Celebration!

Every time there is a fifth Sunday we clear off a spot and celebrate what God is doing with HBF and our opportunity to join Christ in the mission of God. This past Sunday was an exceptionally good celebration!

We had a ministry celebration! Our theme for Sunday was "Reaching Jerusalem". It is my belief that the scripture teaches we are to accomplish the mission strategically (Matthew 28:19-20); simultaneously (Acts 1:8) and supernaturally (Philippians 2:14). These verses tell us what to do, where to do it and how we are to do it.

After opening up the sermon with these principles I preached from 2 Samuel 5:6-10 on David taking Jerusalem from the Jebusites. To conclude the sermon a team from HBF put on a dramatic skit that portrayed the redemptive power of Christ over the plague of sin and death. God was all over it! Immediately following the service we all proceeded to join our children under the big top erected on the property behind the building where over 25 ministries were represented with displays and representatives.

While the children played on the moonwalk the ministry leaders introduced our new members and guests to the many ministry opportunities God has blessed HBF with to accomplish the mission of God in our Jerusalem. It was a blast! The food, fellowship and focus was absolutely beautiful! I can not express how excellent it was to see HBF focused on the Word and work of God. It was one of those things you just had to be there to experience.

I want to throw out some thanks to our Lord for the sweet spirit of His people and the wonderful weather. The ministry workers were absolutely awesome! The amount of work it took by everyone to pull this off was monumental! God blessed as everyone had excellent quality displays which represented the quality of ministry God has blessed our congregation with.

Randy, Jim & the ministry coordination team did an excellent job off coordination and pulling the details together the final two weeks before the event while I travelled for both ministry appointments and our family vacation. I especially want to thank Trish Hunter for suggesting this in passing a couple months ago.

It is my prayer that the Lord continues to keep us focused on the main things so we can simultaneously be used of God to impact our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Divine Appointments

When I think of the term, "Divine Appointment" I typically think of an opportunity to share Christ with an individual who is lost. I don't think we should limit our concept of God's direction in our lives to witnessing alone. Just the other day I was boarding an airplane for Baltimore to visit my friend Doug Pearson when I looked up and I saw Pastor Jeff Adams of the Kansas City Baptist Temple. It was a divine appointment! We both were on the same flight to the same destination at the same time for completely different reasons without any coordination between us whatsoever. That my friends is a Divine Appointment!


I've had a great trip visiting with Doug and planing an upcoming mission trip to India in October. Doug will be with us at HBF July 20th. It will be a great time of catching up on what God is doing in Doug's life, India and sharing Christ right here in Cass County.

Happy Father's Day!

The only thing better than being the father of my two children is being a son of God. 1 John 3:1-2


Below is an excerpt from today's sermon. You can hear the audio at hbfcass.org:

It is Father’s Day. What do you think of when you think of the word Father? Who do you think of? Some of you, like me have loving memories of your earthly father. You know intuitively that the love that you received from your earthly father is only a glimpse of the eternal glory of the heavenly Father.

Others have a gut wrenching emotional pain or resentment when they think of the earthly father who may have abandoned them of abused them.

Regardless of what emotional response the word Father conjures up in your heart and mind, it is important this morning that we acknowledge and appreciate the love of our Heavenly Father. We all may have peace knowing there is a God in Heaven who wants you to call him Father. He eclipses your best or worst experience with your earthly Father and offers you the ability to know him, share him and reproduce his image (The Lord Jesus Christ) in the lives of your disciples.

It’s Father’s Day. Is God your Father?

There are some who are religious; who think coming to church is what makes God their Father. They would be wrong. There are some who are convinced they can call God Father because they are a “good person”. They too are wrong. Still others, who like the Pharisees, thought they could call God Father because of an ancestor who had a relationship with the Lord. That is wrong as well.

There is only one way to call God Father. You may call God Father when you repent and receive the Son as your atonement for sin.

Abraham was the Father of many nations, but Jesus is the author of eternal life according to Hebrews 5:8-9.

The Father says you are my son when you acknowledge the sacrifice of my Son. When we call upon His name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bible teaches we are saved. We become sons of God according to 1 John 3:1-2 & John 1:12.

Do you know God as your Father? It’s Father’s Day!

Today the role of the Father is under attack. To be a man of authority in your home or in this culture is difficult in a culture that will bow its knee to no authority other than its own whim and pleasure. Being a Father is difficult. God the Father knows how difficult it is to love those for whom he has authority over. He is a Father who watched as his children chose the lies of Satan over the Truth of His Word. The Father knows how difficult it is to be a Father. He knows the pain of winning an argument and losing his sons. He knows what it is like to exercise tough love and cast our 1/3 of the angels from the place he had set aside for them.

God the Father knows the joy of Fatherhood. He understands the joy of seeing his only begotten Son come into the world just like you saw your children born. The only difference is that this world didn’t have room for his son from the day of his birth to the day of his death.

The Father knows what it is like to encourage his Son when he does a good thing, like submit to baptism, or preach the Kingdom to a nation who would not receive it. The Father knows what it is like to have to give up his son in order to receive him again.

It’s Father’s Day! The Father knows what it is like to see his son suffer alone while He is helpless to help his cries.

The Father knows what it is like to see his son home from a long journey, bestow upon him all his honor, authority and glory. The Father looks forward to the fruit that is produced through his Son in millions if not billions of souls.

It’s Father’s Day! Do you know the Father through His Son Jesus Christ?

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One Nation Under God

I know it's a little early for the fourth of July, but it is always good to remember the liberty we have in Christ to share the gospel. For those United States citizens it is especially sweet to be free because of the unique situation we find ourselves in. Seldom if ever in history has a nation been founded on ideas and with ideals that ensure it's liberty was part of it's success.

With global agenda's on the rise it's increasingly important that all of us who call ourselves free, use our liberty to set others free. It is easy to get caught up in global warming, global war, global famine, global government, etc. and forget that we have a global gospel and the power and freedom to use it no matter where we live. Though the price is higher in some places than others, the reality is we are free no matter where we live as Christians.

Christians, just like Americans do not have to question if they are free, they must question how they are free. Freedom in itself is not the goal. Liberty is designed to be shared with others.

Galatians 5:13-15
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

For those who might wonder what the picture above is all about, you need to check out your history books. Just as you are free to choose or deny Christ, so the sovereign nation of the United States of America is free to pursue interests that benefit her and the nations of the world. No other nation on earth has given so much to secure liberty for her citizens and the world at large. That is not a political statement but a fact of history.

December 25, 800 AD Pope Leo III blessed and ordained a man named Charlemagne as the political leaders of Europe. Charlemagne is now considered the "father" of Europe as he protected the Roman church and united the continent through a "christian" dictatorship endorsed by the papacy. That my friends is exactly what the founding fathers of the United States of America wanted to rid themselves of. It is ironic that today as we approach the celebration of our liberty as a nation that again, world governance is vogue. National sovereignty, at least according to one religious leader should be trumped by world consensus and peace at all cost is exactly what the Antichrist has on order.

The picture above reminds me of how blessed we are to be free to worship our God in a country that is not controlled by the mandates of the rest of the world or a particular denomination or church claiming authority over all others. The only leader that will be capable of pulling off a sovereign world government is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He will return shortly but not before the Antichrist and his global governance attempts to monopolize the globe economically under the guise of peace. (See Daniel 7-9; Revelation 6,13,17; 2 Thessalonians 2:11 and several other prophecies in old and new testaments)

Liberty is not soley and American concept. In fact freedom from sin is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Men left to themselves will degenerate, but men conformed to the image of Christ will sacrifice thier liberty so others may find thiers in Christ. This is why the scripture concludes we are more than conquerors in Romans 8:37.

Real freedom is only found in one man, The Lord Jesus Christ. When it comes to real freedom, the apostle John said it best:

Revelation 22:20
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.