Our Blog

Women on Mission June 2018

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Indiana Baptist 4/19/72 - “Oakhill to expand parking, building”
The approval of a bus ministry and of improvements to the church facilities came at the April business meeting of Oakhill Baptist church, Evansville.  The existing rear wall of the church auditorium will be removed to accommodate more people in worship services.  The church parking lot will be enlarged to the north.  A church bus will be purchased and a bus ministry begun.  William Carter is pastor of the church.

Indiana Baptist 4/19/72 - “Breaking SS records becomes Oakhill habit”
Breaking Sunday School attendance records has become a habit at Oakhill Baptist Church, Evansville, The church’s record was broken five successive Sundays.  The year-old Sunday School attendance record was 170, when a new one was established March 5th of 172.  the next Sunday attendance was 175; then 193, next  194, and finally 216 on April 2.  The March average was 50 more per Sunday than March of 1971.

Indiana Baptist 4/19/72 - “Summer worker named by Evansville church”
Miss Cindy Boultinghouse, a student at Georgetown (KY) College, has been called as part-time youth director of Oakhill Baptist Church, Evansville.  She will be working this summer children ages 4-8.  Pastor William Carter says that another summer youth director will be secured to work with you, ages 9 and above.

Northside Reporter, 4/12/72 - “Choir Dedication Service Scheduled”
The Adult Choir of Oakhill Baptist Church will observe a Choir Dedication Service at 7:30 pm in the church at 4615 Oakhill Road.  The Candlelight Service will feature special music by the choir, under the direction of Mrs. Marian Thomas.  Organist is Mrs. Darlele Knight.  The public is invited to attend.  The choir will sing three selections, Feed My Lambs, Kum Ba Yah, and Shepherd of Love.  The Rev. William Carter, pastor, will have the sermon for the service.

Northside Reporter, 5/17/72 - “Softball League Will Get Underway May 19th”
The Slow-Pitch Softball League, sponsored by Oakhill Baptist church, will get underway for the season on Friday, May 19.  Over 100 northside boys, ages 8 to 14, will be participating in the church-sponsored league.  The playing season is May 19 to July 24.  the boys will play every Friday and Saturday, at the baseball diamond at Oakhill Baptist, 4615 Oak Hill Road.  Churches sponsoring teams in the league include, Bethlehem United Church of Christ, Oak Hill Presbyterian,   Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran, Olivet Presbyterian and Oakhill Baptist, which sponsors two teams.  Coaches for the teams are Bethlehem, Leroy Blankenship; Oak Hill Presbyterian, Charles Wright; Shepherd of the Hills, George Roeder; Olivet, Rev. Onesimus Rundus; and Oakhill Baptist, Bob Davis and Bill Whitmore.  The Rev. William Carter is pastor of Oakhill Baptist Church.


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  Women on Mission will meet Monday, June 11th at 6:00 pm at the home of Kathleen Qualkenbush.  All our ladies are invited to be with us.

Spare Change May 2018

Surprised by Justice?

Do you ever find yourself surprised by the swift justice of God?  Hopefully you have been taking the journey through the scriptures with the rest of the church.  If so, you are currently reading through 1 Samuel and Acts; both books have examples of swift justice.  We have read about how Saul’s line was cut off for his disobedience in offering a sacrifice himself instead of waiting for Samuel.  In Acts we have seen how Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead after lying about the price of land they sold. Both examples, and many more in the Bible, show that God’s justice can sometimes be swift.  I remember when I first read these stories I was troubled by them. Why would God be so cruel to these people? I remember having similar thoughts as the Israelites were commanded to slaughter the Canaanites or when God sent poisonous serpents through the Israelites’ camp as a punishment.  How can you be so mean, God?

Often our view of God is skewed by the expectation of God being merciful in all things.  We want on-demand mercy. We not only expect it, we think we deserve it. What’s wrong with that kind of thinking?  It assumes we have done something to earn God’s mercy and it also doesn’t take into account God’s true character. In actuality we have done the    opposite-- every sin is a rebellion to God and brings us closer to receiving God’s justice.

In R.C. Sproul’s book The Holiness of God he paraphrases a quote by Hans Kung, a Roman Catholic theologian, “the most mysterious aspect of the mystery of sin is not that the sinner deserves to die, but rather that the sinner in the average situation continues to exist.”  Did you notice how he took our regular way of thinking that we deserve God’s mercy and flipped it around?  He wonders why we don’t get God’s justice, why do we continue to live in spite of our sinfulness?

Sproul says about this subject, “[God] is indeed long-suffering, patient, and slow to anger.  In fact He is so slow to anger that when His anger does erupt, we are shocked and offended by it.  We forget rather quickly that God’s patience is designed to lead us to repentance, to give us time to be redeemed.  Instead of taking advantage of this patience by coming humbly to Him for forgiveness, we use this grace as an opportunity to become more bold in our sin.  We delude ourselves into thinking that either God doesn’t care about it, or that He is powerless to punish us. The supreme folly is that we think we will get away with our revolt.”

Are we more surprised by justice when we should be surprised by mercy?  We should be shocked that a holy God wants to redeem us and used His own son to accomplish this task. We should be appalled that we have another breath, considering the rebellion that has formed in our hearts.  This is why we must throw ourselves at the mercy of God delivered through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian should thank God every day that God has made us righteous by the sacrifice of Christ, that he is now in Christ, and adopted into the family of God.  This is the true reality of both   justice and mercy in our lives-- God showing His great mercy by not giving us the swift justice that we are owed so we can come to Christ and receive the fullness of God in Jesus Christ.

We must not forget this truth and we must not get complacent in our faith.  This truth should drive us to share the gospel and tell everyone about Jesus.  Peter reminds us of this very truth in 2 Peter 3:9-10, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach   repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

There will be a day of ultimate justice and we must not forget that, but until then we must not be surprised by God’s swift justice, rather let’s be thankful for His great mercy!