Rick Hughes brings to life significant lessons on faith and courage by examining historical and scriptural instances where individuals faced insurmountable odds. Learn about Mark Shannon’s heroic actions during World War II, guided by personal beliefs and Biblical teachings. This episode not only provides historical context but also applies timeless lessons about living a life free from fear, filled with purpose, and grounded in spiritual resilience as we head into challenging new beginnings.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. It’ll be a short 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, some education, and all done without any manipulation. We don’t try to con you. We’re not hustling you for money. We’re not asking you to join anything. We’re not asking you to fess up anything. We just would like for you to listen. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I’m able to do that and you feel confident about that, then you can orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. But this is show number 854, Flatline, headed towards 1,000. What a great honor, what a great joy to be broadcasting in your city, giving you this information as we head into the new year, 2022. Who knows what’s out there, but I can tell you this. It’s going to take some courage because we’re going to face some amazing things in the future. I believe personally that the United States of America is under discipline from God. I think we’ve relished the gifts and we forgot who the giver is. I think our country has been divided racially and politically. I think we’re in sad shape militarily. And unless something changes, who knows what’s going to happen in the future. You’re going to have to have courage under the pressure that’s coming down the pipeline. I want to read you a story this morning about true courage. This story is about Mark Shannon. Mark Shannon from Tohoka, Texas. a Silver Star winner during World War II in the Navy. He was a pharmacist mate first class. This is taken from the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information, Bulletin No. 321, December 1943. It says the President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to pharmacist mate first class Mark Shannon, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as a corpsman attached to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing during an attack on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands by enemy Japanese forces and air forces on the night of 13 and 14 October 1942. It goes on to say when several salvos from Japanese warships fell short and exploded in the bivouac area, Pharmacist mate First Class Shannon at the height of the action voluntarily left the place of safety, obtained an ambulance that was over a half a mile away and removed wounded officers and men to sheltered areas. He obtained blood plasma for them and at dawn took them under fire to Henderson Field where they were loaded onto an ambulance plane. His great courage under fire and his unwavering devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Services. Mark Shannon When he was given his Silver Star, someone asked him the question, how did you find courage to get up and run and do those things in the face of almost certain death? I mean, men were sheltered down in safe places. I’m trying to think of the word where they would dig a hole in the ground and get into it. But anyhow, they were sheltered, and Mark Shannon was one of them. He was just like everybody else. They were all keeping their head down, afraid they were going to die. But something motivated Mark Shannon to get out of his foxhole, that’s what I was trying to say, to get out of his foxhole and to run to where the blood plasma was stored and come and administer first aid to these wounded sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and then to take them to the ambulance. What did that? These are the words that I’ve learned. These are the words that I’ve heard. And let me tell you what I’ve heard it said. When they asked him that, he said he grew up in Mushoe, Texas, and he quoted a verse that his parents taught him. But before he quoted that verse, he told his story about looking out of his foxhole and seeing a bird sitting in a blown down tree. And the bird was just sitting there. And he thought to himself, if God can protect that bird, God can protect me. And that’s what motivated him to get up and go do this job. And the verse that he quoted is Matthew 10, 28 through 31. Here it is for you to listen to. Do not fear. That’s a strong emphasis. Do not fear. And I’ll get into that in just a minute. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear the one that’s able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows so for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father’s will. but the very hair on your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid because you are more valuable than a sparrow. And so when Mark saw that bird sitting there, that’s what he remembered that verse right there. He’s more valuable than a sparrow. You are valuable to God. You are his chosen vessel. He sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ to pay for your sins and to purchase you out of the slave market of sin. you have nothing to fear in what’s going to happen in 2022 in your life. Politically, economically, militarily, you have nothing to fear. So verse 28 starts off with an heiress passive imperative of the Greek verb phobos. And it says, do not, not is a negative me, do not fear. The heiress tense is a culminative heiress. There never is a time in your life when you are to be afraid. The passive voice says the subject receives the action of that verb and the subject is you. And you’re not producing it, you’re receiving it. And the imperative mood is the mood of command. Fear is a sin. Make no mistake about it. Fear will ruin your life. You’re not here to live under fear. What time I’m afraid, I will trust in thee, the Bible says. So do not fear in verse 28 and then repeat it in verse 31. Do not fear. The same word phobos again, same verb tense, same imperative mood. Here’s another scripture reference for you about being afraid, having courage under pressure. After the death of Moses, Joshua was given instructions by God to assume command of Israel. He said this, Joshua 1, 1 and 2. After the death of Moses, a servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, and he said this, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise and go over the Jordan River, you and all this people, to the land which I’m giving to them, to the children of Israel. This was an intimidating task. I mean, how do you follow Moses? Yeah, I remember when I played football at the University of Alabama, we had a great football coach named Paul Bear Bryant. When he passed away, I pitied the man that had to follow him and try to coach behind him. It was almost impossible. So how do you follow Moses? It’s almost impossible. But God told Joshua, don’t be afraid. Do not be afraid. Go to that land that I’m giving them. You know, the first time Moses came to the promised land, they wouldn’t go in. They chickened out, sent in 12 spies. 10 came back and said, nope, not going in there. There’s giants in the land. Only two, Joshua and Caleb said, no big deal. We can take the land. We can handle it. And the Jews turned around and watered in the wilderness for another 40 years until that whole generation died off. And now the generation that Joshua has is the children of those who rejected it the first time. So remember, they had been under discipline for 40 years since they refused to go into the promised land, Deuteronomy 1, 19 through 45. You can read it, Deuteronomy 1, 19 through 45. So now Joshua is given this task of leading these surviving children into the promised land since that older rebellious generation has now died off. And God reinforced his command to Joshua, giving him these words in Joshua 1, verses 5 through 9. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you, I will not forsake you. That’s the same words the Lord Jesus Christ said to you. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. My Father gives unto them eternal life and no one can pluck them out of my Father’s hand. That’s a great promise. The Lord Jesus Christ will never throw you under the bus. He will never turn his back on you. You may turn your back on him. He will simply love you from behind. So God told Joshua, I will not leave you. I will not forsake you. Joshua 1.5, Joshua 1.6. Now here’s the mandate. Be strong and have good courage. For to this people you shall divide an inheritance of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. And again, another mandate, only be strong and be very courageous so that you can observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn away from the law to the right or to the left so that you can prosper wherever you go. That’s a divine promise. If you’re obedient to what I tell you to do, I’ll prosper you. And this is something we need to remember in this country, obedience to God. In verse 8, the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate in it day and night so that you can observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. And now in verse 9, again, have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. These two scripture references I’ve given you, one in Joshua and one in Matthew, are references to our guarantee of God’s protective grace over his children, the ones that are obedient to his command. If you’re obedient to his command, you are guaranteed divine provident protection. Disobedience leads to trouble. If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ve accepted him as your Savior, and yet you continue to sin in your life, listen to Proverbs 1, 24 through 26. Behold, I called and you refused. I stretched out my hand and you did not regard it. Because you disdained all my counsel and had none of my rebuke, I will laugh at your calamity and mock you when your terror comes. This is a good verse for America to remember. God stretched out his hand for us. He’s blessed us. He’s protected us. And we have disdained all of his counsel. We’ve thrown him under the bus. We’ve kicked the Bible out of the school, out of the public arena. We don’t want any of God’s rebuke. We want to accept all the sins that used to be sins are now good stuff, see? And all the good stuff that used to be good is now evil. And he said, I will laugh at your calamity and I will mock you when terror comes. And it’s coming, my friend. Until we get back to the place to where we respect the word of God, until we get back to the place where we’re obedient, we are going to suffer discipline as a nation. So here are the principles I’d like to give you today. Number one, physical courage is the ability and the willingness to face uncertainty without intimidation. Physical courage is the ability and willingness to face uncertainty without intimidation. When Joshua looked at Jericho, God said, you don’t attack it. Don’t get your swords out. Don’t get your bow and arrows out. Just go walk around the wall. And Joshua had to call the troops up and say, boys, we’re just going to walk around the wall. And they went like, what? What do you mean walk around the wall? Well, we’re going to walk around the wall. They walked around that wall at Jericho once a day for six days and on the seventh day they walked around it seven times. On the seventh time they blew the trumpets and the walls came tumbling down. God told him what to do and he did it and God supplied the means. So physical courage is the ability and willingness, willingness to face uncertainty and not be intimidated. It’s the ability, number two, to stay composed and think under pressure. Not get emotional, not let your emotions run away. That’s not courage. It’s the ability to stay composed and think under pressure. That means using the faith rest drill, claiming the promises of God and not letting the circumstances intimidate you. Number three, another principle, moral courage based in confidence in God’s provisions. is an act of virtue motivated by personal love for God. I’m going to say that again. Moral courage based on confidence in God’s provision. is an act of virtue motivated by personal love for God. Listen to Psalm 56, 11. In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Not a thing. Nothing can you have to worry about. In Psalm 59, 9. Because of his strength I will watch for you. For God is my stronghold, my refuge. Isaiah 41 10 do not fear for I am with you do not be afraid for I am your God I will strengthen you and I will also help you and I will also uphold you in my righteous right hand what is there for you to be afraid of other than unexplained circumstances you must have confidence in God’s plan so point for confidence in God motivates courage towards man confidence in God motivates courage towards man And number five, injustice in life requires you to have confidence in God’s plan and courage towards whatever man may try to do to you. You’re going to face injustice. It’s coming down the pipe more than you can ever believe. And you must have confidence in the plan of God. And point six, physical courage is a human virtue, but spiritual courage is a required character asset. These are two different things. Physical courage is a human virtue, but spiritual courage is confidence in God. And it’s a required character asset called faith, F-A-I-T-H, faith. That’s where your confidence comes from. So point seven, spiritual courage requires obedience to God’s command, regardless of what appears to be some overwhelming odds. Listen to what Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 16, 24. Jesus said to the disciples, if anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. This verse has three imperative commands, deny, take up, and follow me. Deny self is an aorist middle imperative of the Greek word meaning this. The middle voice is active in meaning since it’s a deponent verb, and this is a command for any believer who intends to reach point 10, problem-solving device number 10, occupation with Christ. Remember, the flotline is built on 10 unique problem-solving devices, and problem-solving device number 10 is occupation with Christ. So if you ever intend to reach occupation with Christ, you must do what? Anyone who wants to come after me, he must deny himself. He must take self out of the picture. Self-centeredness is not the spiritual life. And then he says you must take up an aorist active imperative. All of these are imperative verbs. It means they’re commands. They’re not requests, they’re commands. Take up and follow me. The present active imperative. The present tense is the durative, meaning you gotta keep following him day by day, moment by moment. The active voice, the subject produces the action of the verb, and the imperative mood is the command. So here are three mandates from God for you to reach occupation with Christ. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. These three divine mandates for the believer, these are, excuse me, the three divine mandates for the believer who wants to be occupied with Christ. Taking up your cross means to be willing to suffer, to be willing to be obedient. I can tell you this for a fact. Going to the cross was not something that anyone looked forward to. The Lord Jesus Christ said, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. He was willing to go to the cross. He was willing to pay the price. He did it for us. And that’s what it calls for you to do, to be willing to take up your cross, to be willing to obedient to whatever God calls you to do. I know people that are saved. I know people that are born again. I know people that love God, but they are not willing to do what God asked them to do because it doesn’t fit their agenda. They have other plans. And until you’re willing to lay your plans aside, Until you’re willing to discover what the will of God is for your life, you’re never going to be happy. So these three mandates I gave you, take up, follow me, deny yourself, can only be accomplished with confidence and courage. It’s the same coin, just two-sided. Courage on one side, confidence on the other side. spiritual courage is built and maintained by the daily decision to stay filled with the holy spirit and to learn god’s word under operation z so let’s run over that for a minute the filling of the holy spirit how does that take place when you rebound Problem-solving device number one, when you name any known sin to God, you are instantaneously filled with the Holy Spirit. When you sin, you instantaneously quench the Holy Spirit and move into carnality and let your sin nature take over. And this may go on several times a day, in and out of fellowship, in and out of fellowship. Just remember this, God never gets tired of forgiving your sin. So when you sin, go admit it to God and don’t hide it. That must be done. That’s the filling of the Holy Spirit. And Ephesians 5.18 is the mandate. Be filled with the Spirit. You cannot build spiritual courage without the filling of the Holy Spirit. And you can’t maintain that courage daily without understanding Operation Z. What is that? Well, it deals with you having a qualified pastor teaching you the Word of God and you understanding it and applying it into your life. To hear the Word of God is one thing. To apply it is another thing. So the Lord Jesus Christ said, happiness belongs to those people who hear my Father’s Word and keep it. That’s Operation Z. A communicator communicates the Word of God to you. The Holy Spirit captures what he communicates and helps you to comprehend it. But then you must comply. You must comply. 2 Corinthians 5, 6 through 8. Listen carefully. Therefore… being always of good courage, good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, that’s confidence, not by sight, for we are of good courage, that’s the result of confidence, and we prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. You can’t have courage without confidence. Spiritual courage requires more than an emotional override since emotions don’t have any content. Emotions don’t have any reasoning. Emotions don’t have any discerning ability. That’s not how you live the Christian life based on your emotion. And unfortunately, so many churches today appeal to the emotions of the believer. There’s nothing wrong with emotions. They’re not sinful, but that’s not how you live the Christian life. You live the Christian life as the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Think, think, think, think. Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance, Romans 12, 3, beyond what you should think. but think in terms of humility as God has given to us each one, a standard of thinking from his word. What am I supposed to think? Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Thank the word of God. Grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Think the word of God. Think divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint. That’s the difference between emotions and thinking. The mentality of the soul is equipping you. By God gave you that mentality so that you can store his word in your stream of consciousness. And when it comes time to make a decision based on what the Bible says, through the filling of the Holy Spirit and through the confidence of faith, you have the courage to step out and do what you’re supposed to do. So again, spiritual courage requires a lot more than just emotional override. Courage without confidence is emotional override. Courage without confidence is emotional override. There are a lot of people that have died in combat and they had a lot of courage They would jump on a hand grenade and they would do anything to rescue their friends and save them from certain death. That’s courage in the middle of an emotional thing that’s happening, but that’s not what I’m talking about. The courage I’m talking about is the confidence that God will handle the situation for you. That’s a faith rest drill. Faith rest drill gives you confidence. The faith rest drill is something you must learn problem solving device. Number three, if you don’t understand it, write to me and let me send you the book on Christian Problem Solving so you’ll get these and understand these. It’s critical for you to live the Christian life understanding the faithless drill because that’s where your confidence and courage comes from. The faith rest drill will give you the confidence to trust God, and the filling of the Holy Spirit supplies the courage to do the deed. I’m going to say it again. The faith rest drill gives you the confidence to trust God, and the filling of the Holy Spirit gives you the courage to do the deed. Listen to Isaiah 54, 17. Here is confidence. No weapon that is formed against you will succeed, and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from me, declares the Lord. What a wonderful promise that is for you. Your confidence is in his weaponry. Your confidence is in his weaponry. And it’s seen in Ephesians 6.11, put on the armor of God so that you can stand against the strategy of the devil. Remember, you have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And most of us don’t get past the Lord of the flesh. But if we do… then we have to deal with the call of the world. And if we get past, the Bible just clearly says, if you love the world, you don’t love God. So you got to get past the call of the world. If you get past the flesh and past the world, then Satan may attack you. He has a strategy in regards to you. Yes, he does. He knows who you are. He knows what your weaknesses are. But he’s not omnipresent. He can’t be overseas in America at the same time. When people say the devil’s after me, that’s not true. Most of the time, it’s their own flesh they’re having a battle with, not to Satan. So if you’re going to have confidence, you must put on the weaponry that God provides you, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We’ve given you that before, and if you’d like to know more about it, contact me and we’ll get you the information. But the armor of God, this is what we must wear. This is where we have confidence in God’s plan and the courage to walk onto the battlefield into the arena of contention, I call it. The arena of contention is the angelic conflict. We’re never told to charge the enemy. We’re never told to charge Satan. But we are told to stand our ground and listen carefully. If you’re with me, you’re a believer. You and I need to lock shields. We need to have like-mindedness like other believers who stand shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield. Just like those Spartan warriors locked shields. Just like Roman soldiers locked shields. We protect one another. We pray for one another. We intercede for one another. We’re like-minded because we think the same things. But the arrogance of discouragement is simply preoccupation with self under pressure. So if you’re discouraged, you’re looking at the problem, not the solution. Human solutions are no solutions. Divine solutions are the only solutions. So unexplained disaster that tempts us to feel sorry for ourself, being maligned, being mistreated, even the death of people that we love can propel us into self-pity and into discouragement. So God’s 10 problem-solving devices are designed to remove all of these cobwebs of fear in our soul and replace them with confidence from the scripture and courage under the filling of the Holy Spirit. So courage is you thinking doctrine and functioning under pressure as if there were actually no abnormal circumstances. So you can take confidence in this. For you, nothing is abnormal. It’s all in God’s plan. For you, nothing is abnormal. It’s all in God’s plan. So don’t be surprised. Don’t be knocked off your feet. Don’t get self-pity, full of self-deceit. If it happens, it’s God’s plan. It’s all in the decree. God knew about it in eternity past. God gave you and equipped you how to handle it. If you don’t want to use God’s plan, then good luck. Try to handle it on your own. You won’t be able to. You’ll be frustrated and you’ll be defeated on the battlefield of life. I hope this is making sense. I hope it’s clicking with you. Courage under pressure. You’re going to need it. It’s coming in 2022. Greater pressure than you’ve ever seen. And only the word of God and the filling of the Holy Spirit can give you the confidence and the courage to endure it. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to write to me. Contact me, rick at rickhughesministries.org, rick at rickhughesministries.org. If you’d like to get our new book we’ve got out called Christian Problem Solving, get a hold of us, or the new book Crash Course in Christianity. Both are free for your request. Thank you for listening. Until next week, this is Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
