Jesus Is Wonderful

     Rodney (Gypsy) Smith was a great evangelist of a bygone era. He was born inside a tent to humble parentage in England and raised in a gypsy wagon. His family eked out a living by selling baskets and clothes pegs. Smith's mother died with smallpox when he was just a lad. When he was 15 years of age, his father's heart was strangely touched by the singing of Ira Sankey who was the song leader in the great campaigns of the famed evangelist, Dwight L Moody. That night, he accepted Christ as his savior. In turn, he went home and led his son, Rodney, to the Lord. Little could anyone have guessed that this event with this young teenager, later known as Gypsy Smith, would be the catalyst to hurtle him into world renown as a minister....preaching to huge crowds for over 70 years literally around the globe twice and across the United States 30 times.

     Gypsy Smith was characterized as a man who deeply loved Jesus and wanted everyone to know it. His favorite song was "Let The Beauty Of Jesus Be Seen  In Me" and often in the middle of a sermon he would joyfully burst out singing it. Here's a verse: 

Gypsy Smith

"The world says I'm dreaming

But I know tis Jesus

Who saves me from bondage 

And sin's guilty stain

He is my Lover, my Savior, my Master

Tis he who has freed me

From guilt and its pain

Let me dream on if I'm dreaming 

Let me dream on, my sins are gone

Night turns to dawn

Love's light is beaming

So if I am dreaming, let me dream on"

To Gypsy Smith, Jesus was wonderful! He said one time, "Everybody in the world would want Jesus because he is so wonderful if it weren't for their Christian friends who don't look or sound like he is wonderful."

Like Gypsy, I've learned he is wonderful. I wonder what I would do without his sweet name and presence. When I'm fearful during dark days or nights, I breathe the name, Jesus....When faced with hard decisions, I first say, Jesus....When death takes a loved one...my quiet thoughts turn to Jesus. When sickness overtakes me or someone I love, my quick cry is, Jesus. Bill Gaither was right.  There is something about that name.

     Gypsy Smith continued traveling and preaching well into his eighties. When asked why he continued to do so, he quickly responded, "I've never lost the wonder!"

Speaking The Truth In Love

     I admire men and women of strong conviction. Be they magnates of the business world, statesmen with courage in the ever shifting stances of political platforms, preachers of the gospel who will not compromise for sake of  popularity, or the "nobodies" of this world who daily carry burdens others would reject but they just simply bear up under them because they feel it is their duty to do so. People of great conviction and noble resolve have always fascinated me.
   

 
   It occurred to me one evening as I sat before my fire and was musing this line of thinking that it seemed to me that every Christian of great conviction with whom I had ever made a real acquaintance was also a person of great love. How could it be otherwise? Our Lord himself said that "greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend." (John  15:13). Then, in Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus declares that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love "thy neighbor as thy self." Did Jesus literally exhibit in his own life this profound utterance of love for God and man? Obviously he did with his tortuous death at Calvary; and his apostles,  According to tradition, with the exception of John who was boiled in  oil, all the other of our Lord's apostles were martyred because, as men of conviction, they also possessed unquenchable love.  In fact, their flint-like conviction and passionate love for God and man were so strong that they were transformed from eleven cowards hiding for fear of their lives in Jerusalem into flaming evangelists who some Bible scholars estimate led over 600,000 to salvation in Christ in the following six months of their experience in the upper room!

     In this era of human history, I have pondered if I am a dinosaur, a relic, of a bygone age of preachers of the gospel. I have given my life to the fulfillment of Ephesians 4:15 which affirms that we should speak the truth in love. In this modern era it seems that American  preachers are not martyred but are scoffed, ridiculed or abhorred if they preach with passion on subjects such as hell or the sure judgment of God. Yet, it is simply the underlying truth of the Bible that Jesus came to save sinners with his atoning death, and that death is the single greatest expression of love in human history.  It was the great Prince of Preachers, Dr R G Lee, who responded to someone calling him cruel because he preached on hell by saying, "I'd rather be called cruel by telling you about hell so as to keep you from going there than to not be called cruel by not telling you and letting you go."

     What are some guideposts for biblical loving and selfless conviction? Here are only a few:

     * We cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in the self-help ministries that center on how to become a better person outwardly  unless that ministry begins with urging you to experience a transformational change toward loving God intimately and actively caring about the spiritual destiny and physical needs of one's fellow man with a work of the Holy Spirit wrought first inside your own heart. We simply must avoid the current philosophy espoused by one pastor who said, "My church is growing because I make them laugh, I make them cry, I make them feel religious."

     *We must avoid the temptation to turn  the church into a powerless collection of cliques with each one vying for dominant leadership. It has grieved me to watch, for example, as sincere men of Calvinist persuasions have so thoroughly organized themselves in an effort to control a major denomination. Do not misunderstand me. This is not a diatribe opposing the theology of reformed theology, including Calvinism; it is, however, a sure sign of any group's failure to love as our Lord commanded when any group resorts to organizational manipulation. I heard Dr Adrian Rogers once say, "The way to tell a false pastor from a true pastor is easy. A false pastor wants you to BELIEVE SOME THING. A true pastor wants you to RECEIVE SOME ONE!"

     *We must be willing to forgive....anyone. Corrie Ten Boom, as a child, was held in a concentration camp by Nazis. She saw her sister horribly raped again and again. Corrie hated one man in particular who could have stopped it all.  She hated him intensely. After WWII had ended, some years later, she saw this man enter the rear of a church where she was speaking. Oh, how she hated him! At the end of the service, he made his way through the crowd and extended his hand while asking for her forgiveness. Every fiber in her was rejecting his hand, but the crowd was watching so she reached forward. She later said that she never felt the love of God engulf her as it did that night she forgave someone she had hated so much. 

     In conclusion, I was on a tour bus in Cairo, Egypt on an occasion. I asked the tour guide, a Muslim lady, if she had ever considered the claims of Christ. Her answer has troubled me ever since. She said she had considered conversion to Christ, but she further stated that most of the tourists she served were Christians. Simply listening to them chat on the bus, at meal time or at ancient artifacts, she discovered that they didn't really love each other, much less people of other religious faiths or no faith at all, by their petty jealousies and idle gossip, so her conclusion was that Jesus was no better God than any other. 

     Do you want to change the world and make it better for your children and grandchildren?  Jackie DeShannon had a hit in the sixties with "What The World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love." Jesus said it better in John 13:35 "By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another."

     

Religious Pluralism Is Accepted....Except Jesus

     We are living in a politically correct society. This political correctness is manifested in many ways, but it assuredly is vicious in its opposition to previously almost universally accepted moral codes of personal conduct, and even more often these shrill advocates of political correctness attack without mercy any Christian who holds to the fundamentals of the faith and a devotion to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

     However nonsensical and odious their arguments may be to us who love God, we must nevertheless grant these detractors the right to express their opinions. This has been termed as the "supreme right" by some as granted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as penned by our Founding Fathers for all Americans. Wars have been fought and blood has been shed to protect, in part, that precious freedom of speech; but we must with that same freedom of speech be ever ready to defend with passion and vigor the truths we hold dear...especially against those that defame the name of Jesus, his church and our precious relationship with him.

     So, the beleaguered believer finds himself under an increasing pressure to hold in silence his religious views while, at the same time, granting those who espouse religious pluralism unrestricted platforms to assail the Christian community with impunity. This results in nativity scenes during the Christmas season becoming fair game, no allowance for references in public schools to anything that pertains to Bible-based faith and even attacks on faith-based institutions. 

     The politically correct crowd insist that we are too narrow-minded when we say Jesus is the only way to heaven. The ancient Romans insisted the same of our early martyrs. These individuals were not slain in public arenas like the Circus Maximus because they believed Jesus is the Lord of All; they were martyred because they believed Jesus was the ONLY Lord of All. They were asked to be open-minded and accept the validity of other gods. It is the same today in America.

     It was Jesus who said of himself in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me."  C S Lewis was correct when he challenged people to make up their minds about Jesus. He is one of three things:

     (1) HE WAS A LUNATIC: If Jesus really thought he was the only way to heaven, but he actually wasn't, he was a lunatic.

     (2) HE WAS A LIAR: If Jesus knew he wasn't the only way to heaven, but said he was anyway, he was a liar. 

     (3) HE IS LORD: if Jesus knew he was the only way to heaven, and really is the only way, he is Lord. Please notice that Jesus did not say that he is a good way, one of many ways, or even the best way. Jesus said, "I am THE way, THE truth and THE LIFE, and NO MAN cometh unto the Father BUT BY ME."

     In conclusion, our response is to grant the supporters of political correctness the right to speak whatever they choose. Too many have died on battlefields on foreign soil to jerk that right from anyone. However, 1 Peter 3:15 admonishes us to always be ready to defend to everyone the reason for the hope within us. Our most glaring weakness in the modern American's Christian community is a thorough lack of understanding of the bedrock doctrines upon which our faith is built. If you are not attending a church where a deep prayerful study of the Word of God is the centerpiece of everything your church does, and if you spend little time in personal devotion and Bible study, you have no basis upon which to be angry when some political pundit or entertainer maligns the things of God.

The Church's New God

I find it interesting that Jesus did not say that his house shall be called a house of great singing, a house of great preaching, a house of architectural magnificence, a house of large crowds or a house of fun and fanfare. Rather, our Lord simply said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Let's be honest! It would be remarkable indeed if your church is identified in your community as a praying church above and beyond anything else.  Both members of your church and non-members alike say things like, "You should hear our music!" Or, "We have a pastor that can preach the paint off the wall!" Or, "We have the most wonderful programs for your family!" But, isn't it true that you never hear anyone say as they leave your church after their first time attending services, "Oh my, what a praying church!"

     I became so convicted as a pastor about this prayer issue that I determined that any churches that I served as pastor must become houses of prayer. At First Baptist Church of Etowah, TN, we built an upper room where people prayed on bended knees seven days a week and during the times that I was preaching in the sanctuary. Later, as pastor of North Jacksonville Baptist Church, annually we had a service called "A God's Kind Of Healing Service," an idea given to me by the legendary Dr W A Criswell, and the entire service was about prayer. And, I made sure every service and  every activity was literally saturated in prayer. Any good accomplished by me at these two churches, the last two I served as pastor, is directly attributable to the power of prayer.

     So, the overriding question is this: why are churches  not known first of all as places of prayer? Please note. Good music, good preaching and good weekday activities are assets to a church fellowship, but remember, Jesus said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer...."  There are two shocking reasons:

     (1) WE HAVE CHOSEN THE GOD CALLED "FAMILY" OVER THE GOD CALLED "JESUS."  Go to the average church staff meetings. They are dominated by suggestions of church activities that will make families want to attend their church. Upcoming plans are made for outings, ball leagues, pizza blasts, ocean cruises, hot dog roasts, special guests performers, etc. Very very seldom will you hear a staff member or pastor say, "What does God want?" Look at your Sunday bulletin at the average church and you will be almost overwhelmed with the multitude of flashy announcements of activities....so much so you would think your church has turned into a glorified YMCA.  And, if you look closely enough, you might find a prayer service mentioned in small print. Why? Because the modern church has a new God....the family.

     (2) WE HAVE CHOSEN THE SUPERFICIAL OVER THE SUPERNATURAL.  Because we have chosen to first of all, perhaps unwittingly, install the family as our new God and relegate the importance of prayer to the realm of a traditional "add-on" at each worship service, Jesus is no longer the center of worship and adoration; no, he is now outside and sadly knocking. When that happens, the church with its well-oiled organization, eloquent preacher and awesome music becomes a church of influence but is no longer a church of power.....power that makes the supernatural so real that the world cannot ignore it. Most sinners have seen all the religious dog and pony shows at the modern church and they are thoroughly unimpressed. What your community needs, and the world at large needs, is to to be confronted by the undeniable and unexplainable supernatural acts of God that only come about as a result of real prayer.

     

     

Fundamentals of the Faith

     There are five basic doctrinal positions often called the fundamentals of the faith. These are:

      1. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ

      2. The Virgin Birth of Jesus

      3. The Blood Atonement

      4. The Bodily Resurrection

      5. The Inerrancy of the Scriptures

     At Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary, we will not equivocate nor apologize for our conviction that these statements are absolute truth and are the sole basis for genuine fellowship between believers. There is ample room for brotherly disagreements on various interpretations

 and applications of other biblical subjects such as worship styles, modes of ordinances, end-time prophecies, etc; but the validity of one's personal faith and the foundation upon which a church or denomination is built must be upon all five of these bedrock doctrines or else the anointing power and approval  of God will not be demonstrated.

     While the national debate on the political and cultural demise we are presently witnessing deserves serious attention, and will be the ultimate purpose of this blog, the definition of a biblical church must be understood because the church stands as the last line of defense between America's doom or deliverance; and the clear definition of a New Testament church has virtually nothing to do with the name of the denomination with which it is affiliated. If a church does not boldly adhere to and loudly proclaim all five of these fundamentals, it may be a church in the colloquial sense but it is not a church in the biblical sense and should not be supported with one's attendance or money because its faulty faith will not be able to withstand the fierce societal storms that are coming upon the Christian community in America, and will certainly be found lacking on the day of God's eternal judgment.

   

American Tragedy: AWOL Pastors

     The world is teetering on the verge of moral, political and spiritual collapse while the only army that has sufficient weaponry to bring order out of chaos hasn't even left the barracks. I am not speaking of the military of the United States; I have the utmost respect for the active members of our armed services as well as the highest honor for the veterans who have served our nation on foreign soil. Rather, I am speaking of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and, in particular, the vast proliferation of churches of all denominations across America. Only the church has the ultimate authority for "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world."

     According to the Hartford Institute of Religious Research, there are over 600,000 men and women affiliated with denominations in the United States who identify themselves as clergymen. The number who are unaffiliated denominationally is unknown. It is, however,  a safe estimate that there are over one million Christian preachers in America. Think of that! Just think of that! There are over one million preachers who have in their hands the greatest weapon ever delivered to mankind, the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and yet the world is sliding at avalanche speed into a moral and spiritual septic tank.

     National armies are organized for activity on battlefields; they are not organized to see which military base can attract the most recruits. The army of the church, however, has the three B's of a flimsy definition of success...buildings, budgets and baptisms.  Generals are not remembered in history for the brilliance of their oratory; they are remembered for their love of their troops and the battles they've won.

     It is my opinion, after having been in the ministry for a period spanning over fifty years, and having preached in hundreds of churches large and small of a myriad of denominations, the church in America  is a giant army that is asleep because of pastors (the generals) who are either too lazy or too cowardly to lead them into battle.

     I love preachers. I am a preacher. For twenty-eight years I was a pastor. Here are some issues that must be addressed by pastors if the future is secure for our succeeding generations:

     *QUIT USING THE PULPIT AS A SHIELD:  I learned a long time ago that sermon statements are safe when said in a pulpit. We hear a preacher with great passion and fervor excoriate sin and blast the wickedness of the age and we go away thinking, "What a great preacher!"  Let's be honest. He's preaching to the choir. The people in his congregation will, in the vast majority, agree with him. It takes no courage to preach against cultural transgressions in that setting. His pulpit protects him in a one-way monologue. Many communities never see change though a brilliant  pulpiteer and strong preacher is the pastor of a church right in the middle of the community. That is why I determined as a pastor to develop talk radio programs so wicked people could challenge me, instead of playing some recorded sermon I had previously preached. I joined civic clubs. I made myself available to the news media to comment on any story. I led one secular group in a fight against pornography. If this cultural battle is won, pastors must leave the safety of the pulpit and enter society's battlefields, but I am certain the majority of pastors reading this will not or do not, and the majority of laymen reading this have pastors who will not or do not.

     *PERSONALLY KNOW YOUR CHURCH MEMBERS (your troops): Especially large church pastors will answer me with two responses when I speak of knowing, really knowing, individual members: (1) "My church is too large" or (2) "I'm not going to sacrifice time with my family." Frankly, both of those are excuses, and a pastor who says either one of them should look for a smaller church. Dr Lee Roberson, the legendary pastor of the Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga where he preached to 12,000 on Sunday, knew all of his people and taught me the concept of crisis visitation. He said that within every five year period every family would have at least one crisis, and the pastor should be there. I started following that plan in 1978 and it works, and my family didn't suffer and my two sons are today the epitomes of godly men. Toward the end of my pastorate at North Jacksonville, one of our elderly ladies said, "Dr Hunter, we know you love us and we sure do love you. In fact, we  would follow you into hell wearing gasoline underwear!"

     *STAY WITH YOUR TROOPS WHERE GOD STATIONED YOU ( the church to which God called you). It was my privilege to speak on an occasion with Dr Homer Lindsay of the great First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, FL. Under his leadership the church had grown to a point that a 9100-seat auditorium was erected to accommodate the crowds. One of the reasons for its growth both numerically and spiritually, according to him, was that he was seldom gone from Jacksonville even during the week, much less on Sundays. Dr Lindsay said he simply could not understand pastors taking Holy Land trips, leading sightseers to Alaska, accepting invitations to preach at every Tom, Dick and Harry conference but somehow never being available to know his people and serve, except for vacations, where God called him. He continued by saying that those times pastors are away preaching here, there and everywhere could have been used better at home holding the hand of a scared little resident of a nursing home, visiting a family that's about to break up or knock on the door of a lost person. I found it interesting that Dr Lindsay was so respected by even the secular community that the mayors would always ask his opinion before starting a project. As a note, when I was a pastor, I almost never took invitations to speak elsewhere but my church; plus I added nursing home services I led once a week and jail visitation. Also, I personally did handwritten birthday cards to my members, my troops, in the army of the Lord.

    In conclusion, there is a spiritual war of epic proportions taking place in front of our very eyes. The barracks (church buildings) are full of troops, many of whom are willing to fight. Sadly, very sadly, the generals ( pastors) are, for the most part, AWOL.

Plain Talk On Current Issues

This is an introduction to my new blog.  I believe it will be unique. I intend to deal exclusively with current issues with which evangelical believers should have an interest and, in many cases, be very concerned. I will duck no issues be they moral, political, educational, societal or ecclesiastical,  Each topic's answer from me will have my understanding of what the Bible says in relation to the subject. While I may quote other individuals or cite other written material, the Bible is my bedrock authority.  Because of the rapid deterioration of the moral fabric worldwide, it seems to me the proliferation of extreme anti-biblical answers emanating from "churches" is evidence that mainstream Christianity is now increasingly more concerned with being politically correct  than standing firm on "thus saith the Lord" and letting the chips fall where they may. Simply put, there must be soon a spiritual awakening that Washington and Hollywood will not be able to ignore and that clergymen  on the left and on  the right must honor or else the judgment of God will surely fall upon this nation.

Let's admit the obvious truth.  No Democrat or Republican can change the perilous slide downward upon which we find ourselves.  That is not to say that the church should not be involved in political discourse. The loudest voice for that which is right should be from the pulpits of America. Unfortunately, just because a preacher bellows as loud as a bullhorn and entertains with the motivational delivery of a late-night comedian does not mean he is "loud" in the marketplace of ideas. For example, I was preaching recently in Alabama during the week of controversy concerning the ruling by a federal judge that in spite of the state's 87% vote in a referendum affirming marriage as being between a man and a woman, the probate judges would nevertheless be required to grant same-sex marriage licenses.  Almost immediately Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama State Supreme Court disallowed that ruling. As expected, an uproar from the gay community erupted.  A television reporter along with a news video photographer visited the church where I preached, listened to my sermon in which I mentioned that though we should love the homosexual person, we should in biblical clarity call homosexuality a sin because the Bible says it is a sin. The reporter also interviewed the pastor who took a similar biblical stance as mine. That night on that station's telecast I was stunned after watching a clip of my sermon and an interview with the pastor to hear the reporter say that they had contacted fifty-two pastors of various evangelical churches and only one pastor had agreed to an interview.  The others did not return a request for comments, or wanted to talk but requested anonymity or were afraid a statement could be divisive in their particular churches. Some of these cowardly pastors were conservative; some were liberal. Please note, that incident took place in the buckle of the Bible belt, the State of Alabama, not in California or New York.

Not only is the church silent, schools are silent. During a 15-year period, I spoke to over 1.1 million teenagers in high school assembly programs in hundreds of schools across the nation. I have the utmost respect for public school teachers who are unfairly paid, work under enormously difficult circumstances and are constantly trying to teach children without parental support. When I spoke in gymnasiums or auditoriums full of teens, I could not mention the Bible, church, prayer or God. It would have been perfectly acceptable in most schools for me to hand out condoms in the hallway but I would have been ejected from the campuses of those same schools  if I had been distributing copies of the New Testament. Even the most godly of teachers in the most rural communities know there is a line they cannot cross in speaking of religious issues because, if they do, their jobs are at risk.  As a result, I can tell you from my personal experiences with high schoolers that it seems to me that a majority of them could not be classified as either moral or immoral but rather, amoral;  that is, they have no core value built upon clear teachings of the Word of God as to whether certain actions are right or wrong. I am convinced we are less than a generation away from sheer paganism without a nationwide revival.

So, for the remaining years God gives me, I intend to use every tool accessible to me to address the grievous day-to-day events and try to give you some sort of biblical perspective that you may use when discussing current issues with friends, family and associates. I have purposed in my heart to avoid no television, newspaper or radio interview on any subject, regardless how sensitive, but to make myself readily available. I will accept any invitation without regards to money for myself or my ministry to address any civic organization, church or school. And, I will use this blog to that same end.

I only ask one favor. If you believe what I am saying on this blog needs to be heard, share it anyway you can.  Share it on Facebook, on Twitter, print copies and hand them out. If you do that, this blog will not just be mine, it will also be yours......let's make a difference... especially as we one-by-one leave this world and go home to our Heavenly Father, let's leave our imprint for Christ here on earth for our children and our children's children.