Reid Hughes

Lately as I have been confronted with difficult circumstances in my own life, I also have shared with more and more people who are facing unbelievable circumstances. One common question I hear is “Why is this happening?” and “Why is the Lord not stopping this terrible thing?”.

For many of us, life always has and always will have its difficulties that are beyond our control. It seems that more often people are confronted with life altering problems that belie a logical reason. But I was reminded from Scripture that “God works all things together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) So even through the difficult, uncontrollable circumstance; even through the painful emotions that so many of us are experiencing, God works all these thing together for good. And many times, it is God who allows our pain to bring us to a place of His ultimate perfect purpose.

In Exodus 14, God tells Moses to lead the Israelites to a specific place besides the Red Sea. He also tells Moses that He will change Pharoah’s heart to pursue the released Israelites. God had Pharoah chased down the Israelites and corner them at the edge of the Sea. These Israelites had followed God’s leading, but now it had brought them to a place of fear, terror, and emotional turmoil over their impending doom with Pharoah’s army. Did you chase that? God led them to a difficult place where they had no options of escape or relief. But God also told Moses in verse 4 that “and I will get glory over Pharoah and all his host, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” There it is! God orchestrated this life and death circumstance for His children so that “I will get glory”. Wow!

If we truly trust Him; if we truly believe Him; if we truly will follow Him, then He will provide a way of escape and He will receive the glory. God will be known for His greatness and His unlimited ability to do all through according to His purposes. Well, what did He do? God parted the sea waters and revealed dry sea bottom for the children of Israel to escape from Pharoah. Then His ultimate act of His sovereign power was demonstrated in His judgment on Pharoah.

What about you today? Are you facing a “Red Sea” experience? If you are, will you trust and believe God for His solution no matter how you feel? He is called us today to believe Him and that He “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or thing, according to the power at work within us,”. That’s our God. Will you believe Him today?

After studying and preaching on the passage in Mark 8:29 where Jesus asked His disciples “who do you say that I am?”. Wow, he knows what they are thinking…so why did he ask?

It is not important for Jesus to know what people say about him; he is already very secure in who He is. Unlike us, we are so guarded in our emotions and having concerns about what others think about us. Jesus knows exactly who He is and He wants His followers to know exactly who He is. The crucial point is that when I come to really know and believe who He is, that truth will radically alter my life. It will alter my priorities, my desires, and my very will. I love what Tim Keller said about this, “Either you will have to kill Jesus or crown Him. The one thing you can’t do is just say, ‘What an interesting guy.” But actually I am afraid that is what many of us do. We have Jesus common and comprehensible. Within our own understanding, we will never understand actually who He is.

Jesus Himself told us who He is in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,”. Is He your way, your truth, and your life today?

Last night I had the privilege of attending a leadership training for a ministry called “I Am Second”. Even though the name is catchy and can bring a very selfish response, this ministry is on the front of reaching people for Christ. They have realized and tapped into the power of today’s social media. Now with so many people using smart phones, social media keeps everyone informed instantly twenty-four seven.

I have to admit…I love the apps, but to be so connected that I have a hard “disconnecting” brings on emotional fatigue . But please check out their website: www.iamsecond.com

You will find some incredible stories from some incredible people who share how they weathered the storms in their life. Powerful! Pass the word!

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “pleasure as the state or feeling of being gratified”. Hmm, I think I do enjoy being gratified like many others. I really enjoy hot, baked brownies fresh out of the oven. Now that gratifies me! But I am becoming concerned that we live in a day when it seems more and more people are living everyday for gratification or self-pleasure. It seems more difficult to find folks who are as interested in the welfare of others as much as themselves. Could it be that more and more people are becoming self-consumed and more self-centered?
I so enjoy having fun and enjoying myself with my family. But I also know that there is a time and a place for that enjoyment and a time and place for work. Work that is it purposeful and provides life. I just pray we are not seeing a growing generation of self-indulged, pleasure seekers. If so, this generation will lose its purpose for being here and its purpose for life itself.

I guess I should not be…but I am still surprised at how people, even friends, continue to self-destruct. As I look and hear of so many hurts and struggles that people I know are facing, I wonder sometimes what would it take for them to stop and self-examine.
After a while, I realize, even with my slowness to realize truth, that a person should come to a place where they wonder if they are either not responding properly or if they are just responding to their problem at all. Its like they believe to live with a life-controlling problem is normal. And if I don’t have this life-controlling problem and things in my life are actually as God had designed them to be, then I think it is weird, even abnormal and I freak.
The Bible tells us that our human nature naturally responds and breathes that is normal within itself. And our human nature is sin and sin has only one result: death. Death in every area of life. Wow, when will we wake up?

I love the truth that Jesus proclaim to the Pharisees about what the Sabbath is. Just like the Pharisees, many of us grew up believing in a tradition of the Sabbath that actually has its roots in legalism. In Mark 2:27, Jesus proclaims the Sabbath was instituted by God for man’s benefit and refreshment. Then He follows in verse 28 by taking possession of the Sabbath stating that He is Lord of the Sabbath! Wow, that really fired the Pharisees off!

As being Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus had already met every spiritual  requirement of the Sabbath. Remember what He said in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” What the Law required (including the Sabbath requirements) Jesus fulfilled them!

The Sabbath was instituted by God for man’s refreshment; physically and spiritually. Jesus met the demands of the Law so that we might enjoy rest in Him. Rest from striving to be a better Christian; rest from striving to meet a righteous expectation; rest from my flesh’s desire to perform for the approval of others.  Hebrews 4: 1-11 says that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. Verse 9-10 states, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered HIS rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”

Our true Sabbath is when we cease from striving and surrender to the Lordship of Christ in every area of our lives.

I am amazed with our current world events. It is like God is giving us every opportunity to get ready for His return. Thankfully, God is not like us; impatient, uncaring, or self-centered! But in His wisdom, He is moving within His creation. For many believers in the United States, there is an unsettled feeling of nervousness with the direction of our nation. But, we must remember…God is not caught off guard! He knows exactly the direction of our nation and has ordained everything for His purposes.

Jesus warned the Jews in Matthew 24 to be watching the signs for His return and the end of this current world’s story. Should we not also be watching the signs? Or should we just sit and trust that He will work everything for His purposes? Any believer who has studied the Scriptures should know that God will work everything for His purposes. One of those purposes is for Him to live His life in and through His followers. When Jesus physically left this world, He did not leave His followers without a mission; to continue the proclamation of the gospel. Whether a believer is a Calvinist, fully reformed or a Armenian, fully motivated to reach the world isn’t the important question. The important question is “are you allowing Jesus to continue His life mission in you?

That will be the all-important question as we watch the signs.

Until…..

Last night’s tour entitled Theology: Who is God? possible was not so eye opening as the previous tours. But as Dr. Tackett shared and I concur, it is apart of all the tours and is the most important one.

Why the most important tour? As was stated in the video, “the ultimate source of all truth is the nature, character, being, and attributes of God Himself.” Wow, if we really want to know truth, the we must begin and dig deep into the knowledge of who God is. It is within the very nature of His being that all truth is found and revealed. If that is true, can we rely on the trustworthiness of something that is not based or founded by God Himself?

When we speak of the knowledge of God, we could say that we know of God, but do we KNOW Him. Have we personally experienced Him in a intimate way? That is where Jesus stated in John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Christ’s prayer here is intrinsically tied to and personal, relationally knowledge of Him and eternal life. Wow!

Another item revealed last night in our study was the Jesus Seminar. Now, normally when you hear of a group of “evangelical” scholars writing research papers on Christ and coming together once a year to discuss their research findings….well, that should be a good thing. But the sad truth is that the Jesus Seminar moves to a revisionist history of Christ and His gospels. Instead of believing the very original manuscripts of the Gospels, the Jesus Seminar meets to decide what words were really stated by Christ. You may be thinking, “I am glad I don’t read any of that stuff!” Well, how do you know that you don’t? How do you know when something written or stated about Christ is true or false? How would you know if you picked up a “Christian” book at Barnes & Nobles that it was in fact accurate to the Word of God? The only way to know is to KNOW ultimate TRUTH! That being of an intimate knowledge of God and His Word.

It’s time to get our armor on!  What about you? Do you KNOW Him?

Our tour last night covered “Anthropology- Who is man?”. Again Dr. Tackett shared some profound thoughts on this subject. Starting from the basis of what Scripture says man is and what the world (or better defined- leading teachers and influencers in our world) says who man is.

The world view or as some would call it “humanist” view states that man (and woman) are inherently good. There is no inherent evil in man’s heart. These leading humanist also stated that man is monistic; or that man consists of only the material matter of his body. They would believe that man lives in this life and then dies; going back to nothing.

The Scriptural view is that man is inherently sinful. Scripture states that man has a sin problem (Gal. 5:17-21; Romans 6:12; 8:5-14). Dr. Tackett stated that Scripture reveals that man is dualistic; that is man consists of both the material body and spirit. This belief would hold that man’s mortal, physical body will cease, but his spirit is created to live on. Thus, the problem of a sinful spirit living on within the realm of God-revealed reality; thus a person in their sinful state living apart from their Creator.

What do you think about yourself? Do you believe that you are inherently good? I mean we really are trying to be better people….aren’t we? Do you believe that Maslow and Rogers were right in that man is not inherently evil?

The great question from last night was, “Then where does evil come from?”

Do you believe that what you believe is true and real? What are your thoughts????

Last night Truth Project was great covering Philosophy and Ethics. Dr. Tackett asked an important question “Have you ever been taken captive?”. Captive in the sense of being drawn into something without you knowing that you have fallen into or under its control. This thought continues the idea of being held captive by the  lies and deception of this world. In quoting 2 Timothy 2:24-26, Dr. Tackett utilizes this scripture in how we are to respond to those who “having been held captive by him (the devil) to do his will”. That is why Scripture warns us against hollow and deceptive philosophy: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (Col. 2:8)

Under the ethical implications of post-modernism, there is no basis for ethical standards or ethical language in a naturalistic worldview. In other words, in our world’s thinking today, there is no need for a universal standard of what is right and what is wrong. There is no point of determination. Remember Dr. William Provine in his video debate at Sanford University stated: “no gods or purposive forces; no ultimate foundation for ethics; no free will; no life after death; and no ultimate meaning in life”. Wow…what do you think about those statements from an expert!

Dr. R.C. Sproul also stated that we have a crisis of ethics because of a confusion between morality and ethics. Morality is simply defined as “what is” in a particular people group’s action. Ethics is simply defined as “what ought to be” in the same groups actions. The revision of morality and ethics has lead to a statistical ethics which says whatever the majority says is right and normal, will be the new standard.

Wow, this thinking is definitely permeating our culture view of the world and what is normal.

What do you think? You do think rightly…don’t you? Let’s discuss your thoughts and comments.