Baby Steps

About seven months ago, my life changed drastically.  I became a grandfather, and while I didn't understand before what all of the hoopla was about, now I see why everyone thinks their grand baby is the most special person in the world.  Of course, everyone else is wrong, because my little Olivia is the most beautiful and perfect grandchild that there has ever been.

Watching her grow has been a reminder to me of all of the wonders of being a first time parent, without the sleep deprivation, and heavy lifting.  Every day it seems that we are passing another milestone. Olivia is experimenting with real food, she is scooting around the floor at breakneck speed, and she is getting her teeth.  She is growing stronger physically and her personality is blossoming on a daily basis.
With every new accomplishment, with every skill that she masters, new challenges are presented.  Olivia's world is growing and the burden falls upon her parents and upon us as her grandparents to prepare her for the adventure ahead.
In many ways, I see my role as a Pastor in much the same way.  I'm not the one who brought this new life into the world, but I get to enjoy seeing and facilitating it's growth. Babies bring with them responsibilities.  They need to be fed, loved, and nurtured. As they grow, they need to be taught the basic things that they will need to become fruitful and responsible adults.
If every time a baby cries you stick a bottle in its mouth, you might be establishing a pattern for a life-long, unhealthy relationship with food.  If a child learns that all they have to do to get their way is to throw a tantrum, he might grow up to be selfish and demanding as an adult.
With young believers, there are some key principles that they need to learn early in their spiritual life so that they avoid some of the pitfalls of older Christians who have become stuck in their ways.
First, a new believer needs to develop a hunger for the Word of God.  My daughter-in-law is choosing to add new food options slowly and gradually into my granddaughter's life.  She decides on what to give her based on her evaluation of how Olivia will be able to chew, swallow and digest it.  These are all new skills that will be vital later on when Olivia can no longer rely on her mother's milk for nourishment. A new believer needs to be challenged with the Word of God, but not choked with the "strong meat" of controversial doctrinal issues.  They need to learn to recognize the face of God through the picture of Him that they find in His Word.
Second, the young believer needs to commit to the process of discipleship.  Discipleship is more than a program or a course of instruction.  Discipleship is the process of growth that brings a young believer to maturity in Christ.  It is dependent on relationships, the believer's relationship with Christ, with the Spirit, and with other believers.  It can't be something that is left to chance.  It must be pursued daily.
Third, the growing believer must understand the concept of stewardship in a biblical sense. A friend of mine defines stewardship as "Trusting in the promises of God, to deploy the gifts and resources of God, to accomplish the mission of God for the glory of God."  I believe that God calls all believers to love and generosity. Once we understand that I belong to Him, everything belongs to Him, and He wants to use us and everything that He has given us to accomplish His will in our lives and in the lives of others, things come into much clearer focus.
Finally, the mature believer must submit himself to the plan of God and find his place of ministry within the context of Christ's body.  Spiritual growth is wasted if it is not implemented in service to God and to others.
When these things are happening in the lives of new believers, their walk with God thrives and so does the church.
I have enjoyed seven months of milestones in the life of my Granddaughter.  I look forward to the next few; her first steps, her first words, when she can hug my neck, etc.  And if the Lord tarries, a long list of other accomplishments and blessings.  
As a Pastor, I look for similar milestones in the life of my people as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.  And from generation to generation, I look forward to seeing what God will do in and through the lives of those that Grace Harbor is reaching today.

It's Been A While

Hey there! It's been a while since I posted to my blog and so many things have changed over that time.  With some of the new technology that is now available, I thought it would be good to start posting here again and sharing just a little bit about what God is doing in my life and ministry.
In 2014, God began to lead our church on a path of renewal and rededication to our task as His church.  Since that time, we have seen a complete transformation as our church changed it's name from Independent Baptist Church to Grace Harbor Baptist Church, totally renovated our facilities, updated our technology and launched out into new platforms for propagating the Gospel and engaging people with the grace of God through the power of God to the glory of God.
God has blessed us in wonderful ways through this transformation and I am so excited to see what He is going to do in the future as we move down this new path.  You can check us out at www.graceharborgrove.com.

The Death of Democracy, Debate and Duck Calls

 

 

The Social Media universe has exploded with reaction to comments made by Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson in a recent issue of GQ when asked about his view of homosexuality.  The melee that has ensued over his thoughts and the decision of the A&E Network to suspend him from the show, reflects a relatively new trend in the public discourse of our society.  While many will identify the problem as ‘political correctness,’ I believe that it goes much deeper than this.

For the last 40 years or so, our culture has been moving in a direction that publicly welcomes and embraces ‘toleration’ of all views, lifestyles, and choices.  That is, all views, lifestyles, and choices except one; a view that embraces self-evident truths, a lifestyle that submits to and is guided by these lasting principles, and choices that are governed, not by the wanton hungers of the moment, but by a recognition of things that are eternal is not to be tolerated.

Our founding fathers included in the seminal documents of our fledgling nation the concept that some ‘truths’ are fundamental to a free and civilized society.  However, in the centuries since those documents were penned, we have gradually drifted from an understanding of natural law and foundational truth, from a grasp of the necessary interplay between rights and responsibilities, to a hedonistic belief that all truth is relative and that it is cruelty, or worse yet, bigotry to hold men to any standard of form or practice that might in some way inhibit their basest desires.

Some would characterize this trend as an attack on Christianity, and elevate Phil Robertson on the pedestal of martyrdom.  I would suggest that you read the GQ article first.  Yes, he quotes Scripture, but he also simply states that he doesn’t understand why anyone would choose the homosexual lifestyle, and is fairly graphic in his reasoning.  The issue is not Christianity, or even homosexuality, the issue is “Does a public figure have the right to express an opinion that places the burden of truth upon other people?”

Obviously, to the Christian, this is a pivotal and motivating factor in the practice of our faith.  We believe that there is a God and that He has revealed Himself through His Word and that one day all mankind will stand before Him in judgment.  The Bible makes it clear that all have sinned and that every one of us has fallen short of His standard of righteousness.  All sinners will be judged and I find it interesting that the Bible uses the same word to describe gossip that it uses to describe sodomy, it is an” abomination to God.”  The good news is that God has provided a way that we can find forgiveness for our sins and be reconciled to Him through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Logic tells us that once we have found this path to forgiveness and deliverance from hell that it is cruel and unloving not to share that message with everyone that we meet.  This, however, has the strong potential to offend those who do not wish to acknowledge any choice that they make as sinful.

Furthermore, apart from Judeo-Christian principles of morality, this tendency against any moral restraint is destructive to civilized society.  If toleration of any practice is the goal, then what happens when the pedophile begins asserting his right to pursue happiness and sexual fulfillment with your children?  Our founding fathers understood that base human desires have to be controlled in some way if there is going to be any kind of social order.  The liberty that they sought was the ability to live freely within a framework of commonly accepted social norms that govern the activities of men. 

I spent several years coaching basketball and now I serve as a basketball official.  One fact that governs the game at every level is that you can’t play the game without rules.  When the rules are disregarded the game degenerates into chaos.  Over the past 50 years or so, our culture has systematically dismantled the rules of conduct that were put in place so that all men could live in a free, peaceful, and prosperous society.

I pray that our nation will find its way through this moral morass to a renewed vision of freedom that doesn’t denigrate mankind as subservient to his basest desires.

Maybe it will take a few more Christians taking a stand for the truth of Scripture in the public arena.  Or better yet, a lot more Christians living out the eternal principles of their faith in a loving, caring, passionate way.

What Do We Do First?

 

So if we genuinely want revival to come to our church, our family, our community, and our nation, what should we be doing right now?  Because, you see, we have become a people who love to discuss and debate our problems, but we are seldom willing to make the changes necessary to see those problems resolved.  Most of the time, this reluctance is due to the fact that change pinches.  It costs us something to make real substantive changes, and most of the time we are not willing to make the necessary sacrifices to see change come.

Whether we are talking about race relations, economic policies, political agendas or Oklahoma Football, most of us have a hard time seeing the other side well enough to consider what it will take to bring about change, restoration, unity and peace.

When it come to revival, the other side that needs to be seen is God’s side of the issue.  It is God that is the only source of true revival, and it is God that places in our hearts the desire for it.  However, our flesh has its own desires and fights valiantly to see them met.  We tend to want it both ways.  We want to do what our flesh drives us to do while still enjoying the blessings of a close walk with God.  We want to run as far away from Him and His Word as we desire and then blame Him when He feels distant and aloof.

II Chron. 7:14 asks us to consider things from God’s side.  He has laid down a simple set of instructions along with some very precise promises about the result.  And those instructions simply ask us to put aside the things that drive us to live fleshly lives, like our pride…”humble themselves”…like our self-dependence…”and pray”…like our arrogant self-focus…”and seek my face”…like our tenacious pursuit of the desires of our flesh…”and turn from their wicked ways.”  When we are willing to put these things into practice, then He promises to hear, heal, and forgive. 

We have the tendency to ask God why bad things happen to good people.  The problem is, there are no good people.  We are all sinners, so when we come to Him, we must come to Him in the right spirit and the right attitude so that He can make us righteous.  When that begins to happen among God’s people, then we will see revival.

Doubly Blessed

                                  Gene Hughes - 1957                                  Bobby Hughes 2010

The pictures that accompany this story are here just to prove that my children didn’t get all of their athletic genes from their mother.  Fathers Day is always a time for thanksgiving for me.  My own father was a tremendous example to me and I love him very much.  His faithfulness to God and my mother, his love for God’s Word, and his steady, calm determination never failed him in over 50 years of ministry through good times and bad.  As great of a father as he was, he has been an even more devoted grandfather to my children and my two nieces.

Father’s Day also holds some tremendous memories for me.  25 years ago this Tuesday, June 18, 1988, was the Saturday before Fathers Day.  Shelley woke me up very early, saying that she had a back ache and that she thought that she might be in labor.  Only a few hours later, Robert Martin Hughes, made his way into the world.  What an amazing Fathers Day present!

From the very beginning, Bobby had a sweet, compliant temperament.  He was and continues to be a good-natured, compassionate, and fun-loving person. 

His very first word was ‘Ball,’ and much of his life has been driven by his love for sports of every kind, but he also caught a passion for missions and for serving the Lord very early on. 

I can remember a conversation before he was even a teenager where we discussed his plans for the future.  He had determined that he was going to play in the NBA, mind you this was before he grew nine inches in his sophomore and junior years of high school.  He was going to live in the small Amish town of Goshen, Indiana, and give most of his multi-million dollar salary to support missionaries around the world.

Since then, he has had the opportunity to play four years of college basketball and go on multiple missions trips to the Philippines, and these days his goals have changed. 

Now he looks forward to the day when he and his wife, Ariel, can serve the Lord, first-hand as missionaries.  Until then, he is using the skills that God has given him to open the doors of witness to college kids in the Dallas Metroplex.

So you see, I have been doubly blessed.  As a son, I have witnessed the life-long example of a great father, and as a father, God has blessed me with a son, who seeks to follow not me, but God.  You just can’t be more blessed than that.

 

Not Home Yet

Whenever you are doing a study on faith, the life of Abraham always seems to come to the forefront.  As a matter of fact, in Hebrews 11, Abraham occupies 12 verses of the chapter when most of the examples are limited to one or two verses each. 

Abraham’s faith was something unusual.  God called him to get up and go without telling him where he would be going, and in faith, Abraham obeyed.

By faith, Abraham wandered around in the wilderness most of his life waiting for God to give him the inheritance that He had promised.

Although his flesh got the better of him on a couple of occasions, for the most part, he lived his life by faith, even when the outward circumstances seemed to indicate that God had forgotten about His promises.

I am constantly challenged by verse 13, where it tells of all of those faithful ones in the past who died before the promise was fulfilled.  It says that they died in faith, not having received the promises, but in spite of that fact, their reaction to those promises was monumental.

First, they saw them afar off.  They had a vision of what God could do and would do based on His Word.

Second, they were persuaded of them.  Their faith gave them hope despite the outward appearances.

Third, they embraced them.  They brought all of their resources and personal resolve to bear upon the vision.

And finally, they recognized their place in the process.  They were pilgrims, moving from one country to a better country.  They didn’t allow themselves to get too attached to any particular acre of sand.   They knew that God was leading them to a place of victory and blessing.

Their faithful pursuit of God’s promised blessing didn’t go unnoticed.  Verse 16 is one of the most awesome verses in all of Scripture. It says, “…wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.”

Wow! To know that God is proud of us!  What an honor!

The story is told of a faithful missionary who had served many years in a very remote part of Africa, and was finally coming home to America.  As the ship that he was on pulled into port, the missionary noticed on the pier a large contingent of people, replete with a marching band and several Welcome Home banners.   The missionary’s heart jumped for joy as he saw the wonderful welcome and acknowledgement of all of his years of service. 

However, when the gangplank was lowered, a rich political dignitary and his traveling party moved in front of the missionary and was warmly greeted with kisses and hugs and handshakes.  By the time the missionary was able to disembark, the crowd had dispersed and there was no one there to welcome the missionary home.  It had all been intended for the politician.

Heart-broken, the missionary took the long walk to the street corner to catch a cab.  As he walked, he cried out to God, “After all that I’ve done in service to You, now I come home and there is no one here to greet me.  Father, how could you let this happen?”

In a moment of quiet desperation, the missionary heard the voice of the Lord saying, “But, my child, you’re not home yet.”

Those that live by faith know that the real welcome home will come on the day when we stand before the Lord and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joys of the Lord.”

Looking For Something More

 

We’ve been looking at Hebrews 11 and the fruit of faith as it is exhibited in the lives of those that follow after God.  Last night, I saw yet another example of the spiritual emptiness of pursuing the things that the flesh desires.  I had gotten in late and sat down to let my mind relax before I went to bed and flipped on the TV.  Jay Leno was interviewing Jimmy Connors, the world-famous tennis star from the 70’s and 80’s.  Apparently he has written an autobiography that is pretty in-depth about his life before, during, and after his tennis career.  After the usual small talk, Leno mentioned that Connors had had a pretty significant gambling problem throughout his playing days.  Connors agreed, mentioned that it had been in his family for years, and gave a couple of extreme examples of the negative impact that it had on him.  Then came one of those moments that people need to hear more often; a moment in which the blinders come off and the false advertising of the flesh is swept away.

Connors said, “I was looking for something more.  I thought tennis would give me everything, you know, that feeling of the excitement and the thrill of winning and of playing on wide open stages all around the world.  But it wasn’t, it just didn’t satisfy.  I was missing something because tennis didn’t fill my whole day.”

I’ve heard similar laments from the rich and famous, such as Joe Namath and Tom Brady, men who according to the world’s standards have it all, but the emptiness that they express proves the premise of our study in Hebrews 11, that the physical world, experienced by our five senses are only half of the real world and anyone whose focus ignores the spiritual half will end up lonely, empty, and lost.

It confirms a conclusion I drew years ago about why so many people are convinced that Elvis isn’t dead.  Elvis had everything that this world associates with happiness; fame, talent, popularity, wealth, beautiful women, success, and yet he drank and drugged himself to death because he found no peace and satisfaction in any of it.  Many people would rather deceive themselves into believing that he is living on a spaceship with JFK and Marilyn Monroe than to accept that the things that they believe will make them happy are truly just empty promises without a relationship with Jesus Christ.

In contrast, I remember walking down a street in Cebu City, the Philippines, in 1999 and seeing the impoverished conditions of so many of the people there.  They had created for themselves little booths along the sides of the street where, by day, they sold pot holders that they had woven from scraps of material they had scavenged from a nearby factory.  When the sun went down, they simply pulled their wares off of the table and laid down on a matt inside the booth and slept for the night. 

What jumped out at me was the smiles on their faces and the joy in their hearts.  They were laughing and singing and talking as they passed the day.  I mentioned to the Filipino pastor that was with us, “I am amazed at how joyful they are in spite of their poverty.”

He said, “Oh, no, Pastor, this is not poverty.  They make enough each day to supply their needs for that day, so they are satisfied.  Their joy does not come from what they own.  It comes from Who they know.”

Not a bad lesson for American Christians to learn.

Sadly, Jimmy Connors never mentioned finding a solution for his gambling problem.  Based on what I heard in the interview, it is unlikely that he has come to know Christ.  Maybe he needs to move to Cebu for a while and sell pot-holders.  I have a friend that could set him up with a booth and tell him where to find that something, no, Someone, who could fill that emptiness.