 Do you ever choose to forget something? Mostly we try to remember things and inadvertently forget them. Names, scheduled events, dates, promises, anniversaries and such are lost to us in the routines of daily life. No matter how hard we try, we still forget some things. But we don’t usually try to forget things. God, however, who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, who has no memory lapses ever, chooses to forget the sins we repent of. God chooses to forget them! He identified this ongoing trait to Isaiah saying, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25). This is God’s great virtue that we can count on, as David said; “Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord” (Psalm 25:6-7). Oh, that we could be so forgetful! What a blessing it would be to be like God, keeping no record of wrongs, having no recall of our own past sins or the sins of those around us. If God can do that with his infinite mind, we can learn to forget as well. We can choose to forget everything God chooses to forget. God bless us with forgetfulness. Rick Cunningham
 Man has a responsibility to seek God, to pursue a relationship with God, to discover God’s covenant proposal and to enter into that covenant with God. With this in mind, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). God promises to help us in our spiritual journey. On the other hand, if a person does not seek God, does not pursue a relationship with God, and therefore does not discover God’s covenant proposal and enter into a covenant with God, God will abandon that person completely. With that in mind, Paul wrote, “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness,” (II Thessalonians 2:10-12). God promises to turn against those who do not seek him. God sacrificed Jesus to justify his forgiving us our sins. But we certainly have a responsibility to ask God for help, to seek his will for us, and knock at his door for entrance into his heavenly home. If we do so, God will help us. If we don’t, God will oppose us. The onus is on us. Rick Cunningham
 What do all of these have in common? The acceptance of abortion on demand. The legalization of homosexual marriages. The condemnation of the confederate flag being displayed. The proposal that we can control the world’s climate. The downgrading of our military capabilities. The encouragement of illegal aliens coming into the U.S. The making of evolution between species a fact of science. The defense of lying as being a virtue. The idea that the government can provide for citizens. The belief that the abolition of guns will stop crimes. These are examples of what has been called, “political correctness.” They are actually philosophical points that are the planks in the platform of liberal politicians. They could become the nails in the coffin of our republic. But know this. Political Correctness in all its many forms is doomed in time. The truth will never be exterminated, just regionally attacked, as it is in our society at this time. It was also attacked in the first century as the apostles initially preached the truth. Paul, as an apostle, wrote, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing” (I Corinthians 2:6). Political correctness can and will be defeated by true wisdom spoken with courage. Let’s defeat it in our age and save our nation. May God bless us! Rick Cunningham
 Jesus was a preacher. He corrected people’s misconceptions about God, rebuked all sins of disobedience to the Heavenly Father and encouraged those who were faithful to God the Father, just as all preachers are commanded to do (II Timothy 4:2). But his first sermons were about repentance (Matthew 4:17). Repentance is a call to spiritual, mental, psychological and behavioral change from sin to obedience to God. To repent is to admit to God ones sinful actions and to pledge to God the desire to act better in the future. It is a change that conforms to truth and is from the heart. Nothing short of repentance can repair and restore the soul of a man. It even preempts the rebirth of baptism (cf Acts 2:38). Yet repentance has gone out of style in our society. People do not want to admit their sins to God or to themselves. They will make a wordy confession that Jesus is the Son of God, they will agree to be baptized and they will worship God in some dutiful way, but all without really repenting of sins, before or after baptism. We need to return to Jesus’ first sermon: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). Or more timely, “Repent for Jesus’ return is near.” Rick Cunningham
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