Every year I try to put myself in Mary’s sandals. I try to imagine what it was like to look upon his face for the first time. To touch his head, to feel his breath, and to know it is the breath of God. What went thru her mind as she realized she was...
As I travel down a street in Fort Worth named Lancaster, I pass thru the mission area. I have had to go that way many times, as of late. With each trip my heart hurts, and my spirit instantly turns to prayer. The homeless souls are so numerous you would have difficulty counting them. ...
He comes by when he is in need of validation. So many times I second guess if I should help, but Christ always enters my heart to remind me of how much I love him. Christ took time for everyone. He never turned his back or neglected a soul. As I hug this young...
I love the bible. I love scripture and mostly the letters in red. One of the factors in loving something is being critical of it or critical of a belief in it. That shows how much you love it. If you didn’t love it you wouldn’t want it to improve and be loved and...
I wake up each morning at six. As I rise from the covers I have a prayer in my thoughts. My goal in waking up is not personal perfection, but surrender, and union with God. Any preoccupation with my own moral goodness keeps my eyes on myself and not on God… or grace… or...
Open your heart… Open your mind… Look beyond your understanding… Listen to those around you… Watch in silence… Remove your ego and look upon others with an open heart… Listen to the earth… The animals… Its all the word of God. God speaks daily in our lives and not just through the written word....
As we hug I can feel the depth of her love. After forty one years I know in my heart that her love is unconditional. I am asked so many times by others how to have a successful marriage? How to be soulmates in a world that teaches everything but that? Love is an...
No matter your belief. No matter your choice of how you live. If it does not end with you becoming stronger in love, it is wasted time. The image of Christ is one of love. These are the fruits of Christ spirit: “Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such...
I hear so much talk among Christians and the world, about sexual preference and transgender roles. My thoughts always turn to Phillip and the Eunuch. A Eunuch was a boy chosen because he had female characteristics. He would then have his genitalia removed. This would take away his desire and he would look very...
He talked with such love. As he talked sadness filled his eyes but joy came from his spirit. Him and his wife had lost their infant child, and instead of letting it destroy them they used it to inspire. The show he produced on AGT, in his daughters name, was breathtaking. It was then...
Do you ever feel lost in the desert? Deserted, desolate and lonely. As I have moved from understanding God as a rule maker with a iron fist, to knowing him as a loving God who accepts everyone right where they are at… I feel alone. Our society and our country are so fixated on...
Sometimes I feel like life would be easier if I went along with the status quo. However, God put in me a deep desire to question everything, and to search tirelessly for answers. Whether it be medical, political, religious, or science I long to learn more… understand more. I research always and look for...
All my life I have been a part of conversations about scripture. What does scripture mean? Is that person following the correct interpretation of scripture? Does his lifestyle fit into the bible as we see it? I myself spend countless hours tearing apart a single sentence in the bible. I have even studied verses...
The last first day was hard. The last first day brought reality to the surface like a slap in the face. Tuesday, August 13th was my grandsons last first day of school. He is a senior this year and so many things will change. It made me think of how the clock only moves...
I study during all of my spare time. I read not only scripture but viewpoints from theologians and wise people of scripture. I prefer all different viewpoints to get a better picture of the true meaning of the word. Reading the bible and putting it into our lives is hard. It is a puzzlement. ...
Eight years. Eight years God has been using me to deliver the HJD message. For eight years I have been sending this message to the lead pastors of my church with no acknowledgment. There are 8000 people who read HJD and many who use it to better their lives. However, my lead pastors do...
The Grizzly Giant Redwood. Three hundred fifty feet tall. One hundred feet around at the base. As I stand in the shadow of this unbelievable creation I think of you father. How you took a seed the size of my fingernail and with love and nurturing you turned it into this amazing tree. You...
Quantum Physics fascinates me! Inside each atom, the building block that God used to make everything… there is a proton and a neutron. Beyond that is so much more. Inside the human body there is seven billon billon billon atoms. That is seven with 27 zeros. Space is endless and growing. There is...
It was not our fault. Nothing we had done caused our situation. In a short period of time, our company, lost six hundred thousand dollars in two contracts. Call it politics or call it budgeting, but the reality is… it’s gone. However, when God closes doors he gives you windows. Is it possible to...
The concert was moments from starting as I sat in contemplation at the crowd. Forty thousand strong, all there for the same experience. As I watched… and thought about each… so many questions came into being. We are all the same. Each person there has people they love. Each one uses the restroom many...
I openly talk about lovemaking. Among my family and friends it is a subject of laughter and discussion. When two people love each other, the way Lorna and I do, it is a beautiful thing. Why has society made it into something it’s not? Why have we turned it into something dirty that we...
Our world… our view of heaven and God, seem to be driven by our human egos. I struggle with liking to play games. My family and friends love to spend time together playing cards, dominos, and such. Nearly everyone I know likes to watch sports and cheer for their favorite team. I struggle with...
The thought of you. So many times I have told my amazing wife “I am not only in love with you, but I have been in love, with the thought of you, all my life”. God is a thought. A thought we all start out being in love with. That thought comes from a...
There is a word in Korean “HAN”. There is no english translation, but it means a sadness so deep even tears won’t come. But still there is hope. I sit at my window and I watch so many on the street. I see “Han” in their faces… their eyes. They do not truly understand...
Until we learn to talk seriously about the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes we will never truly know the heart of Christ. There the primary language is unlearning… letting go… surrendering… serving. Our western religious ideas are more about climbing and not about descending. We are fixated on doing it right. On...
My conversation with him was one of listening. Listening to how he could never do enough, or be good enough, for his parents. He could never be good enough to please God… or so he was taught. At which he said “why even try”. He told me he was estranged from his parents and...
Over the past half century we have reached the moon. We have split the atom. We cloned animals and human flesh. In the past twenty years we have discovered an endless space. We use to believe there were six stars for every human. Now we know there are six galaxies for every human. Our...
The moon… cold and void… moved in line with the sun. Our sun. The source of light and human existence. The star that shines the light of Gods’ brilliance and provides life energy to everything it illuminates. On that day recently, and only for a brief moment, the moon covered the Sun. The feeling...
They hate us! They try more often than not to show their hatred. It has become a life issue. Why? Not sure… but it seems to grow and fester as any disease does. We pray, but God has not softened their hearts yet, but hope is there. So many have said we should hate...
I hadn’t seen her in sometime and to greet her brought joy. We talked about family and moms. I then asked about her boys. As we talked about her gay son her comments made my heart hurt. “I know God still loves him? I think God still cares about him?” When a child’s own...
As I read the account of a slave market my tears flowed in abundance. Men and women were forced to stand on a block of wood… naked… as buyers examined. As buyers threw insults and as they yelled out prices they would pay. In my mind I could see it… I could feel the pain… the humiliation. I then pictured myself on that block. Naked and afraid and wondering “why me”? I pictured myself full of sin… full of selfishness and ashamed of who I was. I could hear the small amounts that satan and his demons would pay for me. One who worships God but falls so short. One who loves God but is so full of sin… so full of selfishness. Then I heard his voice! Above the noise. Above the insults. Above the humiliation. Jesus… standing at the back of the crowd yelling “I will buy him”. Don’t care what he has done, who he is or what he looks like. I want him. Name your price and it is yours. I love him that much. He then walked up to where I was standing. With outstretched hands and love in his voice said “let’s go home”. Slavery was and still is a horrific thing, that in the name of Jesus we need to eliminate. We are all slaves to sin. Thank goodness Jesus is willing to pay the price for our freedom.
In John 8:34 thru 38 Jesus says “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.
Lorna and I had been to Memphis Tennessee on our annual anniversary trip. As many of you may know I am a huge Dr. King fan and so I like to visit places that are significant in his life. The Civil Rights museum in Memphis is the very place where he was assassinated. As we entered the museum the first room was how it all began. The accounting of slaves being taken from Africa, and brought here to be sold as if they were cattle or some such livestock. Men and women forced to stand in front of a crowd of people, naked… afraid… and humiliated. They stood there, alone, as men hurled out insults as well as bargaining for the price they would pay. The young men, with muscles were given the highest premium. Not only for the work they could do but because they would be good breeding stock. The young women were valued based on the way they looked naked, and if they would be good breeding stock, for the men that were being bought. These men and women. Made in God’s image. Given his spirit at their creation, were sold with no regard to their soul and the value they had to our God. Many times this was done in the name of God, by people who called themselves Christians.
As I stood there reading these accounts. As I took in the details and envisioned that market place in my mind, the tears flowed. My crying was uncontrollable as I felt their pain. As I felt their humiliation. As I had compassion on these men and women who are children of God. Men and women who are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Are we not all brothers and sisters? Formed in the mind of God. Given his DNA at our conception. Does he not, with a single breath, give each of us life all in the same way? Are not you and I, and your neighbor, and your enemy, and these slaves of long ago, all related thru our heavenly father?
Malachi 2:10 – Don’t we all come from one Father? Aren’t we all created by the same God? So why can’t we get along? Why do we desecrate the covenant of our ancestors that binds us together?
John 1:3 – Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.
Genesis 1:26 – God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
Luke 6:35 – “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind”.
Colossians 1:15 – We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.
I could keep going verse, after verse, after verse, that simply says we were all made in his image and given life for a purpose. So why do we hate as we do?
We live in a dualistic world where we find it necessary to feed our egos by choosing sides. I want to be right, so you have to be wrong. We feed hatred from that. We feed a feeling of superiority from that. I see it everyday as so many compete with each other over race. Over religion. Over politics. Over our standing in the community. Over who’s right and who’s wrong like anyone knows that but God. We place ourselves on such a pedestal as to think we can judge others based on our ideas as if our ideas are right and others ideas are wrong.
Why can’t we simply see each other, equally in the eyes of our God. Trust me when I tell you that your sin, my sin, is the same, not worse and not better than the very man that brings destruction to this world. Because we are all related by our Heavenly Father can’t we simply be the human family instead of the human race?
You may say “Wake up Perry! We can’t all sat around the campfire singing Kumbaya”
But is that not what will happen in the presence of our Savior and our God?
As I saw myself standing on that block of wood. Naked… ashamed… and wondering why me I thought of how my Savior sees me. He looks past the dirt. He looks past the ugliness. He looks straight into my soul and he sees himself. He sees the love that was given to me, the day he made me, and breathed life into my spirit. He paid a great price to take me away from a life of slavery.
Romans 8:38-39 – So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture
So the next time you find yourself thinking bad thoughts of someone that may be different than you. Next time you find hatred in your heart because of differences in religion, politics, race, or simply because their life is different than yours. Stop and look at them the way Jesus would. From a place of his love that can be found in your heart… because he put it there!
In His Love, Perry D. Hoover
Footnote; Slavery is still being practiced today right here in our country. Young girls and boys are being sold as subjects of sex and perversion. If you can, please give of your blessings in an effort to stop it. https://love146.org
