Author: janicevance

            As we begin a New Year, I want to encourage you to become a daily Bible reader. The link to the site of our reading is www.blueletterbible.org/dailyreading/index.cfm The default Bible is the KJV, but you can select the NKJV or another translation at the top of the site under “ADV. OPTIONS”. The reading plan we are following is the One Year Canonical Plan and you have the option of having the text read to you. You can also create an account to allow your daily Bible reading to synchronize across multiple devices.

            New years bring new opportunities and possibilities – 2022 is no exception. While we don’t know where COVID and its variants will take us, change is awaiting our congregation. With a new minister coming on board, he will bring new energy and ideas. It will be our responsibility to embrace and encourage him and his family – as I know Walter Hill will do! The future remains bright if each of us will do his or her part as the body of Christ.

            I was trying to find a text for my article this week to challenge us in the New Year. I finally chose one but it’s too long to include; however, please take time to read Romans 12:1-21. If we followed the three main points of this text, the Lord would richly bless the Walter Hill church in the days ahead. May we be living sacrifices to God (verses 1-2); may we serve God with the spiritual gifts and talents He has bestowed on each of us (verses 3-8); and may we behave like Christians (verses 9-21).

            Happy New Year!!!

Most of us recognize Hebrews Chapter 11 as the “Faith” chapter in the Bible.  We are reminded of the faith of great men such as Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and others.  We read in the Old Testament how God used these men, and why we are reminded of their faith. 

Also, we read of many women of faith as well.  Hebrews 11 mentions Sarah.  Other women that come to mind are Ruth, Rebekah, Esther, Elizabeth, Mary, Martha and her sister Mary.  There are many others that we could name. 

As I thought about these people of faith, I began to think back to when I was a child growing up in a small congregation. There were many people that I would consider people of great faith.  In our auditorium there were two rows of seats in the front of the building that were turned in a different direction than all the rest.  There were about four men that always sat in these seats that I would consider great men of faith.  Not that they would have wanted any special honor, but these men were the leaders in the church.  Along with their wives, they were well respected in the community and could be counted on to be at every worship service.  They would travel together to gospel meetings in the area, not just one night of the meeting but every night.  These were people that I looked up to, learned from and respected.  I know all of us have fond memories of God-fearing people that have influenced our lives along the way.  May we always treasure them and the influence that they had and are having in our lives.  Consider Hebrews 12:1-2.

            Nineteen shopping days ‘til Christmas! It is a wonderful time of the year as we think about giving to others. Hopefully, we haven’t forgotten the less fortunate or those too overcome with grief to celebrate. This holiday season is a great time to focus on others instead of ourselves.

            While so many around the world celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, let’s view this with optimism. We don’t know when Christ was born and almost certainly it was not December 25^th; however, both Matthew and Luke provide beautiful details about His miraculous birth. We also have some Old Testament prophecies regarding the same. And oh, what beautiful hymns have been written about the divine nativity. Sadly, we often wait until December to sing them!

            As we approach a New Year, we often reflect on changes to make (resolutions?) to feel better about ourselves. Perhaps it’s time for a different approach. Let’s seriously ponder changes we need to make for God to be pleased with us! Take a moment to read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 as we begin to consider changes in our lives for 2022. While there are probably moral and ethical adjustments we all need to make, maybe we also need to adjust our worship. Am I really giving as I’ve been prospered? Am I singing as the Lord commands? Am I reading my Bible every day? Do I allow trivial pursuits to keep me from the worship assembly?             “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2; NKJV).

Today is the deadline for your 2022 theme suggestions. As of Friday, we had four great suggestions but we’d love to have more. Please give your written ideas for a theme to Janice or me. Be sure to include your name and an associated scripture.

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week! Don’t forget our annual devotional will be Tuesday night at 7:00 in lieu of our usual Wednesday night services. Christians have so much to be thankful for and Thursday will be a great opportunity to reflect on our blessings – not just a turkey feast.

The Bible is full of references about giving thanks. May I suggest these verses from Psalm 95 as we assemble for worship this morning:

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God,

And the great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

            When we pause to give thanks, it is helpful to remember that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17; NKJV).

When Paul announced his plan to retire in April of next year, the elders announced that a search committee would be assembled to perform the task of reviewing candidates and making recommendations to the elders. Josh Cooper, Dan Holt, Matt Lanius, Bryan Lewis, Trampas McCracken, Scott Miller, Kip Nickell, and Jordan Pack were asked to serve, and they are diligently working to serve the Walter Hill congregation in finding our next minister.

Over the next 2-3 months, the elders will be inviting candidates recommended by the search committee to preach to the congregation and teach a combined adult Bible class on Sunday evening. I would also anticipate there being an opportunity for the congregation to meet those candidates invited to visit.

Kindly remember the search committee in your prayers. The elders also request your prayers that God’s will be done as we seek out the man who will serve Walter Hill as its next pulpit minister.

Changing thoughts, we have been asked about where certain families have gone in the last 18 months. With the pandemic, we all worshiped at home for a couple of months in the beginning, and then went to two services for many months where folks only saw half the congregation, depending on whether you attended the first or second service.

When we all came back together in May, not everyone came back. Some have not returned yet due to health concerns about the virus. Some families have moved out of the Murfreesboro area and are worshiping close to their new home. Others have identified with different congregations in the Murfreesboro area to worship with family members, e.g., children, grandchildren, aging parents.

The online directory is a resource to use to keep up with current members, but it is woefully out of date. Be looking in the coming weeks for announcements regarding the taking of new photos to update the directory.

Today is my happy day as DST ends. I know some of you are very sad, but you don’t have to weep as long as I do – it’ll be back on March 13, 2022! The main thing to remember is that Sunday evening services begin at 5:00 P.M. in the interim. We hope to see you this evening!

I wish there was a perfect English translation of God’s holy word but there isn’t – despite the claims of marketeers. A good example of a problematic text is 1 Corinthians 13:5 which should be reasonably clear. The NKJV reads thusly about agape love: “does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;” Notice the difference in the last phrase of this verse in the ESV: “or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;” All of us would probably have difficulty agreeing on any similarity between “thinking no evil” and “being resentful”.

 This short phrase in Greek consists of four words. The key word translated “thinks” in the NKJV is an accounting term or verb meaning to tally or keep an account. While I seldom make this statement about the NIV, it may offer the most literal and best translation of this short phrase: “It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” It is impossible to desire the best for someone (demonstrate agape love) if we’re constantly keeping track of their faults. Likewise, we cannot obey our Lord’s command about forgiveness if we’re keeping the offender’s wrongs in a ledger.

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22; NKJV).

Prayer is such a powerful blessing that is constantly extended to us.  However, sometimes we don’t know what to pray for, other times we notice that we say the same things over and over.  The beauty of living as a Christian is that each day is a new opportunity to grow and improve.  This certainly includes our prayer habits and patterns.  Let’s strive to improve the way we pray and think about praying for these three things (assuming we aren’t already praying for them).

1. Let’s begin to pray for unity!  Jesus prayed that His disciples might be one (John 17:21). 1 Corinthians 1:10 calls us to believe the same things.  Not only do we need to pray for the unity of Walter Hill but for the unity of the church around the world!

2. Let’s pray that knowledge may increase!  There is a great need for all of us to have knowledge of God, His church, and of His Word.  This is essential to our growth as Christians.  We know this because Paul so often prayed that Christians would increase in knowledge (Colossians 1:9).

3. Finally, we need to heed the words of Jesus and pray that there will be workers sent for the harvest!  Jesus says that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37 ESV).  True workers of the Lord will not only share the Gospel but also work to increase the knowledge of Christians and to bring unity in the Lord’s church.

All three of these things should be important to us because they are important to Jesus.  We must not only add these to our prayers but also strive to bring about unity, increase our knowledge, and be a worker for the Lord.

I want to continue this week with another lesson from King Josiah. He became the king of Judah at the age of eight and ruled in Jerusalem for 31 years (2 Kings 22:1). What a breath of fresh air after the evil reigns of his father and grandfather.

Josiah was a good king. As we observed in our article last week, Josiah repaired the temple, restored true worship, and destroyed all vestiges of idolatrous worship in Judah and Samaria. Listen to this summary in 2 Kings 23:25 – “Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.” What a tribute to King Josiah!

I wish his story ended like this, but the good king suffered an ignominious death. He needlessly died in a battle with King Necho of Egypt at Megiddo. The Egyptian king was on his way to fight at Carchemish according to 2 Chronicles 35:20-21. However, King Josiah was determined to do battle with the Egyptian king. For the king who had put so much trust in God’s word, Josiah didn’t seek God’s guidance for this battle. Instead, he chose to ignore Necho’s claim that God commanded his hasty movement. The Egyptian king even warned Josiah not to meddle with God.

Sadly, we read this statement in 2 Chronicles 35:22 – “Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.” The next verse records how archers fatally shot Josiah. While King Josiah is known for his goodness, he could have done so much more had he lived. The lesson we should learn is that we should seek God’s guidance for everything we face in life. If Josiah had only confirmed God’s message!

Reading the books of I and II Kings is depressing as they begin with the death of King David and end with Judah in captivity. One of the bright spots in these books is the story of young Josiah who became king of Judah when he was eight years old. Here was a young boy whose father and grandfather were evil. Yet he did not follow in their footsteps. In fact, some three hundred years before Josiah appeared on earth’s stage, his birth was prophesied by a man of God to evil King Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 13:1-2).

With his ancestry, I’ve always wondered who influenced Josiah to do right in the sight of the Lord – to walk in all the ways of his father David (2 Kings 22:2). We need to encourage our children with the story of young Josiah – they are never too young to have a righteous influence on others.

But the lesson I want us to gain from this article occurs when Josiah gives instructions to repair the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. Josiah was in his 18^th year as king in Jerusalem when this repair work began. In the process, the high priest Hilkiah found the Book of the Law. Shaphan the scribe read this book to Josiah who then tore his royal clothes in sorrow because Judah had failed to obey the words of the book. Oh, that we would have a similar reverence for God’s word! To make a long story short, Josiah instituted a series of reforms to restore true worship. One of the first things on the docket was to observe the Passover. Take time to read about it in 2 Chronicles 35:1-19. He also removed the idolatrous places in Judah and Samaria – the latter as foretold by the man of God to King Jeroboam. Josiah is a great example that anyone can do what’s right with a little encouragement!  

As everyone should know by now, Paul announced his retirement plans for next year. It is a sad but happy time. It is sad because Paul will retire after 25 years of service to the congregation. He is and has been a staple of each of our lives, like a nice cup of coffee or a warm blanket, very comforting. It is a happy time because Paul will get to enjoy some extra time with Gail and the family and do some sightseeing of God’s glorious work. Walter Hill is blessed with biblical, sound lessons from the pulpit and in class. Paul being our minister for such an extended period has created stability and the elders have been able to have complete confidence in his soundness.

With the announcement comes anxiety. This is to be expected. Change is never easy. To help ease the anxiety, Paul has agreed to stay on as an associate minister. This announcement has begun a series of events that will ensure our next minister is found, has a solid understanding of the scriptures, and meets other criteria set by the elders. A search committee has been formed and is very active. These men were chosen as to create a cross section of the congregation: some older; some younger, some have been here awhile, and some are more recent members. Each man brings a unique perspective to the committee.

Now the big question, what can I do to help? Pray, Pray, Pray. Pray for the search committee, they have a daunting task. Pray for the elders, we are in uncharted territory at Walter Hill. Pray for us as the local church, that we maintain unity throughout this process.

On a final note, if you know someone who you consider sound in doctrine and is looking for a great place to minister, have them send their resume to:  jobs@walterhillchurch.com May God bless us during this process.