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  • Not of this world

    Pastor John,

    I was blessed by reading today’s Random Thought this morning (https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt08-09). The following sentences from it reminded me of an experience I had earlier this week at work. 

    “According to Jesus, the fundamental reason that God’s children are hated by the world is simply that they do not belong to this world. (…)  Everybody in the world, except them, is trying to fit in with one group or another in this world, and because those humble children of God do not spend their lives trying to please any group on earth, all of earth’s groups hate them.”

    For one reason or another, quite often, certain lines of machines (at times most of them) are not being started at the beginning of the shift, and are not operating for hours, sometimes for the whole day. When that happens, the operators that are supposed to be working on those lines are told to do certain cleaning tasks, or help out on other lines, but sometimes, for hours, we’re literally not doing anything productive – people just hang out, talk, etc. That was the case one of the days this week. Other people from my “block” joined other people on other lines or in other operator stations, who also had nothing to do, and I was left at my station by myself. After a while I had the thought to start walking around, and see if I could join one of those groups and be engaged in their conversation, but when I started approaching a certain pair of guys, I could tell (and feel) that I didn’t need to be a part of the kind of fellowship they were having; so I walked past them, and tried to see if there were others I could possibly hang out with. But in each case I had the same feeling: In that particular moment I wasn’t to be involved in any of those groups or conversations. So, I slowly walked back to my block, sat down on one of the furnitures, and I was just sitting there. Then I had the thought that if people saw that I was just sitting there by myself, not really interested in whatever fun activities or chats others were having, they might think that I’m an “oddball” or some kind of an outsider. Now the wonderful thing after having this thought was that it didn’t bother me for one second. In my heart I felt zero fear or worry over what people might think. I knew exactly why I was feeling the way I was feeling, and I felt no urge whatsoever to try to convince people that I am not the way they might think. Sitting there by myself, I felt as happy and content as one can be, feeling that God, in that moment, was showing me, I was not of this world. 

    Now, during my first week at the factory, I had a couple of amazing conversations with people (Ukrainians), having the opportunity to share some of my testimonies and the truth with them (I am not sure I had ever felt the leading and the power of the Spirit while sharing with people, as much as I did in these specific situations); also, I feel that in general I have a good relationship with most of my colleagues. So it is not that I am trying to separate myself or be different, but in this particular moment, I felt like the Spirit was separating me from everyone else, and it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. For which I am very thankful, because I know I couldn’t have done that to myself – it was Jesus who had done something in my heart that made me feel the way I did. 

    Zoli

     

  • Who cares more for the world than the god of it?

    Morning!

    I don’t think the thought of sin wearying God has ever entered my mind, or at least not into my heart.  But of course it does.  Just look at how much it wearies us!

    I’ve been listening to the readings from the Father and the Son book*, and a thought came to me: a good measuring stick for those feelings of not letting go of who you were—and not rejoicing in who He’s made you to be—is this: What spirit cannot rejoice in the goodness of God? What spirit can never let go of its sin?  So, what spirit is whispering and keeping you from rejoicing?  It sure sounds a lot more like one of the fallen than the Risen!

    And who cares about the things of this world more than the one who only has this world: “the god of this world”.  Who walks around consumed and burdened by this world more than the god of it?  It gives a whole new light on who is who.

    It was a feel-good thought for me!

    Beth

    P.S.  God said this to Israel.

    Isaiah 43:

    24b. “You burdened me with your sins; you wearied me with your iniquities.

    25. I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

    26. Remind me!  Let us enter into judgment together!  You do the talking, so that you may be vindicated.”

    * God Had a Son Chapter 1

     

  • Morning Thoughts

    Hi Pastor John,

    I really enjoyed Damien’s knowledge transfer of what Jesus showed him about the sacrifice on the Day of Atonements. (See related links below.)

    As I was thinking about some questions related to it, I was listening to our music play in the background this morning.  I realized our recent song lyrics are all about Jesus.  The Spirit started showing me the type of humility God had in order to watch His own Son Jesus suffer and die.  If he had been an earthly father, he would done everything to stop what Jesus was going through.  He was showing us what a heavenly Father would do!  But also, when God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, God was entrusting Jesus with His kind of power.  Jesus had paid the price and was rewarded by God with that position in heaven, to be our High Priest, because he had proven he could be entrusted with it by overcoming the world with God’s kind of life. 

    By design, and from the beginning of all things, Jesus’ plan all along was to transfer that trust to us as his children through the Spirit. If we feel that trust, the love and fear of God can flow freely through us to actively live and respect this kind of heavenly life we’ve been given.  It’s like Aunt Sue said, “We are the chosen of the chosen!” Jesus is very serious (and seriously, deeply happy to the heavenliest degree) when we live that truth through walking in the Spirit he died for us to have!

    Wendy

    Going to Jesus.com – Spiritual Light

    Going to Jesus.com Tracts – The Sacrifice of Christ

  • Being cleansed with LIFE

    Pastor John,

    Whew, I have listened to last night’s meeting again, particularly what the Lord revealed to Damien, and I will listen to it likely multiple as there is a lot to unpack.  It is so good!  I feel it amounts to a more enriched understanding of the sacrifice of Christ.  It’s so encouraging for my soul to have a better understanding.  The feeling that comes with this truth allows me to understand why we’re encouraged to seek wisdom and understanding!  It stirs up my spirit!  I’m thankful that your teaching has laid a foundation upon which others can receive something from Jesus and add to our understanding of the Truth. 

    Michael

    ========

    Hi Michael!

    Yes, it is exciting.  My hope is that those of the next generation, and the next, will surpass us in all things in Christ.  And Christ has wonderful things available for those who will seek him for it.

    Pastor John

     

  • Happy to be Free

    Hi Pastor John,

    I had a wonderful experience on Wednesday that really taps into what we were rejoicing about today. 

    As I was leaving this farm where I buy produce, there was a gravel road that is long and goes out to the main road.  I cautiously left because I knew there were families around.  But when I was halfway down it, I felt a spirit that has been close to me in my life say (I call it the downward, ‘what if’ spiraling spirit of worry), “What if you left too fast and gravel kicked up and hit people?”  I felt that familiar ton of bricks hit my conscience, that sinking feeling that makes you feel like you cannot breathe.  The mental gymnastics of the worst case scenarios swiftly flowed through me in a familiar cadence.  Then, I heard another voice, and I knew that Spirit. It was God’s Spirit saying to me, “Everything is fine. Just drive a little slower on this road next time.”  I knew that voice; that’s the one we want and need to listen to!  With it came this deeper awareness of how much more power God has to help us overcome whatever we go through in this life, including those familiar carnal thoughts/feelings or spirits that we have gotten close to in our lives.  Those spirits were cast out of heaven to Earth and God gave us His kind of life to overcome them to be FREE through the law of liberty written on our hearts.  What a joyous reality! 

    It’s like we said today; we’re free to rejoice and be this new creature in Christ, NOW, because of what God has freed us from.  He’s not thinking about the past.  He wants us to live and be free right now!  He’s so happy when we are happy because that was His purpose and His kind of life…all along since the beginning of time with Jesus. 

    This morning, I kept seeing all these chains on God’s people.  The chains to forms: Christian form, worldly forms, carnal thoughts, habitual forms, etc.  And I could see God stretching out His hand to pull those chains off each of us as He teaches us something new through His love for us.  He’s the only one who can take those chains.  let Him do it and leave them with Him forever!  As each chain left, each of us were bubbling up higher and starting to fly upwards.  I could see God right there with each of us as we were levitating, happy as we are when we get to know Him more.  The sky isn’t even our limit, the limits are forms.  There is none with God!

    What a good God we get to know more!

    Wendy

     

  • Summation of morning reading*

    Pastor John,

    Is this right, based on what we read today in the Father and Son book?

    God was showing us how to have right relationships by humbly sharing His power, love, and kind of life with Jesus because of His desire for fellowship.  From the beginning, He desired to bring us close to Him, and that was the entire point of Jesus’ testimony, from beginning to end.

    Like was mentioned today, fellowship comes from action and not just believing in the Spirit or in God.  Knowing God requires obedience by operating in His Spirit.  It’s actively obeying God and being the light of the world by doing works, like putting the truth in motion.  When we have obeyed God, we have fellowship with God and Jesus.  And, when we obey God, it is always related to building relationships the way He intends.  That is the only way we can have fellowship with each other.

    That’s why reading together feels so wonderful.  It’s more than words; it’s like living out those words through obeying the Spirit that brings fellowship, and that is giving us knowledge together through the feelings of that fellowship with us/God.

    Wendy S.

    ==========

    Hi Wendy.

    Yes, that is a good assessment of what we read from chapter 9 this morning. 

    Isn’t it wonderful!

    Pastor John

    * Chapter 9 Being the Light

     

  • Question: The thief on the cross

    Hey, Pastor John!

    Had a quick question.  I was thinking about the thief who was on the cross next to Jesus and how he was able to go to paradise.  I know that “You must be born again,” like it says in John, but does the thief being given the reward of going to paradise before Jesus sent back the Spirit mean that there are some cases where Jesus doesn’t require this?  Going off scripture that I’ve read, I know this can’t be, unless there’s a scripture or something I’ve missed.  I also know this can’t be right, because of another John scripture, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  I know God can be right any way He wants to be, and do anything He wants to do, but going by scripture this doesn’t seem like the reason.  Logically, and what I think is the right option, is it because the thief who was in the cross died before Jesus was able to send back the Spirit; therefore, it wasn’t required for him because it wasn’t even yet available?  Made me so thankful for His mercy, even for the thief in his last moments on a cross, for the punishment he deserved, and still Jesus showed mercy, wow!

    Jacob C.

    ===========

    Hi Jacob.

    At the time the thief was on the cross, the Old Testament was still in effect, and everyone who was forgiven under the Old Testament went to Paradise when they died.  (At that time, Paradise was in the heart of the earth).  So, Jesus was telling the thief that he was forgiven and that he would enter into Paradise when he died instead of going into Torment (which was also in heart of the earth – Lk. 16:19–31).  

    When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he transferred Paradise out of the heart of the earth into heaven, where it is to this day.  So, as always, when a faithful saint dies now, he enters into Paradise, but now, Paradise is in heaven, where the Lord is.  It is no longer in the heart of the earth.

    The New Testament went into effect on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.  You are right to say that the coming of the Spirit was the turning point, but before the Spirit came, if God forgave someone (like the thief on the cross), he was taken by the angels into Paradise when he died, just as faithful believers are today.  The only difference is where Paradise is now located.

    I hope that clears things up for you.  Thank you for the question.

    Pastor John

  • Question: Man’s Creation

    Pastor John,

    I know this is a basic, fundamental question.  I have known that  God created man on the 6th day before  He rested.  But in chapter 2, after He has finalized everything for creation, it says he made man to till the ground.

    Is there any particular reason why it would say that God created man in chapter 2 as well as chapter 1?

    Genesis 1:

    1. And God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the creature that swims in the sea, and the creature that flies in the sky, and the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every living thing that moves about on the land.
    2. And so, God created man in His own image; in the image of God, He created him.  He created them male and female.
    3. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.  And have dominion over the creature that swims in the sea, and the creature that flies in the sky, and every creature that creeps about on the land.”
    4. And God said, “Behold, I have given to you every seed-bearing plant that is on the face of the whole earth, and every tree whose fruit bears the seed of a tree, for your food.
    5. And to every creature on land, to every creature that flies in the sky, and to everything that creeps on the ground in which is a living soul, I have given every green plant for food.”  And so it was.
    6. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.  So, there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

    Genesis 2:

    1. And no plant of the field was yet on the earth, and no herbage of the field had yet sprouted, because Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the ground.
    2. But a mist went up from the earth, and it watered all of the ground.
    3. And Jehovah God formed the man from dirt of the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.

    Steven W.

    ===========

    Hi Steven.

    I have always read chapter 2 as giving us a little more detail about man’s creation, nothing more than that.  There is nothing in chapter 1 which lets us know that God created Adam from dirt, or that he breathed life into Adam’s nostrils, or that to till the ground was Adam’s work.  And there is nothing in chapter 2 that tells us that Adam was created in God’s own image or that God created male and female.  The details of Eve’s creation are added later in chapter 2.

    Genesis 2:

    1. Then Jehovah God said, “It is not good for the man to live by himself.  I will make a helper fit for him.”

    . . . .

    1. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept.  Then He took one of his ribs, and He closed up the flesh in its place.
    2. And Jehovah God made the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman.  And He brought her to the man.

    Hope that helps.

    Pastor John

     

  • The door is open!

    Hey Pastor John!

    I had the sweetest time with Jesus last night. The sweet feelings from the morning reading* stayed with me all day. As I was going about doing housework I kept feeling this tug and feeling “seek me”. I said Jesus I don’t know how, what would you like? I got in the shower talking to Jesus still feeling that tug at my heart. When I got out of the shower and dressed the pull was so strong I just fell on my face. As I started praying I started speaking in tongues, I couldn’t speak in English anymore. This went on for a few minutes and then I remember asking Jesus to give me more. I didn’t know what specifically to ask for, just more. The feeling I got back was, “the door is open”. The door is open to everything Jesus has, all we have to do…is do! I felt Jesus surround me. He was everywhere (I don’t know how to explain that) After awhile I felt myself swaying back and forth, I felt Jesus swaying with me. Whew..it was wonderful. Jesus suffered and died to give us the holy Ghost! He wants us to have everything! The door is open!

    Michelle

    ==========

    Wonderful, Michelle!  Thank you for letting me know.

    Pastor John

    * F&S Chapter 7 Section 4 The Last Supper

  • Iniquity or Lawlessness?

    John,

    I was listening to a recent sermon, (I think it was the one entitled “How do you make Jesus feel?”)   I don’t remember where it was in the sermon, but you made a point that there was a difference between iniquity and lawlessness – and that lawlessness was the more accurate word for that scripture sentence.

    Why?  

    I studied the references in my concordance, and they both seem to indicate that both words are “transgressions of the law”, although iniquity seems to include the definition of wickedness, but lawlessness just means those who were not subject to the law, such as Gentiles.   

    I would appreciate your clarification on this, if we must make the distinction between the two words. 

    Thanks,

    Brad

    =========

    Hi Brad.

    Iniquity is lawlessness because “sin is lawlessness” (1Jn. 3:4).  What I was saying is that in the King James translation, and some others, the word that is translated “iniquity” is actually the Greek word for “lawlessness”.  We have chosen to translate that word as lawlessness because, in our view, it more precisely reflects the original mindset of the New Testament authors.

    It is not that big a deal, really.  If someone prefers to use the word iniquity, that is not a problem.  It still gets the point across, which is, sin is bad, so don’t do it!

    Pastor John

     

     

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