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

From Death to Life: High School Senior

            From Death to Life: High School Senior

Everyone has a story. Whether yours is told to millions or a few, it’s still your story. And it’s important.

My coming to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior accelerated during my senior year of high school. A young lady in the soprano section of our school choir didn’t talk much, which stood out. Eventually I met her, noticing that she was different, having something I did not have. At the time I didn’t know what that “something” was.

In the spring I met this girl’s family, when I picked her up to drive us to our choir teacher’s house, for a picnic. Her family had a “something” about them that I couldn’t fathom, but found myself liking. 

This girl and her family were Christians. Growing up in a denominational church I knew the term, just not the experience. I attended a church where, outside of singing and the pastor’s 20-minute sermon, the loudest sound was the lady a few rows  behind us unwrapping her candy. 

Two months after the choir picnic our high school graduation was held at Cole Field House, on the campus of the University of Maryland, thus marking the end of my formal education. By now I had become more acquainted with the young lady and her family. Looking back it has occurred to me that this family saw me as a lost young man looking for reality. A one-person mission field.

Searches for reality came in many forms back in 1969, as they do today. Drugs, alcohol, sex-they were all available, but-thankfully-were never participated in. Well, there was a one-half can of stolen beer that, fortunately, I disliked. No regrets to this day about not participating in such activities.

This is part of my story, one of me coming to experience Life. I invite you to join me as I recount portions of the steps taken, which lead from death to Life.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024

FATHER

FATHER

F is for Faithful, firm but true

A is for Always,  there for you

T is for Teacher, the Word explained

H is for Helper (help her), so children are trained

E is Eternal,  Encourage,  Example

R is Right standing, in Christ he will trample

      over weapons that form and tongues that do rise;

      clothed by Satan in clever disguise

      to ruin, bring down-yes, even destroy

      the life of a family, through every girl and boy.

      But FATHER will see and say, “Enemy!”

      “In the Name of Jesus I command you to flee!”

And so, by the Word, Spirit, Name-yes these three,

The FATHER-FAMILY LIVES

V I C T O R I O U S L Y

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 1989-2024

Where’s Your Dependency?

There’s a lot of debate going on about government’s role in people’s lives. Many decry what they consider an over dependency on government in every area of life.

Sadly, I see a similar trend in Christian circles today: a growing dependency by Christians on what someone else says about the Bible. What someone else has written about how to ______________. You fill in the blank. 

While I certainly recognize ministry gifts in our midst, such as teachers and evangelists, they are not to take the place of our own personal time with God and His Word. 

The Bible says that the entrance of God’s Word gives light (Psalm 119:130). Light is knowledge. God’s knowledge is worth having.

Here are three suggestions for receiving the knowledge of God:

First, get alone with God. Talk to Him as you would to someone who knows everything about you, which God already does. 

Sometimes, talking to God is easier than hearing from Him. Just remember that God also has things He wants to say to us.

My second suggestion is get into God’s Word for yourself. Just you, God, and His Word. The more you do this the quieter your mind will become. With a quiet mind you’ll hear better from God.

While all Scripture is good, our main focus should be on the Epistles-letters written to fellow Christians, from Romans to Jude. It is in the Epistles that we learn why Jesus died, as well as our rights and responsibilities as sons and daughters of God.

Thirdly, Get a pad of paper and something to write with. God will share truths with anyone who’ll quieten his/her mind to hear what He saying to that person’s spirit, including yours. Simple, yet rewarding.

Again, God put good teachers and preachers in the Church universal, to inform and inspire us. But not at the expense of us hearing from God for ourselves, in times of prayer and study.

If you’re already doing these three things, you are to be commended. If not, perhaps seeing these suggestions will help you-or someone you know-to hear from God for himself/herself. All while still being blessed from the preaching and teaching from those gifted of God to do so.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 1989-2024

Six and 76

For years the name Billy Graham has been a household word. Mention his name to many and visions of stadiums still come. Stadiums where faith-not football-was preached, where thousands responded to a simple Gospel message given by, as he was often called, Mr. Graham.

There was another person named Billy who preached the Gospel. This Billy preached in the late 1800s and up unto 1935, the year after Billy Graham received salvation. The other Billy was Billy Sunday, a one-time professional baseball player who became the leading evangelist of his day.

Billy Sunday was influenced by J. Wilber Chapman whose ministry, in turn, was encouraged through the life of one F.B. Meyer. Meyer’s own ministry grew under the tutelage of Dwight L. Moody who was won to Christ by his Sunday School teacher, Edward Kimball, in 1858. 

In Charlotte, North Carolina, one of Billy Sunday’s converts was a young man by the name of Mordecai Ham. I read that in 1934 Billy Sunday was invited to preach in Charlotte but couldn’t. Instead, Mordecai Ham, himself now a minister, came and ministered. In one of those services 16 year-old Billy Graham gave his life to Christ. 

Six individuals over 76 years. Each one obedient to go and speak life to multitudes, or the one. Too often we look at numbers for marking success. God’s markings may be more on the one, the seed of many to come. Your faithfulness to God’s plan for your life may be marked more by that one than those masses. 

Edward Kimball, Dwight L. Moody, F.B. Meyer, J. Wilber Chapman, Billy Sunday, Mordecai Ham, and Billy Graham would, no doubt, agree.

© Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024

What Season Are You In?

As I write, it’s cold and wet outside. Surface conditions could be worse if this rain turns to snow. After all, my calendar tells me that it’s winter. 

Winter is a season in Oklahoma where outside conditions remind us of the wisdom of having warm clothes to wear, and actually wearing them.

Spring, Summer, and Fall comprise the remaining seasons which all of us live in. Regardless of where you live you will go through all four seasons-hopefully many times. The more seasons you go through, the longer you’ve been living.

Here are some things about natural seasons: 

1. You don’t skip seasons. It’s Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, in that order.

2. It’s to your advantage to recognize the season that you’re in. Grass is best mowed without snow on it. Christmas lights in July? Wait awhile. 

3. Your actions in the present season affect the ones coming next. Spring planting affects summer cultivation and fall harvest. Works every time.

These same principles apply to our lives, spiritually speaking. 

Your winter may be a time of preparation for the next season God has for you. Your spring may be a time of planting time, talent, and/or other resources for a harvest of promotion or other increase in your fall. Your summer may be a season of maintaining/guarding what you’ve planted. Your fall may be a season of harvest after seasons of preparation, planting, and patience. With God not all seasons are the same length.

Not everything is measured by seasons. Getting along is not a season. Neither is being nice or walking in love. No, these are constants. 

Spiritually speaking, what season are you in? Ecclesiastes 3:1 states that there is a time for every purpose under Heaven. What we do for God involves seasons. It’s not always winter or summer. Spring may seem to go on forever, but harvest time WILL come, if we stay at it (Galatians 6:9).

Recognizing and correctly responding to the season you’re in right now can affect both the length and frequency of seasons in your own walk with God. Hopefully this post will help you identify and flourish in the season you’re in, as well as show you things to do for the season(s) ahead.

Copyright 2019-2024 Hubert Gardner Ministries

My Christmas Suggestion

Thanksgiving Day has passed. On to Christmas, with festive displays, seasonal smells, and presents given and received. On the surface I see nothing wrong with this. I like this season.

But I do have a problem with those who refuse to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. Indeed, some intentionally keep Christ out of Christmas, while (literally) banking on profiting from their products and or services finding homes for Christmas. Our homes. All at a price, of course. 

Here’s my Christmas suggestion:

All individuals, companies, and organizations promoting Christmas-related services and/or products must do the following, in order to have a “Christmas Permit.” This permit allows the holder to profit from such services/products during the Christmas season which, for many, starts in August. Some even sooner. Here would be the requirements of the individual and group permit holders:

1. Have a signed statement prominently displayed on their website, windows, and/or vehicles stating their affirmation of Christmas being the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

2. Require all employees and vendors to say “Merry Christmas,” rather than “Happy Holidays.” 

Sound radical or ridiculous? Maybe, but requiring so would force those profiting from Christmas at least do so honestly. Those who choose not to wouldn’t be allowed to sell anything having to do with Christmas. 

Realistic? Perhaps not, but that’s my Christmas suggestion. What’s yours?

What’s something you’d like to see to return this nation more to the real meaning of Christmas?

Copyright © Hubert Gardner Ministries 2019-2024