Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Oh My

Wednesday December 23, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
@ the Cafe Noir, Silverdale WA

So I'm chilling next to the window at Cafe Noir, my new coffee shop (Austin Chase and Global Bean don't even compare to this place) watching the hustle and bustle of crazy holiday shoppers who will shoot you if you get in there way. I'm reading my daily Bible reading that Mark passed to us at church and I'm reading Nahum, one of the Minor Prophets. I have studied this man in school but it was so fast that I couldn't grasp the awesomeness of God in the first chapter. What I like about the Minor Prophets is they're not afraid to preach the truth and that God is angry and He will waste people.

“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. ”- Nahum 1:3-4;6

The Nation of Nineveh is the focus of Nahum but there is application here as well. Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon were known for there pretty fluffy vineyards and trees. But at Gods word they wither...wither is redneck for they die. God is more patient than us. Though there is a time and place where He does display His anger, it doesn’t come quick...thats an eye opener. Knowing God’s power should make us trust in Him because He helps us and to fear His judgment because God judges with power. God’s power is so big that it controls the biggest forces known to human kind. A big huge freaking storm is nothing to God, because His way is the highway jack. When God holds long enough and rejected enough, sooner or later payday is coming like a Tokyo freight train when His judgment comes. God is slow to anger, but when it does come to judgment His fury is poured out like fire. Understanding this should make us quick to repent and wary of presuming on God’s patience. But being the children of God we have nothing to fear because we have been bought with the blood of Jesus. Those who love God and trust God see the goodness of God, and find protection in His stronghold. And God knows those who trust Him. God knows us. He knows our prayers and tears, He knows our wishes, He knows what we do desire to be.

Shalom

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Light

Thursday 4:00 pm.. Global Bean

“I have finally found a way to live just like I never could before.
I have finally found a place to live in the presence of the Lord.”- Eric Clapton

The presence of God is all round us. When we enter our homes His presence is there, when we enter our car His presence is there. When I cuss someone out for cutting me off in traffic, His presence is there. He is always watching us. Finding a way to live in the presence of the Lord is hard but it is better than living in the darkness. I rather suffer in God's presence than go back into the dark. The darkness is a dungeon of the soul.

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”- 1 John 1:5-7

The presence of the Lord is light. Light is holy, true, and love. Darkness is evil, it is false, full of wickedness. Therefore, if there is a problem with our fellowship with God, it is our fault. It is not God's because He is perfect. John speaks of a walk in darkness, this is a pattern of living, it does not speak of an occasional bump in the road but a lifestyle of darkness. We all run into bumps on the road I have ran into many, I spent 300 dollars at a strip club in Vegas and touched cocaine and been a bilgerent drunk but God reached his hand down and picked me out of the gutter and gave me another chance to do good. To walk in the light is to live a obedient life without trying to commit sin. The Christian life is described as walking, which implies action. Walking implies progress. Since God is active and walking, if we have fellowship with Him we will also be active and walking. When both us walk in the Light we have fellowship. Two Christians who are in right relationship with God will also naturally be in right relationship with each other. We can be cleansed, by the blood of Jesus, from all sin. The sin we got from Adam, the sin we committed as kids. Sins against our father, against our mother, against our brother and sister. Sins against our husbands or wives, against our children. Sins against our employers, sins against our friends and our enemies. Lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, cussing like a sailor, drugs, booze, murder. Sins that haunt me every day, sins I didn’t even know I did... all sin can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus!

Shalom,

Hutch

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

I'm Free

Global Bean, June 5 2009

I bought a cat the other day. Why? I don't know. I wanted a pet but was looking for a fish or a rabbit. Then I saw this cat alone in it's cage with a price tag for 25 bucks! The lady told me it is a good house cat. So I bought it, the sales lady didn't have a box for me for she gave me a leash and I walked it out of there like a dog. Maybe I bought the cat because I felt sorry for it, just sitting there locked in a cage longing to be free. I was locked up in a cage once, all of us were one time locked up in a cage of sin looking for someone to set us free... to save us. I freed my cat and Jesus freed us. We are no longer in bondage.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”- Galatians 5:1

We don't free ourselves. Freedom is a gift given by Jesus and received by faith. When we try to do our own thing trying to free ourselves we just become our own salves again to bondage. To stand firm means that it takes effort to stay away from being locked up again, because we can be decieved.

Paul makes his point in verse 13 about freedom and gives a warning.

“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”- Galatians 5:13

The idea here is we will just go out and sin as we please and then say to God “forgive me” and go out and do it again. This attitude is wrong!! We can take the freedom that Jesus gave us and use it for our selfish needs to please ourselves at the expensive of others! But when we love one another we can conquer the flesh by getting out and serving.

We are warned against taking this freedom that we have in Jesus as an excuse for sin. We use our freedom to show the kind of love and respect that Peter says.

“Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God”-1 Peter 2:16

I don't have the right to go out and rob a bank and say “God wills it” to get money for preaching school. We are free but still have to submit to authority of man. As long submission does not conflict with God's law. Freedom isn't a license to do as we please. We aren't slaves to the world, that we have to go along with what they are doing. We can still honor someone we disagree with. We can honor them, but we don't have to go along with any of their evil acts. And remember our first allegiance is to God. Now time to see what my bi-polar cat is doing.

Shalom
Hutch

Saturday, April 18, 2009

God Is Good All The Time

Saturday, April 18, Austin Chase

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” – Philippians 4:4

Why is God good all the time? He created the mountains, the birds and the trees, the stars and the seas’ the flowers and the bees. I will quit rapping. He created us humans as well. And let we screwed up the whole garden thing, God is still good. Take a look around and we here about the economy… Praise God! Why did I just say that because God is more powerful than the economy and if we are doing His will, the economy is nothing it is meaningless! I know I “don’t work” like the rest of you guys and I don’t have a family to support. I’m not saying that work to feed our families isn’t important because it is and there’s ton of scripture that points that out. I’m just saying we shouldn’t worry about what’s happening in the world.

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!”- Matthew 6:25-30

We should not get tangled up worrying about the things of this world, because our life is more than those things. We are to be concerned with the right things; the ultimate issues of life and we then leave the worry over material things with our heavenly Father. The birds are provided by God, and if He takes care of them. Therefore, we should expect that God will take care of us. Yet take careful note: the birds don’t worry, but they do work. Birds don’t just sit with open mouths, expecting God to fill them. God even takes care of the grass of the field, so He will certainly take care of you. We are confident of the power and care of a loving heavenly God. I have been unemployed before, I have always been broke but God still provides for me. You know what, when I’m scrounging for survival that’s when I’m close to the heart of God.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” Philippians 3:8

I use to have a good paying job that took me around God’s creation but I went back to being a bum for the sake of Christ. Now, let's face it, much of life does not lend itself to our happiness! In fact, when Paul wrote Phil 4:4, he was bound between two soldiers in a Roman prison. Still, Paul knew that regardless of the circumstances of life, God never changes. You see, people will change, circumstances will change and life constantly changes, but the Lord never changes!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Fix

I was supposed to be on vacation, I wanted to go down to California to see my best friends but it didn’t work out. I might just pick a day out of this week turn my phone off and just drive somewhere. But right now God has put people in my life to chill with. The Ministry is busy anyway might as well get introduced to it early. Every other Friday a bunch of us meet and have reflections of the week. Every time I get asked I draw a blank. Sometimes I feel the presence of God and sometimes I don’t, but He is always there. Usually I can sit down, write down my thoughts and make them into tribunes and hand them out to people. I have been trying to write for the past week but didn’t feel anything valuable to write. I take that back I do feel something. I feel like a moron when I deposit my money into the wrong account and spend most of it and thought that it was in my savings but it was actually in my checking account. I feel dumbfounded when a person was woken up, started turning their life around and they jump right into it. I feel confused when it comes to the education of God dealing with an ultra conservative school. I feel lost to an uncertain future. Where will God place me when I graduate? Then I go back to the basics of Keep It Simple Stupid, Hutch. Freaking out to situations that don’t need to be freaked out over. All of this stuff is meaningless, these feelings of mine are Mickey Mouse doo doo. I go back to the basics of focus and direction… I fix my eyes on Jesus.

“and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

You see God has set before you a race. You have to run it; and it will involve effort and commitment. Just being passive never runs a race. God wants us to run the race, and finish it right. What is my race? I mean what I’m to accomplish? I think my race is to be like Jesus, to accomplish what He wants me to get done. To bring as many people with many to heaven, even if it is one person. Race is the ancient Greek word agona, a word used for struggle of many kinds, and a favorite word of Paul. We can only run the race as we look to Jesus, and have our eyes locked on to Him. He is our focus, our inspiration, and our example. Life has its ups and downs. And we have roadblocks but we change those roadblocks into comebacks. We experience trials and tribulations in order to grow and mature in our faith.

“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" James 1:4.

Our suffering develops perseverance; and perseverance will build maturity and maturity will produce character. So suffering is designed to make us better people. No matter what happens, we must never give up on our faith. Things will get better… I think? Yes they do. So I fix my eyes on Jesus and when I do this I know there is hope for me let.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

GO OUT

12/3/09

It has been a year since I started the Hutch Tribune. I didn’t think that it would last this long. Last year about this time I quit drinking meaning quit getting wasted… I have not touched a beer in 3 months. Anyways last year when I did quit, God took over my body and I was a new person. I decided I wanted to help my self and others on our walk with God. So I started this and then it grew into something bigger… I became a Preacher. I like to serve people my heart goes out to people. I like to be there for my friends even if it involves me pushing up a dryer the size of Texas upstairs and having it fall on my ankles. I have become a professional mover since being at church… I should sale my truck . In 08 I ran into some bumps in the road but in the end I’m doing what I love, learning and preaching the Word. And serving the people. Preach the Word is our motto our battle cry at school. Every time a preacher goes up to the pulpit we say “Preach the Word”. It is totally awesome.

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”- 2 Timothy 4:2

Though Paul is talking to Timothy here, this relates to us because we are Disciples of Jesus and we are in His army. When Jesus sent out his disciples he told them to proclaim the Gospel, The Kingdom. Another word for proclaim is to preach. To be ready in season we need to be ready always. We should preach when it is easy and when it is tough. We need to preach when the fruit is evident and preach when the fruit seems non-existent. Just Preach it (yes I stole this from Nike…sue me). We need to be contenders of the Faith.

“ Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”- Jude 1:3

If we highlight the word you, we see that this was something that Jude wanted each individual Christian to do. There are many ways that every Christian can contend earnestly for the faith. We contend for the faith in a practical sense when we live rigid Christian lives and give credit to God who changed us. Obviously, faithful missionaries and evangelists (all of us our missionaries) contend earnestly for the faith. But so does the average Joe, the Sunday school teacher or people who have Bible studies in their homes. People like this contend for the faith just as much as a front-line missionary does, and each one of us should contend for the gospel wherever God puts us. The road up ahead is hard and scary but I like what Paul says,

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”-Philippians 1:21

Death is not defeat to the Christian. It is merely a graduation to glory, a huge gain for the Christian. I would like to thank all my friends who read these writings and support me as I support you

“Iron sharpens Iron so one man sharpens another”-Proverbs 27:17.

Shalom,
Brother Hutch