Hank’s Place

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As I have said, it’s a fact that most people do not know the true Gospel. Including many theologians! Last time we found that JOY is a key sign of someone knowing the Gospel, for the angel at Jesus’ birth declared the Gospel was great JOY for ALL people: their Savior was born. Lu 2:9-11.

Then we read: Ro 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” THAT’S GOOD NEWS! It’s the GOSPEL. 

And consider John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He GAVE. The Gospel is LOVE backed up with a gift: JESUS.

Are you stuck in performance based religion? You know, doing all you’ve been told to do – but God’s promised blessings of forgiveness, acceptance, provision, peace, joy, always seem out of reach? Well, get off that hamster wheel of performance, and believe the true Gospel!

Paul gives us another element of the true Gospel. It’s found in 1 Cor 15:3-4 “For I delivered to you as of first importance [this is the CORE of the GOSPEL Paul is saying] what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Without the resurrection you do not have the GOSPEL! 

Paul repeats in Ro 1:4 “Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Without the resurrection, some may doubt Jesus succeeded in taking our sins.
Without the resurrection, some may doubt Jesus succeeded in taking the punishment for our sins.

Out of LOVE, Jesus Christ DID take our sins, and the punishment due us, and gave us right standing before God the Father (we are righteous my friend). The resurrection is the proof that He succeeded and heaven’s gates are open wide to welcome us. It is DONE, my friend.

So, today, in faith, believe and receive the Gospel. Say, “Lord, look at all that YOU have done for us!” and— COME ALIVE!

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Did you know that most people are unsure of who God is and what He thinks of them? In other words, they do not know the Gospel is.

YOU can know the Bible from cover to cover and still not know the Gospel! Imagine: theologians knowing ancient Hebrew and Greek and bible history, but missing the Gospel. It is positively possible!

Do YOU know what the Gospel is? Remember that angel at the time of Jesus’ birth? He said, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY which will be for ALL the people; for today in the city of David there has been born FOR YOU a SAVIOR, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:9-11.

Good News, or ‘the GOSPEL,’ for EVERYONE: a Savior, born FOR US. News of GREAT JOY.

JOY then, is the KEY EVIDENCE that you know the true Gospel. Got JOY? Do you feel like a fraud on Sundays with a plastic smile in church? Smiling on the outside, but inside a pit of depression, anxiety, fear, condemnation? If so, I submit to you that you have not really heard the GOSPEL.

Are the 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John “the Gospel?” NO. They are eye witness accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. Totally awesome. The Gospel can be found in each of them but they include much more than ‘the Gospel.’ And people can get confused at just what is the Gospel within them.

The words of Jesus — are they the Gospel? Not necessarily. He lived before the Cross. He lived under the LAW and preached LAW to those who lived under it. Grace abounded around Him, but His words may or may not have been ‘the Gospel’ depending. Think of His words to the hypocritical Pharisees and lawyers.

“You must turn from sin” is not the Gospel. It is what Moses and John the Baptist preached.

Nor is just believing real hard about something the Gospel – ‘Just have faith, man,’ is not the Gospel. These both focus on you and your capability. Not the Gospel! The Gospel is about a Savior—the angel just told us!

How about: Ro 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The CROSS shows us He loved us while we were yet sinners. THAT’s GOOD NEWS! That’s a GOSPEL message.

There’s more to the Gospel, but that’s for next time. Today, I urge you, BELIEVE this much of the GOOD NEWS: God loves us – enough to die FOR us. Yes, it’s true. Believe it, let JOY explode in your heart, and — COME ALIVE!

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It’s Resurrection Sunday — Easter, and welcome to Hank’s Place

Does Jesus REALLY care for me? Does He have feelings toward you? Lot’s of people wonder – “Do I really matter to Jesus?”

Lets go back to that first Resurrection morning – earlier, those women from Galilee had witnessed Jesus’ death on the Cross. His own mother, Mary Mag, Mary mother of James and Joseph, mother of the sons of Zebedee, Salome, Joanna.

They came to the tomb – early! With spices. No one expected Jesus to be alive. But there were those angels: “Why do you seek the living among the dead – He’s not here. He has risen like He said. Go tell His disciples that He is going ahead of them to Galilee.”

Mary Magdalene remains in the garden while the other women head off. Overcome with grief. And Jesus appears to her. Get the picture. The Lord of all Creation. Likely leading captivity captive. And Jesus still has to complete the Plan of Salvation: bring His blood to THE mercy seat in Heaven, the real one.

But He STOPS. He hits the ‘pause’ button on The Plan of Salvation. Why? To stop and comfort a women. Women were not highly regarded in those days, and this one had a past. But she was a woman grieving over His death. BECAUSE HE CARED FOR HER, HER FEELINGS, HER LIFE, my friend, and HE STOPPED. It’s THE SAME FOR YOU AND ME!

Maybe the angels in heaven were wondering about the delay, what’s holding up KING JESUS? Matthew says Jesus appeared to the women, but John clarifies it was Mary Magdalene. And Jesus tells her to go and tell My BROTHERS to go to Galilee. He will meet with them there. Where it all began. Where He called them 1 by 1. Tying the beginning and the end of Jesus earthly ministry together! Replacing sorrow with JOY.

There’s more! Two disciples were on the Emmaus Road headed out of town – Jesus has some fun with them and they come scooting back to Jerusalem.
Did Jesus get up to the True Mercy Seat of heaven and come back – or what? I don’t know. BUT I do know once those two got with the rest of the disciples in Jerusalem, JESUS DIDN’T WAIT for them all to get to Galilee. He has got to share His JOY with His BROTHERS – right away! Can you see it? BECAUSE HE CARES for them. THEIR FEELINGS MATTER! And He wants to turn their sorrow into JOY. And He does!

So there is Jesus, appearing to the women, the women who were with Him at ‘the END’ got notified of the NEW BEGINNING – ahead of anyone else!
There’s Jesus, appearing to the men who were with Him at the beginning – and He pauses THE OFFICIAL BUSINESS of heaven if you will, of RESURRECTION SUNDAY, to comfort those in grief and to CELEBRATE with His family! BECAUSE HE CARES!

So friend, YOU MATTER! How you feel – matters! What concerns you – matters to Jesus. We have just heard it. So, rejoice this Resurrection Day – knowing Jesus cares for YOU. And that you have — COME ALIVE!

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The other day I was speaking with a computer chip designer, a brilliant man of Indian ethnicity. He had come to my door, and noticed a banner my wife had placed there: on the banner was a lamb with the words, “I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.” The fellow asked if we had dogs – he had confused the lamb image with that of a dog.

“No,” I responded, and told how the lamb and the words concerned Jesus our Savior, the Son of God who saves us from our sins. He said that was very interesting; he had not heard that before. He listened attentively as I briefly gave him the Gospel. 

Can you believe this? In America? A middle aged well educated person who had never heard the Gospel? It’s all around us, folks. People not having ears to hear, and with the god of this world having blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, well, there you go: another life without eternal life! 2 Cor 4:4

He was familiar with reincarnation and trying to get better in this life or the next until you finally attain, you finally make it. But the idea of GRACE, the free gift of GOD of eternal life with Him, in Him, and He in us – with no sin, no unrighteousness, no darkness — was a completely foreign concept to him.

I can understand the ignorance, when there are so many today calling good “evil,” and calling evil “good,” but don’t worry about that, my friend. I urge you to be ready, in season and out, to give testimony, to give witness of the Lord Jesus, to share the Gospel as God gives you opportunity. 2 Cor 3:6 reminds us we are adequate in the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel with others.

And, you are not responsible for the other person’s salvation. What a relief! Share those words of life, for you can be confident that the Holy Spirit is working with those words, and with YOU! Relax.

Preach the Gospel, which is the GRACE of God given to all who call upon Him. It is a STUMBLING BLOCK for some, for there is no place for our own efforts or achievements in God’s plan of salvation: it is all JESUS from start to finish!
You didn’t earn your salvation. You can’t lose your salvation. But you can give the Good News of salvation in Jesus away — it will prevail.

Yes, my friend, let us be bold, let others hear, so they can — COME ALIVE!

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The Gospel means Good News. Crafted by God. God is GOOD, and His news is ALL Good News — not mostly Good News with some Bad News thrown in. There is no price tag found in God’s free gift of salvation — unless you are hearing a counterfeit gospel.

Does the God of the gospel you hear remember a wrong suffered? Does your forgiveness come at a price you pay? That’s not God’s true love found in 1 Cor 13. It is not the genuine Gospel.

Some preachers thunder from the pulpit: “Beware of greasy grace and those who preach it! We have got to have rules to obey. Guard rails on the roadway of life to keep us on course.” “Greasy grace is nothing more than a license to sin,” they bellow.

Going back to the rules is – wrong. Don’t you remember, friend?
• the Law is not of faith – Gal 3:12. No faith in it. Following the rules is not of faith.
• the Law inflames sin. Rather than HELP you be godly, it promotes ungodliness!
• the Law was designed to lead us to Christ – Gal 3:24. A tutor. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor – Gal 3:25.

Don’t go back to rule keeping. ”Follow all the rules, all our rules, and you’ll be blessed of God” is a counterfeit gospel! It’s rubbish! “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Gal 5:1.

Adding rules to the Gospel means you have fallen from GRACE — you attempt to be justified by the law. It’s a counterfeit gospel, and you have become estranged from Christ.

The Counterfeit Gospel is the one with the RULES IN IT. Jesus gave us the Gospel of Grace! Walk by faith. Walk in the Spirit – don’t worry, just do it!

Adding rules to the Gospel means you are saying Jesus Christ did NOT DO ENOUGH at Calvary, and there remains “your part” to perform. Rather than experiencing the joy of the Lord, you live in a shadowland where you have never done enough.

Friend, if this has been you, has been your life, it’s time to stand in the liberty, in the GRACE given you in Christ Jesus – firmly, and  — COME ALIVE!

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The need for acceptance is an incredibly powerful driving force in us humans. In Greek fraternities pledges endure all sorts of hazing in order to be accepted into the fraternity. In street gangs the rituals are much worse; some even require you to kill a person in order to gain their acceptance.

What about God? What do we as believers have to DO to gain His acceptance? Eph 1:5-6 in the KJV provides the awesome answer. It reads: “(God) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He MADE US accepted in the Beloved.”

So what do we have to do? We believe in Jesus, and incredibly that same sonship comes to us: now we are even seated WITH HIM in heavenly places, Eph 2:6. That’s GOD for you, my friend. It is something HE DID FOR US. “IN THE BELOVED!” As believers are IN Christ Jesus, and IN HIM acceptable to GOD! Hallelujah!

Acceptance in the world is so different! There we have to perform. Shine. Play by someone else’s rules. Conform to their standards or face rejection. And man-made religion is no different. It’s the same kind of performance based acceptance. It is based on the same evil concept that says you have to work to make yourself acceptable and pleasing to God. Nonsense.

Man-made religion burns you out. It perpetuates human sacrifice. Think about it: your life, or your spouse, your children…sacrificed on the altar of acceptance.

Understand me, the love of God is not for sale. You cannot buy it or perform for it. His acceptance and approval is a free gift that comes through Christ alone, by grace alone! Remember, Eph 1:6 says HE MADE US ACCEPTED!

Jesus refused to play the acceptance game. He shocked everyone – there were rules that disqualified people from approaching God. Rules about ethnicity, behavior, gender, and health. If you happened to be a sinful foreign woman with leprosy in Jesus’ day you had 4 strikes against you, my friend! But Jesus accepted sinful people. And foreigners. And women. And lepers.

We talk about the need to accept Jesus, but understand, Jesus accepts all who come to Him. That’s even more important. Law based religion will disqualify you, and you’ll have to perform for those who call the shots. But truly, it is Jesus who has qualified you my friend, it is a gift by God’s grace, not your performance. Today, share this good news of acceptance in the belovedimage, and help others —— COME ALIVE!

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As I have said before, Jesus IS the Vine, we ARE the branches. Happened when we said YES to Jesus. He abides in us – eternally. We abide in Him – eternally. This astonishing fact is hard to grasp, for our minds are so conditioned by the world to think like the world, not heaven.

So instead of abiding from the get-go, we struggle to be accepted – but we already ARE accepted in the beloved, for as believers we ALREADY ARE in UNION with Him! We struggle for approval, we wonder if we have done ‘enough’ for God. But friend, that’s like running backward from the finish line! Stop your struggle. You ARE IN CHRIST, and as righteous as God Himself – 2 Cor 5:21 – for you ARE in UNION with Him. You didn’t do this; He did, for by His GRACE we have been saved, and that through the gift of faith He has given us. Eph 2:8.

Finding this rest can take time, like the rest of your life! Paul tells the Colossians in Col 2:10 “…in Him you have been made complete.” But a few verses earlier in 1:28 he said he labors, hard, to present every man complete in Christ. Those Colossian believers were complete in Christ, but like most of us, they DID NOT KNOW IT, and were engaged in fruitless struggle for approval!

Or take those carnal Corinthians, struggling with envy and jealously, even gluttony and drunkenness at communion. Yet here is how Paul begins his letter to them, 1 Cor 1: parts of 4-9 MSG: “Every time I think of you—and I think of you often!—I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There’s no end to what has happened in you—it’s beyond speech, beyond knowledge. [GNB expresses that as “For in UNION with Christ you have become rich in all things”] The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.

Just think—you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! And God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, will never give up on you. Never forget that!”

So, dear believer, understand: you ARE in union with the Living God. You may be living like those Corinthians, or Colossians. But wait! You are approved, you are in UNION with God. So grow up! Study Jesus – that’s YOUR character now!  Don’t you realize it – you are in Him – He is in you – and in Him – you have COME ALIVE!

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Jesus IS the Vine, we ARE the branches. Happened when we said YES to Jesus. Now Father, Son and Holy Spirit abide in us: they make their HOME in us. And they are not going anywhere.

Ro 6:3 says when we believed we were baptized into His death – we have died to sin and are alive to God. Ro 6:11. In this baptism, we went into those spiritual waters looking like Adam and came out looking like Jesus. Close your eyes and see that, my friend!

There is no longer any separation between God and a believer. We are JOINED to the Lord and ONE SPIRIT with HIM. 1 Cor 6:17. Consider Ro 7:4 where Paul says we have died to the Law, all those do’s and don’ts, and have been JOINED to another: JESUS. Now we serve in newness of the Spirit.

Sadly, so many Christians have trouble understanding this JOINING, this UNION that has been accomplished. If we used marriage as an example, they would be acting like they were single despite the fact that they were married. Someone who lives this way will miss out on most all of the benefits that marriage brings.

In the Old Covenant, unholy things would make whatever they touched unholy. Lepers. Keep away from me! Bleeding people. Keep away! Gentiles! Etc. But Jesus cleansed the lepers, the bleeders, the Gentiles, Samaritans and tax-gatherers. Jesus cleanses you. He has made you holy, sanctified. Forever. So now live that way. Stop thinking and acting as though God is far away and you have to sacrifice to get closer.

We are already joined to Him, one Spirit with Him. How about marveling at the wonders of the CROSS and what our loving God did for us there? What we could never do, He did, and took the punishment for all our wrongdoing. And offers us UNITY with Him for all ETERNITY. Pretty good, eh?

Stop with doom and gloom thinking; just STOP IT. Stir up your faith in God. He IS with you and wants to make your life a wonderful testimony. A good one.
He is the LIVING GOD and He is here to help us: COME ALIVE!

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The old and new covenants are fundamentally different. The old was based on our promises to God, while the new is based on God’s promises to us. The old fails because we break our promises, while the new endures because God’s word lasts forever. The new covenant is filled with God’s promises that are based upon who God is: AWESOME in His mercies and grace and lovingkindness.

When we said YES to Jesus, we were put into union with Him. Eternally. He IS the Vine forever, we ARE the branches forever. Jn 15:5. And how about Jn 14:20 “In that day (that’s NOW, after Calvary) you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Think about that – it is mind blowing!

And in Jn 14:16-17 Jesus said the Holy Spirit abides with us and makes His home with us. HOME. Understand, you are not a motel room for the Holy Spirit. He came and went under the old covenant; but under the new He has made a home in YOU, the believer. In fact Father, Son and Holy Spirit are ALL at home in us believers!

What if we sin? His love is greater than any sin. NOTHING can break the union between a believer and God. NOTHING. Not sin. Not addictions. Not even stupid behavior.

This UNION is a big reason we have it better than those did under the old covenant. There they wrote songs of longing for the Lord, pining in His absence. Take for example Ps 27:4a “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Friend, that was a true longing THEN but it is reality for us, thanks to Calvary. Mt 28:20 “…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Heb 13:4, “He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,””

Are you feeling good? Talk to Jesus, He is right there. Feeling sad? Talk to Jesus, He is right there. Feeling bad because you have just sinned? Talk to Jesus, He’s there and not going anywhere – and He purifies sin, remember?  As you remember this UNION you have with God, unbreakable, unshakable, your confidence in life will explode: you will COME ALIVE!

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My father-in-law would enjoy kidding me. He would ask, “Does the Bible say to keep the faith?” As I sought to give a serious answer, he would press on, “but I thought you were supposed to give it away.” And he would chuckle in laughter – again and again. He had been a lawyer and a judge, so words and phrases meant a great deal to him, especially if you could make fun by twisting their true meaning.

Here of course was the intentional confusing of a personal faith in Jesus with the Great Commission. Oh, did his eyes twinkle when he asked me those questions!

People may unintentionally become confused over this verse, “fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.” That’s 1 Tim 6:12. If you are struggling for acceptance or mired in performance based religion or mixing Old and New Covenants, it will be easy to get confused, worn out, frustrated, and depressed.

Here Paul is encouraging a young evangelist with a personal letter. He understands life can be a struggle, so he encourages Timothy by reminding him that he HAS made the good confession of Jesus Christ, so hold fast to his new identity in Christ as a son of God, adopted by God the Father. This is a reminder to firmly enter the REST of GOD.  Every believer can do that, by believing in God and all He has promised.

The fight is from a place of REST in Jesus’ finished work. The fight is to remain focused upon Jesus, to retain our identity in Him. At Calvary Jesus took care of the sin issue, took care of those accusations against us. We are forever accepted in the beloved, in Jesus. God is pleased with us, my friend!

Ah, but you say your faith is a little shaky? Well, where does faith come from? “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word concerning Christ.” That’s Ro 10:17. So LISTEN, pay attention, to true words about JESUS CHRIST and what He has done. FAITH WILL COME freely, because it is a GIFT OF GOD, Eph 2:8.

Yes, it’s all right to READ those words. Paul meant we should pay close attention to them. Like in the Gospels when Jesus would say, “Truly truly I say to you…!

Today, how about we fight that good fight of faith, resting, not struggling to perform, but resting in His finished work, all right? Let’s receive those promises of God – and COME ALIVE!

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