Expository Preaching?

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)

Of politically correct humanist self-sufficiency couched in Darwinian overtones and faith flavored promises of going to the next level regarding profundity and wealth, I shall prove to be rather ignorant. I come not with enticing words, three points and a poem, nor a fundraiser in the form of a theatrical performance. No. I fear God too much to allow the world to classify me as a preacher by today’s standards. Just call me Brother Brian if you please. For preaching of the highest order, I would direct ones attention to the oratory of John Chrysostom, other Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers willing to be burned at the stake or thrown into the lion’s den rather than recant their testimony of Christ as Lord, and Jonathan Edwards.

Concerning modern expository preaching, I would also caution us that it is possible to go completely overboard with exposition for the sake of exposition even when based upon thorough and defensible exegesis. Reason, even when doctrinally sound and theologically relevant, cannot save, heal, deliver, or set any captive free from sin. Personally, I will always tend to reject an argument that is mean spirited or made by an individual or group claiming absolute moral and intellectual superiority. In this regard, I cannot imagine that I am altogether different from most people. The question then arises, “Is it Christ or the preacher that is being lifted up?”

We are not angels, saints. Therefore, the mechanics of our communication can easily become more important to us than the power, love, and sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7) meant to be conveyed by our singular message of hope, the kernel of which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). We can therefore, much like the Pharisees, “err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) Has God made us to be ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit? Yes! For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life (2 Corinthians 3:6). Shame on us, if, by way of arrogance and pride, we work against the abundance of life that is the inheritance of all those who are in Christ. Let faith and not condemnation come when we have spoken.

 © 2012 Brian L Hunter

Push Buttons

“For thou hast possessed [set up] my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.” (Psalm 139:13)

Our least favorite events are encounters with passive aggressive loved ones who delight in pressing all the right buttons necessary to create and sustain emotional conflicts. They have known us since we came into the world, hence, they know just how best to provoke us to wrath. While smirking nonchalantly and shrugging their shoulders, pretending to wonder why in the world we might possibly have cause to be annoyed or frustrated with them, they project blame and shut down any productive dialogue by absolutely denying even the remotest fraction of responsibility for the incident. Words at such times only lead us further down a path of unrighteousness, no matter how hushed or polite the tones. Given the sin sick condition of our hearts, it is quite easy for us to murder the esteem, the psyche, and the basic human dignity of our brother, sister, son, daughter, mother, or father with a polished Hollywood smile on our faces. Such is the depravity in this flesh…

Lord, please perfect that love and patience of which I am incapable without You, God the Holy Spirit. Please hold my hand and guide me out of darkness and into Your truth and life. I so desperately desire to live, and move, and have my being in Christ my Savior. Help me, Lord. You alone are my peace and I desperately need Thee every hour. Try my reigns, Lord! Be Thou my vision in this fiery furnace of family dysfunction and confusion. I ask it all in Jesus’ holy and mighty name. Amen.


“Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” (Psalm 26:2)


“I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.” (Psalm 16:7)


© 2012 Brian L Hunter

Turn My Eyes

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” (Hosea 6:3)

Help me, oh Lord, to number my days aright and to bring my heart to wisdom (Psalm 90:12). Whether the report points to cancer, betrayal, or bankruptcy, help me to keep my mind stayed on Thee that I not turn not aside to the right or left (Deuteronomy 5:32). Help me to focus rather on the author and finisher of my faith as the joy set before me so that I, like my Savior, may endure this cross (Hebrews 12:2) looking unto the Father in whose presence there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

Do not let me waste my trials by refusing to trust you wholly and give you glory for what you have already done. Make me a better witness, Precious Savior, of your glorious perfection and sovereignty in all things. Hallelujah! Oh yes, because in death I cannot give you praise, let every breath that I take therefore glorify thy most excellent name among the nations. How majestic is thy name in all the earth (Psalm 8:9)! Help me to trust you all the more no matter what evil seems to befall me at any given moment. Help me to fear no evil, for thou, oh Lord, are with me. You are bringing me to an expected end, and, no calamity, disease, or disaster shall cause me to stop seeking your face. Hallelujah!

In your presence, cancer or no cancer, is where I want to be, oh God. No affliction shall rob me of it and no unholy mess shall deter me from being more and more desirous of your countenance. Hallelujah! I shall worship you desperately whether it be in the temple or the fiery furnace, my Lord. Yet will I trust you! To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21-23). Help me to abide in you and to have your Word abide in me, oh Lord. Help me to be a witness to your glory and grace no matter what comes or goes in my life. Giving honor to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit always - since these three agree in Heaven as one, in Jesus’ holy and precious name I pray. Amen.


© 2012 Brian L Hunter

God, The Only Frontier

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)

Some say that space is the final frontier. And yet, space is merely a box of sorts that God created out of necessity in order that our experience of His infinite continuum of possibility, what we call reality, could be fleshed out in our finite minds. Reality is merely the individual mind’s recognition of the boundaries of space and time. Our reaction to the multifarious potentialities afforded by such a framework provides us with rich imaginations despite man’s inherent depravity (Ecclesiastes 7:29, Romans 5:12, 19, Romans 3:23, Isaiah 53:6, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, et al). The existence of an actual infinitude cannot, of course, be proven or disproven. Science, therefore, being ultimately concerned with measureable absolutes and the derivatives thereof, will never adequately explain even the existence of God. It is not completely unlike a computer trying to exhaustively reason every intricacy of human emotion. The insurmountable problem with realist, absolutist, rationalist, relativistic, and conventionalist theories is, first and foremost, the fact that God exists outside the circumference of man’s possible experience, beyond the borders of time and space, having created all things.

In conclusion, considerations of time’s direction, thermodynamics, presentism, eternalism, quantum mechanics, and string theory are beyond my complete comprehension personally. However, this one thing I know without any incertitude – The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the everlasting God (El Olam) without beginning and without end. Hallelujah! You alone have framed the worlds by the Word of your power (Hebrews 11:3, 1:3)

Heavenly Father, just overwhelm me continually with your steadfast love and indisputable omnipresence. “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Thou shewest loving-kindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is His name, Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 32:17-19). I know, of a surety that God is great far beyond even the way Tony the Tiger once declared that Frosted Flakes were great, God is good beyond the benevolence of any earthly father, and God is wonderful, exceeding the wonder of even the proof of Fermat's last mathematical theorem or the fascinating musings of Stephen Hawking. Lord, continue to overwhelm me with the wondrous works you have left me to ponder. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, you, oh Lord, are worthy to be praised. Hallelujah!

In prayer, I cover my eyes like the seraphim and contemplate the infinite expanse of your glory. Draw me ever closer in relationship to you, Lord. Help me not to look neither to the right nor the left as I keep my mind stayed on Thee in perfect peace. Be Thou my vision, oh God of my heart. Let me forever be foolish enough and peculiar enough to worship the invisible Holy One of Israel who was and is and is to come, God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – for these three agree in Heaven as one, The only living God who alone is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Thank you, Lord, for your mercies which are new every morning, no matter how undeserving I may be. Thank you for causing the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust alike. Thank you for being no respecter of persons, oh God. You alone are faithful and just beyond reproach or measure. I worship and adore you, Almighty God! Thou hast not dealt with me according to my sins, but has justified me and given me life eternal through the substitutionary death of Christ, The Passover Lamb who was bruised for my iniquities, wounded for my transgressions, and raised from the dead as a first fruit of resurrection. Hallelujah! I thank you for allowing me the wonderful blessing of hearing and hearkening to your splendiferous voice. As you provided a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night in the wilderness, Thou art leading me by your Spirit, having first ordered my steps in your Word. Hallelujah! “Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.” (Psalm 63:3) Glory to your Holy name, El Elyon! Glory! Holy and Righteous are Thee alone.


© 2012 Brian L Hunter

Prayer For Light

Lord, crucify the pride in me. Permeate my soul, I pray, with light and let not one crevice in me continue in darkness. Renew, I beseech thee, your covenant in me today so that the only remaining desire that burns in me is the hope of your all satisfying glory and the never-ending bliss your grace affords.

© 2007-2010 Brian L Hunter

Incredible Lightness

The world says to give the offender the silent treatment, shun their Facebook page, and conspire with any sympathizers against him or her. God says to bless and to pray. The reactionary path I take defines whose servant I am and in whom I place all of my hope. Am I a new creation? Or, will I act just like I did way back when it was all about me, my vindication, and my feelings? Lord, wash me with the truth of your Word today and do surgery on my heart with your two-edged sword. Let no root of bitterness spring up and defile me today. Let me be so completely satisfied in you and in your goodness that I scarcely notice when evil is directed my way. I trust in the angels encamped round about me, in your faithfulness, and in your benevolence. You take delight in the prosperity of your servants, oh God, and I thank you. Let it be done in me and unto me according to your perfect will and according to the Word which you have spoken. Amen.


© 2007-2010 Brian L Hunter

Got Hurt?

If you have hurt my feelings or insulted me, my reaction proves my spiritual character and the maturity of my relationship with God. Vengeance is not mine and perhaps it is by your insult that God will make me holier than I was before the affront. "Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." (Luke 6:28)


© 2007-2010 Brian L Hunter

Blessed To Be

I am indebted, in covenant with The Most High God, united to and in Christ alone, and forsaking all others... Cleaving to Jesus, my only hope, I joyfully contemplate the mystery of being baptized into His death and, having been planted together in the likeness of His death, I shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Glory!


© 2007-2010 Brian L Hunter

Utility

“And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?” (Mark 3:33)

As the prodigal son soon learned, people love you so long as you never require anything of them. When you make it known that you have a need, whether it be emotional, spiritual, financial, or otherwise, your so-called friends will prove to be false. Oh, they partied often to the break of dawn, most often at your expense. Greed loves a fool almost as much as misery loves company. Oh, when they needed you, you were there for them. Yet, they will never remember how you sacrificed to comfort and console them in the middle of the night when it seemed that no one else cared. They will not remember how welcome they were in your family’s home when you were young though, when you went to their parent’s house, you were never offered so much as a glass of water. They won’t remember how they called your mother to bail them out of jail instead of calling their own mother.

As soon as your utility has been exhausted in their lives, those folks who were once always at your side will scarcely give you a second thought. Such is the way of the world. However, I am called to be that friend which sticketh closer than a brother, who loves you unconditionally, who rejoices with you and mourns with you. When I have nothing to profit and yet I still keep in touch, then, my friend, you can come to certain educated conclusions about my character and my motives. I come to do the will of my Lord Jesus Christ even as He came to do the will of the Father. Jesus, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:21)

Am I believe that you love me when, clearly, faith without works is dead? The carnal mind cannot be expected to understand these things, and so, with loving hearts we pray for blind eyes to be opened until we all come into the fullness of understanding that is available in Christ our Lord. Does the sun not shine yet on the just and the unjust alike? Likewise is the blood of the Son of God available to all who will call upon His name in hope. Cain and Abel were, despite the atrocities of jealousy and murder, brothers by birth. We cannot erase the reality of our relationships as siblings, believers, countrymen, or human beings. Let those who have an ear hear what the Spirit is saying. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35) Let’s get it together, after all. We are all a part of God’s family, a family for which He gave His only begotten Son’s life to save and redeem.

“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesian 4:16)

As they say in Jamaica, one love… Lord, make us one (John 17:21) even as you intend for husband and wife to become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Let us be the body, the church, the love. In Jesus’ precious and matchless name, amen. Contact somebody now, and, if you really mean it, tell them that you love and appreciate them.



© 2011 Brian L Hunter