the Moment – Day 770
Samuel’s Last Words to Saul!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 26.
The prophet Samuel was dead. We first learned of this in 1 Samuel 25:1, and now again 1 Samuel 28:3. The fate of Samuel was crystal clear – he was dead! I’ve now said it twice, just like God’s Word, but there is more to this story because even though he was dead, we hadn’t heard the last of him.
King Saul was desperate. He feared the Philistines and God wasn’t communicating with him (5-6). Since there was no David around to win the day for him, Saul took matters into his own hands and looked for a medium who could contact Samuel. Did I mention that he was dead? Saul wanted to use a medium to get in touch with Samuel so that he would inquire of God for him. Did I say Saul was desperate?
Desperate people more often than naught find themselves in bad situations and Saul was no exception. He received a message from God through Samuel through a medium in verses 16-19:
Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary? The Lord has done accordingly as He spoke through me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David. As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines, therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the Lord will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!
Seize the moment and put your trust in Jesus’ last words, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
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Seize the Moment – Day 769
A Time to Retreat!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, April 25.
A difficult lesson that I learned in the military is that it is sometimes wiser, and more strategic, to retreat than to continue the advance. Even the best soldiers need to rest and regroup. David did this in 1 Samuel 27:1-2:
Then David said to himself, “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.” So David arose and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
David took 16 months away from Israel and its internal politics dominated by Saul’s jealousy of David. Saul was happy to see him go away. All the while David was retreating from Saul, he was striking down the enemies of Israel from within their own borders. It turned out that David’s time in retreat was more effective for the Kingdom than if he had stayed.
Seize the moment and take time to retreat for times alone in the Word and in prayer with God. Rest and regroup with Jesus!
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Train to Live on Mission – Week 12
Battle Drill #12:
Trust your Training!
Proverbs 6:20-35 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the twelfth battle drill – Trust your Training! I have three military stories to help illustrate this battle drill of “trust your training.”
1) Night operations and the 200’ cliff rappel.
2) Air Assault operations and stepping out on the skid to rappel out of a Huey.
3) Airborne operations and jumping out of a perfectly good airplane (day or night).
Regardless of your level of training, if you don’t trust your training at the moment that it matters then you will not live on mission. You will allow the circumstances, your feelings, or your nervous system to determine your response instead of trusting your training. Let’s learn how we can train this battle drill so that you can live on mission today.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life …
The verse ended in mid-sentence. To better understand how I am applying this text to learning how to trust your training as your battle drill for this week, you need to hear the rest of this passage from the Field Manual so I will continue reading from Proverbs 6 with verses 24-35:
… to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids. For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry; but when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the substance of his house. The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; he who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out. For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be satisfied though you give many gifts.
We know 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.
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
If anyone tells you that at any point in your Christian life you won’t struggle with your humanity and the effects of living in this tent (2 Corinthians 5:1), then they are placing a burden on you that Christ has not. Holiness is Christ in you, not your ability to live a perfect life based on a list of vices and virtues. The righteousness you have is imputed upon you through Christ’s victory, not one earned by a life of perfect thought life, perfect emotional stability, and perfect mastery of your body. The life we live is a life surrendered to the finished work of Jesus Christ, just as Paul commented about himself in Galatians 2:19-21:
For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
Apart from Christ you can do nothing, as Jesus taught us 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.” Additionally, as fellow members of His body, we need one another to walk in God’s will. Paul emphasized this in the body imagery of the church in Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
We need one another, more than we know! We need to walk in the way of Jesus Christ with one another and carry one another’s burdens. Just as Paul teaches in Galatians 6:1-2, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
A significant reality of learning to trust your training is to train as part of the body of Christ, and not alone, because if we are to do what Jesus, the head of the church, commands us, and please Him, then we must do it in concert with His will for our lives, collectively as the individual members of the one body of Christ. As Paul said in Ephesians 1:22-23, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” That takes us to the third action item.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life …
Some of my favorite imagery in the Bible about our relationship with God is the familial language – we are sons and daughters of the King! I’ve already utilized the agricultural imagery of the Vine and branches, and the anatomical imagery of Jesus being the head and us being the members of His body, but now I want to emphasize, based on Proverbs 6:20-23, the familial imagery of God being our parent. Family relationships are commanded in Ephesians 6:1-4:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Parents, before you apply this to your children, you must first apply it to your relationship with God as your Father, where you are the child and He is the Father. His will for your life is that you mature in the discipline and the instruction of His Word for His glory! Therefore, you must learn to observe all His commandments, just as you expect your kids to know your expectations of them, not forsaking the Word, but memorize them and meditate upon them and apply them to your everyday life. As Psalm 119:105-106 teaches us as the children of God, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and I will confirm it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances.” Are you reaping at home what you are sowing with your heavenly father?
This is the tried-and-true way of God’s people, generation to generation, generation after generation, as instructed through the Shema and its instruction, as found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Why does the author of Proverbs 6 command his children to trust their training in the faith? Because their only chance at life and blessing is to live according to it! And their faithfulness to God will be tested in the hardest of life’s circumstances, in the most challenging of human emotions, in the greatest allure of spiritual idolatry, and in the seductions of human adultery.
That is why today’s passage was intentionally evocative and persuasive on purpose, because the battle is not won on islands of serenity with peace-time conditions, but on the beaches of Normandy where the distress and tribulation of spiritual warfare manifests at every level of human experience! We live in a war-torn creation; therefore, we must train to live on mission today! You must train yourself according to this battle drill to trust your training in righteousness just as Paul taught his protégé in 2 Timothy 2:1-5:
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 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. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
Building upon this imagery, Paul said to his protégé in 1 Timothy 4:7-8:
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Again, why does the author of Proverbs 6 command his children to trust their training? Because children represent their parents – you are image bearers of God! We are commanded to train ourselves to live on mission for God and the only way to do that is to put ourselves willingly and wholeheartedly under the instruction and discipline of the Lord, just as children are commanded to put themselves under the authority of their parents. We are to bind ourselves to Jesus and His commandments if we hope to live on mission. We are to “bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck” as Proverbs 6:21 commands. Jesus invited us to take on His yoke and live for Him, becoming like Him, and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30). This is the way!
Allow me to finish by praying over you a powerful passage from 1 Peter 2:1-12:
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
This is who you are, and this is the way of your life in Christ! As you learn to trust your training in God’s Word, you bring glory to God and you will lead others to know Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and they, too, will bring glory to God until the Day of His return. This is the promise of the Father, the provision of the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through you.
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Seize the Moment – Day 767
Today’s hymn focus will be
Glory to His Name
Hebrews 9:22(ESV)
“ Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Penned in 1879 by Elisha A. Hoffman, this hymn became the favorite of believers who wanted nothing more than to bring glory and praise to God for the wonderful work of salvation. He was inspired while reading about Christ’s crucifixion and how it was through the cross that God saved all of mankind. He shared these words with his friend John Stockton who put them to music.
Glory to His name, glory to His name,
There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His name
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Glory to His Name
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried,
There to my sin was the blood applied;
Glory to His name!
Glory to His name;
There to my sin was the blood applied;
Glory to His name!
I am so wondrously saved from sin,
Jesus so sweetly abides within;
There at the cross where He took me in;
Glory to His name.
Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin,
I am so glad I have entered in;
There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean;
Glory to His name.
Come to this fountain so rich and sweet;
Cast thy poor soul at the Savior’s feet;
Plunge in today, and be made complete;
Glory to His name.
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Seize the Moment – Day 766
Keep on the Alert!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, April 22.
I have an embarrassing military story to share from my time at the US Army Ranger School. I fell asleep on guard duty. I was laying in the prone position watching my sector of fire one moment and the next I was being asked by a Ranger Instructor where my weapon was. I replied, oblivious to my own failure, that it was in my hands, and then he looked down. As my eyes followed his, there was my weapon disassembled in front of me. I failed to keep on the alert and the consequences were grave.
Seize the moment and keep on the alert in prayer by learning to trust in the strength of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus commanded in Mark 13:33, “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time will come.” Keep watch for Jesus!
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Seize the Moment – Day 765
Love with Abundance!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, April 21.
How do you handle disappointment when someone does not give you what you think you are owed? Whether through contract or custom, whether it was presumption on your part that you should receive something, or it was a breach of etiquette on their part for not doing what they should have done, how do you respond?
Thankfully for Nabal, his wife Abigail fulfilled his responsibilities to David and gave him and his men a feast out of their abundance and said to David in verse 27, “Now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord.” She loved them with abundance and God honored her for her sacrifice. She also prevented bloodshed as David was not responding to the offense so well and was seeking vengeance with his own hand (32-33).
Seize the moment by loving with abundance and like Abigail, God will honor you for your sacrifice. You never know what good will come from your act of love.
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Seize the Moment – Day 764
Set an Example Worth Following!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, April 20.
Do you set an example that is worth following? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” People are watching and do they see Jesus in you? We are to set an example for others in our words and conduct so that in watching us they may know the way of Jesus.
David set an example worth following when King Saul, who was trying to kill David, entered a cave and unknowingly put himself in the hands of David and his men. In 1 Samuel 24:6-7, listen to how David responded to his men who encouraged him to kill Saul with his own hands and take his rightful place as the next king:
So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.
What happened next would not have been possible without David’s brave act of mercy! Saul finally came to terms with the judgment of God and recognized the righteousness of David and God’s anointing upon him as the next king (17-22). David’s men watched all of this and because of David’s unwillingness to set his hand against God’s anointed, but rather showed mercy and kindness, they experienced a powerful testimony of God’s power working through a righteous man. Consequently, David, the anointed of God himself, protected his own future kingship, and that of his son Solomon’s future reign, by not setting the precedent for “might makes right” as the way of succession in the kingdom of Heaven.
Seize the moment and set an example worth following. Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:1-3).
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Seize the Moment – Day 763
Honoring Your Friendships!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, April 19.
Do you remember the last time you saw a loved one or close friend who has gone on to be with the Lord? Did you know that it would be the last time you saw one another? The last recorded meeting between David and Jonathan is found in 1 Samuel 23:15-18:
Now David became aware that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God. Thus he said to him, “Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.” So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.
Seize the moment and honor your friendships of old by loving, encouraging, and caring for the next generation.
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