Dear Bro. John:
I am so thankful for the feelings of God that only come through what we have been reading about in The Father and Son book – – God’s life.
Tonight, I was finishing up some typing on one of the Iron Kingdom books – Christian Liturgy. As I was typing, I had the music playing from pastorjohnshouse.com. Reading sentences such as the following, I began to weep:
“On the post-baptismal ceremonies Pope Innocent asserts: ‘it belongs solely to the episcopal office that bishops consign and give the Paraclete Spirit.’ “
and . . . .
“The witness of the church fathers is unequivocal that what the faithful receive in Holy Communion is the body and blood of Christ, even if they variously refer to the bread and wine as figures (figurae), types (typoi), antitypes (antitypoi), or signs (sacramenta) of the body and blood of Christ.”
As my eyes fell on these words (to mention just these few), my heart was crying out, “Please don’t talk about God’s life this way!” Then the heaviness I felt was relieved as the beautiful music flowed into my heart from the website. Songs such as “Lift Him High”, “Worthy”, “Take the Time”, “Come Behold the Lamb” and “Loving Me” . . . . true words and feelings of God’s life! How sweet this felt! What a contrast from the words I was typing and the feelings coming through these songs. I was humbled and thankful for God’s life! I was thankful that the words I was typing were foreign to me, but the feelings I felt from God were real!
Typing these books has furthered my understanding of what Jesus meant in this verse: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
I know our work is to get this message of love out to God’s children. But, I wondered as I typed tonight, if what we have been reading (and typing) and learning of God and His Son is to convince our hearts of how thankful we should be for this great love bestowed upon us. I want to stay humble and thankful.
Typing from these books has truly been a blessing. Thank you, Bro. John, for all you have done to help us and teach us of the Father and Son.
Sandy