MAD AS HELL

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

The above quote is taken from a 1976 movie, deprived of any morals, entitled: “Network”. I want to use that phrase as a thread to weave together everything I am trying to say. I hope you haven’t seen the movie or ever will see it, but I want to use that quote reverently, for it’s what we as Christians need to do. We need to get mad as hell about a few things. 

One of the main characters of the movie, Howard Beale, a T.V. broadcaster, basically had a breakdown over the air, and he’s the one responsible for the “mad as hell” quote.

Thanks to the internet here is part of the script from the movie. 

"So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change my friends. You've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"  

What am I trying to do? Promote an old movie? NO, NO, absolutely not!!

Whatever I am trying to do in this newsletter I trust it will be obvious by the time you finish it.

I’m mad as hell about a few things.

I’m mad as hell at watching Christians who are content at living a half-baked, half- real, boring, mundane, banal   Christian life.

I am mad as hell at pious prosperity preachers.  Those pseudo-divine with their constant prattle, are only narcissistic thespians of the pulpit. These spiritual hijackers driven by their emoluments and power   have robbed the sheep of true Biblical teaching. As the result of their erroneous  teaching many  think  the Spirit filled life is a grandiloquent to-do list for God, and the words bless me, bless me, bless me, with no action on their part are far too commonplace in the average Christian’s lexicon.

Far too many think their spirituality is based on the mode of the worship service and not their diurnal activities. We must cease the levity and learn what true worship means. The Church is full of spurious worship, resulting in spurious revivals, giving birth to a defeated life. We need the real thing not a counterfeit.     I am not talking about dry, lifeless, modes of worship, but worship that brings true honor to Him, a life resulting in true victory.

I’m mad as hell at witnessing scores of Christians trying to live the Christian life in the flesh. Earlier I used the word mundane to depict those living a boring so-called Christian life. Actually mundane has more to do with earthly living as opposed to heavenly living. Far too many in the Church are trying to live a Christian life clothed in worldly garments, instead of the armor of God. They are trying to serve God in the flesh.

 I’m mad as hell at thousands of men who have been held captive   by pornography and especially pornography over the internet.   There are millions, and far too many of them Christians who are held as prisoners to an X-rated computer screen.

I wrote of this problem in my last newsletter. I will quote from part of that article.  “Men have spent an entire day transfixed in front of their computer,   web-surfing from one porn site to another, ‘praying’ no one will come in the office  and then ’praying’ half the night that they erased everything off the hard-drive.  

Many are first disgusted with what they see, and then in a short time it excites them. It’s a drug that demands more and more. It’s like being thirsty for water, but the more you drink the more dehydrated you become.  Although we are surfeited with this sewage and there should be no room for more, yet we cry out for one more drink.  And where does it all end? It ends with little wet spots on the floor in front of your computer screen. No it doesn’t end, it just slows down for a few hours, or a day or two and then you’re back drinking in more filth   and becoming more and more dissatisfied. I believe pornography has destroyed more lives than drugs.

This fast-growing cancer does not discriminate who its victims are - it wants all who will only provide the right host in which just one weak moment a wicked aberrant cell can grow and take control.

 We have reached for a luring attraction and grabbed hold of a viper.  Perhaps pornography will prove to be satan’s most destructive tool. “

I’m mad as hell that God is being kicked out of schools, the public square, and ripped out of the pages of history. We in the Church cow down to the goons in satan’s army. Those like the pseudo-intelligential, the behavioral scientists with their mindless theories, the Hollywood politicians, lunatic judges, and iconoclast organizations like the ACLU have traduced anything Christian and have given growth hormones to an evil and growing Cyclops.   These liberal larcenists   have not only robbed the Christians of their liberties but their backbone.  

I’m mad as hell at the Church thinking they have to sin and their lackadaisical attitude toward it.

I’m mad as hell about the disregard for human life. We kill babies as if they were mere flies. If men like Michael Schiavo have their way in starving Terri to death it will only be the beginning of such madness. I personally think Michael had a lot to do with Terri’s current condition and he wants to make sure she doesn’t learn how to speak again, but that’s only my opinion.

I’m mad as hell about our educational system with its anti-Christ mentality; its Darwinian influence and its “dumbing down” agenda.

I’m mad as hell about the climbing divorce rate in our country, a rate that shows no distinction between divorce in Christian marriages and non- Christian marriages.

I’m mad as hell about the homosexual marriages and many Churches giving their stamp of approval.

I could go on and on about the unconscionable things that I’m mad as hell about and we as believers must give a tumultuous voice of protest against the evil that surrounds us. 

But as you read on you will see my anger is not only at the egregious sins we see around us, but something far more consequential.

What I’m really mad as hell about.

You want to know what I’m really mad as hell about? Do you want to know why I’m really mad and the real reason for writing this newsletter? Do you know why I’m publicly refusing to take it anymore? I am mad as hell about the sin in my own life. I am pushing 60 years old. Lately I have taken an austere look at me, down deep where I had rather not have be looking.  I will only touch on what I saw.

How can one describe a cesspool, a germ-infested garbage dump, a swampy mess of dung? Only in this way: A life of sin.

Why O Lord, why  have I done the things I have done,  false starts, failed marriages, brief battles with addictions, hurt children, failed ministries, destroyed relationships, wasted time, lying, lustful desires, pride, and I could go and on. Some of these are past sins, sins of long ago, that I have long since repented of,   yet there are recent sins that have had   dominion over me.

I have also  looked at my surroundings,  at those individuals  around me, and  I realized I am blessed in spite of  my sin and short comings.  As I looked at my life I saw a dedicated wife of nearly ten years who has stuck with me, encouraged me, and loved me in spite of my continuous failures and the hurts I have inflicted on her. I saw my three children whom I wounded time and time again with my selfishness, and thank God they have recovered or are recovering as well as they are. I saw our adopted daughter and sometimes I don’t realize the treasure we have living with us. Sometimes all I see is the challenge. I continued to look around and became even more humbled. I saw a four-year old grandson who I love more than my own life and can’t belief the joy he has brought to his Papa and his Grahams. Most any grandparent can echo the pure joy of grandchildren. I saw our five-year old granddaughter with special needs who has taught us   perhaps how to really love.   I saw our three month old granddaughter who I love and look forward to getting to know. I saw in-laws and friends who I do not deserve.  I saw my job and then my boss, who is a good man, a true brother, a good friend, and one of the strongest Christians I have ever known. As I looked around in the study where I am writing this newsletter, I saw many things connected with this ministry. As I looked,   I had to fall on my face and thank God for blessings He has bestowed on me.  And then I saw the current sin and that is why I am writing in the way I am.   Disgusted at the sins I see all around me, I find myself even more appalled at the sins I currently commit, and I’m mad as hell about these sins and I’m not going to take this anymore.

I can rant and rave all day about other Christians who are sinning, about abortions,  the homosexual agenda,  drugs, and so on and so forth, but what about my sins, what about the sins that plague me now?

I have come to believe we do not have to continue under the control of sin and remain in the power of satan’s grip. I and too many others have come to think it the norm to sin daily, hourly, and as long as most of those sins are covert in nature then no real harm is done. How wrong this kind of thinking is. All sin separates us from God. We may demonize the alcoholic who attends services off and on, while we suck up another greasy cheese burger, fries, and malt, and then gossip about the condition of the wretched toper that visits our Church occasionally. 

We have reached a sad state in the Church when we no longer see the sins in our own lives. It’s a tragedy; a real tragedy   that a person can spend years in the Church to find their biggest enemy is complacency.

Our Ministry

I have come to the point in this ministry that if I cannot live out what I am writing about on a daily basis, if I do not treat this ministry with the respect it deserves to have, then you are reading the last newsletter of “A Trumpet in the Wilderness”. What better number to stop with than newsletter 40.  Yes I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore. I could have chosen another metaphor other than hell. Perhaps   I      should     have

used broken-hearted, compunction, contriteness and they too would have echoed the feelings of my heart. But being sorry is only the beginning of how I feel.  Yet along with the regret of the sins, being mad as hell seems to be most apropos.  

I pray this won’t be the last newsletter, for I believe the Lord is instructing me in my personal life and I hope to pass some of the things on to you.

Will you join with me on this journey of holiness, will you leave the mundane religious life, will you be willing to get mad as hell over your current condition and follow Yeshua at any cost? If so I invite you to read on.

First Things First

The remaining pages of this newsletter and perhaps many more to follow will give some insight as to how to live the life so many of us yearn.

First and foremost let me say we give satan too much credit for the sins in our lives. We want to play the blame game. May I be emphatically clear: In many cases, NOT in all, it’s discipline and not deliverance. Perhaps even better stated it’s death, not deliverance. Now in future weeks I will certainly write about our enemy, satan, for he is the enemy of every child of God. Satan and his inexorable and relentless attacks have destroyed many. One of my idiosyncrasies is I never even capitalize the word satan, unless at the beginning of a sentence. I just do not want to give him any more recognition than necessary, but he must be reckoned with as the god of this world and our vicious enemy.  

 As you know our three enemies are: the world, with its vicissitudes, the flesh, ever trying to come down from the cross, and most certainly the devil.  Just as I was finishing this newsletter my family was vehemently attacked by satan. I believe the times we are most in danger is immediately following some new revelation from God. The moment we have a mountain top experience expect guerrilla warfare in the jungles below. Yet many times our failures are the result of self, for in many cases the enemy is us, our own flesh.

We must get mad as hell and burn with grief and see for perhaps the first time the real egregiousness of our sin.  We must stop cheapening grace by our banal attitude toward sin. We must stop viewing our sins as little peccadilloes, or having the attitude that they are so small they are infinitesimal, for an all- seeing God sees the smallest sin. We must stop trying to change the word sin by calling them mistakes.  We must stop watering down and trying to palliate them, but realize how egregious they really are, a blatant hostile rebellion against a Holy God. We must   take responsibility for sin, and truly lament over them. I am not talking about some pseudo-sorrow, some kind of lugubrious mocking sideshow, but truly grieve over our execrable acts of rebellion.  

Please, please try to understand what I am trying to write. We must, we must get mad as hell at our own sins and say I’m not going to take this anymore. We must get fed up with our banal meanderings in and out of what we call the Christian life. WE MUST REPENT!!! This is the first step. Contrary to what some teach, repentance is an ongoing experience. I want to impel you to learn the deeper workings of the Holy Spirit, but first we must walk in repentance. The deeper walk is not paved with an ostentatious and pretentious life style but a life of self denial and walking the way of the cross.  

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24

It seems incongruous that one can have a daily walk with the Lord, but if He is leading, as a blind guide directing every step, then it’s not only possible, but it’s  certain.

I will never have the requisites to do anything that even resembles the deeper walk; at best it would be a discouraging process, still worse a factitious religious experience, with not even a trace of value.

The secret of the deeper life is to daily bear the cross, to confess the sentence that has been placed on self, and deny any right that self has authority over us.  We must never forget that self has been nailed to the cross and must never, never be allowed to come down. We must be moved with deep contrition over our sin of exalting self.   The intrinsic value of dying to self is for the spirit to be released. The more self is exalted the less Christ-like we become.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20

I don’t care how you express it, but we must come to the end of ourselves, like Peter did when he went out and wept bitterly.

Conclusion

Yeah, I got mad as hell and I, Jack Hunter, had to pour my heart out to God in deep humiliation and sorrow, and I’m still in the process of doing that.

In myself I am less than   a diseased pathetic worm trying to swim around in a wind tossed sea of excrement. I am the exact antithesis of anything holy, no better than a depraved infidel.   But through Yeshua, through His death on the cross, I am made righteous.  I have found new meaning in the cross. It is all Christ and me nothing.

I invite you to stop now and fall on your face, calling on the name of the Lord for forgiveness. Be mad, even mad as hell at your sins, be sorrowful, very sorrowful and pour your heart out to God.

While we quote part of James 4:7 …”resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Let’s quote the entire verse plus a couple after it.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.

James 4:7-10

We must loathe everything and anything to do with the flesh. We must hate and maintain a real repulsion at its very nature and get mad as hell at its works and the offspring it produces.

We must transcend religiosity and get real, get really real.    Brothers and sisters I know a little about getting real for perhaps the first time.

My Prayer

I repent O my Lord for all my wrong and evil doings. I resolve to resist, deny, and utterly put to death all my vanities, evil desires, selfish ambitions,  inclinations, lust, gluttony,  pride, greed, slothfulness, lies,  and everything that satan and the vanity of my fallen nature draws me to. Release me from my concupiscence with evil, release me from myself. Forgive me of my   callow and myopic view of who You really are, and give me acute vision of You and Your glory.    I totally surrender myself wholly to You; to be Yours and for You to do as Your good pleasure. I desire nothing more than to be a malleable piece of clay in Your hands and to live for no other purpose than to accomplish the work that You desire.

Keep me nailed to the cross so I can really know what it means to live.

I praise You for being who You are.

In the Blessed name of Yeshua, Amen

Now may the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob bless you through His Son Yeshua.

In His Service

Jack Hunter

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

Note

I hope no one took umbrage by me possibly inappropriately using the word “hell”, but if you did then I am sorry! I was trying to make a point. Because of my traits or idiosyncrasies I do things and write things that sometimes offend people.   Several articles I have written, not in the newsletter, but articles on my website, have offended many. One such article was my review on “Passion of the Christ”. I not only offended people, but pardon the phrase again, made people “mad as hell”

By the way my article is still posted under “Jack’s Comments on the News” under News archives.  Two issues have caused people to ask to be taken off the mailing list. One is my pro-stance on Israel, and the other is my review on “Passion of the Christ”.

 If I continue this ministry, regardless if I have five, or five thousand, I will pray for those and   somehow correspond with all who write. I will never take any reader or this ministry for granted again! Yet, I   have reached a point in this ministry to invite anyone who no longer wants to be on the mailing list, to please drop me an email, call, or write a letter asking to be taken off the mailing list.  I will certainly understand, for I have not treated this ministry with any dignity.

I reiterate, as I   wrote in my article, if I do not basically practice what I write, if I do not give this ministry the respect it deserves,  then you have read my last newsletter. But if I continue to write the content   will continue to stay in line with our mission statement, yet with a major focus on living the cross life,  total denial of self and a life of victory through the risen  Messiah Yeshua. If we continue, you will see more of a consistency in the newsletters and availability with me in my correspondence.

I now ask for your prayers because I somehow believe God still has use for us in the area of writing, but that remains to be seen.