Judah’s Unfaithfulness – 1 Chron. 9:1b

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“… . And Judah was carried away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.”

– 1 Chronicles 9:1b

We are a most fickle people. We make grand declarations of thankfulness and (sometimes obnoxious) vows of loyalty to the Lord with no follow through. Truly, there’s no miracle cell hidden in the back corners of our human DNA waiting to evolve into greatness through a single spark of our own ambition or human ingenuity. We are a helpless people, easily carried away by the cares and longings of the world and our own sinful hearts.

By way of example, let’s say you are floating out at sea and have been given instructions to stay by the lighthouse. You soon find that you have drifted away quickly for want of pulling anchor. With but a single night’s closing of the eyes and resting of the heart, you look up and find that you are miles from where you were instructed to stay, wondering “How did I get here?” How many times have you looked around in your own Christian walk and found that you are far from where the Lord would have you to be? I’m sure it was much the same for Judah/Israel of old. Carried away into slavery … again. And Christians, those precious souls who truly love the Lord, drift off and are carried away into slavery to sin every day because they won’t pull anchor, throwing the weight of their life and heart onto the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary. It would do us all well to take thought for how truly weak and unable we are, coming to Him today in complete dependence, asking that His ‘staying power’ be lived out in our stead. He is able.

In the dust of His feet,

Sunni Hoffman

The Prayer of Jabez

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(9) “And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bore him with sorrow.
(10) And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.”
1 Chronicles 4:9-10

“And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren…” honorable meaning ‘a man of weight.’ Right in the middle of nine chapters of seemingly endless genealogies, just as if we were walking through a graveyard of those with whom we were not personally acquainted, a spotlight shines on the tombstone of a man named Jabez, prompting us to read it, and then read it again. The Holy Spirit, through the precious Word of God, has here shown us that the details of the lives of many will pass away like chaff in the wind, but there are none so remembered – their names echoing through the portals of eternity even still – as those who dared to lift up their faith to God in prayer. Many things could have given his life ‘weight’ so as to be honored by men – nobility, character,  wealth – but the only ‘weight’ that is honored before God is ‘faith;’ faith in His Son Jesus Christ and His atoning death on Calvary by which we are made heirs to all the privileges His grace affords (“…for without faith it is impossible to please God.” Heb. 11:6).

The circumstances surrounding his birth far less than ideal, his mother chose to name him Jabez, literally meaning, ‘he means or causes sorrow/pain.’ How important is a name? How would you like to have ‘Sadness,’ ‘Grief,’ or ‘Trouble’ on your birth certificate? He could have chosen a path of bitterness and victim hood in life, forever limited by a label, but faith doesn’t see ‘what is,’ but what could be. Sure, this is my coastline and these are the boundary markers of my allotted inheritance in this life. But I’m asking You for more. Exceeding blessings… extending influence… expanding victory. Is this just another pious man in the annals of history? Am I not to follow the example of Jabez and ask for the blessings of God in my heart and home? Unbelief would close all the windows and lock all the doors, “It is enough what God has done and no more…” “I’m so unworthy…” “Maybe for other people…” “I’ve failed too much for God to bless me…” “God doesn’t have my best interest in mind anyways…”. Oh but faith! Faith throws open all the windows of the heart and says, “What You did for Jabez, You can do for me! More, Lord!”

In the dust of His feet,

Sunni Hoffman

Way of the Cross Shreveport

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Over the last half of 2017, we were oft met with the question, “What are ya’ll doing these days?”, to which we would reply, “Waiting on the Lord!”

‘Waiting on the Lord’ may not be en vogue with modern culture, but it’s still the way the Lord chooses to work many times in the hearts of individuals to remind us that our greatest Gospel work this side of Glory is simply knowing Jesus, not ‘doing all the things.’ Obviously we are not oblivious to the great need for the preaching of the Gospel or the needs that accompany it (especially in this last hour), but we were gently spurned on to remember that our greatest work unto the Lord always – and without fail – flows out of our greatest intimacy with the Lord. 

Helping to plant and establish a new church was not on our radar. Honestly, I’m grieved when I see the sheer number of churches in any given small town, USA – all within a couple of miles of each other. We live in a land that should be ‘flooded with light,’ yet we have more darkness and division than ever. Please hear my heart when I say, praise God for all of those churches out there – big and small – that are still preaching the Gospel and desiring a move of God’s Spirit among their people, but if you’re a believer with any discernment at all of the times in which we live, you understand that a simple google search of churches in your area is going to yield a LOT of different ‘gospels’ being preached from any given pulpit. It’s common for people to say, “Well people interpret the Bible a lot of different ways. Just live your truth!” But that’s not right or biblical. There’s one truth, one answer for every ill that ails mankind — Jesus Christ and Him crucified — and we don’t shy away from saying that just because it’s not popular.

So, this is us, saying that we don’t have a ‘launch team,’ or ‘agenda,’ or a five year vision cast presentation that we could show you, but we do have one clear mission: souls. We don’t have a target age group or social stratum, but a burning desire that any hungry, broken, sin sick soul – young and old, rich and poor – would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, living the abundant, victorious, overcoming life that He paid for them to have on Calvary’s Cross. We’re probably not even close to being politically correct, because politics has never saved anybody. While it would never be our ‘goal’ to offend anybody, we recognize that the Gospel in itself is offensive to the natural heart of man, and sometimes it has to cut before it heals (Mt. 11:6; 1 Cor. 2:4; Heb. 4:12).

To that end, the Lord led us to the Shreveport-Bossier area this past November of 2017 where we established Way of the Cross Church. If you’re in the area and are a part of a good, Gospel preaching church, we rejoice with you and encourage you to dig in to the Word and work of God where He has planted you. We implore those of you who may just be looking on from afar to lift us up in prayer because the harvest is truly plentiful here and we can’t do what God has called us to do without the help of the Holy Spirit. If you’re in the area and would like to visit us sometime, please contact us! We have several meeting places at this point until the Lord leads us to move forward in the procurement of a more permanent location, so calling and/or texting us is the best way to find out where we will be having service.

Our current meeting times are as follows:
– Sundays @ 10AM
– Wednesdays @ 6:30PM

You can contact us through the following means to find out our meeting location:
– Email: thehoffmanherald@gmail.com
– Call/Text: (318) 480.1351

We love you and we pray that you are encouraged to continue to “fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12)” today, throwing the weight of your trust on your God who cannot fail! Thank you for agreeing with us in prayer and for standing with us in faith as we go forward with Jesus, preaching and teaching Message of the Cross (1 Cor. 1:18).

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
 while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

 

“Solomon held fast to these in love.” – 1 Kings 11:2c

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For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. – 1 Kings 11:4

“Solomon held fast to these in love.” – 1 Kings 11:2c

Is there a more heartbreaking testimony in all of Scripture? King Solomon, the son of David tasked with the divine assignment of building a house for the Name of the LORD, who enjoyed unprecedented peace in Israel by which to accomplish it. He was a man in whom prosperity and wisdom reigned unmatched even to this day (1 Kings 3:12). A man who knew God! Yet his heart was turned away from the Lord when he was old. Age is not a guarantor of faith. It should humble every believer to recognize the ease with which any of us are capable of transferring our trust from the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary to lesser things. Solomon couldn’t ‘hold fast’ to the Lord and to the world at the same time, and neither can we.

You can scale the heights of Heaven
Then dig craters in the bottom of the sea
Going from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows
When you lose your sight of Me

Holding fast to what I said, “Don’t touch.”
You tighten your grip, “You’re asking too much!”
Having everything, and losing it all
The cause and effect of the divided heart’s fall

Everything received out of My hand is good
But what you take for yourself be ever understood
A snare and a trap, the enemy’s plan
The cyclical destruction of a once blessed man

“How did I get here? Where am I at?
The smell of the incense, the hot boiling vat?”
The sacrifices arranged for lust and for wealth
Just waiting to be offered to the great god of self

But there’s breath in your lungs and life in your feet
And Jesus’ blood broke the cycle of defeat
His fists aren’t clinched and His love’s not severed
You can run to the Cross and not be cut off forever!

Whatever you lose, He’ll restore it tenfold
It’s not worth keeping at the cost of your soul
Look to Jesus – then run, leave it all
The cause and effect of the divided heart’s fall

I pray you come to know the ‘God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10),’ who has provided all the grace you need through His Son Jesus Christ to let go of every other ‘god’ in your life that keeps you from Him.

In the dust of His feet,
Sunni Hoffman

 

“…mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” James 2:13

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“For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” – James 2:13

It is a sure sign that one has not rightly understood, or received, the mercy of God in relation to the sin of his or her own heart that would wish judgment upon another. Westernized culture relishes the concept of karma, this eastern idea that the universe will one day heap pain and misery upon a person for their inflicting of the same on others. “They’ll get what’s coming to them!” That’s not a concept thought up in the mind of Buddha or outlined in the Bhagavad Gita, but the natural order of a life lived for sin and self outside of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ (“…and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15). But a child of the Most High God wishing judgment upon another or partaking in the fruitless discussion of the sins of others at the sudden amnesia of their own? This should not be. The just wrath and judgment of a Holy God against my sin fell on the Lord Jesus Christ when I repented (i.e. acknowledged and forsook) and placed my faith in His atoning sacrifice on my behalf at Calvary’s Cross. While sin committed in the flesh might still have very real consequences in the day to day of life this side of Heaven, its full judgment (that would have ultimately brought about death both physically and spiritually) has been short circuited and re-routed to the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world. That means that we didn’t get what was coming to us, Jesus did. If I would receive mercy, that great act of God whereby He does not give me what my sins deserve, I must show mercy. We must take heed lest the moral superiority in our hearts that would hang someone else for their sins is not the very noose by which we hang ourselves. Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (Jn. 3:17), and He is still offering mercy instead of judgment, and we should go and do likewise. There will come a day for every person when mercy is cut off forever, but today – today is the day of salvation. Look to the Cross and let mercy rejoice against judgment.

“…perfect with the LORD thy God.” – Deut. 18:13

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“Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.” (Deut. 18:13)         

What a seemingly impossible statement, yet one that should characterize the life of every born again man or woman of God. The word ‘perfect’ here is not insinuating a life of moral and spiritual perfection. While we remain in these tents of flesh, we are still in the second stage of God’s great saving work – “sanctification” – that great process by which God the Master Builder works alongside His Architect, Jesus Christ, funneling those grand plans to His Contractor, the Holy Spirit, for the demolition of the old heart and the reconstruction of the new. “Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God” in that we have separated ourselves unto Him to listen and respond to His voice alone. We no longer allow the present cultural dictates of this age to shape and conform our lives and actions. We are single-minded, hating every false way. We don’t live by ‘group think,’ but Bible truth. Our hearts are in one mind with the Father in His saving and sanctifying plan for mankind – Christ and Him crucified – and we herald no other message. We are ‘perfect’ before the LORD our God when it is He alone who occupies the throne of our hearts as King. We should never underestimate the ease with which our flesh would again seek to erect another – be it person, position, or power – to sit on His rightful seat. Should this be the case for any one of us, oh God, reveal it that we may repent and look to You alone.

In the dust of His feet,

Sunni Hoffman

 

 

“Come let us return…” – Hosea 6:1-3

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(1) Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. (2) After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.            – Hosea 6:1-2

–> “Come, let us return…” There is sure to come a time in the life of every born again believer when we will have to go back and re-establish the process of grace and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ wherewith we were first set free from the sin nature. If He has torn us, it is because He loves us and has allowed – at no small cost to His heart – the ravages of sin to run their course that the lamp of faith hung up in our hearts might not be thrust out forever.  No matter how far we have strayed, it is never too late to return to Calvary’s hillside, looking again upon that blood-stained tree, and reckoning ourselves dead indeed unto sin, co-crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ. The darkness of your Friday may be threatening a tale of heartache and hopelessness, but don’t give up . . . your victory has already been secured and your glad Sunday is a mere two days away.

Having turned back to Him in faith, let us be vigilant that none of the pursuits of this life stand equal to the pursuit of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. In just a little while, He will come and establish His Kingdom, ruling and reigning in perfect peace, justice, and righteousness – but before that glad and fateful day let us see to it that He has established His rule and reign in the Kingdoms of our hearts and that His dominion of light is rooting out every enemy of darkness.

And as the gaze of our heart is fixed squarely in Christ and Him crucified, may there ever be a continual flow of the oil of His Spirit upon the embers of our faith that the lamps of our lives might be beacons in the night for other wayward souls traversing this pilgrim way.

In the dust of His feet,

Sunni Hoffman

 

 

“…for they are stronger than we.” – Num. 13:31

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“…We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” – Num. 13:31

There will always be enemies of God left lingering in the Land of Promise to test our faith that look far greater and stronger than we. Will we continue to believe God and see every enemy routed out before us or will we believe the report of the naysayers – those loud unbelievers hiding out in the camp of God’s people who proclaim that victory is not possible? Or, if it is they say, it surely won’t come about by ‘simply believing!’ To these, bondage is better than belief; backwards in cowardice to Egypt is easier than forwards in faith to Canaan.

If we will but we still, we’ll hear that resounding voice of truth crying out like Caleb’s, “We are well able to overcome it.” Don’t be discouraged if those around you concede to the lie that victory is not possible, the enemies too many, or sin too great; are faith and truth ever popular? But to every Caleb God will provide a Joshua, a stalwart of faith standing next to you with heart rent over the plight of God’s people.

When everyone around you decides to lock arms and head back to Egypt, don’t be fooled. Egypt was the physical representation of life without God; life in chains to sin – the world, the flesh, and the devil. You have an appointment in the Promised Land – a land where, spiritually speaking, you will be long satified with the ‘milk and honey’ of peace, rest, and a sound mind. The way there runs along the narrow path of “belief”; not works, good deeds, social followings, bestsellers, or new ideologies.

You’ll fight along the way, just as all those who have gone before you, but it’s a good fight. It’s the only fight the Lord requires of you – the ‘fight of faith’ – to believe and keep believing that Who Jesus is and What He has accomplished on Calvary’s Cross is enough to overcome every adversary in your way – be it addiction, sickness, depression, religion, pride . . . you name it, He has conquered it. The Holy Spirit has but one direction . . . always and only forwards, and if you’ll follow Him, He’ll lead the charge with Calvary’s blood stained victory banner conquering every foe left living in the good land prepared for you in Christ Jesus. 

In the dust of His feet,

Sunni Hoffman

For by Thee I can… – 2 Sam. 22:30

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“For by Thee I can run upon a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall.”

– 2 Samuel 22:30

For by Thee I can! What is this impassable circumstance before me? Who are these marauding bands of enemy raiders that have forged in-roads into my heart and mind? Why have I allowed the enemy of my soul to send me running in cowardice, waiting for the final waves of life’s destruction to compass me about? Child of God, GET UP! May the Lord Jesus Christ stir up the very Spirit of the Living God that lives inside of you and remind you of Who it is that you serve! Repentance and faith in Who He is and What He has done at Calvary’s Cross washes past failures, provides for present mercies, and makes way for future victories . . . get up! All of those walls – those boundary markers that Satan has set up as the perimeter of your ‘lot in life’ – they don’t exist in the mind of God. God’s plans are to give you a hope and a future, and by virtue of your faith being fixed in Christ and Him crucified, all of the resources of Heaven can be allocated on your behalf to take and appropriate to every enemy and obstacle as they come . . .  for by Thee I can!