By Dennis Rainey
What would you do if on your first day on a new job you arrived at work and found … your office door nailed shut from the inside? That’s what Mike Huckabee experienced on his first day as Lieutenant Governor of the State of Arkansas.
For the rest of the story, and much more, tune in to my very first episode of “Inspiring Courageous Faith,” our new YouTube channel.
Here are some other things you may not know about Mike Huckabee, who will likely be confirmed soon as the American ambassador to Israel:
· He and his wife, Janet, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year.
· He was pastor of two Baptist churches from 1980 to 1992 and served as president of the Arkansas Baptist Association from 1989-91.
· He became governor in 1996 after the incumbent was convicted of fraud, and then served for 11 years. He ran for U.S. President in 2008 and 2016.
· He has traveled to Israel nearly 100 times in different capacities, including tours to the Holy Land.
· In recent years he’s served on the traffic team at my church here in Little Rock, and also plays bass guitar on the worship team.
I’ve known Mike for decades, and when I began work a few months ago on our new YouTube channel, “Inspiring Courageous Faith,” he was one of the first people I asked for an interview. We had a great conversation you can see now by clicking here.
I was looking forward to talking with Mike about the similarities between acting as U.S. ambassador with our responsibility of being an ambassador for kingdom of God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Mike says, “The key the key to understanding what an ambassador is, both biblically as well as diplomatically, is that you do not carry your own message. You are the messenger of your government. In the case of an ambassador for Christ, it's not that you go and tell everybody what you think. You present God's Word as God has given it to you. So your job is to take his message ... in the same way an ambassador for a country takes the message of his or her country.”
Being appointed as an ambassador, he said, is an incredible sense of trust. “It’s not just simply going and telling somebody the difference between heaven and hell. It's doing it with the spirit of Christ and carrying that same attitude and heart because otherwise it could be very cold and indifferent and God is not cold and indifferent?”
We had a great conversation that you can watch free on our YouTube Channel. He also talked about the early days of his marriage when wondered if he might lose Janet to cancer, he talked about that incident when his door was nailed short, and he shared the most courageous thing he’s ever done ... a time as a young pastor when he confronted racist attitudes in his church. It’s a great story!
This interview with Mike Huckabee is the first video podcast of our new “Inspiring Courageous Faith” content initiative. Our new YouTube channel will feature new video messages and interviews on how you can live out your faith courageously. The first three episodes are available now.
Within the next month we are also planning to begin posting weekly audio podcasts. We have access to over 6,000 broadcasts of “FamilyLife Today” that I worked on over 28 years, and we’ve got some great stories about people who have made courageous decisions in family, career, ministry, and much more. I’m grateful to FamilyLife for giving us permission to use these episodes.
This is the most strategic initiative I’ve been involved in since I turned over leadership of FamilyLife in December of 2017. We’ve worked hard over the last few months to begin producing this new content, and we hope you find it interesting and challenging.
It’s all designed to help you live in courageous faith. Go to the YouTube Channel for our new content, and be sure to subscribe (it’s free). There’s going to be even more great stories in the weeks ahead!
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