Category: Hank’s Place

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Struggling to keep some New Year Resolutions? That’s not surprising – the flesh is weak no matter how willing our spirits may be. But HEY, I have some GOOD NEWS for you: we live by FAITH, not by the resolutions we have made!

More GOOD NEWS: faith is a REST; not a performance test, endurance race, or contest. Just check out Heb 4. The author tells us that God has prepared a REST for us. He reminds us that the ancient Israelites heard His voice, but were disobedient to it. They refused to BELIEVE what God told them and instead acted on their own. So sad, for they all perished apart from Joshua and Caleb! He tells us to believe God’s word, His promises (which are all “Yea and Amen” 2 Cor 1:20) and enter the rest prepared for us. What rest? From our own labors of trying to make a great life happen and gain eternal life at the end.

Understand, God’s rest has nothing to do with taking a break from work and activities. It has everything to do with trusting God. What has God said? What has He promised YOU? He gave Abraham promises of blessing. And why? Because He was GOD and He said so. Abraham’s role? BELIEVE God would keep His word. REST from trying to make it happen, and trust God to do what God had promised.

Faith is not YOU doing YOUR BEST so that God cannot help but reward you. Rather, it is YOU having FAITH in GOD’S BEST: His Son Jesus! Our Savior, sin bearer, healer, restorer, provider, and fulfiller of every dream God has given us.

Believe, for instance, that Jesus is your righteousness importer. You are as righteous before the Father as Jesus Christ is. You are, if you believe on Jesus as your Savior. Check out 2 Cor 5:21. If you believe, you’ll stop trying to prove yourself worthy before God. You will simply receive HIS righteousness. Peace will flood your soul. You will enter His rest—you will have COME ALIVE!

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Welcome to Hank’s Place There’s more to John 3 than :16

John 3:16 is truly awesome! The Gospel in a verse. But did you know the verses that sandwich it are also awesome? Yes! In John 3 Jesus is speaking to the Pharisee, Nicodemus. Jesus admonishes him – if you stumble over my words, Jesus tells him, when I’m speaking earthly things, what will you do when I share with you heavenly truths? Then Jesus unloads blockbuster spiritual truths on Nicodemus!

In verses :14 & :15, Jesus says that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and in the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up. In Moses’ day, there was a time when serpents were biting and killing the grumbling, rebellious, hard-hearted Israelites. BUT – if a bitten Israelite would look to the serpent that Moses had placed upon a staff, he would not die, but be healed. Sin was the issue. Could the Israelite see his sin – in the form of that serpent – upon that pole? If he did, he got healed! Faith! And God’s mercies!

It’s the same with us today, my friend. If we can see Jesus bearing OUR sin upon Calvary’s cross, then we too will be healed from our sin and enter eternal life! This truth is stated in :15 and repeated in :16 – it is super important!

More of the sandwich – in :17 Jesus tells Nicodemus that God sent His son to SAVE us, not to judge us, and if we believe in Jesus we are not judged.

Ominously, Jesus then goes on to say he who does NOT believe in Him has been judged already. Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. God is not their judge, but they have judged themselves, choosing the darkness and evil over the Light of the world.

God does not send people to Hell; they judge themselves. And send themselves to the destination created for the devil and his angelic followers. O my friend! Help others to see Jesus bearing their sin to Calvary – that they may not die – but COME ALIVE!

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Soon people the world over will be celebrating the New Year 2018. Oh wow. Deja vue all over again. And again. And again. Last year’s New Year’s Resolution lists? Pull them out – let’s use them – they didn’t last very long. We’ll try harder this time. More determination. Persistence. Fortitude. Resolve. THIS YEAR we’ll keep them, right?

Who are we kidding? You and I both know how doomed this is! Doing things by the power of human ability is so limited—to our ability. Well, don’t be depressed my friend, but consider the power of GOD.

Paul tells us in 2 Cor 5:17 if we are IN Christ then we have been transformed into NEW CREATIONS, the old things HAVE passed away; NEW THINGS HAVE COME! Paul declares there is a new way of living: in Christ, in the grace of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit – by faith.

The best New Year’s resolution? RESOLVING to believe this and ALL that God says concerning us! How about we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God – 
Ro 6:11? How about the words of Paul in Gal 2:20 our own confession: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave up His life for me.”

As Paul did:
– let’s see our old man, on that cross with Jesus; dead
– let’s see ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus, not controlled by our own desires
– and let’s see Jesus alive within us, and us trusting Him with our own lives.

Reality from God’s viewpoint declares we ARE heirs of GOD; adopted into His family; with the full rights and privileges of His own son! May God’s reality become YOUR REALITY in 2018—after all, 2018 is a wonderful year to COME ALIVE! Happy New Year!

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Are you troubled with the merchandizing, marketing, manipulation, greed and the excesses of Christmas? Want to go back to an Old Time Christmas? I don’t think so!

Let me give you a little background to Christmas. In 320AD Pope Julius I designated Dec 25th as a holy day in order to counteract the excesses of the Saturnalia celebrations across all of Europe. Those dated back to even pre-Christ times. Until 320 churches either did not celebrate the birth of Christ or did so on any day they chose.

Well, the edict was not very successful. People enjoyed their revelry and celebrations! Many preferred to participate in the pagan festivals—and repent afterwards. The flesh loves indulgent excesses!

Things had gotten so bad in England in the 1600’s that one of the planks of Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan political party was to eliminate Christmas! He was voted in, but when succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell, his party was overthrown by King Charles II. King Charles promised to make Christmas as bawdy as before! The Pilgrims were thrown out of power. Soon Christmas in England was back to bawdy songs, rum, rioting in the streets and thievery. Most genuine Christians loathed Christmas, considering it an instrument of the devil for sin. In some parts of London women and children feared to go out into the streets on Christmas Day!

The Pilgrims left for the new world, and landed at Plymouth in 1620. They promptly outlawed Christmas. There were no church celebrations, businesses were ordered open, and anyone caught celebrating was subject to fines and arrest. Maybe not what you expected concerning Christmas traditions in America, eh?

These laws forbidding Christmas celebrations remained on the books for over 200 years. Congress continued to meet on Christmas Day up to 1856. However the excesses of an Old English Christmas had true appeal to the unregenerate flesh, and gradually the outrageous English Christmas appeared in America, though to a lessor degree. It was NOT Christmas as we would think of it or as most of us would want it!

But on the continent of Europe things were changing. In the early 1600’s, much of Europe, especially Germany, celebrated the season as a joyous and warm family time. Carols were sung in the churches, thanks in large measure to Martin Luther, who did not fear to bring the easily sung and well loved tunes of the streets into the church setting.

Huge changes then occurred in the first half of the 1800’s. In 1822 “T’was the Night Before Christmas” was written by Clement Clark Moore and for the first time Christmas was seen in America as a joyous holiday for children. Soon Christmas as a joyous family affair appeared – most everywhere. In1834 Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” and Christmas in England was transformed! The crushing dehumanizing industrial revolution had to give place for a time to consider the wonder of life and the birth of a Savior.

In 1840 Queen Victoria of England married Prince Alfred of Germany, and the warm German Christmas traditions were imported to England—and people were overjoyed!

Christmas was undergoing a powerful transformation, a transformation quite apart from the Church. Over the rest of the century, joy, family, giving, and worship replaced pagan debauchery, lewdness, revelry, rioting and drunkenness in both England and America.

The tradition of gift giving, at first a simple and modest gesture, exploded in America following “The Night Before Christmas,” with merchants sensing great opportunity. Soon Santa was everywhere and people around the world quickly adjusted their celebrations to include him (and the sales he brought for merchants of course). Then with WWII and the time it took to send gifts to loved ones half a world away, the Christmas buying season expanded (again to the delight of merchants) to a full month before Christmas.

So what is our takeaway? Well, the cry to “Put Christ back into Christmas” stands on pretty weak ground historically. Jesus was never the official, governmental, or church focus of Christmas in England or in America.

BUT—Christmas IS here, like it or not. So why not make your own celebration of Christmas? Why not put Jesus into YOUR Christmas? Can you not see Him in the wreath, the evergreens, the candles, the tree? Can you not share Him with others, God’s gift to us, and the Greatest Gift of all?

JESUS the Son of God, who came and enabled redemption for all who believe. The JESUS who comes today as Lord to anyone who will believe, turn, and receive Him. JESUS who will come yet again for all to see: The KING of Kings and LORD of Lords!  Hallelujah!

Yes, why not put Jesus into YOUR Christmas—and COME ALIVE!

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SIN! Do Christians sin? Why would they? Perhaps they feel they have no choice? Don’t they know who they are? How about you?

1 Cor 6:19 tells us a Christian is one spirit with the Lord; any Christian is as righteous and holy as Jesus. This is a MOUTHFUL! 1 Cor 3:16 tells us we are the TEMPLE of the God, and that temple IS holy, for GOD dwells in it, MAKING it holy. Another mouthful!

If you don’t know it, you’ll likely do unrighteous and unholy things. Rule based religion tells you to obey the rules, and then you will be holy. It’s the cart before the horse. And because the power to resist sin in rule based religion is in your flesh, you will fail. Repeatedly.

The Gospel truth is much better. As we found in 1 Cor, you are holy, you are one spirit with the Lord. The Lord in IN you, making your holy. The Lord is bigger than any sin of yours. So live holy. Instead of FIGHTING in the flesh to RESIST sin, REST in who you are: a righteous, holy, new creation united with Jesus. Remember, Paul was writing to those fleshly Corinthians, who were getting drunk at communion and leaving others to go hungry. Yet they were holy. Righteous. One spirit with the Lord. Think about it!

“…consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus… do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts… present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s Ro 6:11 and 14.

Here is the takeaway: sin might presently have dominion over you because you don’t know the truth of who you are. The solution? Confess the truth, that you are under grace, free from sin’s dominion. Soon the KINGDOM reality will become YOUR REALITY. You will have COME ALIVE!

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Some time ago I’d spoken of Jeremiah’s prophecy: a new and much better covenant was coming! Let’s give it another look-see: it’s that good!

The OLD: full of fleshly conditions to be fulfilled in our own strength.
The NEW: unconditional. God would be OUR God, We would be HIS people. A covenant of mercy and grace. He would remember our sins no more, and forever.

And there’s more GOOD NEWS! It says,
“I will put My laws into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.”

This is beyond awesome, friends! It answers those questions, “What is the will of God for my life? What am I supposed to be doing?”

Meaning what? Instead of a rulebook to follow to the best of our abilities and subject to various interpretation and application, what He desires is already IN OUR MINDS, perfectly applied to each situation. And even better, our hearts cry out “Yes, Lord! We WANT to do your will!” And even better beyond that, He has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to accomplish His will despite the odds or demons or whatever.

I think that’s pretty good, don’t you? Forget trying to keep the Commandments; stop losing sleep over the will of God. Just do what He has written upon you – with GUSTO.

Feels good to COME ALIVE, doesn’t it?!!!

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Welcome to Hank’s Place – Fear GRACE? Embrace GRACE!

So many Christians become anxious at the mention of the word, GRACE. Perhaps you are one of them. Grace is no cause for alarm my friend, but for rejoicing. If you think about it you’ll realize John 1:16 says Jesus is God’s hyper-grace personified, for of His fullness which we have all received, and it is grace upon grace.

Many a preacher is scared about life without rules. “You need the Law,” they say. “You need rules for living, boundaries, like river banks—to keep a person in line,” they preach. “Beware greasy-grace – doing whatever you feel like. It’s having a license to sin.”

Time out! First of all, no one needs a license to sin: it comes naturally! I’ve done many Hank’s Place videos pointing out the Law, that is, rule-keeping, or trying to, is designed to point us toward Jesus, our Savior. He saves us, not on the basis of works, but by His grace, It is His unmerited favor toward us!

Consider: Ro 3:24 say, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” In Acts 20:32 Paul commends the Ephesians to ‘God and to the word of His grace,” which is able to build them up and give them the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Ro 5:2 tells us it’s God’s grace in which we now stand. 5:15 says the gift of salvation that has come to us by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Eph 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” See? It’s not about you, it’s all about JESUS!

Best of all is Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”

Yes, the more you realize the grace of God, receive the grace of God, walk in the grace of God, WITHOUT a thought about RULES, the more you’ll be denying ungodliness, worldly unholy desires, and more sensibly, righteously and godly you’ll be living! Fear grace no longer! Embrace grace—and COME ALIVE!

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Hebrews 2:3 admonishes us not to neglect so great a salvation. The one Jesus, our Father, and the Holy Spirit accomplished for us. So GREAT a salvation. Let’s apply some of this great salvation reality to a bible passage that may be terrifying you, dear Christian friend!

It is John 15:1-2 and it begins this way: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away….” And how about verse 6 to feed your fears: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

At first reading it sounds very conditional, doesn’t it? Conditional upon our performance. Jesus has saved us, but we had better stay stuck close to Him, and even if we do, but don’t bear fruit, we will be thrown away and tossed into the fire, the fires of Hell!

Friend, the Gospel is GOOD NEWS, and what I’ve just said is NOT Good News. It is NOT the GOSPEL. Here is the Good News: In verse 2, it begins, “every branch IN ME.” That means believers abiding in Jesus. Remember, He did the grafting. You are grafted into GOD Himself. It’s a great salvation. Then there is the picture is of a vine. A vine is an odd sort of tree – it grows along the ground and climbs up on objects. The part on the ground does not, cannot, produce fruit. In contact with the ground it produces roots. Check it out! But when a branch of the vine can climb up something, it produces fruit.

Now listen, because the translators had a tough time here. The verb translated as ‘takes away’ is Strong #142, AIRO. It means, ‘to raise, to take up, to lift.’ What Jesus is telling us is really good news here. He is assuring us, that if we are in Him, that is, if we are believers, and are having trouble producing fruit because we are down, downcast, downtrodden, flattened by life – whatever – He will lift us up. And when lifted up it is an easy thing for the life that is in the vine to flow through us, the lifted up branches – fruit is produced: everywhere! Hallelujah!

Verse 6 is not directed at you, if you are a believer in Jesus, my friend. Notice how it begins, “If anyone does NOT abide in Me, he is thrown away….” Do you see? Unbelievers do not abide in Jesus, only believers do. Do you believe? Then you abide in Him! Never forget that it is GOD who did the grafting in – and it happened when you first believed. And it does not ‘unhappen’ based on your performance. Salvation, eternal life, is a gift by God to those who INHERIT salvation, they DO NOT EARN IT! So today, rest in Him, knowing you are abiding in Him, by inheritance. Let those life-giving juices of the Spirit flow into you, and Come Alive!

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Watch the video! See Hank explain about the famous Twelfth Man at Kyle Field and Aggie football. And move onto spiritual truth of a Greater One who believes in you. Who never gives up on you. Who will always help you. Always deliver you. Is always on your side.

And there is more—but watch the video!

With the help of the spiritual Twelfth Man, my dear friend, you will COME ALIVE!

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Watch the video from College Station, Texas. It’s about FREEDOM.

Freedom comes with a cost—ever since Adam and Eve there have been challenges to freedom. And great challenges await before the return of THE King of Kings.

Check out Daniel 11:32b, which says, “…but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. (or ‘go on adventures’ from the Diane Layton translation for little people) And how about the next verse, “Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days.” Sounds pressure packed, what’s to come. 

But do NOT fear, my friend, for God has faith in YOU! Walk by the Spirit, know what it means to COME ALIVE and those days will be glorious!

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