Our Blog

Filter By:
Showing items filed under “Alan Scott”

Pastor's Points September 2018

main image

Dear Church Family,
Coming up in the month of October we will be celebrating our 55th year of ministry here at Oakhill Baptist Church!  I thank God for the constant presence of ministry that our church has had here on the northside of Evansville.  God has blessed in so many ways over the course of these years! He has taken a small group of people who started a home bible study and blessed it to be a thriving church family for 55 years.  It is a joy to be a part of what God is doing in our church.

On October 7th we will celebrate our ministry anniversary with a special emphasis in all three of our services.  We are making a special video which will include interviews with three of our former pastors.  Talking with them about their years of ministry did nothing but confirm to me how God has had His hand on Oakhill for all these years.  It is good to remember all that God has done, what He is doing currently, and what He desires to do through Oakhill in the years to come.

I cannot believe that I have already been at Oakhill for 12 years.  It seems like yesterday that I was meeting with the search team considering if God was calling me to Oakhill.  HE made it clear to me then that He was, and He has only affirmed His call on my life since I have been here as pastor.  I dearly love you!  I am so thankful that God has called me here to do life with you all!  God has moved among us, and as He has moved I have encouraged us to move with Him.  I did not come to Oakhill with a grand plan of growth for our church.  My only desire was and is to preach the Word, share the Gospel, make disciples, and love and serve together for the glory of our God.  God honors those things, and because of our focus on those things, He has moved among us!!

I know that He is going to continue to move, and as He does I will be encouraging us to move with Him.  We simply must follow His lead!  The Lord will always be faithful to us, and the only right response from us is faithfulness to Him!  Thank you for being willing to follow our Savior!  He has been so good to us throughout the years, and I know He will continue to show His faithfulness to us if we will continue to follow His leading in the life of our church family!!

I love you and I love being your pastor!
Pastor Alan

Posted by Alan Scott with

Pastor's Points August 2018

main image

Dear Church Family,
 I pray that you all are doing well and enjoying your summer!  This is such a great time to be with family and vacation together.  I hope in the middle of all that summer offers you have had some time to rest and recharge your batteries as well.  We all need time to relax, recharge, and rest.  It is essential for balance in our lives.  In the middle of all summer offers I have found God speaking to me strongly about one particular theme: Pride.

This theme has been resonating with me as we are making our way through the book of Matthew.  I have seen this theme repeatedly in the lives of the Scribes and Pharisees. Repeatedly they approach Jesus through the lens of their pride.  And the sad thing about this is that they do not recognize it.  They see themselves as pleasing to God.  But all the while they are blinded by their pride to the deep problem of sin that they have in their lives.  I cannot stand that they do this time and again, but as I think about it, are we not all susceptible to the very same things in our lives if we are not careful.  How easy is it for you to allow pride to well up in your life?  How easy is it for us to see the faults of others all the while ignoring our own faults, or convincing ourselves that we do not have any faults? But pride left unchecked in our lives will bring destruction.  It will tear down relationships, and it will sow discord between brothers and sisters in Christ quicker than anything. Listen to this quote from John Beveres’ book, The Bait of Satan: Living free from the trap of Offense…

“Pride keeps you from dealing with truth. It distorts your vision. You never change when you think everything is fine. Pride hardens your heart and dims the eyes of your understanding. It keeps you from the change of heart—repentance—that will set you free. (See 2 Timothy 2:24–26.) Pride causes you to view yourself as a victim. Your attitude becomes, “I was mistreated and misjudged; therefore, I am justified in my behavior.” Because you believe you are innocent and falsely accused, you hold back forgiveness. Though your true heart condition is hidden from you, it is not hidden from God. Just  because you were mistreated, you do not have permission to hold on to an offense. Two wrongs do not make a right!” 

It is so easy for us to be blinded by our pride.  It is so easy for us to justify sinful responses to others.  We see this playing out so plainly in the life of the Scribes and Pharisees.  But my prayer is that we not only see it in their lives, but that if it is in our lives that we detect it and deal with it in our lives as well.  God has so much good in store for us in the future as a church family!!  Let’s live together in such a way that we are sensitive to what is going on in our hearts.  Ask God to show you if any pride, or bitterness has taken root in your life.  If so, repent of it to Him, and seek to be in right relationships with those around you.  Let’s have as our goal going forward together that we want love to be the fruit that we are producing in our lives, so we can love one another and so that our love can be a testimony to a watching world.

 I love you and I love being your pastor!

 

Posted by Alan Scott with

12...34353637383940414243 ... 5960