Dear Kevin,
Upon hearing your opening statements regarding Mr. Obama this afternoon on WMCA, while driving on the Long I sland Expressway, I called the program.
My first response to your comments was this; one can not stand for and approve of what God abhors and identify himself as a Christian.
By the same token, Christians can not identify or accept anyone who stands and approves of what God abhors as a fellow Christian, period.
How do I, or we know what God abhors?
It's clearly and succinctly stated, line upon line, precept upon precept, in the revelation of His salvation plan for mankind, the Bible.
One must pick up the book, and read it. One must hear it preached, and know enough, by private study and proof text(ing), to recognize truth and error.
God has not stated, as Mr. Obama and many others who have not come to faith have stated, He works in mysterious ways. Quite the contrary, God has revealed exactly how He works in a myriad of situations, in detail, over thousands of years. He has told us we need not travel to heaven to find out how He works..we need not swim the deepest ocean..rather, His Word is quite near to us, in our heart and even in our mouths, that is(added by Paul) the Word of faith, (which we preach).
Where do we find this..how He works? It's in that same book, the Bible.
In it, for one, life is held in highest esteem. Throughout the Torah and in the Psalms, over and over, God is named as the creator, the giver, the sustainer and the judge of all, ALL life, FOREVER, from beginning to end, hence, the name.. Alpha and Omega.
Anyone who stands for the aborting of a life at any time during a pregnancy stands in DIRECT contradiction to the will of God, period. If one reads the book, one discovers this.
Secondly, the one sentence confession heresy.."I accepted Jesus Christ into my life"..this is the most heretical teaching in all of contemporary Christian teaching. No where in the Book is this offered as a barometer of salvation. In fact, the word accept is not used one time, ever, relating to Jesus Christ, being born again, saved, or converted. We both know the Epistle to the Romans, I won't waste your eyes and my fingers.
What Obama has, as does anyone who shares his persuasion of faith, is a faith where god is self. Self is first, hence, "I accepted Jesus Christ".
Our conversion is based upon the opposite..God is always pre-eminent..God first loved us..when we realize this, and that we, least of all deserve any of this, and of Him, when we understand God's love, in that in our depravity He was there, all the time, and even before time…we begin to understand the magnitude of God..GOD. I know you have known this, I can tell just hearing your voice. Through tears and through suffering and conviction, God is first. Through joy and success, God is first. Through all of life, God is first. In death, God is first.
They would say..as in a line in the cafateria.."Grace?..oh yes, I'll take some of that..Forgiveness?? Oh yes, a double portion, please(did I ever really do anything wrong, though?) Mercy..just pile that on here..
Persecution??? Heavens, no..none of that, thank you….Ridicule..r u kidding, why?? Suffering?? Chastisement???? Fasting....Prayer….??? why?
Lastly, as I heard the callers, I would say this. America has dumbed down in the schools, it has dumbed down in the work place, it has dumbed down in the pulpit. Another Gospel is preached, every Sunday, in many churches. Speaking in tongues, healing, prophesy.. these are not the real issue. The issue is the knowledge of the Word, Gospel of Jesus Christ and the courage to preach it and teach it.
That takes study, it takes time, but most of all, it takes a man who has fallen on his knees, literally and figuratively, thousands of times, dying to himself and living to God, even daily before the living God of Glory.
It takes a life desired to be lived..as a Sacrament.. In this, God will grant him the heart..a heart after God, no other way.
Seventy five years ago, this country began to learn, the hard way, there was no book written to "The White Men in Selma, Alabama".
It was a long time coming, and a hard ...over due lesson.
Any one who preached a white Christian experience was simply preaching another Gospel.
By the same token, and Pastor or Church or person who believes there is a Black Christian experience somehow separated from the Christian experience and life as contained in the NT is teaching, preaching or believing another Gospel. It is heretical, and from such, all should turn away.
Any Pastor who uses the "F" word from the Pulpit need only look to the conduct of the model, our Lord, Jesus Christ, His teaching, the model of Paul, his teaching, Peter, his teaching and the teaching of every OT saint.
If such a Pastor doesn't fall under conviction and/or change his behavior..he has chosen the way of Satan himself.
He is no minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who sit under that preaching and teaching are in a service unduly influenced by the advisory of God and mankind, that being, again, Satan himself. That may sound extreme, and if it does, good.
In Revelation, the last words of our Lord r recorded..basically, repent or else.
There, five out of seven churches are chastised and warned.
I imagine the proportion may very well be true today.
Thank you for you service to God and mankind, may He give you the strength to take up your cross..it will get heavier.
~Mike