How to be a Christian in Today's World

By Reverend Matthew Hogan

Reverend Matthew Hogan straddles the line between raw, at times poignant, honesty and detailed information in this must-read book for Christians and non-Christians alike. Weaving personal details effortlessly with scripture and engaging analysis, Hogan imparts to the reader the depth and breadth of the love Christ has for them despite what their past may hold. Journeying through my own past while simultaneously going on the journey through Hogan's past left me crying, laughing, and examining several of the restrictive truths I've long held about God's love for me. This book is for anyone, Christian or not, who has wondered if they are worthy of the love of God. Isn't that all of us?

 

Amber Powers - Former Counselor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reverend Matthew Hogan
• Release date: Oct 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223584438

Reverend Matthew Hogan

Reverend Matthew Hogan has over 30 years of experience in ministry and counseling, having worked as a pastor, interim pastor, and counselor. He is a Certified Temperament Pastoral Counselor, Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor, as a Clinical Professional member of the National Christian Counselors Association. Currently, he runs Grace for Individual and Family Therapy (GIFT) through which he provides faith-based therapy for individual clients, couples, and groups of any faith background online. A lifelong motorcycle enthusiast, Matthew is also the founder of Rods N’ Rides, through which he runs motorcycle events that raise money for charity. Rods N’ Rides donates the money it raises to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, inspired by Matthew’s late brother-in-law, who was a pediatric brain tumor survivor. He also participates in the Tour of Honor, a multi-state motorcycling event in which riders visit different monuments and memorials throughout the country, raising funds for veterans, police, and firefighters. Matthew enjoys spending time on his motorcycle communing with God, and experiencing the country’s many unique sights. Matthew is the proud husband of Kimberly Hogan and father to their adult daughter, Emily. Kimberly and Matthew met when Matthew was enrolled in Central Christian College and shared a spontaneous first date at a horror movie before getting married 33 days later. They currently live together in Arizona with their four cats, who are all rescues.

Book preview

Foreword

Three and a half decades ago, I met Matthew Hogan for the first time at a small Christian college in the heart of Kansas where I grew up. Matthew and I shared a number of common threads in addition to attending the same school:

• We both had a passion for God.

• We both were enrolled in the school’s brand new ministry program.

• We shared a passion for music—we even joined forces on one occasion to craft and present a song of faith and hope for the rest of the student body.

I vividly remember Matthew’s desire to grow in Christ and his candor in sharing what he was learning and/or wrestling with.

Fast forward umpteen years. Our lives took us in very different directions geographically and somewhat different directions in our careers. Both of us had a number of jobs in and outside of ministry but also both kept coming back to it in some way, shape or form.

After many years of radio silence, we connected again through social media. I was delighted to hear we still shared a passion for following Christ. Shortly thereafter Matthew introduced me to How to be a Christian in Today’s World in one of its nearly completed phases. And it was during the reading of his book that I realized we’ve had even more in common over the years than I realized.

We share a few common heartaches with many other travelers on this planet. Truthfully, Matthew and his wife, Kimberly, have experienced more aches than most of us will ever know. But rather than growing bitter, they have allowed those pains, heartaches and experiences to refine them into becoming more and more the people God has called them to be.

In the pages that follow you will be introduced to a few of those heartaches in a fairly raw and real way.

You will also catch the heart and mind of a serious student of God’s Word as he connects some of the dots between the pages of scripture and our experiences.

And finally, I trust you will also be introduced to the One who has taken Matthew and Kimberly by the hand to help others know How to be a Christian in Today’s World.

Kyle Gerrild

Pastor; Author of Lord of the Circle

Preface

Over the span of more than three decades in ministry, I have seen come consistent issues that Christians struggle with. At the urging of the Spirit and my wife, it was time to write a book to try to help more people than I can just through my counseling ministry.

After I began this book, it felt like God took over. It went in directions I didn’t expect as I researched and wrote and different things came to me that had to be part of the book.

Then after I put out the first release (this is now the third) I started learning about the publishing world. It’s common wisdom that before you begin a non-fiction book, you identify a perfect reader for your book and exactly what problem your book will solve for them. In the short time since that first release, I’ve learned that almost every single person that reads the book comes away with something different. It seems that God’s wisdom in guiding me through the writing of this book defies the common wisdom of the publishing world. It is my sincere hope that you will be blessed and grow in your faith by the time you finish this book.

This book is set up with the intention that whether as an individual or a group, that the workbook be used. Each section is connected to a few chapters. You can find the workbook sections in the table of contents title by chapters included in that section. You may choose to read those chapters then do that section of the workbook.

Also, I sincerely hope that you will get your Bible out and read the passages I refer to. I have decided not to include the actual scriptures because I want you to read them in whatever translation you are most comfortable with.

Lastly, I do want this to minister to as many people as possible. If a church or small group wants to do a study using this book, please contact me so that I can help with special pricing.

You can reach me at [e-mail]. Or just visit my website at revmatthewhogan.com.

Lastly, please leave a review wherever you bought the book from as reviews help drive visibility which helps this book minister to more people,

Thank you,

Matthew Hogan

Part I - BABY STEPS

1 - My beginnings

I once heard Jack Hayford speak on the beatitudes. In particular, the Pure in heart shall see God.¹ For most of us, if we’re honest, that feels so far away. We get angry, we just don’t care what someone else’s problems are, we have enough of our own. Maybe we are dealing with lust or drugs, or alcohol. Whether we are dealing with sin that plagues us or we just are blah when it comes to our relationship with God. Jack Hayford said that the pure in HEART shall see God, right now. He talked about not having to get it right. That’s where we’re going to go together. We’re going to find out how to get past ourselves and see God, right now, and be in an authentic relationship with the creator of the universe.

Writing this is not unlike a counseling session. I need to be willing to share enough of me to connect with you where you are. Whether you are a Christian that is feeling like maybe you just aren’t good enough or maybe you’ve got too much baggage. Maybe you sit there Sunday after Sunday, and you still are plagued by worry or doubt. Well, so was I, yes, past tense, was. Keep reading and you’ll see how an ordinary person can know the Grace of God in this life.

My story is not your story, even if some chapters read eerily similar. But, if I overcame and grew, and I believe I have had some success in the most important areas of life, then you can too. We all have the tools available to achieve greatness or at least goodness in all the areas that really matter. The hurdles we have to overcome don’t change that. They just help give our lives color and shape, making us all individual parts of the Kingdom and the world in general.

I was born in the late sixties to a family that was already familiar with struggle. My older brother was born with a birth defect that, in the sixties, was just accepted as a death sentence. He was never expected to live beyond a year. This was before medical insurance was common and, quite frankly, before many of the resources and helps we take for granted today. Because of this, my father (and frequently both parents) always struggled to make ends meet. We may have had a lower middle-class income, but in reality, we were always quite poor.

To make matters worse, I was in poor health myself. My parents rushed me to the Emergency Room several times a year for the first several years of my life. I can laugh at it now, but our old cars had no seatbelts, and I was always too weak to hold myself up as my parents raced through Southern California streets, often running red lights and taking sharp turns. It’s almost surprising that I never sustained injuries as I bounced around the back seats, sometimes ending up on the floor.

My brother and I didn’t know this was anything but normal, and our parents did a good job of keeping brave faces for us. But in reality, the strain was weighing on them with each passing year. Every ER run for me, every surgery for my brother and keeping a close watch on both of us constantly tore at them, creating an emotional strain that manifested in their marriage. I can remember, during one of their louder fights, my brother shoved me to the ground as a large wooden trivet flew across the kitchen like a frisbee. We didn’t know the fights were anything but normal either.

As I said, my parents tried. They