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Ambassador of Christ, Committed to the Local Church, Husband, Father, Disciple Maker, Chaplain, Airman, Air Commando.
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Monday, May 19, 2025

Better Chaplain Series - Get On Fire

The Bible is written in several genres, from poetry, to letter, to proverbs, to narrative. The diversity in which God has opted to communicate reminds us that he has spoken in many times in many ways through the prophets (Hebrews 1:1). It’s easy to fall into the error that it’s all just words on a page, but we can’t forget that it’s real people in real life circumstances meeting the real God and feeling real emotions, and it’s written for our sanctification (2 Timothy 3:17)!

How we speak these oracles of God ought to be derived from the text. If the speaker is angry (Numbers 11:10-15, Matthew 23), get angry! If the speaker is weeping (John 11:32-36, Proverbs 25:20), then be sad! If there is mocking (1 Kings 18:27, 1 Kings 22:15, John 11:37), then be incredulous! If the speaker is hopeless (2 Samuel 13:12-13, Jonah 2, John 21:17), make sure your voice is full of compassion! How much is lost on our hearers because we aren’t invested in the story?

As we read, preach, and share the Word of God, we ought to be passionate in the sharing, not just the words, but the power behind them. Many revivalists have called this “Unction.” In fact, Leonard Ravenhill said that the most important thing a preacher can get is unction, a Spirit given passion to know and share the truth. The opposite of unction is a passionless pulpit that treats the Bible like a textbook at best, and a burden at worst. He said the tragedy of the age “is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people.”

As a chaplain, in and out of the pulpit, we have access to the very power that can quicken a dead soul. If that doesn’t excite you, and your excitement is not contagious, then maybe you’re in the wrong profession.

Get on fire for God, and people will come to watch you burn. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Key Verse: Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ~ Romans 12:11-12

More:

1. Jonathan Edwards is famous at the beginning of his ministry for reading his manuscripts. Chief among these manuscripts was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” which did much to start the First Great Awakening in the colonies that would grow to become the United States of America. Which is more important: Passion in the preaching or doctrinal fidelity in the preaching? Are the two mutually exclusive? Make it your goal to be passionately faithful as you are faithful to the Bible.

2. I had the privilege of preaching to a large crowd on a street corner on a warm Florida night. One man, leaning against a traffic light pole, was especially engaged in listening. When I concluded the sermon I offered an invitation for further conversation; as he approached I asked, “Do you believe it?” He said, “I don’t, but it sounds like you do, so maybe I should.” When you preach, does it sound like you believe it?

3. Chaplains who find their authority outside of God and the Bible find it hard to be passionate for the things of God. Voddie Baucham makes the point that some of them say they just don’t have any passion, yet he gives multiple examples (smashing your thumb with a hammer, hitting a golf-ball poorly, and a favorite team losing) that show that passion is not the problem, misguided passion is. Chaplain, you’re a passionate person, so if you have a hard time getting passionate about God’s Word, could it be that you have yet to understand its power?

4. Further Resources:

The Visual Bible: Matthew. Directed by Regardt van den Bergh. Performed by Richard Kiley and Bruce Marchiano. Visual Bible International, 1993. DVD.

Robinson, Haddon, and Torrey Robinson. Passion in the Pulpit: How to Exegete the Emotion of a Text. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2003.

Vines, Jerry, and Adam Dooley. Passion in the Pulpit: How to Exegete the Emotion of Scripture. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2018.

Baucham, Voddie. “Go Home and Love Your Wife!” YouTube Video, Jan 15, 2013. https://youtu.be/P4yS1Fzn3GM



Sunday, May 4, 2025

Better Chaplain Series - Redeem their Time

What are some things that we say that Jesus would never say? Take a couple of minutes before reading ahead to contemplate your answer. As we strive to live Christlike lives, we never want to say things that he wouldn’t say, and we definitely don’t want to say the opposite of what he’d say.

A couple of things I know Jesus would never say that I hear regularly from chaplains are, “I want to be respectful of your time,” “I’ll give you some time back,” and “That’s how much time we scheduled, so we’ll dismiss now.”

Can you think of times when those responses would have been acceptable? I think about a time when four-thousand-plus people were in the middle of a desert with nothing to eat (Mark 8:2-3), or when Paul was preaching late into the night and a young man fell out the window and died (Acts 20:7-9), or when Ezra preached all day to people who were brand new to preaching (Nehemiah 9:3). If Jesus or Paul or Ezra were ever going to dismiss early, those were the times, but they prioritized the message over schedules for secular work. There were trades to be cared for, sheep to be shepherded, businesses to be run, sleep to be had, but none of those things were worth more than hearing from the God of Heaven.

When you show people Jesus and share his commands you are literally opening the gates of heaven in men’s faces. Sometimes that can be quick, but other times it can take a very long time. Chaplain, your call is to ensure you are bringing a message that is worth listening to, and that you’re sharing it so that your hearers can be mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).

            We have too many preacherettes preaching sermonettes to christianettes. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Key Verse: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ~ Mark 8:36

More:

1. Winston Churchill noted that the “head cannot take in more than the seat can endure.” There is good scientific and anecdotal evidence that there is a limit to the endurance of human absorption. How long is your limit to learning? How long is your audiences’? A young child will have a different attention span than a scholar, a junior enlisted different than a seasoned general. Should this truth help you tailor your efforts to make disciples of all nations?

2. Martha and Mary are famous for one choosing hospitality and the other choosing to sit at the Saviour’s feet. There is great truth in that dichotomy, but perhaps it’s too simplified, ignoring the heart of both women. Can the two principles be combined? Can you take Christ’s yoke upon you and be at work at the same time? Can you always be learning and never arrive at the knowledge of the truth? How can you reconcile discipleship with service? Hearing with doing?

3. Can you think of a message that you heard that was too long? Too short? What can you learn from those messages? A solid principle to consider is if it’s not important to you, it’s not important to the audience. Never go long on a topic that’s not interesting to you. If you ever encounter a message that important to Jesus but not important to you, or important to you but not to Jesus, here is an opportunity for your repentance.

4. Further Resources

Adam, Peter. Speaking God’s Words: A Practical Theology of Preaching. Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996.

Shearer, Canyon. Honing the Congregation to Be Attentive to Expository Preaching at First Baptist Church New Lebanon, Ohio. Louisville: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2020. https://repository.sbts.edu/handle/10392/6133 (Read specifically on Ezra starting on page 13)

Whitefield, George. “Directions How to Hear Sermons” (sermon). Ken Ramey, Expository Listening: A Practical Handbook for Hearing and Doing God’s Word (The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources, 2010).