Silence My Mind

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” (Proverbs 18:2 ESV)

Lord, help me to be constrained by Your perfect love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13) so that I may bridle my tongue (James 1:26) on this worship holiday. Let me close my ears to the things of this world just now and magnify You far above all principalities and political powers (Ephesians 6:12).

England Dan and John Ford Coley said in their 1976 hit “I'd Really Love to See You Tonight,”

“I'm not talking 'bout moving in,
And I don't want to change your life.
But there's a warm wind blowing,
The stars are out, and I'd really love to see you tonight.”

Oh, that I could see You tonight and every night, Almighty God! Thou hast created the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and there is nothing too hard for Thee (Jeremiah 32:17). I desire that You renew and forever transform my life through Your Word instead of allowing me to be conformed to the thinking of this world, oh God. You have created all things, the sun, moon, stars, and the wind. I would really like to see Your face right now. The only topic on the daily news which exalts Your glory instead of man’s shame is the weather. Help me to keep my mind stayed therefore upon You today in consecration. If never again I open my eyes to the things of this world, Lord, help me be able to say that on this day I did not fail to speak as though the good news of Your sovereign omnipotence actually outweighed all the bad news in world events. Thank You for eclipsing every lesser light and concern with the immeasurable weight of Your glory both now and forever. Hallelujah! Draw me nearer and help me to remain silent, Almighty God. Help me to shut up and dissolve into You, Blessed Redeemer.

If Nineveh is in ruins and someone must mourn for her, need it be me, Lord? Need it be now? I am a man of unclean lips, I stutter, and many are angered by my every word. Some would have You, Heavenly Father, choose sides and alienate a portion of those for whom You gave Your only begotten Son’s life. Help me to remain silent about the crimes committed against You while the conversation rages on, focused on the infinitely lesser crimes of man against man as though You were not sovereign. Help me to brace myself for the hatred and isolation that accompanies exalting Your name above all else in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 © 2013 Brian L Hunter
http://www.anointedwritenow.com/

More On Preaching Politics

 “For while I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Jesus the Messiah, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2 ISV)

Preaching politics from the pulpit reveals faithlessness and fear which, sowing unto the flesh (Galatians 6:8), shall continue to reap division and not the unity for which Jesus prayed in John 17. How is God glorified when the ignorance, prejudice, and fear concerning any social ill or political displeasure is preached instead of His love, omnipotence, and sovereignty? Satan comes as an angel of light to preach such things (2 Corinthians 11:14). God’s grace has not ceased to be sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). When in chains and awaiting execution, Paul did not preach the need for political activism, civil disobedience, or different government to Timothy. Spiritual bigotry is no closer to exhibiting God’s righteousness now than it was during that recent era when, in America, we raped, whipped, and sold slaves on Sunday morning before heading to the local church for service. It would be easier to mix oil and water successfully than to mix faith and fear. The combining of lies with truth, however, has been Satan's modus operandi since the fall of mankind. Leaders of the first century visible church, following the lead of the apostles and also suffering vicious persecution under Nero throughout the Roman Empire, did not preach anti-establishment, political messages. No. They preached Christ crucified and the gospel spread exponentially, miraculously, and without the type of division that political preaching absolutely guarantees. Preaching politics from the pulpit is not completely unlike abusive fathers molesting their daughters since home and church should be the safest gathering places on earth. Let us, therefore, preach Jesus (and Him crucified, 1 Corinthians 2:2) rather than the wisdom of men, the gospel of peace rather than self-righteous condemnation of others, and the love of God rather than hypocrisy, bigotry, and hate. www.ministryofwritinghelps.com

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

There is a difference of opinion inherent in politics. All Tweets aside, America’s founding fathers had the foresight to mandate that voters be able to cast their vote in private to protect the secrecy of the ballot. Preaching politics from the pulpit is not unlike eating meat which has been sacrificed unto idols (1 Corinthians 10:29). William Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar 3/2, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” Please allow me now to write this; friends whose hearts and attitudes threaten to separate us from the way, the truth, and the life need to be expeditiously separated from our lives by the two-edged sword of God’s holy Word, who was and is and is to come. What does it profit a man to gain a flesh-driven political utopia and yet forfeit his soul in the process (Matthew 16:26)?

© 2013 Brian L Hunter

Should Politics Be Preached?

“Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)

When we use the pulpit to share our political views we engage in activity demonstrated nowhere in the Pastoral Epistles. Does the love of God constrain us (2 Corinthians 5:14)? Or, is division and schism in the body of Christ our aim? Diluting the message of the gospel with partisan political views is something the spirit of Antichrist anoints otherwise good servants of a sovereign and omnipotent God to feel justified in doing. Yet, political vitriol is not born of love and can never be delivered without sarcasm. Partial obedience still adds up to disobedience. Hatred, no matter how subtle and cleverly disguised, is neither motivated nor condoned by God (1 John 4:8). www.anointedwritenow.com

Any reader of the Book of Genesis knows that sin did not originate with a political party. Nor did sin originate in this country only after slavery and Jim Crow laws were rescinded by the effectual working of God’s grace through the instrumentality of the Constitution of these United States of America. Keeping in mind that all have sinned (Romans 3:23), should those redeemed by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), acting fearful rather than faithful, illustrate any perceived threat of evil as being somehow too great, too dangerous, and too insurmountable for the omniscient wisdom of a sovereign and omnipotent God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to guide us safely and victoriously through?  Do we mistakenly think ourselves Christ-like when we rally a mob and use speech to incite violent attitudes toward any particular group or party because their worldview may oppose our own? Our own ignorance, prejudice, and fear aside, is such divisive discourse really our testimony of who Jesus Christ is?

Jim Jones preached a political, anti-establishment gospel quite effectively for the enemy’s cause. The apostle Paul warned against preaching what he called another gospel in Galatians 1:7-9 and 2 Corinthians 11:4. I would urge us to avoid that flavor of Kool-Aid in favor of the whole counsel of God’s Word, including the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Romans. Politics preached from behind any sacred desk is divisive. Rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) does not lead prayerful disciples who are filled with the Holy Spirit to engage in behavior completely contrary to the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17:11-23. God’s protection of His beloved is likewise inextricably bound together with this prayer. I would rather be divided by truth than united in doctrinal error. As an individual, I can be accused of many things by many people. However, the arguments I propose for the purposes of ecclesiastical review, spiritual contemplation, and debate are, indisputably, scripturally well anchored. Therefore, fearing God and His righteous judgment of hypocrisy and idle words (Matthew 12:36-37) infinitely more than any political candidate, special interest group, or government, I admonish all of us who profess Christ as Lord to become more diligent to make sure neither our confession nor our particular brand or form of religiosity (2 Timothy 3:5) has been trusted in vain (Matthew 7:22). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) There is one name, Jesus Christ, not one political party, not one world view, not one government, not one school of thought, but one name whereby we, preachers, smokers, drinkers, pro-abortionists, anti-abortionists, homosexuals, Republicans, and Democrats alike, must be saved. 

My personal feelings are irrelevant when I step behind any pulpit and become responsible for preaching God’s Word. I will not lean to my own imperfect understanding when it comes to God’s sovereignty, His mercy, and His grace. The question most prevalent in my mind is why He loves me, a poor sinner, as much as He obviously does. If I happen to become angry with you, your political party, or your attitude, I pray that I can be angry and yet not sin in, by, and through my anger (Ephesians 4:26). My own heart and the beam in my own eye (Luke 6:42) should concern me much more than the actions of any president, god, or government. Is God in control or is He not? In whom do I really place my trust (Psalm 27:1, Psalm 56:11, Psalm 118:6, and Hebrews 13:6)? God has not called anyone to preach fear. How does preaching divisiveness edify us (Ephesians 4:29)?

Genuine disciples of Jesus Christ do not particularly care what the media reports today. Unlike Oprah Winfrey, our faith is not in mankind. Our hope is built on something infinitely more reliable than politics. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

© 2013 Brian L Hunter

Ungodly Obama Hatred Recognized

"You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34 ESV)

 
Not all "Obama Hatred," now an easily recognizable psycho-social category of discriminate unrest in America, is as politically inspired as slavery. No. Believe it or not, as ludicrous as the notion may seem in the year 2013, a long and recent history of white-supremacist dogma rooted in Lilliputian interpretations of the Bible reinforced by Hollywood wherein Moses, Jesus, and even God the Father have blond hair and blue eyes, rears its racist head in the vast majority of disparaging remarks about the 44th President of the United States.We have obviously ceased comparing apples to apples and opted instead to unleash historically documented evil in America the beautiful, the core of which can neither be ignored nor hidden from view.
 
© 2013 Brian L Hunter

Obama Hatred 101

The first sixteen presidents of the United States approved the practice of slave owners raping and impregnating their female servants at will and for sport. That was America’s idea of human rights. The U.S. went on record as ending slavery with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. During the one hundred year period of government spanning from President Abraham Lincoln to President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1865 to 1965, white-supremacist ideology fueled Jim Crow segregation laws and the legal murder of Blacks in America. Churches in America were quite content with the profitable benefits of slave labor as well as the social advantages of discrimination and segregation. Now, in the year 2013, there is a less-than-subtle white-supremacist prosperity gospel being preached that would have us believe that by one man named Barack Obama, sin has suddenly entered into the world. Such pseudo-spiritual hypocrisy and bigotry from the fake Pentecostal spirit of Antichrist makes me sick to my stomach. ~ Anonymous

 


© 2013 Brian L Hunter