Ouachita District Baptist Association

09/17/2024

The Ouachita District Mass choir will practice Monday night September 23, 2024 at 6:00pm at The Shiloh MBC Church in Camden Ar.

04/12/2024

10/09/2023

Daily Devotion : Names of God

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name... who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases
- Psalm 103:1,3

It is hard to find a more passionate doxology anywhere in Scripture than David's heart cry here.

All that is within me, David says, is drawn to exalt and proclaim the One who heals every disease. He is Jehovah Rapha, the healer.

Have you come to know your need of healing? It is only when you are brought, like David, to pray, "Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul" (Psalm 41:4), that you will be blessed, like David, to see God as your soul-restoring shepherd (Psalm 23).

The only thing worse than finding out you're sick, is being sick and not realizing it. This is what Jesus was referring to when he said, "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick" (Mark 2:17). Only when we see our sickness will we come to the physician for healing.

Because God is the great healer, he is therefore also the great wounder. He faithfully chastens each of his children into a realization of their guiltiness and emptiness before a holy God and a bankrupt world.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (Revelation 3:19). He wounds so that he then can heal. No one has ever come to God for soul repair and been turned away. David confesses, "I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me" (Psalm 30:2).

Have you cried to the Lord, bringing him your wounded pride and ambition? If so, then you can rest assured that the great Physician will heal you. It is for the sick that he is come.

10/07/2023

Daily Devotion : God's Word

My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it
- Luke 8:21

Here Jesus describes his spiritual family members.

Many today, and through the centuries since Jesus spoke these words, have claimed affiliation with him. But Jesus' own words rebuke his would-be, fair-weather, so-called family members.

Not those who gather large crowds in my name, or gain political clout by my name, or salve their guilty consciences with my name are mine, says Jesus, but those who hear and obey God's Word. Those who have a true and permanent relationship with me are those who are receptive to God's Word.

What a high view of Scripture Jesus had! Even in the presence of his biological mother and siblings, Jesus starkly reminds us that a true connection to Christ is not made or maintained through family affiliation. For the definition of his disciples Jesus purposefully chose the rock-solid, unchanging Word of God as the meter of true religion.

Philanthropy does not a Christian make. Good intentions or family pedigree do not define the child of God. Rather God's Word is the simple, sole barometer that Jesus gives us with which to measure our relationship with him.

What is your relationship to Jesus? Do you merely approve of him, or do you obey him? Those who hear God's Word and seek to apply it faithfully in their lives are assured that Jesus is, indeed, their close friend and true family member.

10/06/2023

Daily Devotion : The Gospel Message

This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day
- John 6:40

In his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection, Jesus proved that he was sent from God. And here John records for us Jesus' own description of the will of God, which sent him. This is the will of him that sent me, Jesus says, that everyone who has eyes to see me for Who I am, and believes on me, will have everlasting life.

How do you see Jesus? Do you see him as a good teacher? As a prophet even? Or do you see him (as he claims in this very same verse) to be the One who has the power to raise the dead when the world comes to an end?

To truly see the Son, Jesus clearly implies, is to believe on him. It is one thing to give mental assent to a set of Sunday school lessons, to say "Yes" to the question of Jesus' deity. But it is another thing altogether to trust him with your life, your ambitions, your purpose and meaning in life.

Do you see Christ as the Lord of your life? To those who see Jesus as the Son of God, and plant their faith firmly in him, Jesus promises an everlasting life and resurrection at the last day.

In other words, your faith will not be disappointed; it will be replaced with a greater reality than you could ever have imagined.

10/05/2023

Daily Devotion: Salvation

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace
- Ephesians 1:5-6

The salvation that is in Jesus Christ is predestinated. It is not an accident or a backup plan on God's part. It is the choice of God to adopt children, by Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, to himself.

What a precious description of God's gracious and purposeful and individual outreach to his people -- it is the adoption of children. Making us his own forever, by choice and out of love. Nothing could be sweeter than to hear that God has chosen us and that he has permanently welcomed us into his family!

What directed this love, this choice? Not our good works or right decisions or family heritage. It was according to the good pleasure of his will that he chose a people to be adopted into his family. Not because of anything in us, but because of the goodness within himself, directed by his perfect will. As we trust in Christ for salvation, we are assured of our belonging and inheritance in the family of God.

To what does all this tend? Not to the glory of man, as being worthy or lovable, but to the praise of the glory of his grace, that he would choose unworthy and powerless children to be saved.

God's predestinating and sovereign design for salvation was, like everything else that he does, ultimately for the good of his people and to the praise of his name. This adoption gives comfort to us, and it gives all the glory to God.

10/04/2023

Repentance

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out
- Acts 3:19

Peter is here addressing the very people who had helped to crucify Jesus, but his words are appropriate to anyone who denies the claims of Christ upon their lives.

Repent of your obstinate rejection of Christ. But more than that, Peter says, be converted. Peter is not merely looking for these guilty men and women to confess their past mistakes; he urges them to change, to turn to the Lord.

It is not difficult to find individuals, from many different walks of life, who are willing to admit that they have made mistakes, even sinned, in some of their life choices. Almost everyone will admit that they have done some wrong, even bad, things.

However, it is another thing altogether to actually be willing to turn from a past mindset and way of life, to turn from sin and to God. Therefore, Peter did not just insist on the need for repentance in the form of an apology or confession. He desired to see true repentance, which is displayed in a change of direction and action.

To those who repent and are converted to the ways of Christ, Peter gives this assurance: your sins will be blotted out. Have you submitted to the divinity of Christ? Have you turned away from sin in order to serve Jesus as Lord?

10/03/2023

Daily Devotion: Sin and Its Effects

I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels
- Psalm 81:12

Sin results in separation from God. But here we are also reminded that it means being joined completely to our own desires and schemes.

At first glance, this might not sound so bad. While we certainly don't want to be separated from God, the thought of being married to our own desires and plans doesn't seem to be much of a penalty. Isn't that more like a dream come true?

In reality this is judgment; this is punishment. Those who persist in sin and rebellion, God leaves to their own lust and allows them to walk in their own counsels. But notice that it does not say that the lust is fulfilled, or that the plans prosper.

When God gives a person up to his own lusts, his lusts consume him without end, because there is no true or lasting or deep satisfaction apart from God. It is to forever hunger, without ever being filled.

Similarly, the person who is left to her own counsel finds that she is like a blind person at the street corner, without a guide. She is free to walk any direction she pleases, but there is danger and destruction on every side.

As C.S. Lewis explained, there are two kinds of people in the end -- those who say to the Father, "Thy will be done," or those to whom the Father says, "thy will be done." The great punishment for sin is getting our own way.

10/02/2023

Daily Devotion :
Sovereignty of God

Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places
- Psalm 135:6

Did you know that at the Pacific Ocean's deepest point you could submerge Mt. Everest and still have two miles of water between its summit and the surface of the water? Or that the energy in one hurricane is equal to about 500,000 atomic bombs? Or that there are over 13,000 varieties of dirt in United States alone?

When we pause to consider the vastness, and the power, and the diversity of Creation, the psalmist's assertion takes on new majesty and meaning. God does whatever he wishes in the deep places of the sea, where humans have never even been. He steers and throttles the hurricane as its perfect Pilot. The complexity of the universe reflects the enormity and creativity of his mind.

Among the stars, amid the nations (and sand grains) of the earth, in the seas -- everywhere God is doing what is pleasing to himself. He is sovereign over the bodies and forces and subparticles in his universe.

And God's rule was not only in the creation of his world, but still holds sway in the maintenance of it. The psalmist continues in the very next verse: "He causeth (present tense) the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries" (7).

Every part of God's creation is obedient to the pleasure of its Creator. Are you?