Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

“Suppose when you reach home you find a group of friends engaged in ordinary conversation. Can you remember God at least once every minute?

This is hard, but we have found that we can be successful if we employ some reminders. Here are aids which have proven useful:

1. Have a picture of Christ in front of you where you can glance at it frequently.

2. Have an empty chair beside you and imagine that your unseen Master is sitting in it; if possible reach your hand and touch that chair, as though holding His hand. He is there, for He said: ‘Lo, I am with you always.’

3. Keep humming to your self a favorite prayer hymn—for example, ‘Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way.’

4. Silently pray for each person in the circle.

5. Keep whispering inside: ‘Lord, put Thy thoughts in my mind. Tell me what to say.’

6. Best of all, tell your companions about the ‘Game with Minutes.’ If they are interested, you will have no more trouble. You cannot keep God unless you give Him to others.

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “While In Conversation.”

I hope you are appreciating these posts as much as I am. Laubach seeks to change how we interface with people, bringing Christ into every minute of every conversation.

I normally think of making disciples as passing on information to them. He’s stretching me to understand that how to form surrendered souls.

Surrender has become central to my faith with “The Surrender Novena” as my centering prayer, prayed often through the day. But now I am seeing how to multiply surrendered souls.

And notice how it shapes our generosity. “You cannot keep God unless you give Him to others.” You cannot impart what you don’t possess.

Possess him for minutes to share Him for minutes. God help us become so full of you through this game that give you away to someone else today.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. Mark 10:21a

“We whisper ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ or ‘Christ’ constantly as we glance at every person near us. We try to see double, as Christ does—we see the person as he is and the person Christ longs to make him. Remarkable things happen, until those in tune look around as though you spoke—especially children.

The atmosphere of a room changes when a few people keep whispering to Him about all the rest. Perhaps there is no finer ministry than just to be in meetings or crowds, whispering ‘Jesus’ and then helping people whenever you see an opportunity.

When Dr. Chalmers answers the telephone he whispers: ‘A child of God will now speak to me.’ We can do that when anybody speaks to us. If everybody in America would do the things just described above, we should have a ‘heaven below.’ This is not pious poetry. We have seen what happens.

Try it during all this week, until a strange power develops within you. As messages from England are broadcast in Long Island for all America, so we can become spiritual broadcasters for Christ. Every cell in our brain is an electric battery which He can use to intensify what He longs to say to people who are spiritually deaf to hear Him without our help.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “On A Train Or In A Crowd.”

Laubach is changing how I look at people, walk through crowds, and think about the footprint I make. Candidly, most of the time, I function like I am on a mission.

The mission, as I contemplate it looks more like the Levite or the priest in the Good Samaritan story and Laubach’s counsel shapes me into the Samaritan.

Our mission changes to seeing people and talking to them not as pawns to use to accomplish my purposes but people to love and point to God’s purposes.

The implications to generosity are limitless. God help us not miss opportunities today to become spiritual broadcasters for you.

Jenni and I are resting in Colorado wine country this weekend with dear friends. I am asking God to restore our strength for spiritual broadcasting wherever He leads us.

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:31-34

Can you win your game with minutes while passing people on the street? Yes! Experiments have revealed a sure way to succeed: offer a swift prayer for the people at whom you glance. It is easy to think an instantaneous prayer while looking people straight in the eye, and the way people smile back at you shows that they like it!

This practice gives a surprising exhilaration, as you may prove for yourself. A half-hour spent walking and praying for all one meets, instead of tiring one, gives him a sense of ever heightening energy like a battery being charged. It is a tonic, a good way to overcome a tired feeling.

Some of us walk on the right side of the pavement, leaving room for our unseen Friend, whom we visualize walking by our side, and we engage in silent conversations with Him about the people we meet. For example, we may say: ‘Dear Companion, what can we do together for this man whom we are passing?’ Then we whisper what we believe Christ would answer.

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “While Going Home From Church.”

Instantaneous prayer. This could be the practical and impactful meditation for me this year as I think about the word “examine” and my own generosity.

Whether I am at home on my daily walks, traveling, or somewhere in between , I loved this suggestion: “What can we do together for this man whom we are passing?’ Then we whisper what we believe Christ would answer.”

Notice the connection between this call to instantaneous prayer and the Good Samaritan. The priest and Levite did not have time for the robber or but the Good Samaritan “saw him.”

I wonder if the Good Samaritan received “surprising exhilaration in the process of pausing to minister to the hurting man. How might this practice change how you see people?

Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. Genesis 5:24

“Nobody is wholly satisfied with himself. Our lives are made up of lights and shadows, of some good days and many unsatisfactory days. We have learned that the good days and hours come when we are very close to Christ, and that the poor days come whenever we push Him out of our thoughts. Clearly, then, the way to a more consistent high level is to take Him into everything we do or say or think.

Experience has told us that good resolutions are not enough. We need to discipline our lives to an ordered regime. The ‘Game with Minutes’ is a rather lighthearted name for such a regime in the realm of the spirit. Many of us have found it to be enormously helpful. It is a new name for something as old as Enoch, who ‘walked with God.’ It is a way of living which nearly everybody knows and nearly everybody had ignored. Students will at once recognize it as a fresh approach to Brother Lawrence’s ‘Practicing the Presence of God.’

We call this a ‘game’ because it is a delightful experience and an exhilarating spiritual exercise; but we soon discover that it is far more than a game. Perhaps a better name for it would be ‘an exploratory expedition,’ because it opens out into what seems at first like a beautiful garden; then the garden widens into a country; and at last we realize that we are exploring a new world. This may sound like poetry, but it is not overstating what experience has shown us.

Some people have compared it to getting out of a dark prison and beginning to LIVE. We still see the same world, yet it is not the same, for it has a new glorious color and a far deeper meaning. Thank God, this adventure is free for everybody, rich or poor, wise or ignorant, famous or unknown, with a good past or a bad — ‘Whosoever will, may come.’ The greatest thing in the world is for everybody!”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “How We Win The Game With Minutes.”

I got to attend the Colorado Prayer Luncheon yesterday. It was a huge gathering that included the governor, the mayor, and many familiar faces.

I sat at the table of a patriarch who like Enoch has “walked faithfully with God.” He is still with us because God still does great work through him.

What I appreciate most about this brother who will remain unnamed is what he says whenever we meet up. “I just want to be found faithful” or something like that.

Life it a “game” for him. It’s exhilarating and he enjoys every minute. He’s a keen businessman who does deals to generate resources to expand God’s kingdom.

Why cite his example today? Think about someone you know who has shown you how to really LIVE, someone who plays this game with minutes focused only on faithfulness.

Thank them for their influence in your life. Thank them for their example and commitment. Thank them for helping you win the game with minutes while you still have time.

And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3

“How can a man or woman take this course with Christ today? The answer is so simple a child can understand it. Indeed unless we ‘turn and become like children’’ we shall not succeed.

1. We have a study hour. We read and reread the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels thoughtfully and prayerfully at least an hour a day. We find fresh ways and new translations, so that this reading will never be dull, but always stimulating and inspiring. Thus we walk with Jesus through Galilee by walking with Him through the pages of His earthly history.

2. We make Him our inseparable chum. We try to call Him to mind at least one second of each minute. We do not need to forget other things nor stop our work, but we invite Him to share everything we do or say or think. Hundreds of people have experimented until they have found ways to let Him share every minute that they are awake. In fact, it is no harder to learn this new habit than to learn the touch system in typing, and in time one can win a high percentage of his minutes with as little effort as an expert needs to write a letter.

While these two practices take all our time, yet they do not take it away from any good enterprise. They take Christ into that enterprise and make more result full. They also keep a man’s religion steady. If the temperature of a sick man rises and falls daily the doctor regards him as seriously ill. This is the case with religion. Not spiritual chills and fevers, but an abiding faith which gently presses the will toward Christ all day, is a sign of a healthy religion.

Practicing the presence of God is not on trial. It has already been proven by countless thousands of people. Indeed, the spiritual giants of all ages have known it. Christians who do it today become more fervent and beautiful and are tireless witnesses.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Christ Is The Only Hope Of The World.”

I enjoyed the better part of an hour in the play area at Chick-Fil-A on Monday evening with my wife and two granddaughters. We played peek-a-boo, watched them climb and slide, and had a blast.

They learned to turn wheels, flip spinners, and navigate tunnels. After gaining confidence, their faces said they wanted to do it again and again.

I pondered how this might relate to God’s kingdom.

God wants us to enter the proverbial play area with Him for an hour a day. If we give Him an hour, we will actually not lose but gain. We will find ourselves enriched and experience joy.

As little Ellie, our one-year-old granddaughter was getting tired, she hugged Jenni like her inseparable chum. It was sweet.

God wants us to spend time with Him, to study and learn. He wants to be our inseparable chum with whom we share everything. We don’t lose when we do this, we gain.

The hour I spend reading and doing my daily office every day is not loss but like time in the play area. To practice the presence of God is to find the fountain of life and joy.

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:30-31

‘Disillusioned by all our other efforts, we now see that the only hope left for the human race is to become like Christ.’ That is the statement of a famous scientist, and is being repeated among ever more educators, statesmen, and philosophers.

Yet Christ has not saved the world from its present terrifying dilemma. The reason is obvious: few people are getting enough of Christ to save either themselves or the world. Take the United States, for example. Only a third of the population belongs to a Christian church. Less than half of this third attend service regularly. Preachers speak about Christ in perhaps one service in four—thirty minutes a month! Good sermons, many of them excellent, but too infrequent in presenting Christ.

Less than ten minutes a week given to thinking about Christ by one-sixth of the people is not saving our country or our world; for selfishness, greed, and hate are getting a thousand times that much thought. What a nation thinks about, that it is.

We shall not become like Christ until we give Him more time. A teachers’ college requires students to attend classes for twenty-five hours a week for three years. Could it prepare competent teachers or a law school prepare competent lawyers if they studied only ten minutes a week? Neither can Christ, and He never pretended that He could. To His disciples He said: ‘Come with me, walk with me, talk and listen to me, work and rest with me, eat and sleep with me, twenty-four hours a day for three years.’ That was their college course—‘He chose them,’ the Bible says, ‘that they might be with Him,’ 168 hours a week!”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Christ Is The Only Hope Of The World.”

I posted this today for instructional purposes.

Having returned from a very rigorous trip to Poland and Ukraine, people might say, “Get some rest.” Actually many have. But no one said, “Spend some time with Jesus.”

Let that be our practice after a busy season and our exhortation to others.

Think about it. The disciples communicated their trip report, much like I communicate a trip report that shows faithful activities and celebrates fruits from God.

And to find restoration, Jesus wanted time with them in solitude.

That’s my priority the next two weeks. Time with Jesus before my next ministry related travel to four cities in Colombia to celebrate the launching of the new peer accountability group there.

Sure I am helping launch 6 cohorts with 485 stewards this week. And, I will speak at the International Consultation on Enterprise Risk Management. Also, I have a board meeting on Thursday.

All those things will happen. But my priority is solitude with Jesus. Give Him more time. Let that be your generosity this week and see what happens.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

“In school a teacher lays out work for his pupils. I resolve to accept each situation of this year as God’s layout for that hour, and never to lament that it is a very commonplace or disappointing task. One can pour something divine into every situation. One of the mental characteristics against which I have rebelled most is the frequency of my “blank spells” when I cannot think of anything worth writing, and sometimes cannot remember names. Henceforth I resolve to regard these as God’s signal that I am to stop and listen. Sometimes you want to talk to your son, and sometimes you want to hold him tight in silence. God is that way with us, He wants to hold still with us in silence.

Here is something we can share with all of the people in the world: They cannot all be brilliant or rich or beautiful. They cannot all even dream beautiful dreams like God gives some of us. They cannot all enjoy music. Their hearts do not all burn with love: But everybody can learn to hold God by the hand and rest. And when God is ready to speak the fresh thoughts of heaven will flow in like a crystal spring. Everybody rests at the end of the day, what a world gain if everybody, could rest in the waiting arms of the Father, and listen until He whispers.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Learn to hold God by the hand and rest.”

Happy Monday. I am exhausted, spent, “poured out like a drink offering” (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6).

But I am not posting about holding the hand of God and resting today because I just returned from a long trip. I am doing it because it is the only way to live in perpetual communion with Him.

Let me connect “hold God by the hand and rest” with serving as a CEO. Hang with me.

This week with CIM (India), GTP co-hosts the International Consultation on ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) on 6-9 May 2025. People ask me: What is Enterprise Risk Management?

I tell them that growing a ministry God’s way links not to having a strategic plan but to stewarding risk. Our role is not to determine the future but to steward faithfully in the present.

Think about it. That’s how GTP has grown so rapidly worldwide. It was certainly not my grand idea. And it represents how we help to position churches and ministries to stay connected to God and situate them for healthy growth.

For example, on 9 May 2025, I will deliver a paper on “Stewardship of the Mission and Risk: Policy Development and Protocol Establishment with Standards to Foster a Culture of Integrity before God and Man.”

To get free access to view or download my paper and 11 other papers like it, register for the consultation here.

Now let me circle back and explain the connection to “hold God by the hand and rest.”

Serving as a steward over a church as a pastor or over a ministry as an administrator or board member is a big job. How will you do it? I advise workers to steward risk which appears as putting up guardrails to stay on track.

When you put up those guardrails, God takes care of the rest. Don’t believe me? Hold His hand and find out. See for yourself.

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:16

“Sometimes one feels that there is a discord between the cross and beauty. But there really cannot be, for God is found best through those two doorways. This grey-blue rolling water tinged with whitecaps, hemmed with distant green hills and crowned with colored clouds and baby-blue sky reveals God’s love of beauty – and God is so lavish with his paintbrush in the tropics. He is lavish everywhere if one only has eyes to see Him at work.

But when one comes to personality, one demands more than a pretty face or even a soul that sings for joy. There is in the universe a higher kind of beauty. It is the beauty of sacrifice, of giving up for others, of suffering for others. A woman has not reached her highest beauty until she lays down her ease and chooses pain for bearing and nursing her child. A man has not found his highest beauty until his brow is tinged with care for some cause he loves more than himself. The beauty of sacrifice is the final word in beauty.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “The beauty of sacrifice is the final word in beauty.”

I read this and started to draft this post on the train from Lviv, Ukraine, to Przemyśl, at the border of Poland.

Then I shot this new header photo while walking through the peaceful apartment complex in Warsaw on the way to dinner with my wife, GTP Financial Controller and soon-to-be CFO, Dr. Olena Hetman, and her mother.

Imagine yourself after running a long race or finishing a huge project, you collapse. You left, as the saying goes, nothing in your tank. You drop with exhaustion from your sacrifice.

That’s how I feel today, and this reading from Laubach affirmed that there is nothing more beautiful.

The world says not to go to dangerous places, not to put yourself in harm’s way, and not to move toward broken people. You have to take care of yourself, they reason.

What if God wants something different from us? I think He does.

He wants us to taste the beauty of sacrifice. To have our brow tinged with care for some cause beyond ourselves. It does not leave us empty, though we might fee physically exhausted, we have been enriched by God.

Click here to read my trip report from Ukraine. When you read this I will be on my flight home.

Thanks for your prayers for recovery from this trip. And thanks to all of you who emailed me in response to Laubach posts from Ukraine. He has provided inspiration for my service. I pray also for you. Many have testified to tinged brows.

I praise God for this news. I will respond to your messages in time. I have had limited wifi to respond to emails.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” Lamentations 3:22-23

“It is that spirit of greed which Jesus said God hated more than any other. It is so diametrically opposite to the spirit of God. For God forever lavishes his gifts upon the good and bad alike, and finds all his joy in endless giving… You see, I feel deeply about us all. Beside Jesus the whole lot us are so contemptible. I do not see how God stomachs us at all. But God is like Jesus, and like Jesus, He will not give up until we, too, are like Jesus.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Joy in endless giving.”

The Russians mixed things up yesterday.

The drone strikes in Kyiv did not come until just before dawn. At least that made for good sleep. They woke me with similar shock as the 5:00am Muslim call to prayer in Pakistan.

And while I am wide awake by 5am on normal days, I am a bit sleep deprived this week. But no complaints. It was a great night of sleep.

Again, I turn to Laubach and find a strong connection. I saw the endless giving God from the window of the train yesterday.
The sun lavished light on the earth. The sky was bright blue. The life in the fields burst forth in color, green everywhere, yellow canola, and flowers of many colors.

It marked my last full day with Dr. Milan Hluchý, one of the most brilliant people I have ever met, he quoted Albert Einstein as we gazed on the beauty of a forest.

“There are two types of people. Those who see miracles everywhere and those who never see any miracles.”

Despite the ravages of war and death, this land produces life because of the endless giving of God. His miracles are new every day and we see them every minute if we look.

That same endless givign is directed to us, filled with grace, truth, hope, and love. Departing Ukraine today. Bring peace Lord. Though none of us deserves your love, pour our your mercy on this land

When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord. Exodus 34:33-35

“We have got to saturate ourselves with the rainbows and the sunset marvels in order to radiate them. It is as much our duty to live in the beauty of the presence of God on some mount of transfiguration until we become white with Christ as it is for us to go down where they grope, and grovel, and groan, and lift them to new life. After all the deepest truth is that the Christlike life is glorious, undefeatably glorious. There is no defeat unless one loses God, and then all is defeat though it be housed in castles and buried in fortunes.”

Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “There is no defeat unless one loses God.”

It would be cool if the faces of people who spent time with Jesus glowed like Moses. Would yours glow?

As I spend time with people in Ukraine during the war, I see a lot of glowing faces. The war has them praying often and fervently. But Milan and I have had a concern as we talk on the long drives and train rides.

We think there’s a good possibility that people will forget about God if peace comes.

They will want to go back to aiming at enjoying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There’s no worse place they could go. Imagine putting themselves in castles and stockpiling fortunes. Sadly, that’s my country, America.

But honestly, I know many people who have lost God in chasing worldly dreams.

So as I spend my last few days in Ukraine, I do it with a prayer for peace coupled with a prayer for perseverance. I pray the revival of faith will not die, lest the loses of life on the part of soldiers be in vain.

What about you? Do you glow, or have you lost God while housing yourself in a castle with a fortune.

And if you want my most recent devotional, REFUGE, to drip daily to your WhatsApp, click here.