Welcome to Hank’s Place
Hank’s Place is a place of grace. At Hank’s Place we never give up – although sometimes we quickly give up!
How’s that? When should we give up? When sinning! When holding on to what is earthly within – all the immorality, anger, malice and such of Col 3:5-8. Give up quickly when engaging in the works of the flesh, like envy and idolatry as noted in Gal 5:19-21. Give that life up! To God! Renounce – repent – reject. Children of the KING don’t belong in a cesspool of sin!
Now, in this world, ‘with devils filled’ as Martin Luther noted in A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, we should never never – never give up! Isaiah 36 and 37 is very revealing. The devil wants us, tries to convince us, to give up.
Check it out in Isaiah 36:8-9. Now why is that?
First, there’s the strong chance if we fight we will win for greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world!
Second, win or lose, the battle will draw us closer to God and we will grow in Him!
Third, what God does for us in the battle can be a great blessing not only for ourselves but for other people!
No, Satan would rather talk to us, reason with us using lies to convince us into giving up! In Is 36:10 the enemy commander tells Hezekiah that God is on the enemy’s side! And there was a kernel of truth in this. In verses 19 and 20 the enemy compared Israel’s God to the gods of other defeated nations, weak like them. Well — the enemy went too far with that one! When the enemy reproached the living God of Israel, God took action.
Friend, we cannot be defeated — if we don’t give up. But anyone will be defeated if they give up. In verses 16-17 the enemy commander says, “Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”
This was a total lie! Those Assyrians didn’t transplant people into nice little cities and villages to make a new life. They were made slaves, they were separated from each other, they suffered terribly!
And this would have happened – if Hezekiah had given up. But he did not. Isaiah went to God in chapter 37, and an angel of the Lord responded by killing 185,000 Assyrians!
And don’t forget Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness – Lu 4 and Mt 4. The devil tried to talk Jesus into giving up. If He just worshiped the devil one time, the devil would make Jesus ruler of the world. Jesus didn’t fall for that lie. Jesus never give up, ever, except to willingly give His life for us. Neither should we ever yield to the devil.
Never give up – and you’ll win – and inspire many — to COME ALIVE!
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