our Ultimate priority

Love Lustres At Calvary

My Father,

Enlarge my heart, warm my affections,

open my lips,

supply words that proclaim 'Love lustres

at Calvary.

There grace removes my burdens and heaps them

on thy Son,

made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;

There the sword of thy justice smote the man,

thy fellow;

There thy infinite attributes were magnified,

and infinite atonement was made.

There infinite punishment was due,

and infinite punishment was endured.

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,

cast off that I might be brought in,

trodden down as an enemy

that I might be welcomed as a friend,

surrendered to hell's worst

that I might attain heaven's best,

stripped that I might be clothed,

wounded that I might be healed,

athirst that I might drink,

tormented that I might be comforted,

made a shame that I might inherit glory,

entered darkness that I might have eternal light.

My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped

from my eyes,

groaned that I might have endless song,

endured all pain that I might have unfading health,

bore a thorny crown that I might have

a glory-diadem,

bowed his head that I might uplift mine,

experienced reproach that I might receive

welcome,

closed his eyes in death that I might gaze

on unclouded brightness,

expired that I might for ever live.

O Father, who spared not thine only Son that thou

mightiest spare me,

All this transfer thy love designed and

accomplished;

Help me to adore thee by lips and life.

O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise,

my every step buoyant with delight, as I see my

enemies crushed,

Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,

sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,

hell's gates closed, heaven's portal open.

Go forth, O conquering God, and show me

the cross, mighty to subdue, comfort and save.

our Ultimate priority

The above prayer comes from a book called "The Valley of Vision" by Puritan preachers and churches. It really puts into perspective what happened at Calvary, and what was accomplished through the Cross.

Thinking about this prayer really makes me want to live for God. I really can not wait to move out of the States and go to Africa. I know God has called my family and I there, but I am struggling with the present tense. I am struggling with the thought of my sin. I am struggling with the thought of the lost. I am struggling with initiating family worship. There are so many things I am struggling with, the list goes on and on. I know God's grace is sufficient for me, but I struggle with knowing I have it.

There are times in my day when all I want to do is sit and read the Bible, but I can't because I have to do something else. Why is it midday when I want to read the Bible with my wife, but when I get home and in the bed, all I want to do is fall asleep? It can't be Satan, I think it has to do more with my lack of making it more of a priority. You have to carve out the time in your day to say "Okay at this time, this day, I will be busy because I will read my Bible." and if something pops up you must say "I am busy." I mean what have you got to lose? Only your life!

A wise preacher I listen to has said multiple times "You never hear of someone saying 'I wish I would have read less of my Bible in my youth.' You always here them say the opposite." I think that really rings true for us all. We can never spend too much time in our Bibles.

I really need to start filling my life with Biblical things, literally. Every waking moment should be spent glorifying God. It can be done, the question is how willing are you to make it happen? The more you glorify God, the more He will reveal things to you . John 15:2 speaks on how God prunes the vines so it may bear more fruit, and that is what I am talking about. You will abundantly grow in glorifying God if you begin bearing fruit in His name. Do everything as for doing it for the Lord! (from Colossians 3:23)

Consider your spiritual gift and what God has blessed you with, then examine how you may use that to bring more glory to your Creator. He is so worthy!

Spend more time in prayer and reading his Word. Why is it I know more lyrics to a Skillet song than I do Scripture? Why is it if I forget my cell phone at home, I will turn around in my car to go get it, but if I forget my Bible on the way to church I don't? All of this has to do with what our priorities are in life. "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21. How does Jesus' words relate to you?

Another extremely wise preacher once said "The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to the person whose life is not." - Charles Spurgeon. We really need to start digging in the Word. So much that it changes our priorities in life and we begin to see minute things that get in the way of a better relationship with God. It is only then when we will truly see how we are able to glorify God more. Grace and Peace to you always.

L. R. Hughes

A New Kind of Grip on the World

Well, before I cut to the chase, I will say this: I am sorry I fell through on my commitment to expound on the 25 promises from God. I have lost the piece of paper with the 25 promises on them, haha, and the man who I received the paper from has not gotten back to me on whether or not he can find them.

I probably won't be the blogger you see every week, maybe not even every month, but I will try to post some text quite often. I guess I will mainly be focusing on God and what He is revealing to me in my life, what I am reading in the Bible, what I am learning, what Josiah or Amanda is doing, or what this post is about, my thoughts on today's current events in relation to the Bible.

I also hope to improve my literary skills here or there, haha! They need a lot of practice. English 300 is an online course I'm taking this fall, along with Greek I and Dead Sea Scrolls (for my Religious Studies major), and Fiscal Practices in Recreation and Program Planning in Recreation (for my other major, Recreation Administration).

Now, let's cut to the chase: Satan is evil. Does that statement sound too weak, overused, or diluted? If it does, that's probably because He has tricked you into believing so. He is really evil, and I honestly and truly believe He has got a new kind of hold on the world in today's times. Some of the stories I have seen on the news have really hit me in a different manner than before. All the bloodshed and violence has been going on since the beginning of time, literally. Here within the past few months, I have seen an increase in my sorrow for what has gone on. What I mean is, I have been more emotional about things that are good, and things that are bad as well. We had someone get baptized at our church a few weeks ago, a little girl. Everyone was clapping as her head came back above the water. I was in tears. Here is a little girl who can now go to Heaven because she confessed Jesus as her Lord and Savior (and a lot of other things too), and will hopefully live a fruit-bearing life because of that. Everyone was clapping, but I was crying with tears of joy at the thought of another Christian going to Heaven. I can't just sit back and clap hands knowing God WILL GET more glory than what He had before because of that. That is the reason I was crying.

A few hymns have built up the waterworks as well, today in Church we sang "Morning Has Broken". What a powerful song.

However, let me turn to the more sorrowful things that have happened. Somalia's worst drought in 60 years. Families having to walk 17 DAYS just for water, and here I sit at this computer with a water fountain within 10 steps of me, coffee cup in my hand, gatorade in the fridge, the list goes on.

The largest refugee camp in the world is in Kenya I believe, able to care for tens of thousands of people, but they are seeing numbers in the millions come there for food, water, and medical attention. It makes me want to get a medical degree so I can help them, but I know my personal study of the Scriptures will help them infinitely more when I get over there. In case you forgot, Amanda and I still have our calling to be missionaries in Africa, though we are not sure where yet. This is why all of this is really hitting home for us both (see my Tweet @_lrhughes). What if God calls my family and I to Somalia? Then we would obey. "He has everything in His hands.", quoted from a Somalia refugee. That same man said that if he and his family would have stayed in Somalia, they would have died.

There are so many children too; CNN showed a 2 year old with the weight of a newborn. They also showed a newborn with feeding tubes because he was so weak he couldn't eat. It's things like this that we can't ignore. Reading that over makes me want to cry, but I have to pray for them. In my position here now, that is the best thing I can do to help those people out. I have done so ever since I heard about the drought and refugees.

In case you don't know, Somalia is mainly controlled by a militant group linked to the Taliban, they call themselves "El Shabaab". They have banned any sources from contributing aid to the people suffering from the drought, which is why the U.S. won't help out, because they don't deal with terrorists. You can bribe the terrorists to allow you to bring aid in, but they won't do that. I can't blame them, I wouldn't give money to an evil person either.

Here's the thing, the U.S. doesn't deal with terrorists, but Christians do every day. Anyone who is not of God is against him, and in a form or fashion, that would make them a terrorist. We are constantly fighting to pry the fingers of Satan off of the people He has control over.

Satan has control over the militants who hung an 8-year-old boy because his father, a police officer, wouldn't give the militants a police vehicle. Satan has control over the man behind the bombing and shooting in Norway. Satan has control over everything that is not of God in this world. I am telling you, his grip either gets more firm, or more loose every single day. Our duty as Christians is to fight for the Kingdom. Yes, we have already won the battle against Satan, but others have not. Others have not had the Gospel preached to them, others are still in Satan's grasp. We must pray for them, and we must pray that God's Will is done.

My heart breaks for those who are still in Satan's hands. Just flipping through the Bible just now I came across Lamentations 1:16- "For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to receive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed." ESV. We are called to hate sin, and I do hate it, but there are those who sin and are on a path to Hell and there are those that sin and are on a path to Heaven. Do you see the difference? Better yet, do you weep over the difference? Do you pray for the difference?

I promise you, I can feel that Satan has a different grip on the world today than what he had before. There is a new kind of evil He is portraying. Please, read Isaiah 59 and see how evil Satan is. Understand the destruction he can cause. You can't fight against something you don't understand.

I will say this, Satan has hit me a lot closer to home in the last month and a half, than He has in the past two years probably. There is so much He has done that I can't even begin to name it all off. There is so much sin in the world, yet there are so many blessings too! "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God hath done."

God willing, I hope to share more thoughts sooner rather than later. Please pray for the people of Somalia and Kenya. Pray for the father of the 8-year-old boy. Pray that Satan's grip would be released from the people of this world. But above all, pray that God would be glorified more every single day.

An Introduction to Our Lil Man

Seven months ago we can home with this sweet baby boy! My Kind Sir and I love love being parents! It's wonderful and rewarding, even though its not always easy.

He was born on July 8th, 2010 at 5:17 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds 3 1/2 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches long! These photos were taken when he was only 1 day old!


Today our Lil Man is over 17 pounds and longer than 26 inches! He is crawling and pulling up onto his knees! He loves to talk and play with our Sheltie. He's a momma's boy for sure, but love's his daddy to pieces! He enjoys eating anything you give him but loves breast milk and fruit best. He has 3 teeth and just woke up!

I'll tell you more about him and our birth story later!

Amanda

Maybe we're back ...

... but we'll see how long this lasts. I would really like to start to blogging again, not that I ever blogged a lot, but I'd like to start.

I should be asleep right now, but our Lil' King is surely awake, crying in his daddy's arms because he's sick with the flu and refuses. to. be. left. alone. Even when he's asleep. Starting this week he will not sleep in his crib for more than 5 or if we're lucky 10 minutes! I'm hoping it's because he's sick and I'm also hoping he won't get used to sleeping in our bed (yes our bed, the one, well one of the things we said we would not do). But it's the. only. way he'll sleep at night, and he still wakes up a few times. And I am one tired mama! So we gave in so I could get more sleep. Well why doesn't my Kind Sir wake up some and help out? Glad you asked. Because he has been sick with Flu as well; along with 6 other people in

his family! I thank God every day that I'm not sick and pray it doesn't happen. Because you know, mamas aren't allowed to get sick.

And apparently our son does not think blogging is much fun, because almost as soon as my Kind Sir gave him to me and Lil' Man glanced at the computer screen he fe

ll asleep. And there's not much sweeter than a sleeping baby, at least to me, well maybe a husband and wife cuddling before bed

and enjoying some much needed time together! This is my cue to get!

Broken Heartedness

Part 2 of 25 – Broken Heartedness

First off, I want to welcome you back to the blog, and thank you for your commitment in keeping up with me while I delve into the Bible a little deeper than I normally do. This series is not my personal study (where I get out the back-hoe and really dig deep), but it’s not for fun either. I felt called to do this by God so He obviously wants me to get something extraordinary out of it! So thank you for popping in to read some more!

Let’s start out the same way we did last time, by defining what exactly “broken heartedness” is! Using my Microsoft Word dictionary again, we see that it means “grief stricken” or “Extremely sad due to great disappointment”.

In the context of the scripture I will show you, this specific type of broken heartedness is good. I know what you’re asking – “What? How can broken heartedness be a good thing?” The answer lies in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, out of Christian honesty I must confess I do NOT speak Hebrew, nor do I read it either so please bear with me while I simply get a smidge of information from my ESV Study Bible later on in this post.

Our scripture comes out of Psalm 34:18-19 which says – “¹⁸The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” ESV

What amazing verses! When there’s so much in a verse or two that it would take me a while to understand or comprehend, I like to say it has a lot of “meat”. When something has a lot of meat, it will take a while to stomach! To me, these verses of scripture have a lot of meat.

Let’s start where it says brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. Immediately, when we look at those words, we think of pain, or something bad that has caused us to feel that way. However, when those words are translated from the Hebrew Scriptures, we begin to recognize that they refer to the pride and stubbornness in ones heart being humbled. So we see that when the Lord cares for his faithful ones, he desires for you to be humbled, and brought before him completely naked and stripped of every fleshly desire within your mortal body. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” ESV. The person who gives himself or herself fully to the Lord is the one who can genuinely worship the gracious God of the covenant!

Verse 19 says “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” I bet you’re asking yourself “Why do the righteous experience distress?” The answer is because of God’s love. He makes us experience hardships and troubled times because He wants to test us and see if we will turn to Him! 2 Timothy 3:12 says that everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted… We can’t leave that out when we are bringing someone to Christ. I think a lot of times we might insinuate an easy life full of happiness when we are speaking to someone about the gospel. It’s not supposed to be like fine print. This information should be on the forefront of our teaching! Happiness will only come when we get to Heaven. Meanwhile, we are here on this earth that is controlled by the devil, and we must daily pick up our cross, follow Christ, give our all to God, and put on His armor! If we lack in anything, ANYTHING at all, we give the devil a foothold to enter in. This cannot happen. Living a Christ-like life is a daily battle, not a walk in the park. Yes, you will experience hardships and trials, BUT we must look to the only one sure hope we have; that we will someday spend our time with Jesus in Heaven. The latter half of verse 19 says the Lord will deliver us out of distress. Indeed, He will! However, for now we must hold down the fort, and recruit more soldiers. Our God is a jealous God, and He desires you to make disciples of all nations!

It would behoove us to read on in the chapter that we might understand what is going on at the other end of the spectrum. Verse 21 says, “Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.” Here we see that affliction actually overcomes the unrighteous people. Previously, God had saved us from this affliction. Who will reach out to the ones who love their sin? No one. They are left to live in eternal condemnation where every millisecond is spent in utter chaotic Hell. This is not meant to be taken lightly. In fact, Jesus spoke more on Hell in the Bible then He did on Heaven. Obviously He wants us to understand it. It’s the same for sin; He spoke a lot more on sin, than He did on grace. Jesus really desires for us to understand this! He wants you to be prepared for when the devil knocks at your door. He’s knocking right now, every second of every day. Unless we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, then he will be able to walk in unnoticed.

Verse 20 says, “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” I myself was wondering, “Why was that thrown in there?” Well, it just so happens that this is more of a prophecy than it is anything else. In John 19, Jesus side is pierced with the spear. The guards were asked to break the legs of those to be crucified, but when they saw that Jesus was already dead, they left his legs alone, and only pierced his side, fulfilling the scripture.

Rereading verse 18, we see that the Lord is near to us. How does that make you feel? The one who created all things, you and I alike, draws near to us so that he might rescue us from any afflictions. What an awesome God. We serve the only living God you know… To quote G.B. Hardy – “Here is the complete record: Confucius’ tomb: occupied, Buddha’s tomb: occupied, Mohammad’s tomb: occupied, Jesus’ tomb: EMPTY.” Next weeks topic will cover death and it’s relationship with our Christian lifestyle. Thank you so much for reading this post and continuing with me in this 25-week study… I pray your relationship with our Father is deepened, and you know Him more and more. Grace and peace to you always.

L. R. Hughes

Anxiety

Part 1 of 25 – Anxiety

Okay, before we start digging biblically, we need to understand what anxiety actually means! By doing so, we have a better understanding of what the Bible is trying to say to us when it speaks directly on anxiousness and indirectly on the topic as well! Anxiety is defined as (in my Microsoft Word dictionary) – “A feeling of worry”, or “Extreme apprehension”. Other words for anxiety include: Concern, unease, apprehension, worry, angst, or fear.

I think we can agree that anxiety seems to be a way the devil attacks us. For if we were truly, wholeheartedly, 100% reliant on God, we would not be filled with this day after day in our life. Am I right?

Our scripture comes out of Philippians 4:4-7 which says “⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ESV.

First off, let’s get some context of this verse so there is no case of misunderstanding! Paul is writing to a church in Philippi, to the Philippians, and he is speaking about two women who have helped spread the gospel (yes, some women did that in Biblical days if you didn’t know) with him, but have developed a quarrel amongst themselves. Thus, he is pleading with the church to urge them to settle it immediately. (Why don’t we see this in our churches today? Just something to think about.)

Now that we have laid the groundwork for understanding what the Bible says about anxiety, let’s get out the shovels and start digging into this verse!

The very first word in this scripture “Rejoice” just screams at me! Paul immediately realizes the anxiety that has surrounded this people and he tells them to put it all behind them and “Rejoice”, but not only that, he tells them to “Rejoice in the Lord always”. What exactly does that look like? Is it possible? Is it fathomable to rejoice in the Lord always? I think so. Need I quote Matthew 19:26? It says, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Now granted, that IS taken out of context BUT when we look at what it says, Jesus says regardless of what ever you can think of “with God all things are possible.” Therefore, there is no need to give context simply because the word “all” covers anything and everything.

With this, I can say with confidence that we can rejoice in the Lord always! We can do it with God’s help! Here, Paul is not speaking on a happiness that is based off of the circumstances the Philippians are in. He is speaking of trust in the sovereign, living God, which is available to us always. Even in times of trial, like when we feel the anxiety rush through our body.

Reasonableness (in verse 5) is important when one desires to maintain community. Paul says we must let our reasonableness be known to everyone. Meaning we must be natured to seek what is best for everyone, and not just ourselves! Paul emphasizes Jesus’ return and judgment when he says, “The Lord is at hand”. He knows when Jesus returns, God will hold those accountable for their deeds.

In verses 6 and 7, we see him speak directly on anxiety! Where have we heard about anxiety before in the NT? In Matthew 6:25-34 of course! Here, Jesus speaks about the birds of the air and how they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet God feeds them. Don’t you think we are much more valuable to God than birds? Even when we get to Heaven, we will be placed above the angels in priority! Will God not provide for us, then? However, there are stipulations. Paul gives us a clear definition on how we achieve the peace of God in our lives. He says with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we are to make our requests known to God, then we shall receive the peace of God! It is this attitude of thanksgiving that directly contributes to our inward peace given to us from God.

This peace of God, which surpasses all human ability to comprehend, Paul says, will guard our hearts and minds. The absolute first thing that comes to my mind when the Bible speaks of the heart and mind is the fact that they are things of the flesh. Anything of the flesh is not good (1 John 2:16).

I listened to a sermon by the amazing Irish preacher David Legge, and he showed me with biblical evidence, what exactly the heart and mind were. I’m not quoting the same scripture as him, so bear with me here. But the mind is what I like to call “world conscience”. In Romans 12:2, Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So here we see that the mind can be easily manipulated by the world, and we are called not to be conformed to it! We have to guard our minds with the peace of God in Christ Jesus!

As for the heart, the heart is what I like to call “flesh conscience”. Proverbs 27:19 says, “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” This explains to us that when you look directly upon a face of water, you see your face, something common to all of us. However, the heart, each individual heart, reflects the man/woman inside us all. This is not common for us, meaning, not everyone else can see it like they do a reflection in the water. Our hearts are only transparent before God!

When we look at what Paul says in verse 7, we see that our hearts and minds do, indeed, need to be guarded by the peace of God! What would happen if God took his protective arms away from us? Do you ever think about that? At any moment, God could remove himself from our presence, and let the devil absolutely tear into our bodies, killing us instantly.

So, after all this, do we really need to be anxious? Is it possible to remove completely anxiety from our lives? Indeed friend, it is. Rejoice, because you are not in the darkness, and you are in the light… always!

Some verses that go along with this topic that I did not expound on: Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 16:8-11, and Psalm 23.

Thank you so much for reading my first topic post! I hope you enjoyed it and I pray you will be blessed by it! Next weeks topic is “broken heartedness” so be sure and tune in!

Grace and peace to you always,

L. R. Hughes

Promises from God about...

Okay, a couple Sunday's ago I was given a piece of paper from my Sunday school teacher. On that paper were "More promises from God about..." and underneath, were listed promises from God mentioned in the Bible. The topics touched on are: needs, money, mourning, sinful desires, sin, temptation, etc. In the past week or so, I have felt led to really dig deep and discover for myself (and for you too) what God says about these things in the Bible.

So, if you will please, join me! In the coming weeks I plan to systematically dissect what the Bible says about these topics. There are 25 of them, so I'm sure you won't be bored!

I pray first for myself, that my eyes would be open as well as my heart to receive what the Lord will say to me. I pray for you, that you too will be enlightened in your faith by what you read on this blog in the coming weeks.

Just a heads up, we will run into Josiah's birth so there might be a little pause here and there because I'll have him to keep me busy (it's a good busy though, a really good, awesome, wonderful, marvelous, busy!). Of course, I have to say there also may be some procrastination and pauses of my own, but that can all be fixed by a little motivational texts, phone calls, etc. from you! Seriously, don't hesitate to hold me accountable, I yearn for that! Not a lot of people do that these days. So please, hold me accountable to doing this!

I want to deepen my relationship with Christ, and this is one of the ways I feel led to do so! To start us off, in the coming week I will be posting on Anxiety. Something we all deal with every single day. It's the devils way of attacking us and giving us the jitters!