159-Hope for the Heart with June Hunt

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1558 that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Hi, Alex McFarland here. We're coming to you again from the floor of the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Texas. And if you hear some background noise and people talking, that's a good thing, because there are ministries here, all the ministries you've ever heard of, the radio ministries, the authors, we come together once a year to strategize and pray for the Gospel and the Great Commission and to renew friendships.

And I was so blessed I saw someone that I've just looked up to for so many years, someone that God has used to touch millions of lives, and that's true, millions of lives. It's our dear friend, our sister in Christ, June Hunt. And she leads a ministry called Hope for the Heart. She leads just an award-winning broadcast called Hope in the Night.

We'll learn about those things. She's a prolific author, and for many years God has used her not only to proclaim the Gospel and help people find salvation, new life in Jesus, but to help people find healing, broken lives, but restoration in a relationship with Jesus Christ. She's with us now. June Hunt, thanks for making time to be with us here at NRB.

I am so delighted to see you. I just think about times past when we've had the privilege of being where there's a ministry that would be going on, and I watched you listening to you present apologetics, and I love apologetics. And you give answers. People have questions. They are looking for answers.

And to be able to articulately describe this is the answer to that difficult question. But, you know, God wants us to present His truth, because Jesus said the truth sets us free. So that's what you and I do.

John 8.32. Do you know, about three weeks ago, I was in California at the home of Josh and Dottie McDowell. And Josh has been a mentor to me, and we were talking about apologetics and reaching young people, and we were talking about people that had influenced our lives, and your name came up. And Josh spoke so favorably of you and the Hope Center, which is a wonderful ministry center here in Texas.

But it must be gratifying to you. The Lord has used you for many years. You've touched so many lives, my own included. Talk to us about the journey, how God brought you to where you are in your service for the Great Commission. Alex, I didn't even know anything about salvation.

Never heard about it. I was in a mainline church growing up, but my mom wanted us to go to church. But the problem was this. My dad was an atheist.

He said Christianity's a crutch. He told me that several times. But actually, we had a bizarre home life. My dad had three families going on currently.

I mean, concurrently at the same time. And I grew up with a fictitious last name. I was June Wright, spelled W-R-I-G-H-T. And my mom and brother and two sisters were in that family. We were just a family off on the side. And we were my dad's third family.

I didn't know there was another family. One day, when I was, I guess, maybe either like a senior in high school or a freshman in college, a man came up to me. I'd seen him a number of times at our house. And he said, you know, you're my half sister, don't you? And I said, no, I wasn't aware of that.

He said, yes, there are four of us in Atlanta. I just said, well, thank you for telling me. I didn't know what to say. But I had seen he and his brother. And so it's odd, I kept finding surprises in my upbringing. Because, like when I was earlier, when I was 12, we moved into my dad's house, because his first wife had died. And then 11 months later, my parents married.

And then I've got to ask you, June, forgive me for interjecting here. But that must have been very shocking, a loss of a sense of identity to suddenly think, oh, my goodness, what I believed is not true. Things that I assumed are not reality.

It must have been very demoralizing to realize that you were just one of three families going on. How did you process that? I learned to not be surprised at things that I might hear. But I didn't talk, Alex, I couldn't explain my existence.

I was taught how to fill out school forms. You know, like, it's a on the form father, R.E. Wright.

Well, there was no R.E. Wright. But that was my written informal name for my dad. Occupation.

Cattleman. That's what I was told to do. So I knew how to fill out forms. And so you just know you're different. You see other families in school. And I would see a father and a mother.

Usually, in that time, there wasn't a whole lot of divorce like today. But I didn't know what I didn't know. And so, but I would be surprised. It was terribly insecure. I felt terrible insecurity.

So I remember going to school 11 months later, you know, after we moved into dad's house, and where my parents married, and then I'm surrounded by students who'd say, your mom got married. Why didn't you tell us? And I'm thinking, how would they even know? And I found it was on the front page of the Dallas Morning News.

I didn't know that. They said, well, it was on. I mean, whatever they asked me now wasn't talking, because I didn't know what to say. I go to after school to a drugstore. And I need to pick up one thing at the front and then a prescription at the back. And so I go to the front and just tell her at the front. This clerk says, Oh, you say your mom got married. How was I even identified?

And I don't understand. And she said, Well, is that your real father? And very quietly, I said, Yes. Now I'm walking to the back and I thought, Oh, that doesn't look good. Like, how old were you at this point?

I was 12, almost 13. And then I go to the back. That doesn't look good. And then back there after I get the prescription, they said, Well, not your mom got married.

And is that your real father's? Apparently, there had been some talk. And I said, No. And then now I'm walking out. Okay, the wrong answer is the right answer. And I said it to myself the same.

The wrong answer is the right answer, because that will look better. So Alex, I had a huge lying problem for years. And I didn't think of it as lying. I just needed to change the truth. Never thought of it as lying.

Wow. And I, I just needed to tell things different. So I twist the truth, because that's what was right.

And I could not figure out why. Later, when I became a Christian, I was 15. Why don't I feel guilty?

Because I'm learning that the Spirit of God should be convicting me when I'm doing something wrong, but I didn't feel guilty. Even into my 20s, I would twist the truth. If you would hold that thought, forgive me, we have to take a break.

Alex McFarland here. We're talking with our friend and colleague, June Hunt. When we come back, we're going to talk about truth in each of our own lives.

And as uncomfortable as it may be sometimes to admit truth, as Jesus said in John 8, the truth will set you free. Stay tuned. We're back after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. I want to make you aware of two really important speaking engagements in July of 2025. I'll be at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center, July 18 through 20, teaching the book of Job. And then July 28 through August 1 with J. Warner Wallace, a week of apologetics with myself and Jim Wallace.

Go to the Cove.org, the Cove.org, and I hope to see you next summer. It's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. I'm talking with June Hunt of Hope for the Heart Ministries, her acclaimed broadcast, Hope in the Night. June, I want you to resume your story. It is riveting.

They really should make a movie of this. But you were saying how lying and really wanting to change the truth was part of your speech, but ultimately the Lord put you on the path of truth and gave you words of truth, didn't he? Well, it took a while, very honestly. Well, like I became a youth director. The pastor of the church said, you are going to be our junior high director. Now there were 600 in the junior high division. Now that's a whole church. It was a very, very, very large church.

And then the leadership, there were 120 leaders that were part of that 600. And I had been saved through the high school division. And I got a call from the pastor's wife.

June, Brenda Thompson is a part of the Thompson family and she's 14. And we need you to contact her and explain our youth department and invite her. And I said, yes, ma'am. So I took down the contact information, put it on my desk, which actually was piled three times higher than it should have because I didn't know how to be organized at that time. And three weeks later she calls and says, June, this is Mrs. C. You haven't called Brenda Thompson. And all of a sudden terror strikes my heart.

I thought, where's that piece of paper with her name, her contact information? I've been in this exact situation. And I said, oh, yes, ma'am. We talked. We had a very good conversation.

Everything's on track. And she says, oh, I didn't realize that. She hangs up the phone. I hang up the phone. I pick back up the phone, dial a number. Hi, Brenda. This is June Hunt. I'm the junior high director of the church.

And I would love to come by and describe and tell you all about our youth program. Would that be okay? She was delighted. And the next week they joined the church. So everything was fine. I didn't feel guilty, Alex. That's what I couldn't understand. I felt fine because it worked out. Dodged a bullet.

Yes. And so I later had several situations. I even had a roommate who would say, June, cut it straight, cut it straight.

And she was also a former youth director. And I meant to, but I couldn't understand. And then I finally said, God, would you please help me?

I don't know what to do. And one of the things that was key is you already quoted the scripture. Jesus said, the truth will set you free. Oh, and the Bible says, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life.

I thought if he's the truth. And now we're talking about, I'm even in my thirties, I'm sure somewhere in here. And I was still dodging, looking bad.

And I said, what is the matter with me? I don't want, I want to be a person of integrity. And finally it dawned on me, Alex, I was being my top loyalty.

My top loyalty was to my mother to protect her any way possible so that if she said anything that my dad would say against my mom, I needed to somehow make it right so he wouldn't be against her because at times it was dangerous. I was only beaten one time, but I knew my mom had been physically beaten. You mean physically at least you were beaten?

Yes, yes. He beat me until I confronted him about his women. I said, how can you treat mother the way you do? She is totally loyal to you.

She is absolutely so caring toward you. He said, I'm not a Christian. I don't have to go by Christian ethics. And then the conversation spiraled down. He said, beside your mother's mentally ill. Now that was my greatest fear. My father had a son from a first marriage who had been institutionalized and he would sometimes come to my bedroom and say, your mother's mentally ill today.

That terrified me that he would pay off some psychologist, no psychiatrist, because he's saying she's mentally ill. Now he also said tears were a sign of mental illness. So I had, had to learn not to cry. He did see me one time.

Well, he saw me twice and he's pointing, pointed his finger at me. You are mentally ill. Tears are a sign of mental illness. Well, I stuffed crying.

I for years had difficulty even crying. Tears are a sign of being a human being. And Jesus was a man. The issue of men don't cry. No, Jesus was a man and he wept, knowing he was going to raise his dear, dear friend, his dearest friend from the grave. But there was a time of loss, yet momentarily he was going to raise him from the dead.

So tears are normal. June, I wish we had so much time to hear your story, but you have found healing, forgiveness, a life's calling, purpose and incredible fruit in Jesus Christ and the Great Commission. And there are people everywhere listening and when we come back I want to give you some questions that our ministry has gotten really in the past even week or ten days. But before we take a break, I want to give you websites. I know you've written extensively. You've got many resources to help counsel people.

Online, where may people find all things June Hunt? Well, simply Hope for the Heart dot org. Hope for the Heart dot org. Those who want to be on the radio program for call-in counseling for Hope in the Night, it would just be 1-800-NIGHT-17.

And N-I-G-H-T. N-I-G-H-T, 17, yes. And you know, I'll just say, please understand, I'm the one who needed to change. My mom one day was being assaulted verbally by my dad and I thought, how can she be so nice to him? And so I go up to her after he finished the verbal assault.

I said, Mom, you heard what dad said. How can you be so kind to him? And then she said, Oh, honey, he doesn't know the Lord. If he only knew the Lord, he wouldn't be that way.

I was stunned. I was focusing on his fault. She focused on his need. He needed to change life through Christ. I had to learn.

The Bible actually says, pray for those who persecute you. And so I need to change my mindset. Every time I think of my dad, I'm going to change what I'm thinking.

And that is, Lord, please give my dad a changed life. Hold that thought. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back with June Hunt.

Don't go away. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Conversations That Matter is a four-part speaker series bringing to the Grand Strand some of the best thinkers in America to talk about the overlap of faith and culture.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. I want to invite you May 4th, 7 p.m. at the Greg Rolls Legacy Theater in North Myrtle Beach to hear my longtime friend and colleague, Dinesh D'Souza. Dinesh is going to be talking about Trump's first 100 days. His talk is titled American Politics, Past, Present and Future. Join us for this unforgettable evening with one of America's most astute thinkers and opinion makers, Dinesh D'Souza. May 4th, 7 p.m., the Greg Rolls Legacy Theater in North Myrtle Beach. Visit alexmcfarland.com. That's alexmcfarland.com for information and tickets. I would like to see you May 4th to hear in person Dinesh D'Souza. He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. Before we resume our conversation with June Hunt, I want to remind everybody that our youth camps are coming up very quickly.

The website is equipretreat.org. And may I ask you to pray about supporting? Four hundred dollars will give a teenager a week at summer camp. And we do all the fun camp stuff, swimming, hiking, zip lines, but we talk about biblical worldview. We're in Montana, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, all over the country. Twelve hundred teenagers. And in 27 years, we have never, never turned a child away. Every summer hundreds accept Christ.

So please be in prayer. And let me remind you also we have a speaker series in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dinesh D'Souza, Gary Chapman, so many great speakers. You can go to the website alexmcfarland.com. You may give securely online. A tax-deductible contribution in any amount will be gratefully received and faithfully used for the Gospel.

You can give online at alexmcfarland.com. Well, without further ado, our conversation with June Hunt. And June, I want to throw some questions at you because you are such a wise counselor. I've always appreciated not only the content but the way that the Spirit of God speaks through you.

Just days ago, I was at a major event in the Midwest preaching a simple Gospel message. A young couple came forward, maybe they're 30, and they were believers. The wife was weeping profusely. Her father, 61 years old, and she has five brothers and sisters. Her parents married 40 plus years. But her father decides he's a woman now.

And at 61 is wearing a dress, wearing lipstick, telling everybody that he's been in the wrong body 61 years. And this poor young lady was just devastated, weeping. And of course we prayed together and tried to encourage them. I could tell you so many stories of men cheating on their spouses, teenagers that think they're an atheist.

First of all, here's my question before I get to some specifics on counseling. Is the world more broken than it has been? I know there's always sin and sinners, June, but is our world just suddenly much more fractured than at any previous time? If you look statistically, you will see there is progressively less attendance to church attendance. You see, less people actually involved where there used to be a major theme of Jesus Christ. You would hear certain places where the Bible would be taught. Now understand, I was in a mainline denomination and there was no Bible taught. Now that's not how it was a hundred years ago or so in that denomination.

So today we could call it woke, but in truth there is an absence of truth being taught and a substitute that really is no truth at all. And so I do have a nephew who today he now wants to be called Rihanna. I'm going to tell you what my niece said, and this is an answer to the dilemma that this wife, the harm that she is experiencing in her life. I remember my niece calling me saying, I just want you to know, and she called his name out. I'm just going to say George. George now is wanting to be called Rihanna. He has transitioned.

He is saying that he is transgender. My first question was this, tell me what was his relationship with his dad? There had been my sister and then a husband where there were two children and then a different husband, two children. She was from the first husband who's off doing his thing. And then here's my sister's married to this other man and there were two children and that's where George was. There was, I'm going to say Katie and George from that second union.

And I remember seeing them as a family. The emphasis for my sister's second husband was he would treat Katie like you're the apple of my eye. He would spend time with her. I just didn't see time spent with George. And so I asked my niece that called me, what was his relationship like with his dad? What was George's relationship like with his dad? Pause. Non-existent.

Non-existent. And my sister was a feminist. She reacted against what my dad did and what he was like and how he treated females. And so the bottom line is he only heard the exaltation of females. And I know my sister didn't plan doing, oh, by the way, she celebrated his new identity. My sister and her husband celebrating, I was silent.

I can't celebrate that which is not scientifically true or biblically true. God made us either male or female. There are not multiple genders.

Amen. And if you look scientifically, as I look at you, I can't see it, but I know you're classified XY. I'm XX. I happen to be a female. All females are XX. And this is objective truth. That's right.

It is scientific objective meaning it's established truth. So all I know is after a while, then he started insist, George started insisting that his name now be Brianna. And I would see pictures of him in female attire and long hair. And he's a musician. And the point I want to say is what has occurred, and this is purely circumstantial.

He has burned almost all bridges in the family. In other words, you think about if truth sets you free, I don't see George living a life of peace, truth, true inner joy and happiness. Well the converse, if the truth sets us free, conversely error will leave us bound. That's right.

It keeps us in bondage. Yeah, and I want to ask you this, and we're almost out of time. I know there's been divorce, the breakdown of the family, there's been in the culture a militant secularism.

Yes. I'm just going to say this, I think over the last 30, 50 years there's been an increase in satanic activity. And folks, let me say the devil is real. Now we have victory in Jesus, but Satan is the enemy of our souls. And folks, the devil doesn't care if you're indigent in the gutter or in the boardrooms of Wall Street as long as you don't give your life and your soul to the Lord Jesus. Satan, look, there's one way to go to heaven. That's through Christ.

But there are 10,000 ways to miss heaven. And Satan, June, I want to give you the last word. I think Satan has been fiercely busy in recent decades. But on the Word of God, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, prayerfully, daily, we have to stand against darkness and error and for the reality of Jesus and the truth of the gospel. You know, isn't it interesting that the Bible says that Satan is the father of lies.

Indeed. Now this is huge, because when you think of if there's going to be a satanic activity, satanic attack, it's logical that then he would want us to believe a lie. And I know, I've talked with a number of people who once were in the lifestyle, the transgender lifestyle. And the bottom line is, it didn't work.

It didn't bring about the peace. I know many that have turned and they realize they believed a lie. Now, we don't always know where that lie come from. But we know if Satan's the father of lies, to your point, the word Satan means adversary. It means enemy. So he is the enemy of God. And the enemy of our soul.

Yes. And he desires to destroy us, to sift us like we to literally, if he can destroy our relationship with God, that would be his victory, that would be his delight. So instead of playing into his hands, the truth needs to remain uppermost. And that is look at what God says, there aren't multiple genders.

There is the creation by God. If he designed you to be a male, Alex, and me to be a female, then we need to learn, okay, how do I be content within my gender, my sex, my sexual expression? And what that means is, he knows how to fulfill us. In fact, he says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope in the future. So I would say for those who are strugglers, if you would just say, okay, I don't want to mess up my life. I don't want to have a messed up life. I am willing to consider what God says.

Well, Jeremiah 29, 11, you can start there, where God says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. And so it's his plan, not your plan. And he knows how to fulfill his plan. He's all powerful.

You are not. And you don't have to see how he's going to do it. Just trust him.

Say, okay, I don't see it, but I'm willing to trust you with my life. And he will prove himself to be the fulfiller for your life. Jesus is faithful. And folks, the voice you've been hearing is that of June Hunt. And we always say, Jesus is as close by as a prayer.

Folks, please believe that. Psalm 16, six, as I close, a fascinating Psalm, it says, the boundary lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a godly heritage. And what that means is that there are some things about your life that God chose. God chose where you would be born. God chose when you would be born. God chose who your parents would be. God chose your gender, your maker. And the Lord does everything possible to make it most conducive for you to open yourself to Jesus. The one thing God won't do is override your free will.

God will offer salvation, but you must receive it. Now on our website, alexmcfarland.com, you can learn about the Gospel. I encourage you to go there. But as we close, I encourage you, please familiarize yourself with the ministries of June Hunt.

So many wonderful resources. You'll find her online. June Hunt, hope for the heart, hope in the night.

She's been our guest on the program. May the Lord bless you in all things. Stay strong, stay bold, stand in Jesus. Alex McFarland Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmcfarland.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YES-GOD1. That's 1-877-YES-GOD1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the program.