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 520

The Covenant of Salt!

Leviticus 2

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, August 19.

 

Have you heard someone say that a certain person was worth his or her weight in salt?

 

That idiom speaks of a person having great value, as being competent and worthwhile, excellent in what they do, worthy of his or her wages.

 

Salt has always been an important commodity in trade, but did you know that it has also had importance in worship? Leviticus 2 teaches us about the grain offering and verse 13 highlights this point,
 
“Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”

 

With salt being a valuable preservative in ancient times it symbolized the enduring nature of a covenant. We see this in Numbers 18:19,
 
“All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord to you and your descendants with you.”

 

Furthermore, King David received his kingdom from the Lord by a covenant of salt. Listen to 2 Chronicles 13:5,
 
“Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?”

 

Therefore, we need to pay special attention to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13a, “You are the salt of the earth.” Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary you have entered a better and eternal way with God—the everlasting covenant of salt.

 

Seize the moment and live as one who has been salted with grace and truth. May you live at peace with God, yourself, and one another (Mark 9:50).

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 519

A Costly Sacrifice!

 
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, August 18.

 

Are you a good gift giver?

 

Leviticus 1:2-4 begins the teaching on the ancient sacrificial system:

 

When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.

 

The burnt offering was the costliest sacrifice the Israelites were commanded to make. It was to happen morning and evening. It required the burning of an entire animal carcass from the people’s herds or flocks; it could not be a wild animal. It had to be a male without defect.

 

These details matter because God required a costly sacrifice! King David expressed this in 2 Samuel 24:24, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.”

 

The burnt offering was not only a sacrifice for the atonement of sin, but also of thankfulness and worship to God. It was a gift given to God with the goal of it being accepted by God, who would then look with favor upon the one making the sacrifice.

 

While we no longer sacrifice animals, we are commanded to live so that our lives are accepted by God. Because we no longer need to go through a formal sacrificial rite every morning and evening to have atonement for our sins, we are invited to live in constant communion with Jesus Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God, who has made atonement for our sins, once and for all. 

 

Seize the moment and give good gifts to God, starting with yourself.

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 518

The Veil that Separated!

Exodus 40

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, August 17.

 

Have you ever had a barrier between you and another person?

 

Exodus 40 describes the tabernacle being assembled “just as the Lord had commanded Moses.” That refrain was repeated often because the people of Israel could not have access to God outside of following the prescribed way; therefore, great detail was recorded and insisted upon in the assembly of and worship at the tabernacle. 

 

Exodus 40:20-21 captures an important detail of the holy of holies (most holy place), the inner chamber for God in the tabernacle: “Then he took the testimony and put it into the ark, and attached the poles to the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark. He brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up a veil for the screen, and screened off the ark of the testimony, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

 

The veil was not only functional; it was symbolic—there was a barrier between man and God. It was commanded in Exodus 26:33b, “the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies.” While God sought to be with His people, access to Him was severely limited and highly formalized so that only the high priest could enter the most holy place once per year to make atonement for sin.

 

Jesus Christ came to give us direct access to the Father. Listen to Hebrews 10:19, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.”

 

This access happened at the time of Jesus’ death. Jesus’ crucifixion removed the veil because Jesus once and for all atoned for sin. As Mark 15:38 records from that day: “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

 

Seize the moment and seek God’s presence. He has made a way for you through the shed blood of Jesus Christ!

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 517

The Work of the Lord!

Exodus 39

 

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

 

Leadership can be a daunting task. Making decisions and feeling responsible for something can feel overwhelming, especially when the work is being done in the name of Jesus.  

 

Exodus 39:42-43 gives a helpful overview of how to accomplish a big project: “So the sons of Israel did all the work according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. And Moses examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as the Lord had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them.”

 

First, Moses spent time with God and then clearly communicated the Word of God to the people. All spiritual leaders must have healthy spiritual rhythms in their own lives to be able to separate from the demands and expectations of other people to attend to their top responsibility: to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen well. Spiritual leaders clearly communicate what they have received from the Lord so that the members of God’s community can take their next steps.

 

Next, the people are to discern the Word from the Lord and take practical steps toward doing what the Word of God calls them to do together as members of the body of Christ. The work of God gets accomplished as the people rally together, focused on God’s Word, doing what each person is gifted and called to do.

 

Finally, spiritual leaders bless the people for obeying the Word of the Lord. While our greatest reward is Heaven, God calls us to speak words of love and encouragement to one another as we work together to accomplish what God would have us to do as a community.

 

Seize the moment and use words of love and encouragement to build up your community of faith and those around you. God’s work gets done when we each listen to Jesus and work together as the one body of Christ.

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 33

The Promise of Leadership!

Ephesians 4:15

Presented by Reverend Mark Thompson (ABC Regional Pastor)

 

(The following are notes taken during the message, there may be some misinterpretations of what Rev. Thompson actually said.  Listen to his message to hear for yourself.)

 

Ephesians 4:15:

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

 

Serving the Lord demolishes all of our preferences.

God exists in community (the Trinity) and He creates us to live in community.

The worst punishment in prison is solitary confinement. 
 
We are not an organization.  We are an organism.  We are the body of Christ!

 

Ephesians 4:11-16:

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

 

Isaiah 43:18-19:

 

18 “Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

 

God may be calling you into leadership.

 

We have all been changed in Christ:
 

Justified – It is “just-as-if-I’d never sinned.  All the labels come off!  (Good & Bad)

Sanctification – We are set apart for God’s purposes.

 

We think we need time to think about what God wants us to do, to make careful consideration before moving.  We say something like,  “I don’t know all of the things I need to know in order to do all of the things I need to do.  I need to think about it.”

 

“God calls us to act our way to NEW THINKING, no to THINK our way to NEW ACTING!”

– Mike Mather, a pastor

 

Ministry takes all of us – and more!

Stop making this about you or about the expectations of others. 
We don’t have to meet anybody’s expectations except God’s.
We are a body of believers called as a community of believers to do what God wills.
 
 

You can listen to Mark’s message here:

 

You can watch the service by clicking the link below:

 
 

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Seize the Moment – Day 515

Today’s hymn focus will be “I Am Thine O Lord”

Hebrews 10:22(NLT)  

 

 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

 

Each day requires that we make a fresh connection with Jesus, renewing our dedication to Him. We are all faced with daily challenges that could make even the strongest of Christians be weak in their faith. That is why we have to make sure that God has His rightful place on the throne of our hearts.

 

In 1875, Fanny Crosby was visiting the home of William H. Doane in Cincinnati, Ohio when she wrote this hymn. The family had been discussing the blessedness of enjoying the nearness of God. Fanny was so moved that she suddenly started giving the words to this hymn, verse by verse and then the chorus, to which Doane soon provided the music.

 

“I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me; But I long to rise in the arms of faith, and be closer drawn to Thee.”

 

We need to wake up and begin the new day, with all of its unknown pressures and temptations, with this musical prayer on our lips “Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side.”

 
 
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 hymn played, click on this link:
 

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

 
1
I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith,
And be closer drawn to Thee.
 
Chorus:
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
2
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the pow’r of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.
 
3
O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend!
 
4
There are depths of love that I yet may know
Ere Thee face to face I see;
There are heights of joy that I yet may reach
Ere I rest in peace with Thee.

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Seize the Moment – Day 514

Build up the Next Generation!

Exodus 38

 

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

 

What is the most important legacy we leave behind from our ministry efforts?

 

Exodus 38 continues to tell the story of the completion of the tabernacle and all its furniture and all that it took to pull off this major construction project. Building campaigns are significant undertakings and important to the community of God’s people, but do you know what is more important?

 

Building up the next generation! Listen to Exodus 38:21-23 make a subtle, but very important observation of the ministry of God’s people:

 

This is the number of the things for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were numbered according to the command of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. Now Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord had commanded Moses. With him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and a skillful workman and a weaver in blue and in purple and in scarlet material, and fine linen.

 

  • Ithamar was the son of Aaron the priest, who worked with Moses in the deliverance and rescue of God’s people.
  • Bezalel was the son of Uri, the son of Hur, who held up Moses’ arms as he held up the staff of God.
  • Oholiab was the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, one of the twelve sons of Israel.

 

Whether you are conducting a major construction project, hosting a church picnic, or serving the local community be sure to do it in such a way as to build up the next generation.

 

Seize the moment and invite the next generation to partner with you in whatever ministry task you are called to do. May all that we do equip the next generation to live for 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 513

An Important Puzzle Piece!

Exodus 37

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, August 12.

 

Do you like to put together jigsaw puzzles? What happens when you have spent hours putting together an intricate puzzle only to find out that there is a piece missing?

 

The picture is not complete when even one piece is missing!

 

In Exodus 37, we read of intricate-detailed work that is necessary for the completion of the tabernacle and all its furniture. Listen to verses 1-2,
 
“Now Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; its length was two and a half cubits, and its width one and a half cubits, and its height one and a half cubits; and he overlaid it with pure gold inside and out, and made a gold molding for it all around.”

 

Throughout this chapter, you hear the refrain, “He made…”, which references Bezalel, the chief craftsmen. He was responsible to take all the detailed instructions from Exodus 25 up to this point and using all the materials provided by God through the people to oversee the work.

The reality is that it took an army of craftswomen and craftsmen, as well as a community of generous givers, to bring this project to completion. The tabernacle of God and all its furniture would not have been made to specification if it wasn’t for every single person coming together!

 

The same is true in the church today and our ability to accomplish anything. We often reference the leader of a ministry, the teacher of a Sunday School class, or the missionary overseeing a mission, but it takes every single piece of the puzzle to get the job done!

 

As Paul says in Ephesians 4:16,
 
“According to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

 

Seize the moment and find your unique place in the church because without you the picture is not complete. You are an important and valuable member of the body of Christ!

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 512

God Provides for what God Promises!

Exodus 36

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, August 11.

 

Have you ever heard a church leader tell the congregation to stop giving?

 

Exodus 36:4-7 captures an important moment as God’s people provide in abundance for the building of the tabernacle and all that God commanded:

 

And all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work which he was performing, and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the Lord commanded us to perform.” So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more.

 

Can you imagine something like this happening today?

 

Based on this passage, I believe every local church congregation can prayerfully discern the following two things to experience a moment such as this: (1) We are to know specifically what the LORD has commanded us to do; and (2) We are to know how we are invited to bring about the completion of that work.

 

Do you know what God has called your local church congregation to accomplish?

 

Do you know how you can help accomplish that work?

 

These are big questions! In answering them, God’s Spirit can both compel us and restrain us. Whether it’s a “yes” or a “no” it should be the outworking of God’s will in and through our lives. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14a, “For the love of Christ controls us.”

 

Never forget that God always provides for that which God promises to do!

 

Seize the moment and trust God every step of the way. Join Jesus in His easy yoke to do only that which the Father wills for your life.

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 511

Rest is a Priority!

Exodus 35

 

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

 

Taking time to rest is an important part of your mental and spiritual health, as well as your physical well-being. So much of experiencing Jesus’ promise of abundant life is learning to live in rhythm with God’s plan for work and rest (John 10:10).

 

Exodus 35 is a significant chapter as the description of the work on the tabernacle begins, but God wants to make one thing perfectly clear to His people: rest is a priority! God reminds His people to work with a new ethic and no longer as the slaves of Egypt. Listen to how the next section begins in verses 1-2:

 

Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do: “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.”

 

It should not surprise us that this is God’s first reminder to all the congregation. God leads off with grace because good works are meant to flow out of relationship with God, not earn favor with God. Paul taught this to new covenant believers in Ephesians 2:8-10:
 
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

 

Seize the moment and prioritize God’s grace in your life by setting apart a day for rest. Your well-being is dependent on you living in the unforced rhythms of God’s grace in every area of your humanity: work, play, and rest.

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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