To Kaepernick And All Of His Nefarious Knee Kneeling Acolytes

God gave you talent and ability.

America gave you protected liberty and rights.

Your employer gave you the opportunity and the job.

Instead of rebelling, how about demonstrating some gratitude for all of the things that have been given to you.

Praise and gratitude unify and heal. Rebellion divides and destroys. Gratitude is a far greater attribute for our youth to aspire to over your current insubordinate and contumacious display of self-absorbed defiance.

“The beginning of men’s rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.”

(Francis Schaeffer)

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Bill Hitchcock

The Broken Spirit

The cause of a broken spirit for a child of God is the realization and subsequent admission of sin. We become aware of two things once we acknowledge our own transgressions. First, we realize that we are in a perpetually sinful condition. Second, we discover that our sins aren’t just an offense to God, but rather acts directed against God!

Part of the discovery of our own sin is the revelation that we cannot defeat sin on our own.  We need a Savior. One that can, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

Only through the lovingkindness and mercy of God was that Savior offered to us in Jesus Christ. God’s mercy, not our efforts, will, heritage or “goodness” afforded us this salvation.

Our salvation comes through the belief, faith and acceptation of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Christ must be received in whole, not in part, for there is no partial life, partial death or partial salvation.

Jesus said, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” (Revelations 3:15-16)

Choose to commit to Jesus Christ today! Choose to commit to life!

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Bill Hitchcock

That I May Walk Before God

“For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?” (Psalm 56:13).

Look how miraculous this one verse is!

1. God knows His children and has rescued us from certain death through Jesus Christ our Savior. Physically? No, for the body is temporal. It shall die and return back to the earth. God has saved our spirit, our eternal being.

2. God not only snatches us from death and destruction, but He hedges our path, keeping us headed towards Him!

Why has He done all of this? So we can be in His presence, in righteousness, with all of God’s elect!

“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:10-11).

Bill Hitchcock 

Looking At The Wrong Thing

Most folks are looking at the wrong thing. When reading end times prophesy, they pay attention to the scary events that will happen and totally miss the point.

“And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” (Joel 2:30-32).

It is not the “terrible day” that you should be focusing on. What should have your attention is that in the last day, the Lord will only call a “remnant”, not everyone. God will call His chosen and elect people.

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered”. That unction inside of you is the Holy Spirit mingling with your spirit. It is God in you. Everyone will not have this experience. You are a chosen child of God. Respond! Call upon the Lord and be saved!

Bill Hitchcock 

One Vessel Unto Honour, And Another Unto Dishonour

The following passage addresses one of the most controversial and misunderstood concepts from the Bible; election and predestination. Here the Apostle Paul makes clear that the elect and reprobate are chosen by God. Paul uses Pharaoh as an example of a reprobate God chose. Election is not left solely in man’s hands. It is not left to he who “willeth” (desire, wish, intend) or “runneth” (strive, exert, attempt to attain).  

“For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Romans 9:15-21).

Have you heard the gospel call? Then you are chosen. Has Jesus Christ touched your heart? You are of the elect. Are you drawn to God above? Then you are predestined to Him. You are a “vessel unto honour”.

If God and His word is foolishness to you. If none of it penetrates your heart and spirit. If you are stoic, and untouched by the truth. If you don’t care for or don’t believe in God, then either the Holy Spirit has yet to awaken your spirit or you’ve been made a “vessel onto dishonor”.

It’s a cold hard fact. God is the potter. He takes the clay and forms the lump, not us.

Bill Hitchcock

But If Our Gospel Be Hid

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

Notice who is blinded. It is he who does not believe in God. It is not that the person is blinded so he does not believe and becomes an apostate. Satan, the god of this world, darkens the mind and spiritual eye of those who do not believe in the good news of Jesus Christ.

The unbeliever, now susceptible to the influences of Satan, becomes encrusted in doubt and despair, angry at truth and bitter about circumstance. In other words, unbelief positions you where Satan wants you, in a life of Hell. In fact, the phrase “that are lost” comes from the Greek word, “apollymi” which means to utterly destroy and give over to an eternity in Hell.

Unbelief affords the devil opportunity to work on your mind and spirit. The door of unbelief can swing wide and be very difficult to shut. But all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us.

“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:46-48).

Believe, open your eyes and live!

Bill Hitchcock

Present

“These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you” (John 14:25).

Present. Jesus was always present when he did miracles, healed people, cast out devils and taught the word of God. Unlike Mohammad who had “visions” while isolated in a cave.

Everything Jesus Christ did, he did in the presence of other people over a period of several years. Even the Holy Ghost made His first “public” appearance with a crowd of people.

Jesus Christ is still very present today. All you have to do is believe in Him.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Bill Hitchcock

Making Godly Sense Out Of Disaster

There has been a lot of chatter lately, mainly by the reprobate, that God is punishing certain people with these recent hurricane events. Evil will always try to convict, confuse, stir up feelings of guilt and punish the saints. Don’t buy into their vile attempts.

God does however, allow adversity to happen. Why? Simple. Man left to his own devices will always retreat into himself. He will worship the works of his own hands, credit himself, and worship self. God gets forgotten and sin and unrighteousness flourishes. The end of sin is always death. God wants us to live!

“But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” (Jeremiah 7:23-24)

Man must be constantly reminded of the following:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;  Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.” (Psalm 46:1-3)

God reminds us of His power and omnipotence through adversity. Is it punishment for sin? No, it’s a wake-up call to depart from sin and a reminder of his amazing grace and mercy.

“When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” (Ezekiel 18:26-28)

If God only punished and never corrected us for our sin and disobedience, then everyone on earth would be dead and gone. It’s as simple as that.

“The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.” (Psalm 46:6)

But, the Lord is righteous and forgiving to His saints!

“The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.” (Psalm 145:17). The kingdom of God is in righteousness and we are to seek it. Jesus said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33).

Through adversity, we are reminded of our departure from the pursuit of righteousness, God’s kingdom and from our dependence on Him. We discover our rebellion of self-reliance and entrance into sin. God loves us and wants all to live. Man has to be constantly reminded of this. Unfortunately, man can only learn through adversity.

God made it crystal clear, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezekiel 18:31-32).

Adversity is our wake-up call to turn back to God and righteousness and live!

Bill Hitchcock 

Carnality

Carnality produces pride which begets contention and strife.

“Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” (Proverbs 13:10)

“For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (1 Corinthians 3:3)

I freely admit that I am guilty of the sin of pride. We all are. I am aware of pride that produces contention, I have repented of it and have given it to the Lord to absolve me from it. But, the carnal me seems to occasionally want to take it back from the Lord and play with it a while, just long enough that either myself or someone else gets hurt.

Stay in the Spirit and not in the carnal self. Give pride to the Lord and let it go. And don’t go and take it back, either!

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” (James 4:10)

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)

Bill Hitchcock

Heaven Requires Holiness

If we were to go to the moon, then we would have to conform to its environment. The moon has an exosphere which is 100 trillion times thinner than Earth’s atmosphere. If we wanted to go there, we would have to adjust and conform to its conditions.

It’s the same with heaven. It is a different environment than on earth. It is spiritual, not restricted to the physical. It is righteous and holy, not sinful, hateful and hurtful.

To be able to go to heaven, then man must adjust and conform to it. Heaven will not adjust and conform to man. The worldly cannot live in the heavenly. This must be understood.

Some folks labor under the misapprehension that God has created some arbitrary set of rules for us to follow so as to gain entrance into heaven. When in reality God is showing us a change in environment and preparing us for that change. Those who hear God’s message, and willing to accept the reality of it, will conform. Those who do not, will be like a man on the moon, without the support of air nor protection from a spacesuit.

God said, “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44).

We must repent, turn from our carnal, sinful and worldly ways. We are to be “conformed to the image of his Son”, (Romans 8:29) in Jesus Christ. Jesus is our pattern of truth, holiness and righteousness in which to model ourselves after. Where we have failed and will continue to fail, Christ died on the cross for those sins. He is our atonement.

We must be holy, not just because God is holy or due to some whimsical set of rules God concocted. The environment of heaven, the realm of eternity requires it! Holiness, righteousness and truth cannot and will not intermingle with anything other than itself. This is why God requires that each of His children be holy.

God has elected His children, predestinated us, called and prepared a place for each of us. All we have to do is respond to God in obedience.

Bill Hitchcock