Join Mike Treem, Matt Hawking, and Jim Durbin as they discuss the transformative work of Hope for Today. In these trying times, the importance of biblical hope has never been more pertinent. This episode dives into the mission of encouraging believers to stay grounded in God’s word amidst the increasing antagonism against Christian beliefs. The speakers reflect on the vital teachings of David Hawking, whose unwavering focus on the Bible offers a beacon of clarity and hope.
Well, hey, it’s Mike Treem with Matt Hawking with Hope for Today and Jim Durbin, the producer and voice with Hope for Today. Thanks, guys, for taking the time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks for having us. It’s a pleasure to be with you. Yeah, thanks, Mike.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, we get to hear more from both of you on the program, which has really been a joy, especially at the end. You guys have been really working hard to make sure that today is fresh and alive. And one of the things that we like to talk about is where the ministry is at today, kind of what Hope for Today is doing, and how that’s so relevant for what’s going on in our world.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you know, HFT is always looking for ways to encourage and bring hope from God’s Word to our listening family. So with all the recent events in our nation and the increasing hostility, I mean, to Christians and Christian nationalists, Christian faith and biblical truth and hope here, we’re just staying focused on these two things right now. Hope for the believer in God’s plan for the prophetic future and hope for the present. Well, hope for today.
SPEAKER 02 :
We hear every week, probably every day from folks that are so discouraged by the the antagonism that is rising. And, of course, Scripture tells us that’s going to happen. But we need to stay focused on God’s Word. We need to stay focused on the prophetic future and the guarantee that God has that He who began a good work in each one of us will continue that. And He will keep His promises to the individual believer and the church in difficult days, in good days, whatever they might be. He has a plan for us. And there’s hope in staying in God’s Word. Amen. We do.
SPEAKER 01 :
And David was so clear. I mean, his message is you just, you know, I catch him probably four out of five days, three out of five days, depending on what our meetings look like. And he’s just so clear, so clear about Israel, so clear about what God said about the things we’re experiencing today. And you think, wow, did the guy nail it time and time again? Just crazy. Yeah, he did. He never minced words.
SPEAKER 03 :
He just went right for the throat. And that’s why he was always the Bible, the whole Bible, nothing but the Bible. Yeah, he was really straight. I mean, you said something even kind of off. He would correct it right then. Nope, not the Bible says.
SPEAKER 01 :
Matt Hawking would know that, wouldn’t he?
SPEAKER 03 :
I wouldn’t know that yet very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
We said it last time. I was telling Matt, I said, you know, Matt, I’ve been listening to your dad for 30 years because we just had our 30th anniversary, right? And Matt says I had listening for 55.
SPEAKER 01 :
He has said that a few times. Well, you know, we all talked about this. I think from almost day number one, Hope for Today was on KLTT. So David Hawking’s teaching has been on probably for 30 or close to 30 years on KLTT as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Big time. Yeah. And that’s, you know, that was my dad. He always believed that he was, you know, and, you know, he always believed in the radio because he said that’s the biggest way that we reach people for Christ. You know, it’s the radio. People listen on the way to the work. People need encouragement. They listen, you know, they can be doing other things. And You know, he always felt he had, as an evangelist, rather than a pastor, he always felt he was an evangelist because he wanted to go out and preach the word. And that’s the one way to reach the world.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think you hit a key point there. You talked about encouragement. And I think your dad knew very astutely that one of Satan’s greatest tools, I think, to marginalize the church, to minimize the church’s impact, is to discourage believers, to get them to think that there’s no hope. You know, and that’s really the reason why, Matt, in our discussions, if you recall, we talked about what we’re offering this month on the air, hope in difficult times. Well, these are certainly difficult times. I can’t remember anything being quite as intense as it is now for believers and for the church. And God’s word has hope for us. And, you know, it’s a book. It’s a book that demonstrates from God’s word that hope isn’t just a whimsical wish.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s something that may or may not happen to you.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s not Disneyland hope. You know, we wish upon a star. It is hope that is certain that God. It’s a hope. It’s a guaranteed hope that God will keep his promises, and he does so every time.
SPEAKER 03 :
And when we understand and fill our hearts with that, the hope that God graciously provides in his word, the result is just phenomenal.
SPEAKER 02 :
It really is. It’s joy. It’s joy that we see portrayed so vividly in the lives of biblical characters, those who followed the Lord, those who walked in righteousness, those who kept their hope in him. And it brought them through some of the toughest times of tribulations, torment, and trial, just like many believers today are experiencing. Oh, yeah. But we come out stronger and filled with hope. You know? Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s it. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, something I love about David’s teaching is that, you know, people read through the Bible, and I have somebody here on our team that’s kind of reading through the Bible his first time. He’s a young guy in his 20s, so it’s awesome to see. And he said, wow, Old Testament. There’s some rough stuff in there. And this hope helps someone like him. Listening to Hope for Today really helps him because he says, oh, there is joy. There is hope.
SPEAKER 03 :
And it is hard to sometimes differentiate between the descriptive and the prescriptive, you know, when you’re reading the Old Testament. And that’s when my dad really specializes in that. You know, he just gets very clear. You know, the Bible said it. God said it. I believe it. That’s the end of it. That’s what he always say.
SPEAKER 02 :
David has, and one of the things I appreciate, so many years working with him, outside the context of a radio time, I was able to ask him, you know, personal questions and bring questions my kids had brought up and so forth. David has such a strong grasp of hermeneutics. You know, it’s the old expression, the text out of context is a pretext for error. David knows that. He knows the idioms. He knows the Greek and the Hebrew. He knows the historical context, all of which is necessary for properly understanding Scripture and avoiding errors. Yeah, that’s 100%.
SPEAKER 03 :
It was funny, we were talking about that. just the other day where I had heard my dad preaching. It was an old message about nine years ago, ten years ago, and he was talking about Gog and Magog, and he said, well, a lot of people think this is Russia, but it’s not. It’s actually, I’m going to say it’s Iran. Now, this is just my personal opinion about my studies, but there’s going to be a little group called Hamas, and you’ve probably never heard of them. This is nine and a half years ago. I’m not kidding. I’m double-checking my date here. They’re going to come in, they’re going to invade, and then Israel’s going to show its power, but then the world’s going to hate Israel. And I’m listening to this, I’m literally whining, I’m looking at it going, there’s no way. This is nine and a half years ago. What? You know, it’s headlines today. That’s all it is. It’s headlines. It’s crazy. But, you know, it just goes to show, though, that we’re reading a living word by a living God.
SPEAKER 01 :
We are. We are.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, and that’s so heavy.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, it’s awesome. Matt, you mentioned Hamas, and Mike, is this okay if we mention a couple booklets by David? Shameless promotion, right? But there is so much deception out there in regards to Israel today. Oh, yeah. And you need to understand, first of all, God’s heart for the people of Israel. I really don’t care what the Republicans or the Democrats or anybody else say. I mean, I do, but that’s not what’s most important. What’s most important is going to the one source of truth that will never, ever fail you. It passes every test, and that’s God’s word. Find out what God’s word says about Israel and the land and God’s heart for them in the past, in the present, and in the future. And the first question is Israel and its land. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Israel and its land is the first booklet. Go ahead, Matt. Oh, I’m sorry. My bad. I was just going to say, yeah, that’s a question I always hear. It’s like, you know, who owns the land? Well, you know, did the Zionist Jews steal the land from the rightful owners? You know, was God’s original promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants? You know, those are the questions I hear all the time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Israel and its land booklet. And it’s a fairly quick read. I think it’s 40 or 50 pages, Matt. And the second one is Israel in the last days, which, of course, leans towards prophecy. And that’s a quick read. that outlines, in clear and unmistakable terms, God’s heart and plan for Israel in the last days.
SPEAKER 01 :
Those are must-reads. You guys, those are must-reads for people where we’re at with Israel. And speak to this, because that isn’t going to change, is it? I mean, Israel, what we’re seeing, that’s not going to just, oh, it’s going to be peaceful. We’ll have 20 years of peace. That’s not going to happen.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, because Satan wants to obliterate Israel, because he knows that if he’s successful, he can accuse God of lying. Not going to happen. We hope for peace, but we’ve got to stay on alert because Hamas works from a religious ideology that commands adherence to lie in the efforts to subdue infidels, non-Muslims. Yeah, if you’re not a Muslim, you’re the infidel. Also, since the land of Israel was once under the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim… Much of the Muslim world would consider it a first priority to restore that control and remove the Jewish presence entirely. It’s like what Netanyahu used to say, you know, If you give the land to them, no more Israel. You know, from the river to the sea has meaning.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yep. Amen. Yeah. It’s all the way to the all the way to the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER 01 :
We did an Israel interview to a gal that’s doing relief work over there. And she said it it’s basically they’re trying to kill us every day. They want to kill us every day. And I thought, oh, my goodness, you’re right. We don’t think about that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, it’s amazing. I was telling my son that. I said, you know, we live in a place where technology and all that, we can kind of not think about it. They can’t. You know, every day is a reality.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. And hope for today, your dad, Matt, he was so clear on this. And as you said, he was talking about Hamas before anyone knew what, you know, who Hamas was. That’s stunning. So a couple things. We want to make sure people know how to listen. And one thing… you talked about earlier was the daily commitment, but also we know your side, you know, your website and KLTT website both has the on demand for people that miss some of the program or want to share it with a friend.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Yes. You can go to HFT. You can go to hope for today.org, which can take you over to HFT media. We have, um, uh, cause the radio, we obviously do broadcast and online and that media center does have dozens of video teachings by my dad and it’s, it’s all free online. Um, those are free booklets.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. My dad’s got daily devotional meditation, the Psalms, um, and we also, we also pray for everybody too. We want people to know that, that you can call in and we get together every day and pray for, for, any requests that we get. So if somebody writes a letter and just needs prayer, that’s good too.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, I came in here several months ago and my, my 36 year old niece had passed away. It’s very tragic, but the upside is she loved the Lord and she’s, she’s with her savior now left behind three kids. But I came in here and, and, and, you know, I, they, they knew something was, was up with me. And, and Matt asked me what was going on. And within seconds, They had me in a room. They surrounded me. They prayed for me right then and there. They take it very seriously. And what a joy it is to hear from listeners that call, and they’re facing some incredible difficulties, and to take time to pray with them and lift up their knees before the Lord. It’s just a wonderful, wonderful aspect of this ministry. Because we all have one job, and it’s the end of the book of Matthew, you know?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. One job you got to do.
SPEAKER 01 :
Matt, you tell us that a lot, too. I know that that came, you know, basically, you know, what your dad taught. You lived. You’ve said that many times. And that’s something that I think our listeners need to know where your heart’s at.
SPEAKER 03 :
Amazing. Yeah, that’s it, man. I mean, like I said, I know that I’m not the main character. I know none of us are the main character. You’re a character, but you’re not the main one.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s true. Can I mention evangelism? That’s so much at the heart of what Hope for Today does, too. I came in, again, another day. I’m not here in the office every day because I work in my home, but I came in, and Cheryl, who’s just an indispensable person here in the ministry, they had run out, she told me they had run out of the What Is Christianity booklet that David wrote. And that’s given out to those who call and say, I’m not a Christian, but I’m kind of curious. They give it to them. Or new believers to help them get grounded early on in Scripture. And they had run out of them. because they give so many of those away. Well, that’s a part of this ministry, and you’ll hear it often at the end of the program. David has given, he’s prayed for nonbelievers, or he’s given an altar call, as we used to call it in the Baptist church I grew up in. And then we offer that booklet for new believers, because it Your walk with Christ starts with a new birth. And we want to make sure that nobody who listens to the program misses the opportunity to see what the gospel has to say and what Jesus wants to bring them into relationship with him.
SPEAKER 03 :
And our free Bible study, too, we give to new believers to keep them. Because we want to not just witness to them and get them to accept Christ. We want to get them to continue on in their study, you know, so they can be in the dark world, you know, and share with other people as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
See, that’s the awesome part of Hope for Today is When people say, what’s new? The list is long. You just go to the website, hopefortoday.org. So it’s hopefortoday.org. Matt Hawking, Jim Durbin. Producer Jim, here’s voice on the program. Don’t forget, too, we are Minute in the Word. Just go to 670KLTT.com. You’ll be able to find the times for Hope for Today, the long form, Minute in the Word, the short feature with David Hawking, and these two men. You’ll hear them on the program. So thanks, guys, for taking the time with us. Thank you so much. That was Mike.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mike, thank you for all that you do with KLTT. What a great ministry that is there. God bless. Thank you.
