In this enlightening episode, discover the essentials of living a fulfilled Christian life with host Rick Hughes. Learn how to find perfect peace and security amidst adversity by prioritizing faith over circumstances. Through practical advice and biblical passages, the episode underscores the importance of faith, volition, and scripture in reaching spiritual maturity. Join us as Rick discusses how the Bible serves as a guide, helping you establish a meaningful and directed life, avoid regret, and build a solid spiritual foundation.
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.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I am your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, we’ll have some time of motivation, some inspiration, some education without any type of manipulation because we’re not going to con you. We’re not going to try to solicit money. We’re not going to try to sell you anything. We just want to give you accurate information. You might even ask yourself, how could a show like this benefit me? That’s a fair question. As I expand and add additional costs for production and broadcast across the country, we have right now broadcast in over 100 cities, I take comfort in God’s grace provisions. He provides the finances. He provides the inspiration for the messages. And he gives me the energy to do it. The objective of this show is simply one thing only, to make you wealthy. Not financially, no, no, no. We’re not talking about finances, we’re talking about spiritually. In 2 Corinthians 4, 7, Paul wrote, we have this treasure in our earthly vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be from God and not from ourselves. That Greek word treasure is a word you’re familiar with. In the English, it’s called thesaurus, meaning a word treasure. The treasure that I bring to you is the word of God if you will learn it and use it in your life. In Colossians 2, 2 and 3, Paul wrote again that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery that is Christ himself, listen now, listen, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So we have the word wealth and treasure right there. That’s our objective, to make you rich in the word of God so that you can solve any problem you may face in your life and be able to effectively glorify God and represent Jesus Christ. But I want you to know there’s trouble on the way. Yes, there is. There’s trouble on the way because we are manufacturing machines for trouble. The Bible says in Job 5, 7, yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards. And again in Job 14.1, man who is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. Yes, we manufacture trouble. Let’s face it, humans are problem manufacturing individuals. We use our own free will, our own volition to make numerous decisions that often cause us tremendous problems and grief in our life. As I answer the phone in my office constantly as a result of these radio shows, I talk to people that have a lot of problems or that have a lot of grief and a lot of problems. And sometimes it’s self-induced, sometimes it’s not. But trouble is there. It’s in the devil’s world. We live in the devil’s world. So if you’ve made the decision to receive Jesus Christ as your savior, and I sure pray you’ve done that, then God has provided for you an amazing way to live based on the provisions of the Holy Spirit and his word, which you know to be the Bible. It’s called simply the Christian life. And when you learn how to execute that life, The Christian life has the ability to provide perfect peace and security for you even in the worst circumstances you face. That’s why you will hear us say adversity is inevitable, however stress is optional. Self-induced misery is a symptom of bad decisions made from a position of weakness. But it all boils down to our own volition, V-O-L-I-T-I-O-N, volition. We are free to choose for God’s plan and we are free to ignore God’s plan because our Heavenly Father will never force anybody to do anything. In my particular travels over the years, I’ve had to locate certain schools and cities that I’ve visited, places I had never been before. And to do this, I needed a good map of the roads, and once I got into the city, I would usually have to ask some individual, how do I get to the school where I was going to speak? As a matter of fact, you might not know that I’ve spoken in over 5,000 school assemblies over the past 50 years. But today, with the help of GPS services, I simply ask that one word, Siri, hey Siri, how do I get to, and then I tell it my objective, and the directions will appear on my telephone, my cell phone. which is then fed into my own screen navigation in my automobile. Consider your destiny and how you will get there is what I’m telling you. Once while I was trying to locate a boat ramp to launch my boat in a bass fishing tournament, I went down the wrong road and had to back up for at least a mile since there was a washed out bridge and no place to turn around. Life is too short for you to have to be backing up, too short for you to take the wrong road. That’s why the Bible is God’s directional device. And if you learn it and apply his directions and follow his instructions, I can assure you, I will assure you that you will arrive safely. So let’s start with heaven. How’s that? You want to get to heaven? How can I assure you you can arrive safely? Well, to start with, Jesus said in John 10, 9, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. You might have a hard time believing that Christ is the door to heaven, but could I ask you, have you got a better deal? Did somebody tell you there’s a better way? Someone say there’s another way to get to heaven. You might say, well, You might say, I’m asking you to put faith in that statement, I am the door. Am I asking you to do that? Yes, I am asking you that. That’s exactly what God requires. You must put faith in that statement, I am the door. That’s the only way you can walk in it is by faith. Hebrews 11, 6 says it, but without faith, it’s impossible to please God. For the one who comes to God must believe first that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So if you wish to know God, you must have faith in what the Bible says and walk through the door of Jesus Christ as anointed son. Now, I don’t know how you make decisions. There are just three ways to perceive truth and it’s really up to you to make that decision. Some people call it rationalism, and that’s a view appealing to intellectual people, deductive reasoning as opposed to century experience or any religious teachings as a source of knowledge. Rationalism, rationally figure something out, and you can try to rationalize why the door thing is not true. And then there’s empiricism. That’s you gathering data from experience, scientific theory, all that knowledge, sense experience, stimulated by the rise of experimental science. That was developed back in the 17th and 18th centuries by John Locke and George Berkeley. And then there is what we operate under, what we live by, not rationalism, not empiricism but it’s called pisticism p-i-s-t-i-s-c-i-s-m from the greek word pistis p-i-s-t-i-s faith that’s the word faith so operating under faith is pisticism so if i use faith as my system of perception Can I be absolutely confident that I will go to heaven by accepting Christ as my Savior? Well, listen to what the Bible says in 1 John 5, 3. These things I’ve written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know, you may know, that’s confident, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. So what if you choose not to do that? What if you choose not to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and you choose not to accept him as your savior? Does the Bible comment on that, if you reject that by faith? Yep, it sure does comment, 1 John 5 10. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself, and he who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he does not believe the testimony that God gave of his Son. So when you say, I don’t believe that, I don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the door, I don’t believe he’s the only way to heaven, you are calling God a liar. Good luck with that. The testimony is found in the scriptures about the truth of God when God pronounced who his son is. Listen in Matthew 3, 17. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, quote now, this is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased. There’s God the Father actually vocally saying Christ is his Son. Did the Lord Jesus Christ actually claim to be the Son of God? Listen for yourself in John 5, 18. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke their Sabbath, but he also said God was his Father, making him equal with God. Now here’s the question. Do you believe what the Bible says is true? Again, you have volition. Do you believe what the Bible says is true? It’s really up to you. All scripture the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3.16 is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So in 2 Peter 1.21, again, prophecy never came by the will of man. The holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So it was not a bunch of men sitting down and deciding to write a book called the Bible. It’s amazing if you look over the years how it’s not contradictory. If you look over the many years that it took to compel the Bible, it’s amazing to see how what’s in the Old Testament refers to what’s in the New Testament. It’s amazing. No man wrote this book. It was led by God the Holy Spirit and put upon the heart of men what to write. If the greatest thing God can do is to redeem me and redeem you out of the slave market of sin and guarantee to us that we have eternal life with him, and you believe that, then why, here’s the question, why will you not trust him with the easy part? What’s the easy part? Well, to give you directions about how to have a wonderful life, to direct you how to live your life, how to have a wonderful life. You believe the first part, Why can you not believe the second part? Listen to Proverbs 1.33. Whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil. In Proverbs 3, 1 and 2, my son, don’t forget my law. But let your hearts keep my commandments for length of days and a long life and peace that will add to you. Listen to those two verses again. If you listen to me, you will dwell safely and be secure without fear of evil. And let your heart keep my commandments, Proverbs 3, 1 and 2, and you will have length of days and a long life and peace they will add to you. I mean, what’s wrong with that? God’s not trying to hurt you. God’s not trying to hinder you. He’s trying to help you. And if he can, it’s in the Bible. If you will learn it and use it and operate by faith. The mistake that Eve made was simply she was fascinated by the serpent. And she believed the lie that he told her. There are a lot of lie tellers in this world today, so the question becomes simply who will you believe? Will you believe the Bible? And that’s called divine viewpoint. Or will you believe the liar who’s talking to you? That’s called human viewpoint. Again, it’s your volition. You have a choice. You have to decide. Let’s see. God wrote the Bible so he could harm me. No, it doesn’t sound like it. God wrote the Bible so he could mislead me. No, it doesn’t sound like it. God wrote the Bible so that I’d be confused. No, it doesn’t sound like it. Well, what did he write the Bible for? So you would have a path to life and understand how to be rich spiritually, how to have a fantastic, wonderful life. It’s called having a flatline in your soul. That’s what the radio show is made up about. how to rebound your sin, how to stay filled with the Holy Spirit, how to operate under the faithless drill, how to utilize all of God’s grace provisions, how to orient to doctrine in your soul, how to have a personal sense of destiny. God, when he saved you, he called you. He has a destiny for you, and he has a history for you. how to have a personal love for God, the great virtue, the wonderful virtue of personal love for God. And by the way, the Bible says we love him because he first loved us. That’s reciprocal love. And then impersonal love for the ones you don’t even like. All of this put together gives you the ability to share the happiness of God. That’s what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 15, 11. I’ve told you these things to his disciples so that you might have my joy in you. And we can be occupied with Christ. That’s the flood line. That’s what God provided for you. Why would you turn that down? Why? I can tell you why. I can tell you why. It’s your life. You’re only going to get one shot at it. I suggest you decide quickly since the meter is running right now. Solomon wrote these words at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. Very interesting to read them. In Ecclesiastes 12, 13, and 14, the conclusion he came to is this. When all has been heard, here’s the conclusion. Fear God, keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment and everything which is hidden, whether it be good or evil. Solomon had more money than you can imagine. More than you could ever win in the lottery, I promise you. As a matter of fact, winning the lottery is nothing compared to what Solomon had. He had money out the wazoo. He had beautiful homes, lovely wives, concubines. He was brilliant. He was attractive. But he lived a life of regret. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 5.10, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance will be satisfied with his income. It’s vanity, he said. In the end, his life was full of regrets. Ecclesiastes 2.18 So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me. Everything is futility and striving after the wind. So he said, Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. Now listen carefully. You have those that are coming after you. Your life is coming to an end eventually, sooner maybe than you think. And everything you have is going to be left to someone else. Solomon worried about that because he had an idiot of a son. And he knew what was going to happen. And it did. He hated to leave all the fruit of his labor to someone that didn’t have any moxie. Now what about you? It’s never too late for you to correct your course in life. Never, you can do that today. You can correct your course in life while we’re talking to each other. It’s never too late. You can always rebound your sin Rebound your mistakes by using problem-solving device number one and get back into fellowship with God. And once you get back in fellowship with God and start studying God’s word under a great pastor, a well-qualified pastor, you can start to orient to God’s plan and adjust to his course and fulfill the objective he has for you. It’s up to you. So I want to invite you to survey your life. Survey your life and answer one simple question. Did you buy into the lie that happiness can be found apart from God’s plan? Did you do that? Or will you make excuses due to your lack of faith or fear, whichever one it is? In Matthew 8, 18, the Lord gave a commandment to get in the boat and let’s go across the Sea of Galilee. Told the disciples, let’s go, hop in the boat. We’re going to cross the Sea of Galilee. And here’s what one of them said, Matthew 8, 21. Another of his disciples said to him, Lord, permit me first to go home and bury my father. All right, there’s nothing wrong with going to your father’s funeral, is it? I mean, isn’t that the right thing to do? But Jesus said to him, you follow me and you let the dead bury their own dead. You see, there’s several types of death, spiritual death, physical death. And what he’s saying is you let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead. You are spiritually alive. You follow me. You stick with me. Let’s go. Get in the boat. That’s the question I have to ask you. Are you willing to get in the boat with the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you willing to pay the price, even though it may mean you’re not doing the right thing socially, Another one of the followers that were supposed to be in the boat said this, Luke 9, 61. Another one also said, I will follow you, Lord. Yes, oh yes, oh yes. But first, by the way, let me go home and tell my wife goodbye. And Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Do you have to second guess whether or not you’re supposed to follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have to ask your wife or your spouse first? Are you willing to do what he said? Let’s go, get in the boat. What has the Lord Jesus Christ instructed you to do? What has he said he wants you to do? Has he made any statements like that? Well, the answer is obviously yes, he has. In 1 John 5, 3, the Bible says, “‘This is the love of God.'” That we keep his mandates and his mandates are not grievous. The first thing God wants you to do is simply love him. Appreciate him. Love him and appreciate him and respect him and obey him. That’s how you demonstrate you love God. You think he’s going to ask you to do something that’s hard? You think he’s going to ask you to do something you’re not capable of doing? Listen to that verse again, 1 John 5, 3. This is the love of God. In other words, you’re demonstrating it now like this, that we keep his mandates and they are not hard. Where’d you get this idea that God’s going to ask you to do something hard? Adam and Eve were not instructed to do anything hard. They were instructed to have a wonderful life in the garden. Just take care of the garden, name the animals, have a wonderful time, be in love with each other. What was hard about that? We have a problem, we mess things up. We are problem manufacturing machines, aren’t we? Our Lord has instructed you to do something very, very easy, very simple, just obey him. It all starts with you obeying this simple mandate. It’s not a hard mandate. It’s real simple. Here it is, 2 Timothy 2.15. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, you can be approved and you can be disapproved. This is not about being a Christian. It’s not saying, God, you’re not saved. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about whether or not you grow up to be a mature Christian. Whether or not you learn God’s word and become rich, have a treasure in your soul with wisdom, insight, understanding, discernment. But you can’t obey what you don’t know. And you’ll never know what God has for you without learning the scriptures. That’s why you hear me constantly, constantly harping for you to get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor who can accurately teach the Bible to you. If you don’t know where one is, contact me. I will tell you where one is, and it might not be in your city. You may have to do what I do, and that’s go to the Internet and watch the streaming videos video of pastors teaching the word of god but thanks to today’s technology it’s as if you’re right there in the congregation and yet you’re still seated at your desk with your bible with your notebook taking notes and learning until god shows you the right place but you can’t obey what you don’t know and you can’t know it if you don’t learn it You know, excuses are really easy, aren’t they? I mean, I’m too busy. I’ve heard all these excuses from people that know the Lord Jesus Christ, people that are Christians, and we talk about daily studying God’s Word. daily getting into the Bible, daily sitting down under the authority of a pastor and listening to him teach, daily taking notes, daily reading over your notes, daily doing this. Wait a minute, don’t you eat every day? Yeah. Don’t you exercise every day? Yeah. Why can you not study the Bible every day? I’m too busy. I don’t have any time. I don’t know where a good church is. As Jesus told the disciples, I’m telling you, get in the boat and quit making excuses. The writer of Hebrews in chapter five, verse 11 through 16 said this, we have many things to say to you and they’re hard to be uttered because you are dull of hearing. What does that mean? It means they can’t concentrate for long periods of time. And I’ve seen that. Young believers can’t concentrate for 10 or 15 minutes, and that’s why churches have gone to entertainment, because people get bored with preaching and teaching the Bible. They can’t concentrate, so they need entertainment to keep them interested. You have to be able to concentrate. Dull of hearing are those people that can’t concentrate. And then the writer went on to say, for when the time is you ought to be a teacher yourself, You have need that someone back up and teach you again the very first principles, the basics of the oracles of God. You have become such as a baby that needs a bottle of milk and you can’t handle strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness. He’s still a baby. But strong meat belongs to them that are full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Good and evil. You’d be surprised about that. You’d think that’s bad things and good things. No. That’s Satan’s plan. Human good and evil is the production of Satan’s plan. God rejects all evil, human good and evil. The number one evil thing in your life is organized religion. Satan hides in the bushes in organized religion, telling you you’re going to go to heaven if you do this, or you’re going to go to heaven if you do that, if you’re a good little boy, and that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says you will go to heaven if you accept Christ as your Savior and believe in him. He that believes in him shall never perish, but have everlasting life. And he that believes not, the wrath of God shall abide on him forever. So today, you can nail that down. You can simply tell the father in a prayer, Father God, I believe Jesus Christ is your son, and I’m willing to accept him as my savior. That’s an act of faith. That’s you walking through the door. That’s you trusting what Christ said to deliver you from eternal death and fire in the lake of fire. Do you have that kind of faith? And do you have enough faith to take God’s word and learn it and use it? Do you have the self-discipline To acquire that information. Can you concentrate long periods of time? Or do you fall asleep in church? You’re one of those back row bumblers that falls asleep, can’t keep your eyes awake. If it’s a good TV show, you don’t have any trouble, but you can’t listen to the teaching of the Word of God because you’re dull of hearing. It’s what the Scripture said. You make your mind up. You choose. But I’m telling you today, it’s time for you to get in the boat and let’s go. Our nation needs you. We need you to become a mature believer because that’s what delivers us in times of disaster. mature believers who the grace of God sees and blesses. And then we have national historical blessing as a result of that. I hope you’ve been listening today. I hope you’ve been paying attention. I haven’t beat around the bush. I’ve been pretty straightforward. I’ll be back next week if the Lord allows me. Same time, same place. Until then, thank you now for listening to The Flatline.
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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.
