Hide in a Safe Place!

Zephaniah 2

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, October 3.

Throughout our rural communities in the Midwest, there are giant sirens positioned throughout the counties. They remain quiet reminders of the danger that lurks by living in tornado alley. While they are tested every Friday at noon, they are used only when a tornado has been spotted in the vicinity. When the siren sounds, there is a prescribed response – hide in a safe place! Unfortunately, too many of us do the opposite – we sit out on the front porch watching the storm.

The prophets of the Old Testament are like tornado sirens. They were sent by God when there was grave danger, but the people tended to respond to them like mere entertainment, rather than heed the warning of the watchmen on the wall. Their call to repentance was a loving invitation to seek safety by hiding in God through a faith relationship with the only One who could protect them from the coming storm, just as the prophet declared to Judah in Zephaniah 2:1-3:

Gather yourselves together, yes, gather, O nation without shame, before the decree takes effect – the day passes like the chaff – before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

There is a broken place inside of each of us that struggles to do the right thing when we hear the warning siren of the Lord in our lives, and it puts us in danger every time. The next time the siren goes off, you are invited to heed the warning and seek shelter. Whereas curiosity killed the cat, repentance will save a soul.

Seize the moment and hide in a safe place – “God is our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1).

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.

Love your Household!

Zephaniah 1

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, October 2.

The prophet Zephaniah was the great-great grandson of King Hezekiah, and, as a member of the royal household, he had access to the inner workings of the Judean government. That would have been great in good times, but not during the tumultuous times when wave after wave of exiles were marched off to Babylon, with the destruction of Jerusalem on the horizon. With that historical context in mind, the major theme of his prophetic work is the urgency of the coming day of the Lord, with the Hebrew word for “day” occurring twenty times in his short book, as emphasized in Zephaniah 1:10-18. Yet, prior to that horrific depiction of what was coming upon the people, in Zephaniah 1:7-9, he called for the punishment of those in privileged positions of the royal household:

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. Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice that I will punish the princes, the king’s sons and all who clothe themselves with foreign garments. And I will punish on that day all who leap on the temple threshold, who fill the house of their lord with violence and deceit.

In the same way, as the second person of the Eternal Royal Household, the Trinity, Jesus warned the people about the coming day of the Lord in Matthew 24-25, and, like Zephaniah, He did so on the heels of declaring judgment over the religious leaders who had the privileged position to help the people, but they would not even lift a finger to help them (Matthew 23:4). So, Jesus made a way for all to be saved by allowing Himself to be lifted up on the cross for our salvation (John 3:14-16).

Seize the moment and love your household as Christ first loved you (1 John 4:19; Ephesians 5:25).

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.

Take the High Road!

Habakkuk 3

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

The final chapter of Habakkuk is a haunting song; it’s a petition for God’s deliverance from difficult circumstances, and it triumphantly concludes in Habakkuk 3:17-19:

Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.

This closing song begs the question: Is success your god, or is God your strength? I know the right answer, but my practicing reality is often the former, to my own instability and exhaustion. I have a suspicion that I’m not alone. It is human to do so because we are affected adversely by our circumstances when they are not going our way, as we hear from the prophet in verse 16, “I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us.” Can we agree that it’s hard work to wait quietly and trust God when things are not going well? The off-ramp to faith is to take matters into our own hands and do something about it. But that will only make matters worse! We are invited to wait quietly and trust in God’s strength, even when that feels passive, inconsequential, and unproductive. Even when our feelings betray us, we are to wait quietly upon the Lord, who is our strength and our stability.

Seize the moment and take the high road – Believe God (1 John 5:4-5)!

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.

Be a Faithful Watchman!

Habakkuk 2

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

One of my favorite promises of God is Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving [Be still] and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” This promise was given in a more peaceful time than Habakkuk’s historical context, yet our faith calls us to believe that not a single word of God will fail, regardless of the circumstances. Even though the Babylonian threat was looming over Judah, we should not be surprised that the prophet yoked himself with the great prophetic tradition of Isaiah 62:6-7 (cf. Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17), by describing himself as a watchman on the wall in Habakkuk 2:1-3:

I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved. Then the Lord answered me and said, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.”

The power of the prophet was not found within himself, but in the revelation given to him by God. Though Israel had been visibly decimated at the hands of the Assyrians and there was no known escape for Judah from the Babylonians, God assured His people of what they could not see through His faithful watchman in Habakkuk 2:20, “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

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.

Ask Honest Questions!

Habakkuk 1

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Saturday, September 28.

I’m not sure who the first person was to teach children that there is no such thing as a stupid question, but it may have been the prophet Habakkuk who tested the theory on God. After the fall of the Assyrians (read Nahum), the Babylonians had become the dominant power in the region, and by the end of the seventh century they were knocking on Jerusalem’s door. The prophet cries out to God in Habakkuk 1:2-3, “How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. Why do You make me see iniquity, and cause me to look on wickedness?” What profound questions to begin this short prophetic work by Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah.

After his introduction, the prophet records a troublesome revelation from God to the people of Judah in verses 4, “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans [Babylonians].” Why is God orchestrating calamity upon the surviving southern tribes of Israel after Assyria destroyed the northern ten tribes? For eight verses, God describes the Babylonians, then, in response to that, the prophet braves a series of honest questions to God in verses 12-17:

Are You not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? … [Then] Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they? Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things without a ruler over them? Will they therefore empty their net and continually slay nations without sparing?”

Seize the moment and ask God honest questions – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

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.

Clap your Hands in Celebration!

Nahum 3

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 27.

The desire for justice is built into the human psyche; it’s a God-given instinct, an aspect of what it means to be made in the image of God. I grew up watching old-fashioned Westerns. I loved it when the good guys won, and the bad guys got what was coming to them. Happy endings are satisfying, and when we get one, we clap our hands in celebration! The prophet concludes his oracle of judgment in Nahum 3:18-19, with concluding words of celebration – rejoice because evil has been vanquished and God has prevailed:

Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to regather them. There is no relief for your breakdown, your wound is incurable. All who hear about you will clap their hands over you, for on whom has not your evil passed continually?

Assyria had been tried and found guilty in the divine court of God’s judgment, and the penalty for their sin was the death of their long-standing empire. All who had suffered under their evil regime breathed a collective sigh of relief and clapped their hands over their defeat. It was a good day because justice had been done. Anyone who has had a crime committed against them or knows of someone who has been the victim of injustice, knows the deep desire for a righteous judgment against the offender. We desire justice to be done and for it not be perverted. Our soul cries out for God to make all things right! This is the promise of Nahum!

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.

Destroy your Pride!

Nahum 2

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, September 26.

The pride of Assyria was Nineveh, their capital city, which was where the royal den resided, filled with the children of the royal family. The Assyrians were a massive military complex, and they loved lions, seeing themselves as a powerful and sleek people, seeking their next victim to devour (Isaiah 5:29-30; Jeremiah 50:17; cf. 1 Peter 5:8). After causing much suffering and distress, God destroyed the pride of Assyria, bringing judgment upon Nineveh, which the prophet appropriately described in Nahum 2:11-13:

Where is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness and lion’s cub prowled, with nothing to disturb them? The lion tore enough for his cubs, killed enough for his lionesses, and filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh. “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.”

Interestingly, the voice of the Assyrian messenger being alluded to here was most likely Rabshakeh’s, remembering his blasphemous words at the gate of Jerusalem in 2 Kings 18:28-35, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. … Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?” In response to the messenger, Isaiah the prophet comforted Hezekiah, the king of Judah, with a promise from God, to protect Jerusalem from King Sennacherib, who soon thereafter died at the hands of his cubs in the lion’s den of Nineveh (2 Kings 19), proving that “God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Seize the moment and destroy your pride – “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).

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:

Take Refuge!

Nahum 1

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, September 25.

Nahum was a Judean prophet to the Assyrian capital city of Ninevah during the seventh century BC (approximately 675-612). Whereas Jonah the prophet had already been sent to preach to the Ninevites, calling them to repentance, Nahum was commissioned to give them an oracle of judgment, declaring their coming destruction (Nahum 1:1, 8, 14). There was no place for repentance any longer, as that time had passed! In fact, in Nahum 1:2-7, the prophet describes God as the caring warrior who would bring justice to the nations, especially to the enemies of God’s people:

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; the Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. … Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by Him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him.

It was a harsh time in human history and warfare was brutal and dehumanizing. The judgment of Assyria would have been good news for Judah since Ephraim, the northern ten tribes of Israel, had been destroyed and scattered by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:6, 23). Ultimately, Nahum’s purpose in writing was to declare the power of God over Assyria, as explained in Nahum 1:13, “So now, I will break his yoke bar from upon you, and I will tear off your shackles.” This may have been an oracle of judgment against Nineveh, but it was also a wake-up call to Judah – repent while there is still time!

Seize the moment and take refuge in the only One who can save you (Nahum 1:15; Psalm 91).

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.

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Seek God with Faith!

Micah 7

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 24.

Where does your help come from? Israel had to keep learning the same lesson, so, in Micah 7:7-20, the prophet triumphantly concludes with a declaration of faith in the God who rescues and redeems according to His covenant faithfulness:

But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. … Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which You swore to our forefathers from the days of old.

This is not the basis for cheap grace; rather, this the very definition of grace itself. Grace is God’s undeserved merit, and there is no amount of good works that can earn it. In fact, grace is opposed to earning, but it does call us to effort in seeking after Him. Just because there is no merit system in God’s economy, doesn’t mean we are not to work hard. That is the whole emphasis of 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.” That is why Micah concludes with a declaration of faith, because he believes in God to bring about good works through His people.

Seize the moment and seek God with faith (Hebrews 11:6) – “My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2).

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:

Walk Humbly with God!

Micah 6

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, September 23.

The most famous quote of Micah is found in the context of God’s legal case against Israel for violating His ancient covenant. God provided witnesses of His covenant faithfulness, then, in Micah 6:6-8, He reminded them of what He expected from them in return for saving them from death:

With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

God is more interested in the offeror than the offering. Micah was not rejecting the sacrificial system; rather, he was reminding them that sacrifices made to God must be subordinated to the ethics of living in a covenant relationship with God (1 Samuel 15:22-23; Isaiah 1:12-20; Amos 5:21-27). The sacrifice God has always been looking for is the character and behavior of how His people live with Him and one another (Romans 12:1-15:13). People are to act justly (James 1:27-2:13) and love faithfully (Matthew 22:37-40) by walking humbly with their God (James 4). We are conformed to the will of God through a right relationship with God because our transformation from death to life happens through faith, from the inside-out. There’s only one way for Micah 6:8 to be fulfilled in and through you, and that is to accept the invitation of Jesus Christ to find rest for your soul, and you will become like Him, “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Seize the moment and take upon you the custom-made (“easy”) yoke of Jesus, then, you will act justly and love faithfully because you will be like Him (Micah 6:8).

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.

Be a Beacon of Light!

Micah 5

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Saturday, September 21.

When the magi arrived from the east to present their gifts to the new king of Israel, they arrived in Jerusalem and asked King Herod, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him” (Matthew 2:2). Herod was troubled by their question, so he inquired of his holy men about the Messiah’s prophesied place of birth, and in response they quoted from the prophet Micah 5:2-5a:

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace.

While the Messiah would come to be our peace, His arrival was marked by bloodshed as the wicked king Herod ordered the execution of the male children born in Bethlehem who were two years old and younger (Matthew 2:16). The arrival of hope, the bursting forth of the Light (John 1:1-13), came in the backdrop of great darkness, just like Micah’s prophecy was given in days of great evil. Throughout history, the brightest stars are the ones that shine for the benefit of other people.

Seize the moment and be a beacon of light because our greatest hope shines brightest in the darkness of night! Shine like the Christmas star, which caused the magi to seek Jesus.

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:

Pray for World Peace!

Micah 4

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, September 20.

The angelic host proclaimed a specific message that first Christmas morning, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). The first Christmas came with the promise of world peace through the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Recently, I asked a friend of mine what he wanted for his birthday, and without hesitation he said, “world peace.” His answer reflects the heart of God. We deeply desire to experience the promise of world peace through the coming of the Immanuel child of Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matthew 1:23. As a contemporary of Isaiah, Micah would have known these messianic prophecies, and, in Micah 4:1-4, the prophet declared world peace through God’s sovereign rule:

And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. … Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war. Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, with no one to make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

In the kingdom of God, military weapons are transformed into farming equipment – swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. Rather than men fighting one another, they will work together to steward creation, as God intended from the beginning (Genesis 1:26-28).

Seize the moment and pray for world peace, recognizing that the Prince of Peace will start by stewarding your heart as His throne, then, through you, He will bring peace to the nations as His peacemaker (Matthew 5:9; Romans 12:18; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20).

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:

The Wise Respond with Humility!

Micah 3

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

It can be very difficult to hear a hard word from the Lord. Yet, oftentimes, it is our response to these tough truths which reveals our true heart condition, whether we are wise or foolish (Proverbs 15:31-33). King Hezekiah was a wise king, and the reason we know this is because of how he responded to God’s prophets, even when they brought him the harshest of words. Micah declared the fall of Israel and Judah because of the corruption of its leaders. He was a bold critic of those who abused their authority for personal gain, whether in the religious or political arena. He would not quiet his voice for personal gain or safety; rather, he declared the coming judgment of God in Micah 3:9-12:

Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. … Therefore, on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.

Some of Micah’s words from this passage are quoted over a century later in Jeremiah 26:17-19, where we learn that King Hezekiah responded to Micah’s words in faith, leading to the great reforms of Jerusalem, the restoration of temple worship, and the reinstatement of Passover (2 Kings 18:1-6; 2 Chronicles 29:1-31:21). The king responded faithfully to a harsh rebuke from the prophet, heeding the Word of God and proving himself wise. Hezekiah’s humility to respond favorably to correction saved Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah from the Assyrians (2 Chronicle 32:1-23).

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.

Curtail your Covetousness!

Micah 2

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

We all need to get a grip on our appetites before they take a hold of our lives. One of the ways we do this is by curtailing our covetousness before it manifests into evil and unjust practices. To covet means to deeply desire something that someone else has, and it carries the negative connotation that you are willing to either take it from someone for yourself or reprioritize your life to get it. When we curtail our covetousness, we protect ourselves and others from evil by coming in agreement with God’s tenth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17).

In Micah 2:1-2, the prophet proclaimed judgment upon Israel because of the corruption caused by coveting, “Woe to those who scheme iniquity, who work out evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, for it is in the power of their hands. They covet fields and then seize them, and houses, and take them away. They rob a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.” God had given each tribe a portion of the Promised Land, then each family was given a lot on which to build a home and work the land, raising their children and providing for the common good of the community. Yet, some were not content with the ancient boundary lines, growing covetous for what their neighbor had, and ultimately hurting others to feed their insatiable desires. Get a grip on your appetites before they take a hold of you; practice the spiritual discipline of simplicity. Learn contentment and be a blessing to your community. 

Seize the moment and curtail your covetousness before your desire for something, that is not rightfully yours, leads you to do evil against your neighbor.

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.

Walk in Integrity!

Micah 1

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

Micah has been called, “Little Isaiah” because his prophetic ministry paralleled that of the Prince of Prophets, with Micah’s seven-chapter book being a tithe of Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters. The time of his ministry is made clear in Micah 1:1, “The word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” Interestingly, over a century later, the timing of Micah’s prophetic ministry was verified, as his bold message was compared to Jeremiah’s, as described in Jeremiah 26:17-19:

Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus the Lord of hosts has said, “Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become ruins, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.” ’ Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, and the Lord changed His mind about the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But we are committing a great evil against ourselves.”

Micah was obedient to God as a prophet to Israel and Judah. His life and message, as described in Micah 1:8, had the same character as that of the major prophets, “Because of this I must lament and wail, I must go barefoot and naked; I must make a lament like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches.”

Seize the moment and walk in the integrity of what God has asked you to do. No matter how small your ministry may appear, God uses faithful people to produce lasting fruit that will bless others for generations to come (John 15:16).

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.

Don’t Sin in your Anger!

Jonah 4

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

In the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 7:2, Jesus teaches about the danger of judging others according to our own self-righteous standards of justice, “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” His teaching continues that you must first remove the log from your own eye before you can accurately remove the speck from your brother’s eye (3-5). Jesus’ teaching is masterfully portrayed in the conclusion to Jonah’s story. Though his own nation was in rebellion against God, and he himself had just been rescued from certain death by God’s amazing grace, even though he had rebelled against God himself, Jonah didn’t want God to do the same for his enemies. To his horror, and by no means through his own eloquence or effort, the people of Nineveh repented because of his reluctant sermon. This did not surprise, but upset the prophet, as he explained to God in Jonah 4:1-3:

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

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.

Tell the Story of God’s Amazing Grace!

Jonah 3

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

Is God’s grace still amazing to you? Do you remember from what you have been saved? Do you believe there are parts of your story that God cannot redeem for His glory?

After Jonah’s rescue from certain death, God gave His prophet a second chance to share the good news of His mercy and grace. Jonah had to learn the hard way that God’s love is available to all people, even the Assyrians in Nineveh, whom Jonah thought were the epitome of evil and the most deserving of God’s wrath. The prophet preached the shortest, and possibly the worst, sermon ever given – “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). God converted Jonah’s reluctant obedience into the most effective sermon ever given as God saved 120,000 people that day (Jonah 3:5-9; 4:11). God relented in response to the people’s repentance, as described in Jonah 3:10 “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

How can God use you if you are willing to share His story through your story? People receive an opportunity to learn about the amazing grace of God from the people who have experienced it firsthand for themselves. As Paul explained in Romans 10:14-15, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” How does your life help people experience God’s amazing grace? Are you willing to proclaim “the sign of Jonah the prophet” through your life story?

Seize the moment and tell your story of God’s amazing grace – “How sweet the sound that saved a wretch; like me!”

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:

Meet God in the Depths!

Jonah 2

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

When you accept the invitation of Jesus to become one of His disciples, you are making a vow to the crucified God with the hope of the promise that you will be rescued from the depths of death, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). We proclaim our hope in the resurrection of Jesus through our baptism, as Paul described in Romans 6:4-5, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Jesus spent three days in the tomb, yet you only spend a moment under the waters of baptism.

Jonah was dead, or at least he deserved to be! After all, he was tossed into the storming sea by the other sailors (Jonah 1:4-16). Instead of satisfying their pagan gods with his death, he was rescued by the God who sought to give him newness of life (Jonah 1:17). Jonah deserved death, but, instead, he experienced three nights and three days in the belly of a great fish, where he cried out to God from the depths (Jonah 2:1-9). God responded to Jonah’s prayers, directing the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land and giving him an opportunity to respond to the salvation He has bestowed upon him personally. How would Jonah respond? Through Christ, God has rescued you from certain death on purpose: to be a living witness to the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Seize the moment and meet God in the depths of your need. If you have been baptized, remember your baptismal vows. If you have not, why not? How will you respond?

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:

Respond to God’s Love!

Jonah 1

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

The prophetic book of Jonah puts the scandal of grace on stage in a fantastic way. For some, the story is too far-fetched, but if Jesus took it seriously, so should we. Jonah is a historical account about a prophet who sailed the opposite direction of the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh, the place where God was calling him to preach repentance for sin, because he did not want to love his enemies and extend to them the same grace that God had given Israel (Jonah 1:1-3). Can you blame Jonah after all you have learned about the evil Assyrians? Truly, this is not an us vs. them story. Instead, it’s a call to repentance for all people. Jesus referenced Jonah in Matthew 12:28-31 to emphasize His mission:

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

What is “the sign of Jonah the prophet,” and how can a good understanding of the story of Jonah help you respond to God’s call upon your life? God didn’t give up on Jonah, and He won’t give up on you! Isn’t that the message of the cross and the empty tomb?

Seize the moment and respond to God’s love, giving to others that which God first gave you (1 John 4:19).

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:

Love your Brother!

Obadiah 1

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

Do not work for your brother’s destruction, or destruction may come upon you. That is the warning and reality of the shortest book of the Old Testament. Obadiah is a twenty-one-verse war oracle, prophesying judgment against the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, who actively worked for the destruction of Israel at multiple times in its history. This short prophetic work regarding Edom fits in the canonical order after Amos because Amos ends with a reference to them, “That they may possess the remnant of Edom …” (Amos 9:13). Obadiah adds his prophetic voice to not only Amos, but also to Psalms 83:4-8, 137:7-9, Isaiah 34:5-8, 63:1-6, Jeremiah 49:7-22, Lamentations 4:21, and Ezekiel 25:12-14, 35:1-15. The united voice of God’s prophets calls out the descendants of Esau for betraying their brother Jacob, as described in Obadiah 10-14:

Because of violence to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem – you too were as one of them. Do not gloat over your brother’s day, the day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction; yes, do not boast in the day of their distress. Do not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity in the day of their disaster. And do not loot their wealth in the day of their disaster. Do not stand at the fork of the road to cut down their fugitives; and do not imprison their survivors in the day of their distress.

Seize the moment and love your brother (1 John 4:20-21). Pray for your brother then reach out to him today, passing on the peace of Christ.

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:

Persevere in Hope!

Amos 9

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

One of the great themes of the Bible is hope! No matter how bad it gets, there is always a deep trust in God’s promises. Throughout the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, as often as God declared the impending judgment of sin for His people, He was promising to save them. In fact, by the time of Amos, God’s judgment of Israel was unavoidable. God’s chosen people had been repeatedly warned by the prophets, to include Amos, yet, in Amos 9:11-15, the prophet concluded his prophetic work with God’s unyielding promise of a future restoration:

“In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name,” declares the Lord who does this. … “I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

God wants to rescue His children! It’s His character to desire that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), and, like a loving parent, He can’t help Himself from wanting to give them yet another chance to return to Him. This is the perseverance of God at work throughout Israel’s history that keeps them as His chosen people to this day. Let me be clear, it’s not our perseverance that marks us as God’s chosen people, but His perseverance toward us! This is what it means to be secured in God’s covenantal love; not that we love God, but that He loves us and has demonstrated that love to us in Jesus Christ (1 John 4:10).

Seize the moment and persevere in hope! Never let go of God’s promises; wait upon the Lord and you will be saved (Isaiah 40:31).

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:

Plant Good Seed!

Amos 8

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

What started as a seed of sin, matured into the fruit of rebellion. The prophet used the image of ripened fruit to illustrate this point in Amos 8:1-2, “Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer.’” All sin is progressive in nature, and though it may start small, it will grow, seeking to become the fruit of your life. When it matures it will reap destruction as described of Israel in Amos 8:1-9:10. Attention must be paid to the seed of sin when it is but a kernel of a thought or an inclination of your heart. This requires vigilance, like that of a hard-working farmer; therefore, give your attention to the proper care of souls by cultivating the ground, planting the good seed of God’s Word, and tending to the tender young shoots.

While the desolation of Israel is heart-wrenchingly described by numerous prophets, one of the worst pronouncements of judgment is found in Amos 8:11, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.’” Imagine how devastating it would be if there was no good seed to work into your soul, or, through you, into the relationships of your life. While the starvation and devastation caused by a natural famine are tragedies that we fear, imagine being cut off from the Source of all life and love.

Seize the moment and plant the good seed of God’s Word into your heart and mind, inviting the Holy Spirit to bring forth the mature fruit of love in and through your life.

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.