Maximize Your Salvation

By Dr. Reginald L. Hudson

Many today are saved, but have not unleashed the "POWER" of their Salvation. Maximize Your Salvation" promises to help you discover the rich blessings encompassed with being saved. Discover the exponential possibilities found in your Salvation. After reading this book, you will never look at your salvation the same; you will understand it's an exciting journey which only begins upon acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Read and discover it's more than just getting saved to get to heaven. the world focuses on supersizing; we hope to empower you to Maximize Your Salvation. This is a must read for those who want to take their Salvation walk to another dimension.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512738773

Dr. Reginald L. Hudson

Dr. Reginald L. Hudson has served as the Senior Servant Pastor at 'New' Union Baptist Church since 1998. He is an active partner and spiritual son in the Harvest Fellowship of Churches Inc., Lindenwold, NJ, Bishop David G. Evans, Presiding Prelate. Dr. Hudson has served as the Senior Police Chaplain and instructor for the Mount Kisco Police Department since 1993, and Chaplain, DPW of New Rochelle since 2008. Formerly, he served as the Director of the Empire State Baptist Convention of New York, Teenage Division, and the Assistant Director of Christian Education, Central Hudson Baptist Association and Instructor for the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. He is the Founder and CEO, RLH Initiatives, Inc, and Mount Kisco Community Patrol, Inc, and a graduate of both New York Theological and Faith Seminary, Tacoma WA, BA/MTH & D.D. Married to Shelly and together they have three children, Reggie II and Raquel (daughter-in-law), Alexis and Marcel (son-in-law), and Joaquin.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Dr. Reginald L. Hudson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover image: SLQ Consultant Management and Services

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3878-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3879-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3877-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906410

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/04/2017

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Understanding Your Salvation

Chapter 2 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (A) – Assurance, Approval, Anointing

Chapter 3 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (B) - Broaden, Balance, Business

Chapter 4 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (C) - Compos Mentis, Confiteor, Coparcener

Chapter 5 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (D) - Dignity, Diplomacy, Discovery

Chapter 6 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (E) - Exculpate, Effervescence, Efficacy

Chapter 7 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (F) - Friend, Forgive, Faithfulness

Chapter 8 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (G) - Graciousness, Giver, Government

Chapter 9 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (H) - Hygiene, Humor, Hush

Chapter 10 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (I) - Inexorable, Influx, It

Chapter 11 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (J) - Jettison, Juxtapose, Joy

Chapter 12 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (K) - Kudos, Kryptonite, Kingship

Chapter 13 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (L) - Liquidity, Liberation, Light

Chapter 14 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (M) - Mercy, Mule, Milkman

Chapter 15 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (N) - Niggling, Nonsense, Nylon

Chapter 16 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (O) - Opportunity, Outlook, Overcome

Chapter 17 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (P) - Privatize, Payoff, Prayer

Chapter 18 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (Q) - Quality, Quintessence, Quit

Chapter 19 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (R) - Release, Reservoir, Rudy

Chapter 20 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (S) - Salt, Shilly-Shally, Shall

Chapter 21 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (T) - Teachable, Teflon, Transitory

Chapter 22 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (U) - Uproot, Upkeep, Uplift

Chapter 23 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (V) - Vision, Vet, Vacation

Chapter 24 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (W) - Waiver, Warranty, Worth

Chapter 25 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (X) - x-satan, x-sin, x-self

Chapter 26 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (Y)- Yesterday, Yell, Yessum

Chapter 27 Spiritual Alphabet Letter (Z) - Zest, Zeal, Zion

DEDICATION

To my spiritual father whom I have known since I was fifteen years old, Dr. Lester Cousin. Thank you for a lifetime of love, teaching, nurturing and above all patience. From the call to preach, to the laying on of hands at my ordination, to that December night in 1992 when you informed me I had been chosen by God to pastor my first church.

Thank you for all those times in my teens and twenties when you would call me into your office to share ministry and show me blueprints of the latest building projects God had given you.

Although at the time much of it did not make sense to me, clearly as I prepare with an awesome team and church family to build a New House of Worship and a six story thirty unit Senior Housing building; God was using you to prepare me for His Word, Will and Way.

To Bishop David G. Evans, whom God has chosen to cover, mentor, and empower me as my spiritual father since the retirement of Dr. Lester Cousin. Thank you for your direction as you seamlessly picked up where Dr. Cousin left off with guidance in our building projects. Just as important; thank you for being the ‘Visionary’ and place of refuge for Pastors and Churches nationally and internationally through the Harvest Fellowship of Churches.

Your preaching, teaching and mentorship has pushed me and my colleagues to understand the work ethic and daily preparation that are tied to the Promises of God. Our ‘New’ Union Church Family has equally been blessed. In 2008 when God gave me a ten year ‘Vision’ for our church, I told God I would do whatever He wanted me to do, I just needed a vehicle and I would travel to where the vehicle was provided. The rest is on-going history.

MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Deaconess Janice Beatty Hudson (A.K.A.-Mama Jan), after losing my birth Mother at the age of 19, you became the Mom I would know for 38 years. You mothered many young men and women into their adult years, nurturing, mentoring, inspiring, and most of all encouraging. Your accomplishments are too numerous to list but seeing you inducted into the Westchester Woman’s Hall of Fame was a personal highlight in my life. You and Dad, were a fun loving couple, and both of you are missed so much. I thank God for you being my cheerleader during the highs and lows, I love you!

Deacon Jacqueline M. Miller, a.k.a. ‘Jackie’; I never thought I would be writing words in this manner about her, but she truly served the Lord, her family, church & community faithfully. The seeds of her life and ministry are still reaping a Harvest and lives she had touched are still coming forward as they are blossoming in her absence. We would have loved to have her march into the ‘New’ Union Baptist Church with us, but God has rewarded her life and dedication with a personal audience with Him.

Rev. William Rodney Dortch, III-a.k.a. How Ya Livin Now! I knew Rev. Dortch through my twenty year fellowship with the Eternal Love Baptist Church under the late Pastor John Fiorito. We bonded when I would come to preach and the times he would call me. This ‘Evangelist’ changed communities in the ‘soft’ and ‘hardcore’ areas and proved his walk by asking the question to all he came in contact with; How Ya Livin Now! A question he did not impart to others until he made sure he complied with it himself.

FOREWORD

D R. REGINALD L. HUDSON’S NAME HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH Christian Education for over thirty years. His longstanding drive and relentless commitment in the field of Christian Education has placed him in the forefront of training and discipleship across the Empire State of New York. It has been a blessing to watch him direct and serve the teenagers in our state convention with humility and compassion as the attendance grew to one thousand under his leadership.

God has graciously gifted him to develop and produce powerful ministry and has ministering tools to equip the Body of Christ in dynamic proportions. To that end, Maximize Your Salvation bears significance in Hudson’s choice to create a book that addresses the most pivotal point of our faith: SPIRITUAL GROWTH.

We are living in tumultuous times, where the Christian principles are no longer considered to have significant value. Just turn on the news and you will discover that every other story is inundated with a world that has succumb to the moral degradation through violence, sexual perversion, or just disregard for human welfare.

We are experiencing what God in His Word said would be true: men have become lovers of themselves, covetous, hateful, prideful, and the like. Unfortunately, we believers are in some way—directly or indirectly—confronted or affected by the stain and stench of sin in the world. If we are not confronted because we refuse to conform to the world’s way of thinking, then we are affected because of how sin trickles down leaving a destructive path of residue that burdens even the saints of God.

If we fail to maintain a close walk with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and obediently yield to God’s plan for our lives, even the very elect can become a part of the corrupt world that we were once enslaved to and become an enemy of God instead of His friend. As a Pastor, my constant, fervent prayer is that the saints of God be kept from the evil one, remain sanctified by the truth found in the word, and become fruitful in whatever work God has entrusted to their hands.

For this reason, I believe that to read this book is to get a sense of how our freedom in Christ is our most precious consolation in such trying times. Dr. Hudson continually equips God’s saints to become MORE than conquerors through Him that loves us. This book is overflowing with invaluable biblical principles that instruct all believers on daily choices the believer must make in order to remain in God’s powerful grace.

Through sound teaching, Hudson presents the ABCs of spiritual growth in a way that is not only refreshing and lighthearted, but filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. So sit back and allow your spirit to be encouraged so you can Maximize Your Salvation.

May God strengthen your walk and purpose your heart as He has done with my friend Reginald Hudson.

Dr. Carl Washington

Pastor New Mount Zion Church

New York, New York

Vice President at Large Empire State New York Convention

Moderator, Eastern Baptist Association, Brooklyn, New York

INTRODUCTION

H OW MANY TIMES HAVE WE HEARD THIS PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE from Hebrews 2:3, How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. It is getting late in the evening as it pertains to human existence in this world. The Word of God is not ambiguous; only His creation is ambiguous as a result of sin. Nevertheless, there are a few things that the redeemed of the Lord need to understand clearly. Salvation is one of them; it is important that believers and servants of Jesus Christ understand the purpose, power, and privilege of Salvation and the game plan Satan has devised to fight against it. The Word of God has spied out and identified the habits, objectives, schemes, and scams Satan tries to use to hinder us from receiving this precious gift.

If we believe the intelligence report in the Holy Bible, we will be victorious over the opposition Satan and his demonic family present. However, we will benefit more from the promise of abundant life in Jesus Christ. I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10b). Unfortunately, even with this promise of abundant life for the believer, I still see many Christians who wear the salvation label but do not enjoy the lifestyle salvation offers. The question is why not? Week after week many Christians attend worship celebrations but fail to celebrate. They attend Bible Studies, workshops, seminars, as well as purchase books, DVDs and CDs that end up serving as table coasters and props for other items. Where is the implementation of excitement, enthusiasm, and expectation? Don’t get me wrong, there are those who understand the magnitude of their salvation and are living the abundant life before they get to heaven. However, many are still missing out on the earthly blessings offered in God’s earthly kingdom. I realize some do not understand what salvation is all about, and they treat it like I did: a one-dimensional event which occurs in ones life. I cannot believe how many benefits and blessings I missed out on because I refused to embrace my salvation as a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ and a lifestyle for daily living.

I have been privileged to walk and serve in the salvation of the Lord for over forty years as a servant, pastor, preacher and teacher. You would think I would have a good understanding of salvation. Wrong! It has only been within the past twenty years that I received clarity and understanding. For many years I believed I could lose my salvation, causing my walk with the Lord to be tentative and confusing. Something didn’t add up. If God is so loving and gracious, why would God place something so special in my hands that I was certain to mess up? My daily mindset regarding salvation was if I did ten things wrong and five things right and died on Saturday, I would end up in hell. If I did ten things right and five things wrong and died on Sunday, I would go to heaven. For years as I preached and taught Bible studies, seminars, and workshops, the Holy Spirit constantly troubled my spirit in this area regarding salvation. I found myself wrestling with the question that if I had to spend every day keeping score regarding my good and bad deeds, how could I have time to effectively serve the Lord and others?

As my spiritual eyes began to open, I had an amazing discovery through the Word of God, not only was my salvation permanent, it was also based on having a personal relationship with God. I began to understand Hebrews 2:3a, How shall we escape so great a salvation. Wow! Salvation was not a one-shot deal but a continuous process as I matured in the Lord. I realized in my heart that my salvation required a heart, mind, and lifestyle change. Like a little child grows into a teenager, young adult, and adult, we do the same spiritually.

I realize much has been written on the subject of salvation, but I know what the Holy Spirit has given me to share will minister clarity and understanding to many who still wrestle with this subject. Like a good detective, I will share only the facts regarding salvation and support it with God’s Holy Word.

I will use the twenty-six letters of the alphabet to support our main scripture Hebrews 2:3 so we can experience the full benefit of John 10:10b, I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I will repeat certain scriptures intentionally because I want you the reader to receive the revelation the Holy Spirit has for you. This book I pray will be a ministering tool for everyone to share in witnessing the gospel, training church leaders for kingdom ministry, and orientating new disciples in Jesus Christ. Before we address the Salvation Alphabet, we must investigate the understanding of salvation.

Chapter 1

UNDERSTANDING YOUR SALVATION

L ET ME CUT TO THE CHASE BY ADDRESSING WHAT CONFUSES SO MANY regarding salvation. There are people who find it hard to embrace the simplicity of salvation because we live in a society that teaches the more difficult something is to attain, the greater the value it should have. For example, buying a house would be considered a difficult task, but rewarding if accomplished. Now would be a good time to clear your mind of carnal logic as I engage you to think spiritually. Romans 12:2 says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

A study was conducted on how individuals value salvation, and the results were interesting. The test group consisted of individuals who had no commitment or opposition to salvation. Many could not understand how something so valuable could be free, especially when they were informed of what Jesus Christ went through for it. Many people miss the cost of salvation when they hear you can freely receive it because carnal thinking cannot embrace spiritual things. Romans 8:32 says, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Once again we must look at Hebrews 2:3a, How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation. Many neglect the gift of salvation because they try to understand logically what requires faith and a change of heart. We live in a doubting-Thomas society, and many want to see the value of salvation before believing and receiving it. I pray you will be blessed with many inspirational nuggets throughout this book. But if you only understand this next point, you will be home free with clarity, and salvation will take on a deeper and more personal meaning. I once heard my friend Pastor Jessie Voyd Bottoms Jr., pastor of the Beulah Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie, New York, present salvation with this statement: The deal for salvation to redeem man was not cut between God the Father and man, but instead the deal was cut between God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Man broke holy fellowship with God the Father and proved himself to be unreliable and disobedient. The deal for salvation is so precious—notice I wrote is instead of was—that it required perfection and integrity that no living human could provide. Romans 3:23–26 says:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to