Concert Tickets are $10 each. You may purchase tickets at our Website: Hope Springs International  by clicking the PayPal Secure Donation Button. All tickets purchased online from now through November 30, 2011. will be mailed. Tickets purchased December 1-9, 2011 will be available at the “Will Call” table at the concert. Tickets are also available from a number of Churches and individual in the greater Nashville area. Family and group rates are available. Tickets will be available at the door the night of the concert if seats are available. For more information email us at: hopespringsinternational@yahoo.com. PLEASE NOTE THE DATE CHANGE FROM THE 9th to the 10th.

CONCERT LOCATION

GOODPASTURE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS AUDITORIUM
619 W. DUE W. AVE.
MADISON, TENNESSEE 37115

Our family moved to Germany in 1974 to be missionaries. Shortly after we were settled into our new home I spent 4 days a week at the Goethe Institute studying German. Within a few short weeks I preached (read by manuscript) my first sermon in German.

As I reflect on those two very different experiences in learning a new language I see a parallel as it pertains to Bible study. Like many of you I grew up going to church and attending Bible classes. We were there every time the doors were open so I heard a lot of Bible being taught. But I can’t tell you that I really knew or understood a lot of what I was taught.

When I got out of the army I worked for an aircraft construction company. I worked closely with two guys who professed to be Christians. Both of them lived like the Devil throughout the week but never missed attending church on Sunday. I began to discuss the scriptures with them. They would make an argument and I would go home and study to prepare to respond the next day at work. I was doing a lot of Bible Study. But I was studying the Bible with a specific purpose. Bible study became an adventure and I could not get enough.

How many of you can relate to sitting on a plane and listening to the instructions from the cabin personnel about the seat belt and the flotation devise under your seat. You “heard” what was said, but did you really pay attention? Why not?  Because you did not expect to be in an emergency landing or crash over water where you would really need this information.

The moral of the story?  We learn more and pay attention to what we hear when there is reason or need to do so.

Can you imagine how exciting it would be for Christians if they understood their vocation as disciples as not that dissimilar from their heroes they read about in the Scriptures. What if they could see themselves as a part of the continuing story being written today? Instead of Biblical truths going in one ear and out the other, Bible Study would be seen as preparation for their mission. What if they saw themselves as a part of an incredible adventure with other Christians and learning was critical to the success of that mission.

If you have ever taught a Bible class you understand that the one who gained the most was you…the teacher. Why? You were learning with a purpose.

Unused truth is often lost truth. How many times have we heard, “Use it or lose it!” So let me encourage you to put yourself in a challenging situation. Deliberately put yourself in a place where you need to know and allow yourself to be motivated to learn with purpose. You will be so glad you did.

The following Poem and later song lyric was written by Miss Ora Rowan (1834-1879). While written in the English of the 17th Century, it is such a power piece. I ran across it while reading “Jesus Manifesto” by Leonard Sweet/Fran Viola, which by the way I highly recommend. The chorus was added when music was added.

 
Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
Chief among ten thousand own Him;
Joyful choose the better part.

Idols oft they win thee, charm thee
Lovely things of time and sense;
Gilded thus does sin disarm thee,
Honeyed lest thou turn thee hence.

What has stripped the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty
But the sight of peerless worth …

…Not the crushing of those idols
With its bitter void and smart [pain],
But the beaming of His beauty
The unveiling of His heart.

Who extinguishes their taper [candle]
Till they hail the rising sun?
Who discards the garb of winter
Till the summer hath begun?

‘Tis the look that melted Peter,
‘Tis the face that Stephen saw;
‘Tis the heart that wept with Mary
Can alone from idols draw.

Draw and win and fill completely,
Till the cup o’erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols
Who have companied with Him?

Chorus: Captivated by His beauty
Worthy tribute haste to bring;
Let His peerless worth constrain thee,
Crown Him now unrivaled King!
———————————————-

-Miss Ora Rowan (1834-1879)

1976 seems like such a long time ago. Thirty-Five years ago to be exact. Gerald Ford was President and Jimmy Carter is elected to replace him. We celebrated our nation’s bicentennial, marking the 200th anniversary of our independence. George W. Bush is arrested and fined for driving under the influence of alcohol. Cincinnati Reds won the World Series. Filming began on George Lucas’ Star Wars. Charlie’s Angels and The Muppet Show premiered. But these events pale in comparison to what happened on Father’s Day June 20^, 1976. My father went home to be with the Lord.  Father’s Day has never been the same.

Although it has been 35 years since he passed away, there is hardly a day that I don’t think about him. The thoughts are not painful, but assuring. Sometimes I wonder what he would think about this new discovery or this event or that. Mom led Dad to Jesus and they both led their kids to Him as well. Dad’s life touched so many people, but none so deeply as my own. I am my father’s child. Dreamer, risk taker and follower of Jesus. Thanks Dad. Happy Father’s Day!

Four Generations: Miles William Hodges; Marion Ollie Hodges, Thomas Lee Hodges, Sr. and I am the little guy.

Traditions are funny things. I don’t know how many baptisms I have witnessed in my life. But in all of them I remember seeing the person doing the baptizing raise his hand as he spoke before baptizing the candidate in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In artist renderings of the baptism of Jesus, John the baptizer is often shown with his hand raised as he prepares to baptize Jesus. I was just looking at a picture of a recent baptisms that took place in Africa and there it was again, hand raised before the
baptism.

I know of no verse in scripture where we are told that we should raise our hand, nor do I find an example where this practice is described, yet this tradition has crossed oceans and cultures as it has traveled around the world, especially among our tribe.

As I reflected on this tradition we practice at baptism I thought how it has not been a tradition among us to raise our hands when we
pray or sing. In fact in some circles people are thought to be strange or weird if they do. I have even heard folks say, “It makes us look like the Pentecostals”, as if that were a bad thing. I see a contradiction here. And what makes this contradiction more odd is that the people who often pride themselves in being a people of the book, who “speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent”, don’t practice something that the Bible says a lot about.

“I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.” (Ps. 63:4) “I call to you, O Lord, everyday; I spread out my hands to you.” (Ps. 88:9) “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.” (Ps. 134:2) “Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, ’Amen! Amen!’” (Neh. 8:6) “Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” (Lam. 3:41 KJV) “I fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed.” (Ezra 9:5-6) “Solomon knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.” (2 Chron. 6:13) “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword … Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, ’For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.’” (Ex. 17:11-16) “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer.” (1Tim. 2:8) “Every day,” David says in Psalm 88:9, “I call to you and spread out myhands to you.”

Buddy Owen in an article adapted from his book, “The Way of the Worshiper” said, “Look at your hands. They aren’t going to hurt you; just look at them for a moment. Magnificent aren’t they? Who gave us our hands? God gave them to us. What do we do with our hands? Well, we work with our hands. We feed ourselves with our hands. We play with our hands. We give gifts and receive gifts with our hands. We show affection with our hands. We also fight with our hands. We sin with our hands. Why are we so hesitant to worship God with our hands Lifting our hands to God is a biblical posture of prayer. It is another physical demonstration of a spiritual truth. Just as we bow our hearts when we bow our knees, so we lift our hearts when we lift our hands (Lam. 3:41). By kneeling before God and lifting our hands to him, we are presenting our bodies to God as a spiritual act of worship. “

When we lift our hands with palms open it is a physical display of openness. As with kneeling in prayer, another Biblical practice lost by us over the years, lifting our hands is simply a posture of devotion that expresses humility and worship. David said, “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?  4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully.” We understand that David was not speaking of physically clean hands. When hands are open it is a gesture of openness and expresses we have nothing to hide. It is also an appeal for help. It reminds me of the child that comes to his or her parent with arms out stretched open wide and hands lifted up.

Regardless of what we do with our hands before a baptism or in a time of prayer and worship it is the condition of the heart that is most important. I am not arguing for or against any tradition.  But for me personally there is something freeing about physically and outwardly expressing what is going on in my heart. At first it was awkward and uncomfortable, because it was different and I wondered what others would think. It became freeing when I kept my focus on the ONE I was worshiping and it became a very natural expression of praise and worship.

I began this article by saying, traditions are funny things. Today when someone lifts their hands in worship some may feel uncomfortable, but if we could be transported back to the early church or even further back to the Old Testament period, I think we would be very uncomfortable if we did not raise our hands.

Traditions are funny things.

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