Hank’s Place

Welcome to Hank’s Place 

Once saved—always saved! Eternally speaking, are you feeling uncomfortable – or feeling – secure? I gave my life to Jesus in a Baptist church that leaned toward Arminianism: believing I freely came to Jesus, I walked with a certain uncertainty about my salvation: maybe I could walk OUT of my salvation just as freely, or I could lose it if I started walking in – devilish ways.

You could say my faith in HIS ability to keep me, was not very strong. Instead, I struggled to get things right. Perhaps you do, too. Worries about salvation usually come down to 3 main points:
1 – Seeing God as your Father – sonship. Adopted. Believe it.
2 – Not understanding or appreciating the Cross – where Jesus bore it ALL and ended the system of rule-keeping as the means of pleasing God.
3 – Not seeing Salvation as a PERSON – Jesus Christ. Christ living in YOU, Christ who is your life. Col 3:4. Salvation is NOT a checkbox, but Jesus.

Ever break a promise? Many promises? We all have! Our lives reveal an inability to deliver on our promises. Good days. Bad days. Very bad days. Making promises and apologizing for breaking them. Solution? Instead of standing on OUR feeble promises to God, why not stand on His UNBREAKABLE Promises to us?

Here’s a good one: 1 Cor 1:8-9  “who (that’s Jesus) will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Your salvation is not about YOUR faithfulness; but HIS – and “God IS Faithful.”

Here’s another promise: 2 Cor 1:21-22, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” It’s the “Seal of Ownership” my friend. He’s GOT YOU NOW and will never let go – so stop fretting, rejoice in Jesus the GOD of your salvation, and – COME ALIVE!

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Today is All Saint’s Day. And you thought it was Halloween. Not at Hank’s Place! On this day in 1517 Martin Luther posted his “Disputation on the Power of Indulgences” or “95 Theses,” to the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. The Reformation was underway! 

Indulgences (Latin for ‘debt repayment’), pertained to a person’s separation from God after death in a place called Purgatory where a person ‘atoned’ for their sins. They paid their sin debt. Sins, said the church then, had been forgiven by God, but sin DEBT had to be personally atoned for by suffering for your evil deeds, or, by indulgences.

Indulgences, you see, could be PURCHASED! A person could pay it forward and reduce their future torment. So, people bought indulgences. The larger the sum the more repayment of debt. Clever, right? For yourself, a loved one – even for those dead. Your payment, made to the church, would spring them out of Purgatory’s pain.

Then Martin Luther, a pious monk, found Ro 1:17, “the just shall live by faith,” not money given to the church. At the time people were taught that money talks, it makes blessings flow and BOOM – sin debts were paid! Luther took issue, declaring, “Indulgences are pious frauds of the faithful.” JESUS has taken our sin away; AND – JESUS has born the punishment for them – JESUS death at Calvary IS the Atonement, the sacrificial and substitutional death Jesus for all people. He has risen, my friend and that tells us IT IS TOTALLY FINISHED – PAYMENT IN FULL has been made!

Can money buy blessings today? Will money gain God’s Favor? Well, some churches stress the tithe. Command it. People are pressured and shamed, extorted into “giving” 10%. Blessings upon blessings are promised — but only as you tithe.

Friend, you couldn’t buy blessings in Luther’s day; you cannot buy blessings now. Jesus didn’t die so you could tithe. He in fact rebuked the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites for nullifying the TRUE word of God through their traditions. Mk 7:7-13. Search the New Testament – you will find that generous giving is encouraged. You have Christ Jesus, within, so generous giving is a part of you. GIVE — because that’s who you are. The Holy Spirit has replaced the tithe – listen to Him, not a calculator! Blessings? You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing already, because of Jesus’ Atonement.

It’s Reformation Day! So come out from under the cloud of obligation and condemnation. Money cannot buy you blessings, you’ve already got them in Jesus, so – COME ALIVE!

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In Jn 13 Jesus has just washed the disciples’ feet, commanded they love one another, and told Peter he will deny Him 3 times. Jesus sensed their anxiety rising for the next chapter begins: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” That’s an imperative BELIEVE in Me! I’m going away, preparing a place for you with My Father, and I WILL come back for you. 

Jn 14 is all comfort and assurance. But vs 15 can be really anxiety producing when read out of context by a LAWman w/o the grace of God. What’s it say, you ask? 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The LAWman, who say God loves you but He kind of hates you too, thinks it reads, “You must prove your love for Me by keeping my commandments.”  Don’t YOU read it that way, my friend! Chill!

Jesus is speaking comforting words, assuring words this entire chapter. Jesus is simply saying, when you love Him, it is going to show to others. They will see you walking in His words, instructions, commands. 

Think of a child, perhaps your own, who loves their parents. They don’t go around worrying, “I have to prove my love for my parents. I have to obey every word they say. It’s all about obedience.” NO WAY! Because they love you, they ‘naturally’ follow what you tell them. Simple? SIMPLE! So, RELAX. 

See the Love of God at Calvary. Receive the love of God. Experience True Love. Let it fill the voids in your life, heal all the hurts and disappointments and rejection. As you allow His love to embrace you, you will find your capacity to love in return increasing – to the point of loving others as He has loved you. 

Keep His word (that’s Jn 14:23)? Now don’t get anxious! For in vs 26 Jesus tell us, “…the Helper, the Holy Spirit, …will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Yes, love God, you’ll know by the Spirit what He is saying –and by His grace you’ll be doing it. Do your realize — you have — COME ALIVE!

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God never intended us to present our best performances to Him for approval. His intention was and is that we believe in Jesus, then grow in grace and godliness.

A little baby at birth is 100% human. It cannot get any more human. When we were born again, we became something NEW: Christians. With God on the inside, complete in Him, lacking nothing, blessed with every spiritual blessing. GLORY to JESUS. 

Now like the baby, we are growing into who we truly are – Leaving behind what we once were, because we ARE NEW creations. It’s no longer rule keeping, it’s God believing! 

Listen to these excerpts from Paul in Galatians 2 & 3 – the Message Bible. 

“We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it…. Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah.”

Then Paul says, “I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man.”

He adds, “If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. (But) …You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? … Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.” 

“How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? … only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?”

“…Doing things FOR God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you.”

Rule-keeping will only beget more rule-keeping. Dispense with your anxious self-effort my friend. Trust the Lord to complete what He has begun in you. Walk by the Spirit — and COME ALIVE!

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This is a place – of Grace. Real grace instructs us to say NO to ungodliness and worldly desires. Titus 2:12. Genuine grace is never greasy.

Let me ask you: are you constantly ‘trying’ to be a better Christian? ‘Trying’ to pray more? ‘Trying’ to give more? ‘Trying’ to serve more? ‘Trying’ to read the Bible more? I’m getting tired just asking! Know what, friend? By trying and trying you are living under self-imposed Law. Try try try – you won’t get to that place of rest.

We enter His rest by ceasing from our efforts. Believe Jesus HAS done ALL the work for us. Rest in this truth – receive His grace. And more grace. Isn’t that better?

That’s Heb 4:9-10 paraphrased. And verse 11 says: “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest;” another version says says ‘be diligent to enter His rest.”
How do we strive to enter that rest?

We accomplish this by holding fast to our confession! Most people barely have a confession even in the best of times. Hold fast your confession, especially in the worst times! When life is so hard we don’t want to get out of bed. When loneliness has imprisoned you in solitary. In times of temptation, especially if we have fallen into that temptation. Yes, we hold fast our confession ALL THE TIME!

Friend, what IS your confession? That you are weak and sinful? Powerless? Fearful?An eternal failure? NONSENSE! Let your confession be the TRUTH – that’s what GOD says about you. Such as, “I am the righteousness of God” 2 Cor 5:21. “I am a new creation – the old sinful me has died.” 2 Cor 5:17. “I am one spirit with the Lord.” 1 Cor 6:17 “I am a holy vessel for the Lord.” Col 1:22.

Jesus is our Great High Priest who has sympathy for our weaknesses, not scorn! Heb 4:14-15. Draw near to His throne. It is a throne of grace, not judgment. Hold FAST your confession my friend. Head for the Throne for the mercy and grace to help that you need!

Jesus WILL help! Yes – hold fast — and COME ALIVE!

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Religion has preached against sin for centuries – and the result: more sin. That’s because religion tells us WE have to try harder. And harder. Again. We’re being taught to have confidence in your own ability to resist sin, rather than have faith in Jesus’ sacrifice.

Religion tells us, if we sin, to repent, to restore, to renounce and more; but the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus and His supernatural grace. Which would you rather have when you sin? Hmmm?

Remember, God so loved THE WORLD that He sent His son – and while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. NOTHING can separate us from this love of God, not even our sin. Ro 8:35. Our righteous deeds could not qualify us in the eyes of God; neither can our unrighteous deeds disqualify us. The Holy Spirit is the eternal guarantee of your approval. 2 Cor 1:22.

Religion tells us God loves us. And that God hates us. That we will see and experience His grace only as we get things right. That’s wrong! Grace is for those who NEED it, not for those who EARN it. Grace is for you and me my friend.

Many people think grace and greasy go together, a license to sin. True, God’s grace means FREEDOM – even freedom to make POOR choices. But using that freedom to be enslaved to sin again is really really DUMB. As Paul cautions in Ro 6:1, it’s crazy to think that we can sin so grace can abound all the more – because sin enslaves a person and can destroy them!

Once a person begins to understand Calvary, and what Jesus has done for us there, it’s no longer easy to sin – for we realize we are dead to sin, so how can we live in it any longer? Ro 6:2. Those who willfully sin under the covering of God’s grace don’t understand their salvation, if indeed they are saved at all!

In conclusion, Titus 2:12 says grace, far from being a license to sin, teaches us to say NO to ungodliness and worldly desires. So, don’t fear Grace. Rather,

embrace God’s grace — and COME ALIVE!

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Today we want to take the terror out of 1 Cor 11:27-30. Paraphrasing, “Whoever, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself. Partaking unworthily brings judgment on you. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” This passage has been used to scare and condemn the body of Christ for too long!

Consider 1 Cor 11:23-25. There Paul reminds us of that first Communion night, when Jesus instructed us to break bread and to drink of the cup “in remembrance of Me.” That’s right – we partake of the Eucharist (which means ‘giving thanks’) with Thanksgiving – duh – remembering what Jesus has done for us: His life given so that we would be saved, healed, delivered, restored, our sins wiped away, the punishment due us paid in full, adopted as sons of God, a holy habitation for the Spirit of God – and more! 

His blood has cleansed us from sin, from ALL unrighteousness. FOREVER. So how can we partake unworthily of communion? As a believer, you CANNOT.

“Examine yourself?” For sin? Will sin disqualify you from taking communion? From the body and blood of Jesus? Jesus GAVE His body and blood and died for sinners! In the Old Covenant when a sinner came to the priest, he brought an offering. The priest examined the offering, NOT the sinner. If the offering was accepted, the sin of the person bringing it was covered! Your offering – is JESUS. Think about that.

“Examine yourself?” Is Jesus your sin offering? As a believer He surely IS! You have already passed out of judgment and into eternal life with God. BUT if you do not believe in Jesus, yet take communion, you are saying Jesus died for nothing, that His death is irrelevant. Indeed, unbelievers bring judgment upon themselves!

So an unbeliever can’t take communion then? Not so fast – in doing so we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Cor 11:26. So, if the unbeliever knows this, and wants to proclaim the Lord’s death applying to him, they are in fact declaring themselves BELIEVERS, and they will have — COME ALIVE!

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Have you wondered why Jesus preferred the Laodiceans of Revelation 3 to be hot or cold but not lukewarm? Hot: you are passionate about Jesus and the grace of God. Cold: you are passionate about the Law, about rule keeping. Genuine dedicated rule keeping will lead you to Christ. Gal 3:24. But adding grace to law results in ‘just doing the best you can’ and ‘God will understand’ theology. That does not impress God. If you think God gives you grace so that you can keep the rules today with the help of the Holy Spirit – you are terribly mistaken!

Here is another example of mixture – grace and law. It’s been said, “Favor, God’s favor, and blessing, will be found in serving. Your job, dear Christian, is to obey everything we leaders tell you, for we are God’s appointed overseers. Meanwhile, it is God’s job to bless you as a result! A result of your obedience. This is not true! Where is Jesus in this?

Have you been told you are not experiencing favor because you are not serving – or not serving enough, and are only lukewarm? That the more you serve, or the more you give, the more the blessings will flow? Not true! And you are exhausted.

Grace is given to those who believe and enter His rest, Heb 3; NOT to those who serve. Making yourself someone’s servant OR the quest for self-improvement – will keep you from the grace of GOD. “You have fallen from grace” said Paul to the Galatians 5:4.

Remember: Law keeping is faithless for the law is not of faith. Gal 3:12. And without faith you cannot please God. Heb 11:6. So focusing upon your serving, your obedience, is actually pushing you further away from God’s grace! Yet this is what people have been told time and again.

Why are so many in the church lukewarm, or apathetic today? They have been given a mixture of grace and law, the theology of the lukewarm. They are the product of what they have heard.

How do you get hot? Start appreciating all that JESUS has done for us, namely, everything pertaining to life and godliness. 2 Pe 1:3. Soon your enthusiasm will know no bounds. Without even trying you will have — COME ALIVE!

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Are we as Christians under Law? we live in the world, and the world has its laws: obey stoplights, speed limits, refrain from stealing, and millions more. But what about Bible laws? Are they universal and for all time? Or just sometime? Are they limited, like a restaurant that says, “No shoes, no shirt, no service?” You can walk down the street without shoes, but don’t expect to be served in a restaurant barefooted. 

The answer is – in the Bible! Ro 6:14 says, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are NOT under law but under grace.” The apostle Paul repeats, in the next verse saying, “…Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Never!”

Christians should not live trying to be good, to keep Biblical laws, for we are under GRACE, not Law. But how could all that system prescribed by God, built upon the Pentateuch and Old Testament, be set aside? 

Nevertheless it HAS BE SET ASIDE, for something GREATER has come: Jesus. Heb 7:18 declares, “… there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness.”

We are not saved by Laws, kept by Laws, or supervised by Laws. It is God’s GRACE – from start to finish. “What is LAW in the Bible?” you ask. The 10C’s? Jesus’ words? The words of Paul? Your church’s precepts? You know, it really doesn’t matter – if you believe you will be rewarded for doing “good” and punished for doing “bad,” you are living under LAW. Most of the church lives this way. And the Law is NOT of faith! Gal 3:12. 

Friend, this is why so many believers are having so much trouble in life and God seems so far away. They are trying to keep the law – and since it is NOT of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God, they are keeping God away by their very efforts, and are struggling in their own limited human abilities! THAT is a mouthful!

We are blessed because of who HE is, not what we DO. Grace and Law are mutually exclusive. Like oil and water, they do not mix together!

Today, choose to walk by Grace. Walk in the Spirit, and — to COME ALIVE!

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In the movie “Taken,” Liam Neelson’s character’s daughter is taken by sex traffickers. He tracks them down and says, “If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” A father’s anger at someone who dared to accost his child. 

Now, consider God, our FATHER. Satan, the deceiver, lifted his hand against the Father’s children. In the Garden, the Father promised an offspring would come who would “crush your head” Gen 3:15. At the Cross, through the willing sacrifice of His own Son, God delivered on His promise.

Listen to the truth:
– Religion says we were born criminals. But the Bible says we were born prisoners – to sin. Ro 3:9. Captives, not criminals.
– Religion says we need to be good. To try harder. Jesus says you need to be free. Jn 8:32. Free, not ‘doing better.’
– The natural man thinks he is free, but he is enslaved to all kinds of passions and pleasures and is bound by the fear of death. Jude, Heb 2:15. The natural man is not free; he is a slave. If you subscribe to the notion, “if it feels good, do it,” you are not free but in fact bound by your own appetites. And those who feed them – control you.
– If God be for us who can be against us! Not even our own sin. In fact, He has removed that sin from us. God has qualified us; sin cannot disqualify us! Col 1:12.

So dear friend, you can choose to live according to the old law of sin and death – or life in the Spirit, under the new law, the law of LOVE. Why not, reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God? Then get going with the joyful business of living the Father’s dream – for you. Because of the BLOOD, your sin cannot condemn you; only your unbelief.

Believe in Jesus your Savior, in the Father who LOVES you just as you are. They are FOR you, not against you. Believe — receive —and COME ALIVE!

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