A LETTER FROM GOD
MIKE CUNNIGNHAM
NOVEMBER 14, 2010
I
wasn’t sure how I was going to begin today’s message until midway through the
weekly Bible Study at the Gazebo Apartment’s last Thursday. Before we begin
that study, the elderly ladies who are in their mid to late eighties usually
express how thankful they are in knowing that Jesus loves them. They also speak
about issues (usually health related) they are dealing with. When it was my
turn I told them how happy I was to be with them that morning, especially after
Satan’s unsuccessful attempt to prevent me from attending.
I
went on to explain how I had awoken that morning after a very restful night’s
sleep and suddenly found myself on the receiving end of a barrage of absurd
thoughts suggesting that it was time for me to stop pushing myself to live for Christ
with all of my might, and try to find a younger man to take my place. In other
words, retire. I told the women that nonsense was compounded by a comment unwittingly
shared by a friend shared with the Harvest Time group the day before. I had
asked those folks to pray that my upcoming endoscopy would go well and that
there would be no complications. I had been thinking to myself that I had that
procedure performed a couple of times in the past twelve years, and by now I considered
it to be pretty routine. And then Satan socked it to me through an unsuspecting
friend who reminded us that his late mom had the same procedure performed and
to the surprise of everyone a big tumor was discovered. Being subjected to
constant spiritual assaults for a little more than ten years can become
emotionally draining. Judging from their facial expressions, it was obvious
those elderly women had similar experiences throughout their lifetime. I told
them that just as I was beginning to think I was all alone and that God was far
away from me during this trial, I suddenly found myself humming: “His Eye Is On
The Sparrow” and “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”
Then as I
usually do, from that point forward I shared last week’s sermon with them. I
mentioned the fact about how I suddenly woke up at 2 A. M. last Sunday morning
with a torrent of thoughts racing through my mind strongly inclining me not to
preach the sermon I had promised you folks I would. I told them about how I got
out of bed and crafted a sermon devoted to the necessity of us to handle our
anger in a way which is pleasing to God and the necessity of you and me to
forgive everyone who had wronged us including folks who had hurt us deeply.
Then I quoted my request from last week’s sermon by saying: “If what I’m about to
share is especially meaningful to someone who is here this morning or if you
think it may be helpful to someone outside of our church; I would appreciate it
if you would please let me know.”
Before
I could start my sermon; those ladies wanted to know if any of you folks had
told me that God had spoken especially to you. When I said that two of you did and
that one has agreed to study the Bible with me, those women were deeply moved,
one even to the point of shedding tears of joy. Those elderly women know that unless
you and I get rid of our sinful anger and also forgive those folks who had
wronged us; regardless of our profession of faith, God will not let us into
heaven. I’ve been prayerfully hoping the events I just shared will
complement this morning’s message. I’ve named it,
A LETTER FROM GOD
My
dear precious child! I know you sometimes feel as though you’re all alone while
you’re struggling with your seemingly never ending difficulties and you are tempted
not to trust Me and worry and become discouraged. That’s the reason I’ve sent
this letter to you. I want to jog your memory and assure you that nothing could
be further from the truth. However, before I explain I want to remind you of some
very important facts of whom and what you have become through your faith in my
beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
As
you read this letter you will see that I have sometimes personalized various Bible passages
throughout it just for you. Although my words as they are recorded in the Bible were
spoken or written thousands of years ago to ancient people, much of them are
applicable to my children such as you who are presently dwelling on the earth. I want you to speak them out loud
a couple of times to yourself. When you do so you will be storing them up in
your mind and heart as the treasured possessions they truly are. Then, whenever
it’s best for you, I’ll bring them to your remembrance to enable you to once
again be blessed by them.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God, John 1:12 (ESV)
Think
about that! And think about it often. Satan is no longer your father. On the
contrary, through your faith in Jesus you have become one of my precious adopted
children. Speaking of Jesus, I want you to consider His following very
carefully.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever
abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me
you can do nothing. John 15:1, 5
(ESV)
I want you
to look at yourself as being, metaphorically speaking, one of the many branches
of the True Vine. As such, you are a channel my Son utilizes through which He
delights in bestowing blessings upon your fellow human beings.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not
know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all
that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 (ESV)
Please
don’t ever forget that my Son considers you as being one of His friends. Ponder
that awesome truth and then tell me how you can possibly worry about anything
or, as many of my children often do, think they are all alone as they make
their way through this world on their way home to me. I’m saddened whenever my
children spend so much more of their time on relatively unimportant things,
such as worldly interests and, comparatively speaking, so little of their time
thinking about Jesus. For instance, read the following verses about Him out
loud to yourself and then stop completely and spend a lot of time savoring
these awesome facts.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. John 1:3 (ESV)
6 yet for us there is one God, the
Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 1 Corinthians 8:6 (ESV)7
Of this gospel I was made a minister
according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his
power. 8 To me, though I am the
very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and
to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in
God who created all things, Ephesians
3:7-9 (ESV)
Ephesians
3:8 (ESV) 7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift
of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. Ephesians 3:7 (ESV)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all
creation. 16 For by him all
things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through
him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16
(ESV)
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our
fathers by the prophets, 2 but in
these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of
all things, through whom also he created the world. Hebrews 1:1-2 (ESV)
And now my
child, I want you to consider the following thoughts of my servant David when
he took the time to meditate on the act of creation through my beloved Son. I
want you to do the same. Here’s what David wrote:
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that
you care for him? Psalm 8:3-4 (ESV)
Although
no human being can even come close to comprehending and describing the
awesomeness of what my Son accomplished when He spoke the world you are living
in into existence, it will be helpful for you to meditate on just a small
portion of creation a contemporary of yours wrote about it almost ten years
ago.
“From the
time David wrote those words until the invention of the telescope in the early
seventeenth century, only a few thousand stars were visible to the unaided eye,
and the universe appeared far less impressive than we now know it to be. Even
until the second decade of the twentieth century, it was thought that the Milky
Way galaxy was synonymous with the universe. This alone would be awesome in its
scope, since our spiral galaxy contains more than 2000,000,000,000 stars and
extends to a diameter of 1000,000 light-years (remember that a light second is
more than 186,000 miles; the 93,000,000 miles between the sun and the earth is
8 light minutes). But more recent developments in astronomy have revealed that
our galaxy Is a member of a local cluster of about 20 galaxies and that this
local cluster is but one member of a massive superclusters of thousands of
galaxies. So many of these superclusters are known to exist that the number of
galaxies is estimated at more than 100,000,000,000.”
“What is
humanity indeed! The God who created these stars and calls them all by name (Isaiah
40: 26) is unimaginably awesome; his wisdom, beauty, power, and dominion are
beyond human comprehension. And yet he has deigned to seek intimacy with the
people on this puny planet and has given them great dignity and destiny: “Yet
You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and
majesty!” (Psalm 8:5). These words are applicable to all people, but they find
their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, as the quotation of this passage in
Hebrews 2:6-8 makes clear.”
Whenever
you become overly anxious and are tempted to think the worse, I’ll jog your
memory and cause you to remember this wonderful fact.
6
“…neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, 39
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate you from my love of you in Christ Jesus your Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39”. Please make the time and really think about what you just
read and then consider the following promise My Son made a long time ago to
His little band of beloved disciples. He assured them and His followers such
as you after them of His everlasting presence with these words, “Behold,
I am with YOU always, even to the end of all the days YOU will live on the
earth,” (Matthew 28:19).
Do the
following passages sound familiar? They ought to. Thousands of years earlier I
also spoke those comforting words of assurance to another one of my faithful
servants. But, I didn’t send Jacob a letter such as the one you’re holding in
your hand. Instead I spoke them to him while he was fast asleep and dreaming.
Please read them.
15 I am with YOU and will watch over YOU wherever YOU go," Genesis
28:15 (NIV)
Think about that promise often because, as I
mentioned a moment ago, it applies to you, too. Some time afterwards when
certain men in a foreign country were taking advantage of Jacob, I instructed
him to return home. Once again I reminded him of the following fact.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your
fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” Genesis 31:3 (ESV)
As you can
see in chapter five of Genesis Jacob in turn shared this great promise with his
wives Rachel and Leah. Please read that whole chapter, my child. Now I want you
to think about the time my Son promised His little flock that even if there
were only two or three of them who were gathered together in His name, and even
though they couldn’t see Him, He was right there with them. 20 For
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:20 (ESV)
It’s as
though my Son was saying to His disciples: I realize you men are frightened and
don’t know everything you will have to endure as I am about to send you on a
new phase in your journey through this dark sin infested world. Now I’m going
to bring to your remembrance something from the Scriptures you men are very
familiar with. It’s the account of an amazing series of events I planned to
unfold in the life of another one of my precious children a long time ago. I
told Moses that I knew he was frightened because he didn’t know what would
happen to him when he obeyed mu command to go to Pharaoh and bring my people
out of
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law,
Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the
wilderness and came to Horeb, the
21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed
toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Exodus 3:21 (NIV)
3 The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the
people, and Moses himself was highly
regarded in
36 The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward
the people, and they gave them what they asked
for; so they plundered the Egyptians. Exodus
12:36 (NIV)
And my
dear precious child, you also don’t know what difficulties I planned for you to
experience as you continue on your journey through the world you are presently
living in on your way home to me. But you can be absolutely certain that I will
be with you just as I am with all of my children and, in one way or another,
provide for your every need. Now take a moment and consider some of what
I have already done and will do for you in my Son.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed YOU in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in
Christ. 4 For he chose YOU in
him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In
love 5 he predestined YOU to be
adopted as one his children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his
pleasure and will, Ephesians 1:3-5 (NIV)
11 In him YOU were also chosen, having been predestined
according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the
purpose of his will, Ephesians 1:11 (NIV).
As I mentioned in the beginning of
this letter
you may sometimes feel as though you are all alone while you struggle with one
difficulty after another, but nothing could be further from
the truth. You must remember that I’ve been with you and watching out for you since
the moment of your conception.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit ME together in my
mother's womb. 14 I praise you
because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know
that full well. 15 My frame was not
hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together
in the depths of the earth, 16 your
eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in
your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)
Regardless
of whatever trials I have planned for you to endure; I assure you they won’t be
anything you won’t be you able to deal with in a way which is pleasing to me
provided you follow my Son’s wishes.
Do
not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God and also in Me, (John
14:1).
Take
another look at something I told Jeremiah a long time ago. It concerns my
children who were dwelling on the earth back then. You can be certain that my
plans for you will be just as wonderful.
Jeremiah
29:11 (NIV) 11 For I know the plans I have for YOU," declares the
LORD, "plans to prosper YOU and not to harm YOU, plans to give YOU hope
and a future, Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV).
Before I end I want to leave you
with this final reminder. I have never taken my eye off of you even for a split
second; nor have I ever not been present with you and taken care of you. In fact,
YOU
are never out of my sight anymore than the tiny sparrow that Ethel Waters sung about in
her famous song , His Eye is on the Sparrow, (Matthew 6:26-27). I have written you
this brief letter in the Spirit of my everlasting love for YOU! DAD
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