Who Are We

Hello, Friends. My name is Robert Henderson, and I am, by the grace of God, the founder and CEO of Common Sense Ministries, Inc.  I have been a business executive for over 40 years; my degree is in the hospitality field, and I have worked in the restaurant, convenience store, and healthcare industries.

So you may ask, what qualifies me to start a ministry that claims to teach the simplicity of the Bible, God’s Holy Word?  My answer to that is simple. I am a sinner saved by the grace of God through my belief and faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  And because of this belief and faith, the Bible says that I have now been given a ministry of reconciliation and have become an ambassador of God to this lost world. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior in my early 20’s, and became reconciled and justified in the sight of God — just like many of you. For the next 40 years my journey of sanctification (growth) with God took me down many different paths. There were paths that I chose to follow, and there were paths that God chose for me to follow, but these two paths would crisscross at various points in my life. I would change direction and follow God’s path for a while and then invariably Satan, my flesh, and the world would take me down another path. Have you ever experienced that?

This entire time, my personal Bible teacher, the Holy Spirit, would stand beside me and in me, encouraging me to follow God’s path and walk more like His Son, Jesus, in this world.  Sometimes He would nudge and sometimes it would feel like He hit me with a baseball bat. I must admit that the latter has happened on more than one occasion.

Finally, at the age of 62, I took the final blow of the bat — having a heart attack and my job being eliminated by my employer after 22 years of loyal service — the light bulb went off in my head I realized that doing things my way through out my life had never really worked. I turned to God and finally said I understand, You are now in charge for the remainder of my time on earth.

I’ve spent the last year with God, my Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit seeking His will for my life.  My faith has deepened, I’ve been living with a peace in my heart that I have never known, and I have begun to sit at the feet of my teacher, the Holy Spirit, regularly seeking the wisdom and guidance of God through His Word, the Bible.
The more I read and studied, the easier it became for me to understand. Now, whether I read the Old or New Testament, it reads like a great novel filled with the love and guidance my Heavenly Father has for me. The more I read and studied God’s Word, the better I understood the simple common sense of what the Bible teaches. The Old Testament speaks about the New Testament, and the New Testament speaks about the Old Testament, and the Book has become one to me.

I began to hold small Bible study groups in my home, along with my wife, and found that the Holy Spirit had given me the ability to teach the Word of God using a simple, common sense approach. God began to place a burden on my heart to expand this simple and direct approach of teaching His Word.

Through encouragement and help from my Christian brothers and sisters and the leading of the Holy Spirit, I’ve founded Common Sense Ministries, a web based ministry for the lost all over the world who are searching for the truth.

I believe the Bible was written by God using 40 different men who were led by the Holy Spirit to write the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments over the course of 1,500 years. I believe every word of the Bible is verbally and fully inspired by God; it is flawless and contains no mistakes. I believe the Bible is the supreme and final authority for all Christian faith and conduct.

I truly believe the Bible has purposely been portrayed as extremely difficult to understand, and because of its age, not really relevant for today. I also believe, and scripture supports, that Satan and the world we live in are directly responsible for this deception and our lack of ability to understand the Bible.

Common Sense Ministries really belongs to God, and I am just His servant to be used by Him to declare the redeeming grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in a simple, common sense manner. It is my prayer that God will use this ministry to increase His Kingdom, and everything that is accomplished through it will go completely for His honor and glory.

So what are my qualifications to operate this ministry?  I am a sinner saved by the Grace of God, I am a saint and a child of God who is tired of the hold Satan has on this world. It’s time for me to stand up in what some may call my golden years and declare the truth of God’s Word through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s as simple as that, my friend.

My name is Sam Huff and I am President of Common Sense Ministries, Inc. I was extremely blessed to grow up in a Christian home. My parents came to Christ shortly after they were married, before my sister and I were born. Throughout my childhood, my parents consistently modeled Christ-like behavior for me, and I accepted Christ into my life at the age of seven.

This early acceptance had its pros and cons. Many people have that moment they can remember when they made the decision to accept Christ. While I don’t have that, I do have a God who has always been with me.

However, at that young age, I wasn’t able to fully understand the concept that my faith is something I need to continually grow, cultivate, and work towards. In other words, I grew up knowing a lot about the Bible and its stories but not growing in a relationship with my Savior. In a sense, I was on faith auto-pilot — just keeping the rules that I associated with being in a relationship with Christ.

When I went away to college and my parents were no longer taking me to church, I strayed from any type of growth with my Heavenly Father. It was during this time that I started to question my faith. This was nothing as severe as “Does God really exist?” but I did begin critically thinking about “God concepts” I had always taken for granted.

I spent the next six or so years believing that God existed, but wondering about His whole purpose with me and the world we live in. I didn’t work on growing my relationship with Him, I didn’t pursue His plans for my life, and I didn’t seek out answers in His Word, the Bible.

After graduating from college in 2009, I accepted a job in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I became involved in a wonderful church that taught me it was completely natural to have questions about God.  And a small group leader, Dave, really challenged me to think through the Bible, not to just read it but to apply it to all aspects of my life — work, relationships, and family.

With this new approach, came the realization that the Bible isn’t just a bunch of rules. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It’s about how much our God, who created us, loves us and how He gives us guidelines — not to make us feel guilty when we make mistakes — but because He wants the best for our lives.

After a few years, God moved me to Pittsburgh, where I continue on my journey — taking the Bible and applying it in simple, common sense ways, to my modern life.

So often I see other members of my generation viewing God as a judgmental, angry guy in the sky holding a lightning bolt and just waiting for us to mess up so He can strike us down. My hope, with this ministry, is that we can correct this misconception about God for all people, and specifically for my generation.  By showing the simplicity of God’s love through His Word, I want to help others move from a passive response to God into a movement of God that the world can’t ignore.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1 (ESV)

For I know the plans I have for you, “ declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Fellow travelers, I am Julie Decker, Executive Vice President of Common Sense Ministries, Inc., and this Bible verse became my anchor as I began to explore what it meant to have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Although I went to church with my family growing up, I never really thought I was getting much, if anything, out of it.  I believed in God, but somehow He seemed distant and always ready to rain on my parade.

Fast forward to, when at 33 (a little over 20 years ago), I began my faith journey and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I was grieving the loss of my marriage, and had no idea how, as a single parent, I was going to raise my son for the next 18 years; you see, he was only 4 months old when my marriage of eight years ended. A friend told me about a faith-based divorce recovery seminar which jump-started my heart to the knowledge that God did care for me and had a plan for my life. One July afternoon, on my knees and in my living room, I poured my heart out to God — struggling to cope with and make sense of the life stage I found myself in.

For some, faith develops gradually over time, nurtured by the gentle teaching of a loving family and faith community. For others, like myself, the process consists of winding paths, wrong turns, bad choices, dead-end roads, and lots of rain, leading us to ask “Is this all there is and does my life really matter to anyone?”

I learned that my life does matter and through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, my relationship with Him grew.  At times, it was just like when your toddler or teenager takes a growth spurt and you see tremendous change in a very short period of time. Other times, it was slow and steady. But I always knew that even though I didn’t have a husband, I was never alone. God offers comfort to all of us. And it is my hope to be able to minister to single parents and/or those suffering through divorce with this ministry.

2 Corinthians 1:4 tells us that “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

Dear one, your life also matters to God. In the beautiful Words of Psalm 139 verse 14, He whispers that each of us is “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Wherever you find yourself today, it is my hope and prayer that no matter how long the road has been or how difficult the journey, that the simple truth of God’s word and plans for you will begin to be revealed through the pages of Common Sense Ministries™.

I am blessed to be able to join my business and spiritual mentor, Bob Henderson, on this magnificent journey.  Bob had the calling from the Lord and the vision for the ministry and used His God-given talent for leadership on this path to simplify the steadfast Word of God.  He started with establishing our core set of beliefs and continued on the journey through a series of studies that seek to humbly introduce you to who God really is and to help you come to know just how much He loves you.
God’s Word is alive.

It is not the text of some dusty, ancient, and forgotten history book.  His Word is true and never changing and has the amazing ability to speak to your heart, if you truly want to know Him.  “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

As you begin to learn from God’s Word, through the power of His Holy Spirit and the simple teaching of Common Sense Ministries, there will be — no doubt — at least one verse that will become the anchor of your heart and relationship to Jesus Christ. That is my hope for you. Let your journey begin.