Never Lose Hope

A number of years ago, researchers preformed an experiment to study the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of lab rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over twenty-four hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest but because they suddenly had hope! Those animals were conditioned to believe that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them.

One of the most tragic ways to describe a person is to say, “They are hopeless.”

We can’t make it without hope. Paul spoke of Abraham and Sarah’s plight, he states that Abraham, “Against hope believed in hope” (Romans 4:18). When the situation looked impossible from every human perspective, Abraham had hope because he had confidence in God. This caused him to live as one who had hope. Abraham would have found it impossible to have hope apart from his faith in God. His was not the hope of an animal driven by instinct. Nor was it just the hope of a man simply gifted with intellect. It was the unique hope that only a child of God can possess by the grace of divine inspiration, the hope that comes from the foot of the cross and the throne room of glory. The writer of Hebrews declared; “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16NKJV

Hope is an attitude, an expectant outlook on life. It is a gift God has granted to all. No one can take it from us. When and if we lose hope, it is because we have given it away and tell ourselves we will not believe or hope anymore. Consider a man in one of the most hopeless situations imaginable – Dr. Victor Frankl. He was one of the many Austrian Jews sent to a Nazi Concentration camp near Prague during World War II. For the next few years, he suffered indescribable indignities, humiliations, and sufferings at the hands of the Nazis in four different death camps, including the infamous Auschwitz. After regaining his freedom, Dr. Frankl described his ordeal. The Germans had taken all his possessions, including his watch and wedding ring; they had shaved his head and stripped the clothing from his body. He had nothing on his person he could claim as his own. They stripped him of everything they thought might give him hope. However, that was not the whole story. As Dr. Frankl stood before his captors, he realized there was one thing they could not take from him – His attitude. Although at that moment the Nazi’s held his future in their hands, he still has the power to choose how he would face it. Hope or hopelessness – the choice was his. As a Jew, he had faith that Jehovah would save His chosen people, spiritually, if in no other way. But that knowledge alone was not enough to help him survive a Nazi death camp. He survived because he never lost hope in his heart that God would spare him physically the way he wanted to be spared.

Hope anchors our soul! Hope is our comfort! When the answers don’t come when we feel they should, its hope that keeps our head above water and causes us to keep believing.

Faith is an “unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence.”  

But Hope is “a feeling that what is wanted will happen; desire accompanied by expectation.”

Faith is the belief God can perform the miracle. Hope is the feeling that says God will do the miraculous for us. Faith is what we know about God. Hope is what we feel about God. Faith is a condition of our mind. Hope is a condition of our heart.

Hope is not contingent on circumstance.

Having lost 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen (thousand), seven sons, three daughters and all his servants in one day, Job confessed his inability to find God: "Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. (Job 23:8-9 NKJV)

Bankrupted of his possessions, bereaved by the death of all his children, covered with boils, Job was left with little save the misguided counsel of his world-weary wife. She suggested that he simply curse God and die, but Job had bigger plans. Why? Job lost everything but his hope.

He could not find God but he knew God had not lost him!

Job said; “But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10 NKJV) And the reason why Job trusted God:  My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

(Job 23:11-12 NKJV)

Job knew the law of the harvest and that what one sows he reaps and his hope was in the fact that he knew he had sown right seeds. This is the only reason I can find why Job would not curse God and die. He knew how he had walked, how he had kelp the commandments of God, how he had treasured the Word of God. His life firmly fixed on God’s forever-settled Word; Job could see beyond the veil of time’s tears and confidently declare, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh (body) shall I see God:” (Job 19:25-26 KJV)

He knows God is coming back some day and he would see God then but Job declares in hope that he would also see the end of his trouble and the hand of God in his body.

His commitment to truth – without conditions – guarded him, while God guided him to an end that was more blessed than his beginning.

God does not want to give us a formula. God wants to give us focus. Faith is how we come to God, but faith does not produce the miracle, God produces the miracle. Faith says I believe, but it is hope that screams, “God if You will, You can touch that part that is hard to believe”.

Hope says when we get there God will already be there working there. The Almighty goes before us. How will it happen, how can we handle this, when will we be able? Question after question rush through our mind, but hope screams out, “God has already been there!” When I get there, when we arrive at that set time of our life, He will have already begun putting the pieces in their right place.

God declares:

Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. (Isaiah 49:16 NKJV)

Don’t ever lose Hope, God is working ahead of you.

Tell Your Faith Story

Sunday was Heritage day here at FPB. It was a blessed and wonderful event. One of the highlights for me was the first service altar time. Watching all those come and have the elders pray over their lives was great. I personally knelt and ask Elder E.O. Winkler to pray for me. Oh did he pray. I felt the strong hand of God though those prayers. I heard others talking about the blessing of hearing their Elders pray for them. It was a blessed day.

I hope we never forget the rich history we have in this Apostolic Church.

We need to keep passing the stories of the great hand of God in our lives, on to those around us. It builds faith and encourages lives. We too often think our story is not that big of a deal but if the Almighty was involved, it was a big deal. Someone else needs to hear your story of faith.

As I mentioned yesterday, we often go through valleys and down paths that we don’t understand the why, I personally have such events in my life. Yet, I remind myself as Elder James Lumpkin once reminded me, I may have lived there so someone coming behind me will have a faith story. Some things we walk through is simply so we can be the wittiness of the fact that others can make it. Tell your story of faith. Tell us how God has touched your life. Never forget to listen and tell all the stories of faith. It’s part of our rich yesterday.

I want to share with you something my daughter Rachel wrote in the Sunday News Letter. I hope you enjoy it like I did.

For me the old hymns bring back memories of those who have led us

and propelled us to where we are now…

of Eva Williams and her love for hats,

of Sister German and her warm smile,

of Brother and Sister Burrow leading the Sunday morning singing.

Those hymns remind me of hot camp meeting nights,

of tambourines and a passionately played piano,

of hand-clapping and toe tapping

of bobby pins and liberally used cologne.

Give me that old time religion,… It was tried in the fire,

Makes me love everybody,

It will do when I’m dying, It will take us all to Heaven,

Oh give me that old time religion!

The sound of those hymns recall to mind the tinny notes played during

the introduction of “I’ll Fly Away”,

the enthusiastic wheezing of an

old organ during “Just over in the Gloryland”,

and the whole-hearted singing of a congregation during, “At the Cross”.

Yes, I love the old hymns.

They fill me with a heavenly hope.

The same hope once felt by the elders of old.

The divine pull towards a home on another shore.

Until that blessed hope is realized, I will continue singing…

When we all get to Heaven,

What a day that will be!

When we all see Jesus,

We’ll sing and shout the victory!

Written by Rachel Crabtree

Let us never forget to tell our stories of faith. This generation needs to hear what God has done in your life so tell the story again.

I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only. O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come. Psalm 71:16-18 NKJV 

That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments; Psalm 78:6-7 NKJV

Will We Walk By Faith?

Yesterday was a wonderful day at FPB. It was our annual summer picnic and fellowship. The service before was a blessed event of being with the family of God. At that service Brent preached a faith filled message. Encouragement to continue on and put ones trust in God was in the room.

For you who don’t know Brent he is a great father, and husband and runs his own company which has been number one in central Arkansas for the last two month in its field. He and his wife now direct a ministry at FPB. Brent is also in a wheelchair because of disease that is holding him hostage. If anyone one is backing up what they preached with their living he is. His message was powerful and pushed us to walk by faith.

There were two things that jumped out at me in his message. Two things I hope I never forget.

1.      In his text found in 1Kings 17, he uses the story of Elijah going to the widow’s house. Verse 9 says that God told the prophet to go to the widow’s house because He had told the lady the prophet was coming. “…I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” Sometime before Elijah ever arrived or even had need to go, God had spoken to this lady and told her that she was going to help the prophet. More than that that she was going to provide for the man of God in this famine. But somewhere between that visit from God and when Elijah shows up this woman has forgotten or lost hope in what God told here. When Elijah gets there he finds the woman of promise planning to die. The woman who God promised would have a miracle during the famine has given up and is planning to quit. She doesn’t even act like she knew the prophet was coming. Oh, we know that her faith is rekindled when the prophet get there but I couldn’t help but wonder how many promises we continually discard because things get rough or they don’t happen as soon as we thought they should. I have to remember that God is not limited by my circumstances at the moment. His promises are still the word of His mouth and He cannot lie. Wow! I will never look at this story the same. Don’t get so caught up in your struggle that you don’t even notice God has provided you a miracle.

2.      Brent also used the feeding of the five thousand. This may be the only miracle that all four of the Gospel’s record. It is during this event that when the need of dealing with all these hungry people rises, Jesus tells the disciples to feed them (Matthew 14:15). To which Philip responds with how much money it will cost to feed these people (John 6:5-7). Jesus was God in the flesh; He knew what He was going to do. He asks the disciples what they were going to do. As Brent asked us yesterday, God knows what He is about to do but what are we going to do? How are we going to respond to powerful call of God to be faithful?  The Almighty is not worrying about what He can do in and around our lives. God is going to see if we trust Him enough to respond in faith.

Too many times we want to do the will of God and have faith but we will only walk by faith if we have our own safety-net or back-up plan. I’ve seen too many people attempt to step out in faith but they approach the call of God saying, “Well, I’ll take this step but if it don’t work out I still have this option.” That is not faith I don’t think. Paul instructed us to put on the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6. In listing the armor he says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith…” The word shield here means, a large shield as in door shaped. It comes from a word that means a portal or entrance, a door or gate. The shield of faith here is a door size shield. We are commanded to walk behind it and we will often not be able to see around it. God does not need you and me to make the path we just need to trust Him enough to walk behind faith. He has planned great and wonderful steps and is excited about where He is taking us (Psalm 37:23). I wonder if God is looking at you today and asking what are you going to do?

Thanks Brent for a wonderful message and I trust we will all stop and reexamine how we are handling our faith.

We The People... It Starts With Us!

This week we will celebrate the birthday of our nation. I must say I am proud to be an American. Though I see many things that I don’t like in our government and in the attitude of our nation, I still am happy to live in this land of the free.

Yet, as I preached Sunday, there definitely needs to be a change. I hate sin and the affects it is having on our daily lives. I too wish things would change. I strongly believe in voting and also voting my convictions and my doctrine. Yet, I see a spirit of hypocrisy that has gripped our day.

We want our government to change it spending habits yet we in the church never consider doing the same in our lives. We scream at the moral decay of Hollywood yet we continually buy their programing and act as if that’s just the way it is. I see a society, even in the church, that the soul reason we want change in our world is so we can have more and be more comfortable. We tend to bend toward an attitude that says, let’s all just get along and be happy. We would rather the economy change than the moral decay change. We stand and declare the sins of adultery, fornication and homosexuality and live as if we forgot that looking at immoral pictures and websites, laughing and enjoying crud and immoral stories and jokes and reading books with the same overtones are included the same scripture as sin. We scream about the underhandedness of government and corruptions and forget that lying includes our business and our personal lives every day and the contracts and deals we make and how we write our checks.

We also tend to forget that lying is listed as just a horrible sin as the moral issues we shout against. In reality we want the top to change but we spend little time changing us.

To borrow an example from another minister;

If we want a better nation then this nations needs to be made up of better states.

If we want a better state then this state needs to be made up of better counties.

If we want better counties then we need to have better cities in those counties.

If we want better cities we need better communities in those cities

If we want better communities we need better churches in those communities.

If we want better churches then we need better people in those churches.

What we see in our world today is an outgrowth of its people. It all starts with we the people.

It’s high time we stop hiding behind the excuses that this world is just going to get worse. Yes, I know Paul said that evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, but we need to stop just reading a little sentence in the Bible and building a doctrine on it. We need to read all the context of this scripture in 2 Timothy 3.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2Timothy 3:10-15 KJV

One translation says, But you must continue in the things…

Yes, this world is in bad shape but it didn’t get that way from the top down.

It started that way with us. If you want your world to turn around you will have to live in it differently.

So what do we do? Where do we start? Can we make any difference?

The answer is yes, according to the Bible. One example of such a turnaround in a nation is found in the book of Daniel (Daniel chapter 9), the book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah chapter 1), and the book of Ezra (Ezra chapter 9). These three men fell on their face and repented for themselves, their families and the sins of their nations. These three prayers take place in the same generation. Daniel receives the promise that Israel will return to their home land so he repents for his nation. Nehemiah starts that journey by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but before he begins he repents for his nation. Ezra goes to rebuild the temple and he too falls on his face and asks God to forgive them. Yes, it was an uphill battle but it was filled with miracles. Three men repent and lead in a right direction and change the course of a nation back to God Almighty.

So, can we make a difference? The answer is yes. With God all things are possible. Yet, we need to realize that change will not come from Washington DC. Change starts with us. If we want our world to change, we will have to live in it differently. Start by falling on your face before God and repenting for yourself, your family and your nation. Then with a repented heart get up and live out your life for the Almighty every day. If you will be true to Him you can expect the miracles. It all starts with You and I! We are the people…!