You Have the Same Life That Jesus Had on the Earth Pt. 2

Here’s a simple question that will help you to better understand Part 1 of this topic: Since Jesus is our Head, and we are His Body, why wouldn’t we, as the Body, have the same life as is in the Head? The answer is, of course, that we do have-as the body of Christ-the same life as Jesus, the Head had on the earth, and has today, in Heaven. Remember that just because we can’t grasp the reality of this truth doesn’t make it a lie.

If we, as the Body of Christ, don’t have the same life in us that Jesus had in Himself, on the earth, then who’s life is in us? II Corinthians 5:17 states that all persons in Christ are new spiritually,, including having a new spiritual life. That being said, who’s life is now in that new creature, in Christ? Where did that life come from?

The simple answer is, of course, that our spirit’s life comes from God’s life, from His very being. In the natural, a child has the same life in him/her that the parents have. My natural life came from my parents, not someone in the neighborhood. My DNA came from my parents. Spiritually, our DNA comes from God Himself, not an angel or other entity. Let that thought soak in your heart. Let it percolate in your mind. And then act on what you believe. Doing so will change your life. It certainly has changed mine, day by day.

Pretty Poison Pt. 2

Fast forward to after accepting Christ into my heart, shortly after high school graduation. My love for music continued, except now I was learning hymns as well as songs of the Jesus Revolution. Names like Andrae Crouch, Love Song, and Nancy Honeytree. were gaining popularity among Jesus people. Music that was pretty upbeat, with messages of encouragement, although not always evangelically true.

Because of who some people were, their music became popular. if those persons wrote 2 or 3 songs lining up with Scripture, the next song might escape the scrutiny of the first few. I’ve said for years now, never base your theology on the words of your favorite composer. Since faith comes by hearing the Word of God, doubt comes by hearing something outside of the New Testament. Measure everything by God’s Word.

Times haven’t changed. So much music in church services today falls into the same situation: pretty music with poison words. The devil, who was once in charge of praise and worship before God’s throne, is an intelligent enemy. He knows that pretty music wrapped around toxic words and phrases can easily catch peoples’ attention. The pretty music is a vehicle carrying deadly cargo, something to be guarded against.

Just having some catchy chords has hooked many a believer over the years, including myself. More than once I’ve had to stop listening to a certain song, due to the wrong words-even when the music appealed. Saying that there’s nothing good in us can’t be backed by New Testament teaching that says that, as believers, we have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit living in us. That’s GOOD NEWS!

That’s why I so appreciate the music of David Ingles, who has written dozens of songs which are all thoroughly scriptural, with chords and notes which stay with the listener. At times, I’ll hear one of David’s many songs on the inside, giving God’s answer for something I’m facing. Thank God for good music.

The next time you’re hearing pretty music, listen to the words. Do they line up with the Bible, or are they just someone’s opinion? Do they encourage you, lift you, or are they pulling you down? If the words aren’t in line with the New Covenant, consider turning the music off and doing your own singing to the Lord.

Perhaps some may think I’m being nit-picky about the type of music we should listen to and, perhaps, I am. I do know that some of the rock music of the 60s contributed to the breakup of my family. More so from the words than the music for, as I stated in my previous offering, some of the 60s rock and roll became easy listening music of the 90s.. Apparently the words mattered more than the music.

Pick your music carefully. Hear what’s being sung, lining them up with the New Testament. If a song just “grabs” your attention, though not lined up with the Bible, you’ll have to make your own decision as to whether you continue to hear that particular song. And musicians, realize that words matter, especially when “carried” in a pretty musical format. If God has gifted you in this manner, guard that gift with your heart. Consider changing words to line up with the New Testament. You can do this. Ask God; He’ll show you what to do.

Because knowledge is progressive, we should know more than those of even 50 years ago. Love is a choice, not a feeling. Faith is an act, not a feeling. So let’s overlook old revelation. In other words, have as much sense as a cow eating hay: eat the hay, leaving the sticks. And be blessed as a result.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2024

From Death to Life, Part 5: A New Dream

Four weeks after Neil Armstrong made “one giant leap for mankind,” the Woodstock music festival was winding down its last night, and I was attending my third evening service with real people.

Real people, as in genuine, caring individuals who appeared to accept me as someone searching for something I didn’t have, but couldn’t define or explain. Just 17, full of anger, fear, and resentment towards women. A resentment based, in part, on my relationship with my mother, now out of the house. For which I was, at that time, glad.

Pastor Kline led us in a few songs, took the offering, and gave the evening message. To this day I don’t remember one word of what he preached. What I do remember was him doing something at the end of his sermon that he hadn’t done the previous two Sunday evenings: he gave an invitation for anyone wanting to invite Christ into their lives, to raise their hand.

One fear that I had was that if I raised my hand and came forward I didn’t know what people would do to me. My heart was open to God, just not to people I didn’t know.

God’s pretty smart about a lot of things. Actually God is omniscient-all knowing-and knew this about me. I was reluctant to raise my hand because I thought this girl from high school would see it (embarrassing). To this day I have no doubt that an angel helped me to raise my hand, because all of a sudden it was in the air. In the air, with no human assistance.

Instead of having me come forward (whew) Pastor Kline acknowledged the raised hand and said “if that person would come see me after service, I’d like to talk with you.” With service ended I told the family I sat with “I think Pastor Kline wants to talk to me.” 

After everyone had cleared out the pastor and I went into the side room I mentioned in my previous post. Pastor Kline briefly explained that everyone needs to be what Jesus called “born again”, having Christ in their heart. This meant we turn from our old life to receive the new life that God offers through Jesus Christ, His Son. 

Pastor Kline led me in a prayer in which I asked Jesus to come into my life. At a little after 9:00 pm, on Sunday, August 17, 1969, I passed from spiritual death to new life, in Christ, as a child of God. I was the same physically and mentally, but something had happened in my heart. Not the physical one but in my spirit, that now had the very life and nature of God in it. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17 I was a new person in Christ. There was a new me in me.

Natural babies have no past. In the eyes of God, neither does a spiritual baby. God sees new Christians with no past-only a bright future. That’s the life that I entered into, over 50 years ago.

By God’s grace and mercy-and the patient assistance of many people over these 50+ years-I am growing. Am I fully developed, spiritually? No. Am I satisfied with where I am in my walk with God? Again, no. But, in the words of the apostle Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am..” (1 Corinthians 15:10.).

Thank you for taking the time to “hear” my story. This is only the beginning of many such stories of God’s workings in people’s lives. This one happened to be mine. I hope you were blessed.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024

From Death to Life, Part 4: New Dream

Attending a new church is one thing; going to an evening service-other than Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve-was, for me, another matter entirely. By myself, not knowing what to expect, I drove across town to a building that appeared to be not much bigger than where I lived with my dad.

I cautiously approached the front, where I was greeted by folks who seemed genuinely glad to see me. So far, so good. To my left were a few classrooms, followed by the all-important bathroom. Inside the small sanctuary were pews, a small platform, and a side room that became significant later on.

I sat with this family who had opened up their home and, more importantly, their hearts to a lost young man. One with no direction. Loving someone who cannot love you back is true love.

The pastor of this church doubled as song leader, accompanied by a woman on the piano. She certainly knew how to play. None of the hymns we sang were familiar. I was used to singing out of a hymnal,-just not the one this church used. Different church. Different people. Different songs. Different, for sure.

I don’t remember the sermon, only that there was no invitation to become a Christian. That was fine with me; I wasn’t ready. The small turnout of around 50 were real people. They seemed to also have what the family I was with had: a genuine interest in me as a person. And no one was trying to get anything from me.

Service over, back to my house. Another week of questions, more questions, and some arguing as my visits continued. Another invitation to attend Sunday service, which I accepted.

The second Sunday evening service was, as I recall, pretty much the same as the first. Same nice people, same hymnal with different songs. Just a different message, with no invitation.

Around this time I asked this now-familiar family for prayer for a job. Young men then-as now- needed their own spending money. A few days later I was hired at a local drug store, a real answer to prayer. This store had a lunch counter and, interesting to me, underground storage bins for overstock. Going below the main floor to store/access merchandise was a space saver-and kind of fun at the same time. To this day I enjoy watching movies with secret passageways and entries.

Getting this job after prayer was an attention getter to someone looking for answers It also caused me to do a better job of managing my time. My part-time income eliminated outside assistance from my Dad.

Being turned down by two colleges meant I was going to the local community college. I could go to school and work part time. With Mom working there I had no tuition, just books. Nice.

Once again I was invited to Sunday evening service with this family. The date was August 17, 1969. Some will remember this date as the last night of some music festival called Woodstock. For me this night was to be beyond anything I had ever dreamed before: A night with a new dream.

I’ll tell you about it in my next post, on August 17th.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024

From Death to Life, Part 3: Searching Questions

Having previously shared about meeting a Christian in high school, the summer after graduation became a time of searching. Searching for something-or someone-to live for. A purpose.

What I was searching for wasn’t in drugs, alcohol, or sex. The effects those things were having on participants-people I personally knew-was reason enough to avoid them, though all were available. Someone, somewhere, was surely praying for me.

One reason to avoid the drugs and alcohol was to be in the best physical condition possible, to live out my dream of being a major-league baseball player. My previous post stated that I didn’t make my high school baseball team because I was a senior, with no experience. Having no meaningful purpose in life, I held onto my dream. A dream that was soon to end.

Seeing a major-league tryout invitation in the paper, I responded by attending, along with dozens of others my age. Baseball is more than running (in which I did well), resulting in me failing the tryout. My dream was ended. Over. What now?

As it was an opportunity to share the love of God with me, I kept getting invited over to this family’s house, nearly every weekday throughout the summer. Despite the father later claiming that I was an atheist, I wasn’t. An atheist denies the existence of God, whereas I certainly believed in God, even to the point of serving as an acolyte for one year in the church I attended. I’m further proof that just going to church doesn’t make one a Christian. Religious? Perhaps. But a Christian? No.

June became July, turning into August, consisting of more visits, more questions about God and the Bible, arguing on my part, and a growing hunger for what this family had. Interestingly, not once did they invite me to church throughout June and July. 

In either late July or early August, I was invited to come to this family’s church, to attend their evening service. I was attending morning services at a denominational church in a nearby city. Agreeing to attend, I prepared for Sunday evening, August 3, 1969.

Having never attended this kind of church, I had no idea what I was getting into. Join me as I come face to face with a group of people with something I didn’t have: love and peace. Not the love and peace being shouted and sung by my generation then. A different kind of love and peace, for sure.

Next: Part 4: New Dream. Enjoy this journey with me.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024

From Death to Life, Part 2: Searching Summer

With high school over my future lay before me, requiring some decisions on my part. Life is made up of decisions, the results of which determine our direction and, ultimately, our destiny.

Being expected to go to college I had applied to a handful of schools, including a few in-state. My Mom being on staff at the local junior (now community) college meant that my tuition would be free. If acceptances from schools included those far away would I leave the area, or choose the convenience of a 10-minute commute to  classes at the junior college? 

Something besides high school ended that year: my days of playing amateur baseball. To some this would be just part of life. To me, however, baseball was more: it WAS my life. I lived for baseball. The ending of football season meant baseball season was right around the corner. In one sense, baseball was my god.

In the spring of my senior year of high school I had tried out for our baseball team. Things were going well until the coach took me aside to advise me that if he played me he’d have me for one year, but taking a junior meant playing him for two years. My tryout effectively ended at that moment. Being too old to play another summer season, my playing days with/against guys I knew were officially no more. 

Done. Finished. Over.

Aside from the most important thing in my life, baseball was a means of escape. An escape from the deteriorating family life that resulted in my mother leaving our home, just six weeks prior to my graduation. Coming home from school one day I found half of our furniture gone with my mother, who had moved near the junior college she worked at. With my older brother-and only sibling-already gone, it was just Dad, Casper (our dog), and me.

There was one shining light in my darkness. In my previous post I mentioned the family whose (as it turned out) youngest daughter was in our school choir. Those summer days at their house was a difference maker. Peace vs strife. Rest vs. agitation. Unconditional love vs the emptiness in my heart, even though I knew nothing about unconditional love at the time.

Something needed to change, whether I could define it or not.

If you’ve just joined me on this journey from death to life, go back and read my previous post. Then continue with the next post, coming soon. Hint: sometimes what seems to be a closed door forces us to focus on the open door before us, that leads to life. 

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024

What Really Matters in a House

Leave it to Beaver was a popular television series, that aired from 1957 to 1963. Those who watched the original programs or reruns may recognize the outside of the Cleaver residence. Nice house for the day.

The truth about the house is that the outside was just a movie set front for the Cleaver residence. There were no actual rooms inside. No places for children to explore. It was a made-for-TV front. Nothing more than a house’s front, that had no place to enter and enjoy.

People’s lives are like houses. The body is the outside, hiding the real person on the inside. The outside roof may be well designed and insulated, but I wouldn’t want to live on it, would you? There may be beautiful windows, allowing light to shine in on the interior, but outside windows fail to convey how charming the inside rooms really are.

Getting to know the inside of a person is like coming to appreciate the interior of a beautiful home: the inside-not the outside-should be the focus. Instead of living and dining rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms, the “rooms” in people contain dreams, aspirations, gifts and talents, as well as hopes for the future. All worth knowing and appreciating.

As with houses, our focus on people should be them, not the outside of the “house” they live in. Sometimes changes to our outside cause some peoples’ focus to be on that, rather than what’s on the inside. No matter how much “paint” or changes are made to ones outside it’s just that-the outside. 

Over time a house’s front may undergo many changes. The same is true concerning a person yet, like a house, the person’s real value is found in getting aquatinted with and appreciating his/her “rooms”-those things of great value which make that person special in the eyes of the beholder. 

The inside of a house-and person-is what really matters to those looking for real value. The fake fronts, the facades? Let’s leave them to Beaver.

Copyright © Hubert Gardner Ministries 2018-2024

The Value of Church History

History is a fascinating subject. Whether talking about a person or event from thousands of years ago or within the last 20 years, history is always about only the past. Never now or the future. Some reading this remember persons and/or events from as far back as 50 years ago. Perhaps less. 

 The same is true concerning church history. By church I mean the Church-God’s Church-the Body of Christ. Believers in the lordship of Jesus Christ. We believers also have a history. People and events from the past who and which have helped influence where we are as the Church today.

 Throughout Church history many events have taken place. God has used a great number of people like you, to accomplish His plans and purposes. At times those, with such last names as Wycliffe, Tyndale, Augustine, Luther, Wesley, Whitfield, Finney, Woodworth-Etter, Sunday, and Graham have been greatly used by God to bring about God’s love and power.

 For some reason it grieves me that so many believers-especially charismatic Christians-know little or nothing about their heritage. Recently I was at a large meeting, attended by christians from many states and countries. When asked if she had ever heard of Zion, a product table volunteer replied that she had not. Yet her employer, a well-known speaker, regularly teaches on divine healing. 

 Some may say, “What difference does it make, knowing Church history?” Others go to the other extreme, knowing historical details while missing the real message of the moves of God. Another opportunity for balance. 

 Some may remember my three posts from years ago, highlighting people and places in church history who/which have profoundly influenced multiplied millions in the areas of divine healing and speaking in tongues, during the last 120 years. Not just in America but worldwide. Two cities, Zion and Topeka; one place, Azusa Street. You’ll find all three of them mentioned under older posts, beginning March 24, 2017. 

 Knowing church history will hopefully raise awareness of how the present came to be, as well as increase appreciation for those who were wonderfully used of the Holy Spirit to give us a taste of heaven on earth.

May both your present and future be blessed by knowing your past.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2018-2024