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 570

 

The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit!

Numbers 11

 

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

 

The most valuable resource in any church is people filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

In Numbers 11:27-29, Moses responds to a challenging leadership situation in a surprising way:

 

So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

 

Moses’ response foreshadowed the New Covenant and Acts 2 Pentecost!

 

Moses was frustrated and exhausted because of the people’s complaining (1-9). After praying for them, Moses went to God and complained about the heavy burden of leading the people that God had placed on him (10-15).

 

God heard his prayer and responded to Moses in verses 16-17:

 

Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting … and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone.

 

Even though Eldad and Medad weren’t part of this gathered group of seventy elders to receive the Spirit (24-26), Moses saw no problem because he knew the more Spirit-filled people there were to help, the less he had to bear it all alone.

 

Whereas the attendant of Moses, Joshua, was jealous for Moses and wanted them restrained, Moses saw an opportunity because “many hands make light work.”

 

Seize the moment and seek ways to help in your local church. The Holy Spirit makes the burden light when we work together in the easy yoke of Jesus.

God bless your day!
 
 
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 569

 

The First Step!

Numbers 10

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, October 7.

 

Have you ever watched a baby takes its first step?

 

It’s a monumental moment in any person’s life! Very often, the parents participate with eager excitement to support their child in this next step of his or her journey!

 

Numbers 10:33-36 narrates when the Israelites took their first step away from Mount Sinai as they finally broke camp after being there for about a year receiving the Ten Commandments and the Levitical Law, learning how to be the children of God:

 

Thus they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord journeying in front of them for the three days, to seek out a resting place for them. The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp. Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, O Lord! And let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.” When it came to rest, he said, “Return, O Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel.”

 

God, their loving parent, was fully present to them in this exciting moment and they praised Him for His presence and power to lead them in their next faith step towards the Promised Land.

 

Moses’s song of victory was later quoted and expanded upon by King David in Psalm 68:1-7:

 

Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Him flee before Him. … Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, whose name is the Lord, and exult before Him. … O God, when You went forth before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, Selah.

 

Seize the moment and rejoice that your Heavenly Father holds your hand when you follow Him into your next faith step. God is with you, whether on your first or last step!

God bless your day!
 
 
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 568

Dependence on the Lord in Decision Making!

Numbers 9

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, October 6.

 

How do you know when to make an allowance for something that is not exactly the way you thought it was supposed to happen?

 

Numbers 9:6-8 records an episode of Moses demonstrating mature spiritual leadership:

 

But there were some men who were unclean because of the dead person, so that they could not observe Passover on that day; so they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. Those men said to him, “Though we are unclean because of the dead person, why are we restrained from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the sons of Israel?” Moses therefore said to them, “Wait, and I will listen to what the Lord will command concerning you.”

 

Moses waited upon the Lord to give him the answer. According to Luke 5:16, Jesus Christ modeled this same pattern of listening for God:
 
“But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”

 

Spiritual leaders cultivate a humble heart and a patient mind to wait upon the Lord to give direction. Moses could have quickly decided on this issue. These men were going to have miss Passover this year because they were unclean, a clear-cut case. But instead, Moses waited on the Lord.

 

When discerning decisions, please cultivate a humble heart to wait upon the Lord and a patient mind to listen for His voice.

 

Just like in this situation, the Lord may disclose to you a new way forward. In Moses’ case, God spoke to Him and set a secondary date for the observance of Passover one month later for not only these men, but for many others who would find themselves in similar situations in the future (9-14).

 

Seize the moment and learn to be dependent upon the Lord for your decision making. You never know how God will use your times of waiting upon Him to bless many!

God bless your day!
 
 
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 567

A Living Sacrifice!

Numbers 8

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, October 5.

 

Christians are commanded to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ in a very specific way—by presenting themselves to God as living sacrifices. Paul wrote this in Romans 12:1,
 
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

 

Do you understand what this would have meant to Paul and a Jewish audience?

 

The precedent for a group of people being a living sacrifice to God is found in Numbers 8:9-11:

 

So you shall present the Levites before the tent of meeting. You shall also assemble the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, and present the Levites before the Lord; and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. Aaron then shall present the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the sons of Israel, that they may qualify to perform the service of the Lord.

 

A “wave offering” is a technical term in the sacrificial system for an offering presented to God but not put on the altar for consumption; it was, instead, given to the priest (Leviticus 7:30-34). In today’s chapter, this term is being used in a peculiar way—a group of people are being offered to God, not for destruction, but for consecration and given to the priests for the work of the tabernacle.

 

Therefore, when Paul calls you, a Christ follower, to present yourself as a living sacrifice to God, he is calling you to participate in the ancient consecration rite of being a “wave offering.” God is inviting you to live a set apart (holy) life for His purpose of redeeming you—“to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5b).

 

Seize the moment and find your life by giving it as a living sacrifice to God.

 
God bless your day!
 
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 566

Unity in Giving!

Numbers 7

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, October 4.

 

Numbers 7 records each of the twelve tribes of Israel giving the same dedicatory offerings. The leader of each tribe, on his prescribed day, over a twelve-day period, brought an identical offering to the priests. This demonstrated the unity of the twelve tribes as the one people of God and their common commitment to the Levites and the functioning of the tabernacle system.

 

While we find reading this chapter repetitive, the Israelites would have rejoiced in seeing each tribe’s equal participation in the religious system. Without their unity and common commitment, Israel could not survive. As Jesus said in Mark 3:25,
 
“If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”

 

Interestingly, the offerings given to God were then disseminated based on a division of labor between the clans of Levites. Numbers 7:4-9 describes how the gifts of God’s people were used to equip the religious workers to do their specific work in the tabernacle system:

 

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Accept these things from them, that they may be used in the service of the tent of meeting, and you shall give them to the Levites, to each man according to his service.” So Moses took the carts and the oxen and gave them to the Levites. Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to their service, and four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari, according to their service, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. But he did not give any to the sons of Kohath because theirs was the service of the holy objects, which they carried on the shoulder.

 

Seize the moment and give generously to the work of God knowing that the resources you give will go where they are needed to do God’s work.

God bless your day!
 
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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Live Like a Champion – Week 40

The Promise of Silence!

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

 

Jakob to read Psalm 46.

 

This week we are learning about “The Promise of Silence!” It comes from Psalm 46, which you just heard, with verse 10 being our memory verse:
 
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

 

Today’s promise comes with hard practice and one that is counter-cultural, not just with the broader culture, but with most church cultures. The practice is to be still—to cease and intend your attentions to the Lord’s presence! This is often called the practice of silence and solitude but allow me to be clear in the Christian faith it is silence and solitude with a focus.

 

Personally, I have had seasons of glory walking in this promise, but I have also had many seasons of drought because of my struggle to use my set aside times and places of silence and solitude for the intent of attending to the presence of God.

 

Ultimately, as you may relate, I find it difficult to do the things I know I should do. There is an enemy of our soul who has animated our culture to be against times of experiencing our union with the eternal godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Silence and solitude sound like torture to our souls, not the promised liberation of our souls that God promises them to be!

 

Here is the hard truth of this promise in today’s frenetic 24/7 culture: The promise of silence requires of us to disconnect from the feeds and all else that has captured our attentions and intentions to experience the rhythm of being still by intending our attention to the presence of God during times of silence and solitude!

 

We are hyper-connected, yet many of us are lonely; we are over-committed, yet many of us are bored. We love our activism (religious, political, economic, entertainment, etc.), yet our souls languish from the drought and exhaustion of not being still before the Lord. We are too focused on our own important plans and activities to prioritize and protect intentional times of tending to our souls through the promise of being still and knowing that He is God, and that He will be exalted among the nations. We are too busy exalting ourselves and our opinions to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to His own, so we end up tired and burned out (Luke 10:38-42).

 

Be still = cease striving = practice living in the unforced rhythms of grace found in the easy yoke of Jesus Christ! Listen again to what Pastor Ken reminded us of last week when he taught us the promise of waiting: Jesus’ words from Matthew 11:28-30 (this time from the Message):

 

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

 

Is there a greater sanctifying opportunity for a productive people than to wait upon the Lord?

 

The purpose of the promise of stillness is to remember that God’s will cannot be thwarted—“I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10b).

 

As Habakkuk 2:20 commands us:
 
“But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

 

God makes Himself known in places of silence and solitude because it is in these times and places that God reveals to us the truth about ourselves and how worried and bothered we are by so many things that we cannot simply rest in His loving embrace and be accepted for who we are and not have to consume or produce, perform or prod, control or manipulate.

 

Because most of us are in the full time of job of making life work out for ourselves based on our own desires, here is a great experiment: sit in silence for twenty minutes and see what happens to you and where your mind goes. No radio or TV, no background noise, no active study or message, no scheming or planning, just you intending your attention on the presence of God.

 

Again, I want you to listen to Psalm 46:10, this time from the Message:
 
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”

 

Step out of the social media, network news, and talk show “traffic” and stop being seduced by the unceasing discontentment—these are the birth pangs of the Lord’s return so stay focused while there is still time; the Day of His return is imminent so please stop wasting time on lesser things that will fade away with the next news feed or next political agenda item!

 

Practicing the promise of stillness disciplines your worship of the Sovereign God!

 

Zephaniah 1:7 commands us to
 
“Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near, For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests.”

 

With this promise and its practice set before us in our current historical context, I want to help you by inviting you to take times to be still, just like Jesus did. When you look at the bookends of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus intended His attention on the presence of God: Jesus prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21) and then immediately went off for a prolonged forty days of silence and solitude in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-2). Jesus gave Himself to the Cross after a time of being still before the Lord, as was His custom, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen to Luke 22:39-42,

 

And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

 

Here are 4 practical steps to putting into action the promise of silence so that you, too, can pray with Jesus and mean it, “not my will, but Yours be done”:

 

  • PRACTICE INTENTIONAL STILLNESS AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF YOUR DAY!

 

Jesus modeled this for us in Mark 1:35,
 
“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”

 

I encourage you to start simple: two 5-20 minutes of focused time on a favorite passage or vision of God that you treasure about God and what He has done for you, whether it’s God’s omniscience or God’s promise to make all things new—intend to focus your attention on God, once in the morning when you wake up and once at night before you go to bed!

 

The practical invitation is for you to begin and end your day with an intentional time of silence and solitude—to be still and know that He is God. This will require of you to plan and protect, to fight against temptation with work, food, and entertainment, and to be wise with your goals for how much you can do in your days and nights, including protecting your sleep patterns.

 

  • PRIORITIZE BEING STILL BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY BIG DECISIONS BY PRACTICING WEEKLY DISCERNMENT!

 

In Luke 6:12, prior to making a big decision of who His twelve apostles would be, Jesus was still before the Lord so that He could listen for God’s will in this decision:
 
“It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”

 

Praying, which, shockingly for some of us, includes listening for the Lord’s answer, is key to making godly decisions. Don’t ask God to bless your plans; rather, ask God to bless you to be a part of His plans. To discern God’s next steps for your life requires of you to be still before Him and wait upon His will and timeline (Romans 12:1-2).

 

I encourage you to prioritize a set apart time of silence and solitude once per week (sabbath day exercise) to ask God to reveal to you His good and acceptable and perfect plans for your life for the coming week. This disciplines your flesh to be able to do this at the exciting and scary moments of decision making, because you’ve already made discernment a weekly habit of grace.

 

  • BE STILL AFTER BIG EVENTS BY LEARNING TO RETREAT!

 

In Matthew 14:22-23, Jesus was still before the Lord after a great accomplishment—the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand:
 
“Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone” (cf. Mark 6:46-47 and Luke 9:18).

 

The higher the experience, the more dangerous the fall! The insidious danger for most people is the pride that may unwittingly creep into a person’s heart after the excitement of being used by God to do something big, especially if it is a repeated event. I believe this is one of the reasons we see good and godly people making bad and unbiblical decisions and blowing up marriages, families, and churches. People are burning out on life and godliness; they forget the solution!

 

It is not enough to give lip service to humility; we must practice and cultivate it through the discipline of silence and solitude. When you believe you are so important or that your work is so important that you are unwilling to cease and be still before God, then the pride has already captured an enemy foothold in your heart and life. Create a rhythm of once per month or once per quarter where you take a day away to cease striving by taking a spiritual retreat day.

 

  • BE STILL WHEN YOU NEED GOD’S MINISTRY IN YOUR OWN LIFE BY CULTIVATING AN AWARENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

 

In Mark 6:31-32, Jesus responded to the news of the execution of John the Baptist:
 
“And He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.’ (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.”

 

While we know the importance of community and fellowship; let’s never forget that Jesus modeled for us the ministry of the Holy Spirit in comforting us in times of need. While people are wonderful instruments of God’s grace in our lives, they cannot and should never replace the direct ministry of the Holy Spirit, who is always available to us.

 

The final practice of silence and solitude is to cultivate your intention to attend to the Holy Spirit by learning to quiet the noise of your heart (emotions and desires) and mind (thoughts and ideas). This yokes with the promise of peace of God which promises to guard your heart and mind with the peace of God that transcends all understanding.

 

The good news is that I will be taking the next three weeks (October 10, 17, and 24) to teach you about the promise of peace and how to experience it as a follow-up to this message.

 

In conclusion, as you do these things, you will learn that the practice of silence and solitude helps you cultivate a greater awareness of the Lord’s presence and His peace that is yours through union with Him. Intentionally go to a secluded place and be alone with God and allow Him to heal your soul of loneliness and boredom!

 

Learn to rest in His presence and then bring His peace into every moment of your life. You will find solitude in a crowded room and silence in the cacophony of culture. You will find rest for your soul, not from the circumstances of your life, but as you walk with Jesus through the circumstances of your life (Isaiah 40:31).

 

 

 

You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message by clicking below:

 

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 564

Today’s modern hymn focus will be

“10,000 Reasons”

 
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”
 
 

This modern-day hymn was written in 2012 by Matt Redman & Jonas Myrin, with whom he had collaborated with on a number of other occasions. Jonas played an idea for a chorus melody, and Matt felt it fit perfectly for a song based on the opening verse of Psalm 103. In fact, the song came together rather quickly in a spontaneous moment and they knew it was under the leading of the Holy Spirit!

 

He explained “The point behind this song is this: If you wake up one morning and you cannot think of a reason to bring God some kind of offering of thanks or praise, then you can be sure there’s something wrong on your end of the pipeline, and not His. We live beneath an unceasing flow of goodness, kindness, greatness and holiness, and every day we’re given reason after reason why Jesus is so completely and utterly worthy of our highest and best devotion.”*

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, worship His holy name

Sing like never, O my soul, I’ll worship His holy name

I will worship His holy name.
 

 

We need to wake up every morning with praise and thanksgiving upon our lips. He has given us a new day to live for Him. If nothing else, praise Him for waking you up and giving you air to breathe!

 
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 the song played, click on this link:
 
 
 

10,000 Reasons

 

Chorus
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul, worship His holy Name.
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship Your holy Name.

Verse 1
The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning;
It’s time to sing Your song again.
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me,
Let me be singing when the evening comes.

Chorus
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul, worship His holy Name.
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship Your holy Name.

Verse 2
You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger,
Your Name is great and Your heart is kind;
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing,
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.

Chorus
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul, worship His holy Name.
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship Your holy Name.

Verse 3
And on that day when my strength is failing,
The end draws near and my time has come;
Still my soul sings Your praise unending,
Ten thousand years and then forevermore.

Chorus
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul, worship His holy Name.
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship Your holy Name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my soul, worship His holy Name.
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship Your holy Name.

 
 

 

*Woship Leader Magazine/songfacts

www.songfacts.com/facts/famtt-redman/10000-reasons-bless-the-lord

 

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Seize the Moment – Day 563

The Priestly Blessing!

Numbers 6

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, October 1.

 

In Numbers 6:23-27, God gives Moses the priestly blessing for His people:

 

“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: The Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.’ So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”

 

Watch how God responded to Aaron blessing the people in Leviticus 9:22-23:
 
“Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, … When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.”

 

When God’s people do what He commands them to do, God responds with His presence and power. Today, we do this formally with the giving of the benediction at the end of a service. It is not simply a sending-out prayer; rather, it is the giving of God’s “priestly blessing.”

 

Never forget that God is the one who blesses, we simply mediate the blessing to one another. In the same way, God is the only One who can save a single soul, we are commanded to mediate the gospel to people in loving word and generous deed, one person at a time.

 

God is the active agent of every blessing. That is what it means for God to “make His face shine on you” and “lift up His countenance on you.” That is God giving you His attention and pouring out His blessings of grace and peace!

 

Seize the moment and seek the face of God in your life. Call upon the name of Jesus Christ through whom every promise of God is a “yes and amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

 

God bless your day!
 
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 562

The Importance of Restitution!

Numbers 5

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 30.

 

What happens when saying sorry is not enough?

 

Numbers 5:6-8 explains the command of paying restitution as part of a person’s confession of sin:

 

When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the Lord, and that person is guilty, then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged. But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong must go to the Lord for the priest, besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him.

 

Restitution is important because it is a sign of true brokenness over sin and a sincere desire to get right with the person from whom you are seeking forgiveness. The root of the Hebrew word for restitution means “to turn back, return.”

 

Restitution is yoked with our call to repent—the act of turning away from sin and to turning back (returning) to God!

 

How do we know when a person is truly returning to faithfulness to God and sincerely desiring to reconcile with the community of God’s people?

 

Is it enough to confess? Confession is the beginning, but it must be followed by life transformation—the active steps which demonstrate repentance!

 

Paying restitution, which requires you to go above and beyond the original offense, demonstrates that you are being transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). It is a sign and wonder of the Holy Spirit to will and to work in you (Philippians 2:13).

 

Restitution invites the offended party to take the critical next step of offering forgiveness by accepting the restitution. This opens the door to future reconciliation!

 

Seize the moment and be a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

God bless your day!
 
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 561

God’s Division of Labor!

Numbers 4

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 29.

 

Have you ever wished you had someone else’s job or life?

 

There were three Levitical clans—the Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites—with duties outlined in Numbers 4. Listen to verse 49 summarize their job descriptions,
 
“According to the commandment of the Lord through Moses, they were numbered, everyone by his serving or carrying; thus these were his numbered men, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

 

Each clan was provided with detailed instructions of what they were responsible for in the administration of the Israelite religious system. This reminds me of Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:10,
 
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

 

In God’s economy, every person has a purpose—good works to carry out! The earlier you learn what this is for your life, the sooner you will be content and happy in this life.

 

For example, while Aaron and his sons were designated as the priests and were allowed to touch and see the holy objects (5-14), it was the Kohathites who had the responsibility to transport them (15-20). God established a division of labor on purpose!

 

Even though both groups were working in the tabernacle system, they had very different jobs, which required each group to do their work precisely as commanded. Just like Aaron’s two sons—Nadab and Abihu—were killed for offering “strange fire” upon the altar in Leviticus 10:1-2, so the Kohathites’ job came with the death penalty if they were to touch or see the sacred things (e.g. 1 Samuel 6:19 and 2 Samuel 6:6-7).

 

Just as each clan of Levites had their own unique responsibilities, so do each of us. All for the glory of God and the orderliness of our worship! Don’t want someone else’s job or life, do what God has called you to do!

 

Seize the moment and walk in the good works of your unique life.

 

God bless your day!
 
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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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