A LETTER FROM
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
APRIL 13, 2008
You folks who read my sermons on my web page
know I value, welcome and appreciate your feedback, either pro or con. It helps
me very much. For instance, consider the following. Hello Pastor Mike, My name
is
I also liked the part in your sermon when you
wrote about Obama’s pastor when you said: “Bird’s of a feather flock together.”
I agree with you there, too. I wouldn’t go into his church for anything. I’m a
white person. Even though I never did anything to the people in his church; I
can tell they wouldn’t like me by the mean things the pastor says about our
country and white people when he preaches. I’m glad I don’t know any black
people like that. All the ones I know from my job at the hospital are nice to
me. I like them a lot; especially the cute one in the cafeteria who always
gives me a big smile when she takes my money and gives me change at the
check-out.
Anyway, if you’re still reading I have to tell
you something else. But even if you’re not reading any more it helps me to write
these kinds of things down. So here goes. Truthfully, it isn’t only Obama’s
church I wouldn’t go into. I’m real nervous about going into any of them. I’ll
tell you why. I got my hands on a bible almost a year ago and I read it a lot.
I really like the bible, but to be honest some of it doesn’t make any sense to
me. I keep reading it though and then one day I figured out why I was having
such a hard time with parts of it. If you don’t mind opening your bible to 1
Corinthians 2: 12-16 you’ll see what I’m getting at.
1
Corinthians 2:12-16 (NIV) 12 We have not received the
spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what
God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human
wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in
spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does
not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but
he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 16 "For who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Boy that was an eye opener. You can understand
what the bible is saying because you’re a Christian. But I’m not. Look at what
it’s saying about guys like me. For me to understand it I have to have the
Spirit. That’s my problem. I’m supposed to think the bible is foolishness, but
to be honest, I don’t. I told you before I like it a lot. I’ll tell you one
thing I do know though, and it’s what I have to do to inherit eternal life. Look
at these verses I wrote down, Pastor Mike.
Matthew
22:36-38 (NIV) 36 "Teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest
commandment.
Mark
12:29-30 (NIV) 29 "The most important
one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O
Luke
10:25-28 (NIV) 25 On one occasion an expert in
the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must
I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied.
"How do you read it?" 27 He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor
as yourself.'" 28
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do
this and you will live."
It’s all over the bible. I may not have the
Spirit but what Jesus said is pretty clear to me. And I don’t think the things written
in the Bible are foolishness either. If there really is a God, then doing these
things makes sense. Except for the part of loving
Him with all of my mind. That’s where I get hung up. I’m looking
for answers. Every time I think I’m starting to understand more about the bible
and visiting a Christian church something seems to be pushing me away. I’ll
tell you why in case you’re wondering. My job as a parking garage attendant is
pretty quiet between 11 PM and 7 in the morning, so I get a lot of time to read
my bible and listen to the radio and tapes. Those people are always quoting the
bible. I write the verses down and when I look them up, sure enough, there they
are. They sure must be spiritual people. They know a lot more about the bible
than I ever will. Anyway, like I said before, just when I think I understand
something that seems clear as a bubble; whamo; my mind freezes up just like my
computer. Open your bible to the twenty first Chapter of John and you’ll see
what I mean.
John
21:1-14 (NIV) 1 Afterward Jesus appeared again
to his disciples, by the
This doesn’t seem too hard for me to
understand even if I don’t have the Spirit. And even if I only have a GED! Plus;
I’m always trying to learn more things, especially about the bible. Then I read
what the radio bible teacher guy say’s about what we just looked up. I sent for
his book and got it for nothing. I’m sorry I did because now I’m more confused
than I ever was. Anyway, Jesus told His disciples to throw their net on the
right side of the boat and they caught 153 fish. Pastor Mike, the radio bible
teacher says the bible is teaching here that the 200 cubits is about 2,000
years between the first and second coming of Christ. The teacher says that the
most likely date for the birth of Christ is on October 4th, 7BC when
something called a Jubilee Trumpet he said was sounded. I couldn’t find where in
the bible it said this. Anyway, all I have to do is add 2,000 years minus one year
for the year zero and bingo, 1994. The number 153 equals 3 times 3 times 17.
Then he says the number three signifies the purpose of God and the number
seventeen signifies heaven. From that we can learn that the purpose of God is
to bring all believers that are “caught” by the Gospel into heaven.
I may only have a GED but that kind of
teaching blows my mind. He was talking about the world coming to an end in
1994. I asked myself what’s he doing still on the radio and selling more books.
I looked him up on the web to see what he had to say for himself. This is him
writing now, not me. “About thirteen years ago, I wrote a book entitled 1994?
In it, I set forth a great amount of information derived solely from the Bible
that suggested very strongly that there was a high likelihood that the world
would come to an end sometime in the year 1994 A.D. Of course, the world did
not end, and now, eleven years later, (that’s when he wrote this Pastor Mike)
the world is still here. However, during the past eleven years, God has been
opening up to many who are studying the Bible considerable additional
information which relates to the unfolding of God’s salvation plan. When this
additional information was integrated into the information which was set forth
in the book 1994? we knew indeed the year 1994 was an extremely important year.
Moreover, we will discover that now, as we understand the Bible, it was the
year 1994 in which Christ came a second time to begin the completion of the
evangelization of His true people. We also have found considerable evidence
that there is a high likelihood that the year 2011 will be the year in which
the end will come. Nothing has changed in God’s program. The Bible has simply
made a correction on our course toward truth!” “Moreover, if the Bible teacher who dares to
suggest a date is trusted by many, there may be confusion or hurt and
disappointment in the lives of many of these trusting individuals. Having said
this, let us look for a moment at the responsibility of a Bible teacher.
Ordinarily, if a very responsible teacher teaches a doctrine as Bible truth,
but later he is corrected by further study of the Bible, it is not looked upon
by others as a dreadfully serious matter. Fact is, there will be those who will
sincerely appreciate the honesty of the teacher as he makes correction to his
wrong doctrine.”
If that’s supposed to be some kind of an
apology Pastor Mike, I don’t get it. He doesn’t even seem sorry for what he
did. How about you? What do you think? I hope you won’t think I’m being
disrespectful, but the Bible teacher reminds me of Obama’s pastor. Oh, he
doesn’t rant and rave like the Rev. Wright, but his anger is easy to spot by
the way he’s always knocking Christian pastors. He almost never has anything
good to say about them. He is always finding fault with them. If you listen to
him as much as I have you sure get the impression that he is a very angry man
when it comes to Christian pastors and
“Not only will we know but all
people will know our faith is real, because of the love we have for fellow
Christians, warts and all.
We find ourselves wanting to associate with people we ordinarily wouldn’t have
anything to do with. We want to be near them so that we can learn how we might
be used by God to become a blessing to them as they also struggle through this
alien world on their way to our real home. By our words and deeds we want to
demonstrate that we truly care about them. We won’t obsess over the sometimes
irritating characteristics of other Christians and pointing each and every one
of them out as the devil is so fond of doing. We’re hoping our non-judgmental
acceptance of them, will enable them to see a little bit of Christ’ love
shining down on them through us.”
Some Christian’s seem to delight in putting other Christians
down. They have blinded
themselves by their anger over the perceived shortcomings of other
Christians. So much so, that they do not see other peoples good points. They
focus on and quickly point out Christians flaws much like the Devil does. He
constantly slanders the children of God. They become enraged at fellow
Christians who see things differently that they do. In ‘The Parable of the
Unforgiving Servant’ Jesus told His disciples about a servant who pleaded with
his master for patience and mercy concerning a debt he owed. The man’s master forgave him but the
servant in turn wouldn’t
forgive someone else who was in a similar situation.[i]
Matthew
18:32-34 (NIV) 32 "Then the master called
the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of
yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just
as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured,
until he should pay back all he owed.
Now read what Jesus says next.
Matthew
18:35 (NIV) 35 "This is how my heavenly Father
will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your
heart."
Here’s some more
about what Jesus says.
Matthew 5:21-22
(NIV) 21 "You have heard that
it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will
be subject to judgment.' 22 But I
tell you that anyone who
is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again,
anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But
anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Ephesians 4:29-32
(NIV) 29
Do not let
any unwholesome
talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for
building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage
and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
1 John 2:9 (NIV) 9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his
brother is still in the darkness.
1 John 3:15
(NIV) 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
You said it in last week’s sermon Pastor Mike.
“If God has indeed forgiven us, the Holy Spirit will be living
inside of us and He will manifest His presence by inclining us to sincerely
want to forgive others just as we have been forgiven by God in Christ Jesus. We
must “Hate sin always;
hate sin in the sinner always,
but never hate the
sinner. Both sides of the truth are absolutely essential. Sin must never be
condoned. Sin must never be excused. Sin must always be condemned.”[ii]
The bottom line is that
if we won’t forgive, we can be certain we have not been reborn in Christ.
Galatians
5:19-21 (NIV) 19 The acts of the sinful nature
are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and
witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions 21
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live like this will not inherit the
Here’s one of my
favorites. I like it a lot, Pastor Mike. How about you?
Colossians 3:12-17
(NIV) 12 Therefore, as God's
chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you
may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all
these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of
Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to
peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach
and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the
Father through him.
Oh, before I forget it; I want to tell you something
that I can’t explain. It happened to me while I was writing all this down. I
don’t know how, but now I know without a doubt in my
mind and I now believe with all of my heart, that it’s all true what Jesus told
that man one night. You know
the one, I’m sure.
John 3:16
(NIV) 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one
and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.
Oh, there’s one more thing. I know that if I keep listening to this
Bible teacher, then I’m not really worshiping God with all of my mind.
That’s it for me. Next Sunday I’m going to church with that cute girl in the
cafeteria. She invited me, and I’m going. I can hardly wait to get there. Thanks
for listening to me Pastor Mike. Your friend, Douglas.
And thank you, too, Douglas for
bringing us this morning’s message. May it please our Lord to make it a
blessing to all the folks who just heard it and those who may read it later.
[i] ENTERINING INTO THE LIGHT, JULY 1, 2007.
[ii] Darkness and Light, © 1982 D. Martyn
Lloyd-Jones, Baker Books, p. 235.
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