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 640

The Word of the Prophet!

Deuteronomy 18

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, December 17. Please join me in wishing a happy birthday to Vicki Thomson, Richard Kinnaird, and Pam Frazee.

 

How can we know God’s will for our lives?

 

This was a significant question for the nation of Israel, as it is for us today. Israel had been rescued from Egypt and were now surrounded by the Canaanites. The people of the ancient Near East used a variety of illegitimate sources, from which Yahweh strictly forbade His people, as in Deuteronomy 18:9-11:

 

When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

 

In direct contrast to these practices, God speaks through His chosen people, called prophets, such as He did with Moses. Moses prophesied of the coming Messiah, and His office of Prophet, in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” The early church quoted this promise twice, in Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37.

 

Jesus is the new Moses and the fulfillment of the office of prophet. The first disciples of Jesus Christ declared it so in the Gospel of John 1:45: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” More than a prophet, Jesus is the Living Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

 

Seize the moment and know God’s will for your life through Jesus Christ and His Word!

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 639

The Rule of a King!

Deuteronomy 17

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, December 16.

 

What rules over your life?

 

There is a short section in Deuteronomy 17 that has caused Bible students of the Old Testament to wonder about its timing: Were these seven verses about the establishment of a king original to Moses’ second giving of the Law or added later during the time of the monarchy in response to Solomon’s sins, which led to the kingdom’s division?

 

At the end of the time of Judges, in 1 Samuel 8:5, the great prophet Samuel was confronted by the people because they wanted a king, “like all the nations.” In verse 7, God responded to Samuel about their request: “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.”

 

God was not surprised! Likely, the people were invoking God’s promise of Deuteronomy 17:14-15a when they made their request:

 

When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,” you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves.

 

The passage continued by establishing protections against a king’s pride, self-reliance, and corruption (16-17), and the right administration of the kingdom by the king, as according to the Law of God (18-20). Regardless of the form of human government, it has always been God’s will that His Word would rule over His people, from the inside out.

 

Seize the moment and meditate upon God’s Word, day and night, and all that you do will be pleasing to God and prosper in His sight.

 

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 638

 

Tell God’s Story on the Holidays!

Deuteronomy 16

 

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

 

What are the stories that define you as a part of a larger group of people to which you belong? Within our American culture, we commemorate Thanksgiving and Memorial Day. Additionally, as Christians, we celebrate Christmas and Easter. We are shaped by the stories we tell on these days!

 

Deuteronomy, like Exodus and Numbers, teaches the importance of the feasts, with Deuteronomy 16 prescribing, once again, the three pilgrimage feasts. Listen to verses 16-17:

 

Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, in conjunction with the Passover, commemorates the exodus when God delivered His people from Egyptian slavery. The Feast of Weeks, also known as the Feast of Harvest or Pentecost, happens seven weeks after Passover, and not only celebrates the grain harvest, but has come to remember the receiving of the Law at Mount Sinai and the people’s entrance into the Promised Land. The Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, memorializes Israel’s forty years of wilderness wanderings.

 

These national festivals required the nation to come together, and for the men of each family to bring a tribute. Like Christmas and Easter are designed to do, these festivals anchored the Israelite people in their common heritage and shared faith. By retelling the miraculous stories of God’s direct activity in history, our corporate identity becomes deeply rooted in our shared faith.

 

Seize the moment and tell the God story in our holidays! Children, families, and communities are shaped by the stories we tell at the holidays we celebrate!

 

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 637

 

Care of the Poor!

Deuteronomy 15

 

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

 

When different congregations come together as the one Church of Jesus Christ it is usually for the sake of children or the elderly, or for the care of the poor and hungry. Until God completes all things on Earth as it is in Heaven, congregations agree that the poor will be amongst us (Matthew 26:11) and we must do something to care for them, even if we can’t agree on how to alleviate their plight in a more sustainable way.

 

Deuteronomy 15 is the retelling of the Law for the Sabbath Year, or Sabbatical, which was to occur every seventh year for the sake of the poor and hungry. It was not only a time to let the land rest (Exodus 23:10-11), but to also cancel debts (Deuteronomy 15:2-11), and free indentured servants and slaves (12-18). Just like the Sabbath, which occurred once per week, the Sabbatical was a proclamation of God’s rescue from slavery. This was to be a blessing to all, while overtly a benefit to the poor and hungry in their midst, as we see in verses 10-11:

 

You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, “You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.”

 

God’s justice is deeply connected to the care of the widow and the orphan, the poor and the oppressed, the sick and the hungry. God loves you and wants to bless you; therefore, God wants you to join with Him in caring for those who can’t care for themselves.

 

Seize the moment and open your hand to the needy and the poor. Be God’s hands during this Christmas season.

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 636

A Parent’s Desire!

Deuteronomy 14

 

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

 

“If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”

 

There is a good chance that you have said it, or it’s been said to you! This is a classic parenting question to teach your children to think for themselves and not go along with the crowd. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Parents care about who influences their children!

 

Deuteronomy 14:1a states, “You are the sons of the Lord your God.” For the first time, God calls the Israelites His sons. As a loving Father, He is commanding His children to be different. In this chapter, God tells His people to not grieve like the others (1-2), to not eat like the others (3-21), and to not do finances like the others (22-29). God was establishing a new community, which was to be different than the Egyptian culture they were rescued from and the Canaanite culture that surrounded them.

 

God desires for His children to bring honor to the family name, so He set them apart! Verse 2 declares, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.” The struggle is that kids, so often, just want to fit in with their friends, and that is when parents step in and ask ridiculous questions about jumping off bridges!

 

Why do parents discipline their children? Because we love them and want only the best for them! Hebrews 12:10-11 explains the Father’s discipline:
 
“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.”

 

Seize the moment and trust that God’s ways are for your good and His glory! God loves you like parents love their children—He only wants the best for you!
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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Advent 2021 Special Presentation – Week 3

First Baptist Church presents:

From the Streets of Bethlehem

 

 
A Special Report from the Bethlehem Evening News, featuring Walter Concrete, and man-on-the-scene, Harold O’Riviera. Hear eye witnesses recountings, their encounters with the Roman census, Angels, and a very special baby in a manger.  You won’t want to miss this wonderful event…

From the Streets of Bethlehem

 

Production team:

 
Penny Stevens, Sean Slagle
 
Costuming:            Cyndi Johansen, Debbie Thorpe, Amy Kinnaird
 
Set & props:          Mike Johannsen, Ken Durham, Lyle Stevens
 
Tech:                       David Maddy, Michael Dabrowski, Max Harter, Elijah Abrams
 
Music:                     Cindy Kurz, Ken Durham, Kevin Stonerock
 
 

Cast for the Play

 
Walter Concrete:    Everett Cole
 
Harold O’Riviera:     Shawn Harter 
 
Bethlehem crowd: Cheryl Hannum , Jill Stonerock, Kimberly Ingalls, Alana & Willow,                       
 
Centurion:  Tim Martin
 
Innkeeper & wife:  Scott & Tiffany Lee
 
Joseph, Mary, & Jesus:  Caleb, Staisha & Raven West
 
Shepherds: Kevin Stonerock, Larry Abrams, David Ulloa
 
Angels:  Cindy Kurz, Leah Durham, Emily Hurst, Brook Evans,Bree King
 
Wise Men:  Ken Durham, Kolby Durham, Kyler Durham
 
Simeon:  Jack Hannum
 
 
Author:  Penny Stevens  
 
 

Commercials

 
Production Team:  Dick Kinnaird, Michael Dabrowski
 
Cast for the Commercials
 
Joshua’s Trumpets:   Matthew Giddings
 
Jonah’s Deep Sea Fishing:   Jonah Kinnaird
 
The Miracle Diet:   Trevor Morgan
 
Abel’s Canes:  Michael Dabrowski
 
Holy Land Insurance:  Bree King, Norah Hamilton
 
1-800-Dan-Yell:   Kaitlyn Giddings, Jonah Kinnaird
 
Zaccheus for Tax Collector: Max Sparks
 
P.H.I.L.I.P:  Sarah Waymire, Matthew Giddings
 
 
Author:  Sean Slagle
 
 
 

You can listen to the presentation here:

 

You can watch the presentation by clicking HERE.

 
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 634

Today’s Advent hymn focus will be

Go, Tell It on the Mountain

 
“Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands.”
 

John W. Work II is accredited for helping to make this traditional spiritual become a Christmas favorite. He was leading the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a college vocal ensemble that was sent out to raise funds for the struggling Fisk University. At first, the college students were reluctant to sing this and many other spirituals because they represented slavery and the dark past that they wanted to forget. But they soon recognized them for their sacredness and the religious worship that was a part of their parents’ lives. Through the encouragement of the University’s treasurer, they began to sing the spirituals in their concerts.

 

Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere

Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born.

 

We need to wake up and realize that we need to recognize that our history is not what determines our future. When we accept Jesus into our lives and make Him Lord of all, we are new creations that are called to proclaim His message to a world in need of hope, love, joy and peace.

 

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 hear this song, click on the link below:
 

Go, Tell it on the Mountain

 
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
 
While shepherds kept their watching
O’er silent flocks by night
Behold throughout the heavens
There shone a Holy light
 
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
 
The shepherds feared and trembled
When, lo! Above the Earth
Rang out the angel chorus
That hailed our Savior’s birth
 
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
 
Down in a lowly manger
Our humble Christ was born
And brought us all salvation
 
That blessed Christmas morn
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
 
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born
That Jesus Christ is born
 
 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 633

Life of Devotion!

Deuteronomy 13

 

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

 

As an athlete, I know what it is to live a life of devotion! As an All-American collegiate athlete, and when I was training for the 2000 Olympics, I was devoted to my sport! The danger with such a hyper-focus on sport, or anything, is that it shapes you. God designed us, on purpose, to be formed by that which we give our devotion, which was meant to be Him alone! Therefore, I echo John, known for his passionate exposition of God’s love, with these words from 1 John 5:21, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”

 

The emphasis of Deuteronomy 13 is to protect the next generation from the dangers of idol worship! Three times, God commanded His people to put to death any person that tried to “seduce” their hearts away from Him:

 

1) A prophet or a dreamer of dreams (1-5).

2) A close family member, such as parent, child, or spouse (6-11).

3) The inhabitants of one of their cities (12-18).

 

God’s solution to idolatry is a life of devotion to Him! That which seeks to seduce you from God needs to be removed, whether or a person or a thing. God takes idolatry, and the false worship that arises from it, seriously because we are all susceptible to it. John Calvin explained, “The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.”[1]

 

The good news is that God gave us the solution to idolatry in Deuteronomy 13:3-4:
 
“For the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”

 

Seize the moment and love God by being faithful to Him! It is your life of devotion to God that protects you from being seduced by lesser things!

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.
 
 
 

FOOTNOTES:

 

[1] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997), I.11.8.

 

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Seize the Moment – Day 632

 

Worship Habits!

Deuteronomy 12

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, December 9.

 

Have you ever had to change a long-established habit?

 

For athletes, it’s one thing to learn a new skill, it is all together another thing to break a bad habit.

 

In Deuteronomy 12:4-5, 8, Moses made it clear that God was going to be breaking some bad habits of worship, by establishing one central place of worship in the Promised Land:

 

You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. … You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.

 

I can almost hear the people’s response to Moses, “But we’ve always done it this way!”

 

The people of God were surrounded by the Canaanites who worshipped God in high places and on altars set about wherever they wanted. These were the worship practices of the ancient near eastern civilizations. God, like a good coach, was announcing to His athletes that it was time to break some bad habits!

 

Did you know that Jesus made the same kind of announcement when He came to bring all the nations back to God?

 

In response to a Samaritan woman’s direct question about worship practices, Jesus replied in John 4:23-24 that it was no longer about being at a right location, but about having a sincere heart: “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

Seize the moment and worship God with a sincere heart! Wherever and whenever you worship God, do so full of spirit and truth!

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 631

 

The Choice!

Deuteronomy 11

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, December 8.

 

The Bible calls every person who reads it to make the choice!

 

Moses introduced a phrase in Deuteronomy 11, which we will hear again in chapter 30 of his “second giving” of the Law: “I am setting before you a blessing and a curse.” This is the choice that every single person must make after being confronted with the Word of God—to believe or not to believe, to submit or not to submit, to live by faith or by sight. Moses contrasted the choice in verses 26-28:

 

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

 

Every generation must be confronted with the choice! Moses’ successor, Joshua, had to do the same thing with the Israelites near the end of his life before he transitioned leadership to the elders. Listen to Joshua’s famous words in Joshua 24:15:

 

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

 

In the same way that Moses and Joshua called for the choice, so did Jesus Christ in His ministry, as in Luke 11:28, “blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (cf. Matthew 7:24-27; John 14:15).

 

Seize the moment and build your life upon the rock of faith in Jesus Christ. Choose this day whom you will serve!

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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