Biography
Martha Hoke is widely known through her extensive speaking engagements, her Bible teaching and her personal counseling. Born in Tennessee, Mrs. Hoke's far-reaching life has led her to many interesting and varied environments. With her husband, Donald, she lived for 23 years in Japan and Switzerland where she organized Christian Women's Clubs. While in Japan she compiled and edited a book on American cooking with accompanying inspirational messages for Japanese women. She has also taught college and has started many Friendship Bible Coffees. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Will My Life Make a Difference?" 
Have you ever thought, "Will my life make a difference?"

Several years ago, a young girl, Ann Kiemel, wrote a book entitled, I'm Out to Change My World and in this book she said, "I'm just an ordinary woman, an ordinary girl from an ordinary background, but I'm out to change my world." And then she did through her life, her books, her speaking and by beginning an organization to help hundreds of needy, neglected children.

By the grace of God and the power of God in my life, I want to make an impact for God in my home, in my neighborhood, in my church and in the world. That's why God placed us here in this world. Titus 2:14 says, "Christ died for the purpose of making us his very own, different kind of people, ambitious to do worthwhile things." I'm ambitious to please God. I want to be God's change agent in a sick, sad, dying world. I want to make an impact for God!
 

In My Home

The first place God wants us to make a difference is in our homes. Today when one out of three marriages ends in divorce, when homes are falling apart, when families are fragmented, God wants our home to be different. The best testimony we can have is to have a happy marriage and home.

When we lived in Japan, there was a man in my neighborhood named Mr. Tanaka. We all knew about him and we were all glad we weren't married to him, because he had a reputation as an alcoholic, and a gambler; he had three mistresses and had a violent temper. He abused his wife and children and made life miserable for everyone. But at work he met a man who was different. He worked hard, he didn't cheat on his income tax, he didn't pad his expense account, he spent time with his family, he wouldn't work on Sunday and he never cheated on his wife. This man was so different that one day, over lunch together, Tanaka asked why Sato was different and Mr. Sato said, "I was restless and dissatisfied with my life. I had always been a Buddhist and a Shintoist. But something was lacking.
"One day, I was given the Christian Bible and I began earnestly to read it. Here I found something that I've been looking for. Here I found a totally different way of life. As I read this book it made such a difference in my life that I became a Christian and this is what you see that you can't understand."

Mr. Tanaka was impressed by this man and he became a Christian. And then his wife was so amazed by his change in the home. He treated the children differently, he treated her differently, he became a loving father and husband. One day she said, "If this Jesus of his can make such a difference in a man, I too, want to be a Christian."

How do we make a difference? I think the first way to make a difference is to put Christ first in our lives. Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your might." Then he said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." [Matthew 6:33]

If we put Christ first in our homes we'll have different goals. Paul said in Galatians 1:10, "Do I seek to please men? No, my goal is to please God." That's my goal - I want to please him. What is your goal? To impress and please people, to keep up with the neighbors?

Peer pressure affects adults as well as teenagers. We don't like to be different so we let the world set our goals, make our decisions and influence our thinking. But God says in Romans 12:2, "Don't let the world press you into its mold... But be shaped into the image of Jesus Christ."

If Jesus is first in our homes, and we have Christ centered goals, our children will be the first to notice. I think that one of our goals should be that we make an impact for Christ on our children.

Deuteronomy 6:5 tells us, "You must teach your children God's commandments, and talk to your children about them when you are at home, or out for a walk, at bedtime and the first thing in the morning." Don't fail to teach your children that God is real, important and necessary. God loves them and has a plan for their lives and anything else is second rate.

Proverbs 14:26 says,: "Reverence for God gives a man deep strength, his children have a place of refuge and security." Our children need this today. They need to see a difference, a reality in our lives.

Will your children be attracted to Christ by what they see in your life? Or will they reject Christianity as phony because they've seen your phony, shallow, inconsistent life?

A great theologian was once asked by someone, "Which is the best translation of the Scriptures?"

Immediately the theologian answered the reporter and said, "The best translation I've ever known is my mother's."

The newspaper reporter was very surprised and he said, "Oh, I didn't know your mother translated the Scripture!"

The theologian said, "Oh, yes. She translated the Bible into her daily life in our home, and I am today what I am because of my mother's faith, her Godly life." Would your children say that about you?

If Christ is first, there's going to be a different attitude toward our mates. You know, it's interesting to me how wives treat their husbands and how husbands treat their wives. God says, "Husbands love your wives as your own body. Love them as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it." Men, your children will treat their wives the way you treat yours. Fathers, your sons will duplicate the role image that they have seen you produce in your home when they become husbands and fathers.

Proverbs 12:4 says, "A worthy wife is a joy to a husband and his crown. The other kind corrodes his strength and tears down everything he does." Wives, you can make or break your husbands by your attitude towards him. Ephesians 4:33 says, "A wife must deeply respect her husband, obeying and praising and honoring him."

If Christ is first in your home there will also be a different atmosphere in your home. What is the "spiritual temperature" in your home? Is it a place where there is love, warmth, and acceptance? Or is it a place where there is strife? "A soft answer turneth away wrath. But angry, harsh words stir up quarrels and arguments." [Proverbs 15:1]

The book of Proverbs has some interesting things to say about the home. "A dry crust eaten in peace is better than steak every day served with argument and strife." - Proverbs 17:1 Again in Proverbs, "It's better to live in the corner of an attic, than with a crabby woman in a lovely house." [Proverbs 21:9]

Home should be a secure place, a warm place, a place of happy memories, a place where your children will love to come and they will be proud to bring their friends.

Christ first means we'll have different values. Educators tell us values are largely instilled into a child by the time he reaches school age. Teach your children to value the truly important things. "The world and it's attainments pass away, but he who does the will of God abides forever." [I John 3:17]

Being a cheerleader, or on the ball team, or a beauty queen seem important at the time, but it is not life's greatest achievement. What values are you teaching your children by your lifestyle and value system?

Charles Wesley was a great hymn writer. He has influenced the world through his music by writing over 2000 hymns. His brother, John Wesley, was a famous theologian, a great preacher and founded the Methodist denomination. In their writings these sons gave their mother, Suzanna Wesley, and their Christian home life credit for their spiritual achievements and knowledge. By being an obedient, dedicated and Godly woman she changed the world through her sons. What impact are you having on your children, and what impact will your children have on the world?
 

In Neighborhood

I want to make an impact, too, in my neighborhood. If I were the only Christian that my non-Christian neighbors knew, would they want to be a Christian because of me? You know, our neighbors are watching us. They watch us more than we realize they do. And they watch to see if we are making a difference, or if we are different in our daily contact, in the way we treat each other and the way we treat them. They watch how we act under stress and difficulty.

A family in Knoxville saw their beautiful home utterly destroyed by fire. A neighbor came over to console them and said, "Oh, this is terrible. You've lost everything."

And the man smiled and said, "No, we still have the important things." As he put his arm around his wife he said, "We still have each other, we have our precious children and we have our faith in God." That's a different value, isn't it?

A family saw young people in their neighborhood getting on drugs and getting involved with alcohol and running with the wrong crowd and they decided to do something about it to make a difference in their neighbor- hood. They opened their home and invited the young people to come and bring any of their friends that they wanted to. They provided sports, activities, a place to play, a place where they were listened to and welcomed. Then they started a Bible Class and 80 or 90 young people came to their home two and three times a week. This couple is making a difference in their neighborhood.

Recently a young mother with two small children in our home town was diagnosed as having terminal cancer. How would she react to this, how would she take it? The doctors gave her no hope. She suffered greatly. She lost all of her hair. And her neighbors commented on her strong faith and her calm and peace in the face of all of this. They asked her, "How can you be so calm and peaceful?" You see? She knew Jesus Christ and her faith was in him. She made a difference.

A young couple I know lost their little 18 month old baby. They adored this child. The relatives and neighbors commented that they stayed calm in the face of this great loss and as a result the man's parents have become Christians, attending church regularly. A young couple in their subdivision came and said, "Tell us about your faith. We want to know your Jesus."
 

In My Church

I want to make a difference in my church. Will someone come to know Jesus Christ because I am a member of that church? Am I a spectator, just standing on the sidelines, an expert critic of the sermon, of the music, of the temperature? Am I a bench-warmer, or am I involved, participating, serving in some way? What are you doing in your church that will make a difference for eternity? Without any special gifts or talents, you can have an influence in your church through your prayers - pray for your pastor, pray for your young people, pray for the leaders. Then, you can have an outreach to those who are lonely. Reach out in love to the single parents and widows.

A Sunday School teacher was telling her class of young children what Jesus was like. She said, "Oh, Jesus is so wonderful. He's loving, he's warm, he's tender and he's patient." And then at the end of her lesson, she asked the class, "Do you know this Jesus?" She was surprised when a little boy raised his hand and said, "Oh yes, I know this Jesus. He's just like you say. He's loving and he's warm and he cares about me. And, you know, he lives next door to me and I call him Mr. Kelly!" Would someone mistake you for Jesus?
 

In the World

God wants us to make a difference in our world, too. 70% of the world has never heard of the one true God, the God who loved the world enough to send his son to die on the cross for their sins. Jesus said, "Go and tell what great things God has done for you." God wants you and me, ordinary men and women to go and tell, to be witnesses, to be light, to be salt.

Pat Job is just an ordinary, average woman living in Tennessee, but she became concerned about the number of abortions that she saw in our town and on the University campus. She started a pregnancy crisis center in Knoxville to give unwed mothers another alternative. She has changed scores of young girls lives as she meets their needs at a crisis time in their lives and as she tells them of the love of God and his forgiveness and his transforming power in their lives. I've seen many of these girls become radiant Christian girls.

One night a woman appeared at our front door with a friend. She said, "This woman is desperate and so I had to bring her." This woman was beautiful but very intoxicated. She said, "I've made a mess out of my life. I've walked out on my husband and children. I'm an alcoholic and I'm miserable and unhappy. What can you do for me?" My husband talked to her for several hours and then finally she said, "I'm going to turn my life over to Jesus Christ. I want to be a Christian. From now on I'm going to go God's way."

My husband and I wondered how real this decision was in her condition, but in the weeks and the months ahead we saw a remarkable change in this woman. Today she is remarried to the man that she divorced. He is a Christian. She led her daughter and two teenage sons to Christ. Because of the change they have seen in her life, her in-laws became Christians. One son is in Medical School, one son is in college and tours in the summer with Christian Athletes in Action. Her daughter and her family are planning on missionary work. Today this woman and her husband are together, happy, in business together, active in our church, teaching and making a difference in the church, in their home, in the neighborhood and around the world.

Probably God will never call you to a dramatic ministry, or to be a missionary, or to write books. But God wants you where you are to make a difference for him. This is God's plan for your life, he has a job for you to do.

But this all starts when God makes a difference in your heart and your life. Can you let Jesus Christ transform your life? He's waiting to be invited into your life, then he'll make a difference in you and through you.