Prayer Requests

If you don’t want to pray, that is between you and your God. “But, as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) Successful servanthood requires obedience. Paul was a bondservant of his Lord Jesus Christ and Paul asked for prayer in 2 Thessalonians 3:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:11, and 1 Thessalonians 5:25, to mention just a few instances. James 5:14 instructs believers to request prayer and James 5:16 tells us that it is proper for us to pray for one another. One major problem we have in Christ’s church today is a malformed conformity to the world’s duty of independence. Too many Evangelicals think they can, or must, make it as a lone wolf.

The enemy of our souls delights to convince us that we are individual “super-Christians” whose faith is strong enough that we dare not need anyone else. In fact, the climate is now such that we look and talk down to anyone showing any signs of struggling in his or her walk with God, even if they don’t ask for prayer. Such a church does not resemble the Body of Christ which was purchased with His blood and called to watch and pray until He returns. In the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus prayed that we, His church, be one.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

Ephesians 4:16 says, “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.” Speaking of Christ, our redeemer, Ephesians 2:21 goes on to say, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

In conclusion, Christ’s church is not contained within any number of walls. Many argue against ecumenism because denominationalism has somehow taken precedence over Scripture. If we are not one body, we are not one church in one Spirit. Therefore we are neither in The Word nor are we His. I will pray for you all and continue to ask for your prayers to include me. Am I also called to pray in my secret closet? Absolutely! I must meet my Father in the secret place and travail in prayer. However, Matthew 18:19 informs me that there is another dimension added so “that if two of you (us) shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they (we) shall ask, it shall be done for them (us) of my (our) Father which is in heaven.” If we heed God’s Word in its entirety, we shall be prosperous and have good success. (Joshua 1:8) Here is to our success.



© 2007-2010 Brian L Hunter

Storms

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from which cometh my help. (Psalm 121:1) What do I see there? At times I see lightening as a hint of the intensity of the only omnipotent God. Neither tsunamis, nor earthquakes, nor hurricanes, nor tornadoes can demonstrate the fullness of His potential. In such phenomena, God, preeminent and eternal, is merely glancing over the horizontal veil of clouds to behold that creation which He so sovereignly saturates and permeates with the awesomeness of His majesty and perfection. God is that infinite continuum of possibility; making “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)

God has said, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.” (Deuteronomy 32:2, 3)

Now that we have been saved from the sin of unbelief and believed on the Word that became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14), let us praise Jesus even in the midst of the most violent storms. We will have to cry sometimes, that is a given. Yet, God is our sure anchor and He never slumbers nor sleeps. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” (Psalm 20:7) We have the PROMISES of the One who cannot lie. He sanctifies us by the truth of His trustworthy Word (John 17:17) which even makes the simple-minded wise. (Psalm 19:7) Faith cometh by hearing, therefore, be careful who you listen to (Romans 10:17)…
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20, 21)


© 2007-2010 Brian L Hunter

Worldview Discussion Continued

It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error... Oprah, Dr. Phil, and President Obama say we should embrace all faiths and all views. Not! Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth” in John 18:38. Anyone with an anti-Christian worldview today will try to convince you that truth is subjective and that whatever works for them is their truth. Was Pilate a humanist before his time? www.ministryofwritinghelps.com

If given a one hour interview with Pilate, what would I want to say to him? If Pilate had no authority at the time of my interview I would ask him why he had allowed the Jews to bully him into condemning Jesus to death by crucifixion when he himself had found Jesus guilty of no crime. It seems to me that Pilate would even have been converted had Jesus been willing to converse further with him, but He did not in order that the Scriptures be fulfilled. Jesus said, "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37). I would ask Pilate what he was really getting at when he asked Jesus “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Could Pilate's heart really have been so dark and jaded, having succumbed to the expediency of pragmatism which says whatever succeeds or prevails today is truth? I would assume Pilate was sarcastically insinuating that whatever gets us through today is truth.

It is clear that Pilate was quite annoyed with the Jews for putting him on the spot – a spot which taxed not only his executive skills but also, because Jesus was and is truth (John 14:6), burdened the finiteness of man’s ability to reason. Given the opportunity, I would then ask Pilate why he refused to honor the chief priests of the Jews’ protest when they said “Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews” (John 19:21).

Furthermore, I would ask Pilate what happened to the guards that had been posted outside the tomb from whence Jesus was raised bodily by God Almighty from the dead. I would also ask Pilate if he knew where he would spend eternity if he were to die today and whether he wouldn’t rather be assured of spending it peacefully as a friend of the one who created him than to spend it in a state of ignorance and grief as an enemy of that one true supreme creator and divine ruler of the universe who reigns high above any other god or government, whether it be Brahman, Zeus, or Caesar.

Using Paul as my evangelistic example and seizing the opportunity for the gospel, I would then elaborate on the salvific necessity of the gospel until he either begged to know Jesus or ordered me to leave. I would be sure to read Isaiah 53 aloud and at least the prologue of John’s Gospel, having prayed beforehand for God to open Pilate's eyes and prepare his heart to receive the gospel truth. I would inquire about his wife and family and seek to assure him of God’s grace in healing those who trust in, believe on, and rely upon Him (who is fully God and fully man) and His means of salvation for all who believe on Him (Isaiah 53:5).

Hated

Why Jesus was and is hated (John 15:18) is simple; as Gabriel pointed out, " And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19) I agree the best defense as to why the Bible is true to you is because of one person; Jesus Christ. Is the gospel more difficult to believe or somehow less credible than evolution as taught to us in our schools? Bridgette, I applaud your citing of John 14:6 because a 100% error free knowledge of who Jesus Christ is predicates wisdom and salvation. Drug addicts and alcoholics have to hit rock bottom in order to know Jesus as a deliverer. Some will first come to know Him as a healer. Humanists must "meet" the Savior on their own Damascus road and our apologetics must be that signpost for the way to the Lord. Remember that before the term Christian was coined, discipleship was mereley called "the way" and believers were called people of the way. I think it is a more fitting nomenclature because acceptance of John 14:6 defines who and what we are as disciples of Christ, that is of course, "if we have love one to another." (John 13:35) Love is the box often left unchecked on our Christian identity cards and so many fail to fully qualify...

Personal Testimony of The One

It is easy to reject what is unknown. If grace is irresistible, then surely sharing the intimacy of our knowledge of Jesus, The Bread of Life, The Living Water, The Word of God, etc. might resonate with the emptiness inside the hearts of those deceived by the lies of secular humanism and spiritualism. They will want to focus on the failures and ills of religion, even citing religion as a major cause of war. We, however, must focus the discussion on questions that expose the issue of personal sin and present the perfection of The Savior whose resurrection points to our only hope of eternal salvation and peace. Our personal testimony is crucial - of how we have come to personally know that Jesus is really with us, that He is a person who loves and cares for us, and, that although He is divine, He is not merely some impersonal higher power mystically floating in an arbitrarily hostile universe.