Seize the Moment – Day 543
Today’s hymn focus will be
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
Deuteronomy 33:27(NLT)
“The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you;”
Anthony Showalter of Dalton, GA was a Presbyterian elder that was well-known for being an advocate of gospel music. He published over 130 music books and became known in the South for his singing schools in local churches.
He was a very relational teacher, taking interest in his students’ lives even after they had finished his school. After finishing a class one night, he returned to his room to find two letters from two former students, both sharing the news that they had lost their wives. He went to the scriptures to find words to comfort them and found this verse in Deuteronomy. As he pondered on the scripture, these words came to mind:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
After writing this chorus, he sent the words to his friend, hymnist Elisha Hoffman, saying “I can’t come up with any verses” After writing three stanzas, Elisha sent it back to him and he set it to music, giving us these words to cheer us up in our times of trouble.
We need to wake up and sing this song loud and with faith proclaim:
What have I to dread, what have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near. Leaning on the everlasting arms
YOUTUBE:
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
I have peace complete with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 542
Live Pure on Purpose!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 10.
Leviticus 18 unapologetically dives deep into the intimate practices of people’s private lives. In fact, the Bible teaches us that these most personal places of our lives demonstrate our true loyalties. Listen to how God introduces this most sensitive conversation in verses 2-5:
I am the Lord your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.
The prelude of this teaching on sexual purity is a call to covenant faithfulness to God. The motivation of God’s heart is to protect His children and to establish a witness of His sovereign grace to those living in rebellion. God’s desire is for His people to escape the corruption of the world and live pure on purpose.
Listen to Paul teach living pure on purpose in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20:
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Paul emphasized it again in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.”
Seize the moment and live pure on purpose for this is God’s best for you and for His glory!
God bless your day!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 541
The Importance of Blood!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 9.
Have you ever wondered why Christians talk so much about blood and even sing songs about it?
The importance of blood is an ancient concept found Leviticus 17:11 and 14,
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. … For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, “You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
For this reason, Jesus Christ had to die on the Cross of Calvary—to atone for humanity’s sin, once for all, by shedding the blood of the perfect Passover Lamb to fulfill the ancient covenant between God and humanity.
Seize the moment and remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and the cleansing of your unrighteousness.
God bless your day!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 540
The Atonement of Sin!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 8.
What does the biblical word “atonement” mean and why is it important?
Leviticus prescribed an intricate system of priests, daily sacrifices, dietary restrictions, weekly sabbaths, and annual festivals to make atonement for sin.
Atonement describes both the covering of human guilt and the turning away of God’s wrath. It communicates the biblical concept of reconciliation, which is at the heart of God in giving the Levitical Law in the first place.
Leviticus 16:32-34 prescribed the annual festival known as Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement:
So the priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement: he shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. Now you shall have this as a permanent statute, to make atonement for the sons of Israel for all their sins once every year.
The reconciliation of relationship between God and humanity is why Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the Levitical Law so that through the one nation of Israel all the nations could be restored under the rightful rule of God’s Messiah, who provides, once for all, atonement of sin (Hebrews 7:27; 10:10).
Jesus Christ fulfilled the Day of Atonement in three ways:
- Jesus is the priest who makes atonement (Hebrews 2:17; 9:1-15).
- Jesus is the place of atonement (Romans 3:21-25).
- Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement (1 John 2:2; 4:10; 1 Peter 1:17-19).
Praise God that it is through a relationship with Jesus Christ we enter His relationship with God.
Seize the moment and trust Jesus Christ with your right relationship with God.
God bless your day!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 539
Personal Matters Matter!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 7.
Do your personal matters matter to God?
Yes! Leviticus 15 covers the most intimate issues of the human body and relationships. As I write this devotion for such a diverse group of people, allow me to generalize this chapter by simply saying, “Personal matters matter!” In other words, you should be concerned about what you think, say, and do, regardless of whether other people know.
Leviticus 15:31 summarizes why your personal matters matter to God: “Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, so that they will not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.”
To be defiled is to be unclean and no longer suited for God’s presence. In biblical history, the tabernacle was the place of God’s presence on earth and the mediation of His presence was dependent on the Levitical Law and its intricate systems of priests and sacrifices.
In this delicate system, one person could shut it all down! One person could impact the life of the community. It is important we realize how our personal decisions affect others. We are not islands unto ourselves!
Today, we are the priests of God and Jesus has made the atoning sacrifice “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). We are made clean by Him and are now the temples of the Holy Spirit and have become the dwelling places of God in this world (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Peter further explains the importance of your cleansing in 2 Peter 1:4, “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
Personal matters still matter to God because you are His visible presence to the world He loves.
Seize the moment and walk in purity with God and other people.
God bless your day!
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 538
God Makes a Way for Rich and Poor Alike!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, September 6. Happy Labor Day!
Leviticus 14 continues the teaching on infectious skin diseases with the cleansing of people, clothing, and materials. The Levitical Law took infectious diseases seriously with 116 verses in these two chapters. By contrast, the teaching on childbirth was a total of eight verses in chapter 12. As I am writing this devotion during the COVID-19 pandemic, it doesn’t surprise me that people would write so much about an infectious disease.
Verses 30-32 make a way for people with limited resources to be able to get the care they need:
He shall then offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, which are within his means. He shall offer what he can afford, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the one to be cleansed. This is the law for him in whom there is an infection of leprosy, whose means are limited for his cleansing.
God’s Word makes a way for people of different means to have access to these cleansing rites. The Word of God intentionally protects against human greed and corruption by accommodating for all people to have access to the priests and the sacrificial system.
God desires for His people to reflect His heart so that all would have access to Him and His healing work of cleansing and forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. As Paul said in Romans 2:11, “For there is no partiality with God.”
Seize the moment and ask God to give you His heart for people so that all people can respond to the gospel.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Live Like a Champion – Week 36
The Promise of Serving!
John 13:1-17 (NAS95)
Reader: John 13:1-17
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
It is important that we see how this promise flows from the last few messages. We have been discussing the promises of the community of God—of how the Church is composed of both leaders and members, and how we all are called to belong to God and to one another as His body. As His body, we now turn to the promise of serving—doing that which Jesus Christ modeled and commanded for us to be and do.
The body of Christ is made up of lots of individual members who can only fit together and work together if we have the humility and heart of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ words in Matthew 20:25-28 are our call to the promise of serving, because they are the call to following Jesus’ example:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
The Lord set an example not only in washing the feet of His disciples on the night He was betrayed, but Jesus set us free by taking our sins on the Cross of Calvary.
Service is the way of Jesus and Jesus made it clear that we are to follow His example and obey His commands! Service is the way of His disciples. To be a disciple of Jesus is to have Him as your master; to be His apprentice. To live life like He lived life! That means we will live a life of service, from the inside out. This requires us to become “gentle and humble in heart” like Jesus because the promise of service comes with the praxis of humility!
Never forget, that to be Jesus’ apprentice we are to copy what the master does, but this will become a heavy burden if it doesn’t flow out of our character. Jesus didn’t serve the disciples by washing their feet so that they would feel entitled. Entitlement is a huge issue in our culture, but it should never be an issue for follower of Jesus Christ!
Jesus washed their feet as the Lord and the Teacher to show His current and future disciples the new way of life—the life of love and service, flowing not from our flesh, but from the emptying of our flesh and in the infilling of the Holy Spirit who empowers our lives in Christ.
The Apostle Paul emphasized the way of Jesus in Philippians 2:3-11:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Allow me to share one of the hardest realities of our call to serve as Jesus served. We will be treated like Jesus was treated. The greatest test of a servant is to be treated like a servant! Therefore, the praxis of this promise is the cultivation of our character—to be gentle and humble in heart like Jesus. You may think that the practice of serving would be to serve, and while that is true, the ultimate spiritual discipline is to think more highly of others than you think of yourself.
I am privileged by God to be examined frequently in this area of my character development: as a parent and as a pastor. The true indicator of my motives is what happens when things don’t go the way I think they should go, when someone says “no” to me, when my family or the church does not head in the direction I had hoped for or worked so hard for or gave so much for.
My true motives are made clear to me in that moment.
What is my response when I am treated like Jesus? What is my response when life is not going the way I think it should?
While serving often has a purpose or goal behind it, at its heart, serving is not about what you can do or get done (your productivity); it is about who you are becoming and what God does through you (your transformation)! While it is important what we do and how we do it, it is essential to God why we do it, who we do it for, our motives and motivations.
Are you serving for an audience of One and His nail-scarred hands?
It is in the context of serving in the church or serving your family that you find out the truth of your relationship with Jesus. And God will use people to refine you to be more and more like Jesus, especially when they are acting out of the fullness of their human tendencies to exert their personalities to get what they want or what they deem right.
God uses people and God uses circumstances, not to increase your productivity, but to put you on the fast track of transformation! Serving is an essential part of this life-giving process because it is always God’s will for you to be conformed to His character.
Volunteers bail all the time; whereas servants stay true to the course because they are serving God, not self-serving in the name of God. Keep your focus on Jesus and never forget who you serve or why you are serving—to become like Jesus and bear the image of God.
Let us be one body who serves the One who is our Head, Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again.
You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message below:
You can watch the service by clicking the link below:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 536
Today’s hymn focus will be
“Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”
Psalm 56:11-12(NLT)
I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
What can mere mortals do to me?
I will fulfill my vows to you, O God,
and will offer a sacrifice of thanks for your help.”
Born in Dover, England in 1850, Louisa M.R. Stead became a Christian at the age of 9. She felt the call to be a missionary in her teenage years. At the age of 21 she migrated to the United States and while attending a revival service in Urbana, Ohio, she felt the Lord affirm that missionary call. She wanted to go to China, but her health proved to be too frail for the climate there. She married and had a child, but during a family vacation to Long Island beach, her husband drowned after saving a child.
She and her daughter went to South Africa as missionaries for 15 years, and it was there that she wrote this hymn:
Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!
She is quoted as saying, “One cannot in the face of peculiar difficulties help saying, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ but with simple confidence and trust we may and do say ‘Our sufficiency is of God.’”
We need to wake up with that same confidence that Jesus is our Savior friend and will always be with us to the end.
YOUTUBE:
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His promise;
Just to know, Thus saith the Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er,
Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more.
O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
Just in simple faith to plunge me,
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood.
Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life, and rest, and joy, and peace.
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 535
Protect the Public Health!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 3.
Is public health important to you?
Leviticus 13 is all about the public health. It explains how to ensure the community’s safety from contagious skin diseases. While the English word used to translate the original Hebrew is leprosy, modern scholars believe that it originally included a multitude of skin diseases.
When a person had symptoms, he would go to the priest who was tasked with diagnosing the wound through the size and location of the diseased area, including the color of the skin and hair in it. The priest decided if the person needed to be quarantined. If so, the infected person would go to isolation for seven days before reexamination. To be declared clean of the contagion the marks could not have spread and must have visibly healed over the course of 14 days of quarantine.
From Leviticus 13:45-46, listen to the lengths God’s Word went to protect the public health:
As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
It is so painful to read these words as I write this devotion during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we have had to experience the quarantine of so many of our friends and family. Truly, these are difficult and dark days!
God’s Word is always relevant even though it was written thousands of years ago in such a different cultural context. God’s Word is applicable to our personal lives and for the common good!
Seize the moment and trust God for every area of your life. Let us pray for the public health and that we will be a part of seeing our communities thriving to the glory of God.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...
Seize the Moment – Day 534
The Sacred Beauty of Motherhood!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 2.
How do we honor and protect the mothers of our communities?
A society that does not place a high value on motherhood is destined to fail. A culture that does not seek to protect the esteemed role of mothers will perish. One of the ways we attempt to do this is with maternal leave for working moms, which allows them to stay home with their newborn babies for a length of time. This is not a new concept!
Leviticus 12 describes the purification process for mothers after giving birth to their children. This chapter prescribes a time of purification for the mother to remain at home with the child—33 days for a boy and 66 days for a girl. While there are reasons for this, some of which revolve around the sacredness of blood as the life source, which we have seen as an essential reality to the sacrificial system, one good reason is that nothing was asked of the mother for this length of time except to nurse and care for her baby, while resting from her labor.
After this length of time, verses 6-7 commanded every mother to go to the tabernacle and make a sacrifice to God:
When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. Then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female.
Seize the moment and honor life by protecting the sacred beauty of motherhood.
YOUTUBE:
Read more...