Good morning,

Last night was so good Pastor John. All of it.

Brother Stuart’s testimony and brother Gary’s song really left me asking Jesus to show me my heart with my family members. I went to bed praying I have done nothing that would ever turn them away from Jesus. Praying for a heart like Jesus. More and more I am learning how very precious it is to take Jesus’ name.

I loved what you said about starting out loving everyone more than yourself and ending up that way too. I want to be that way too, like you. I felt excited after hearing that like it was instruction and guidance in what to ask Jesus for. It just felt good to hear everything. I think my favorite part was to “just be good soil and you don’t even have to think about it”. I love that you gave the instruction of being open and sincere. Hearing bro Jimmy tell of going to bed sincerely asking Jesus to help him or take him, and to then see that Jesus put that burden on him and we all get all of this. We get instruction and understanding, we get wisdom! We serve a very big God!

Seventeen years to protect hearts he loved and give you more wisdom….wow! God’s love for His children is very important to Him.

Beth

John,

I feel like this song* is a conversation between us and God:

Us talking to God:
“There is a light, a certain kind of light that never shone on me I want my life to be lived with you, lived with you, there’s a way everybody say’s to do each and every little thing, but what does it bring if I ain’t got you, if I ain’t got you!”

God speaking to Us:
“You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t know what it’s like, to love somebody, to love somebody, the way I love you! in my brain I see your face again, I know my frame of mind! you ain’t got to be so blind.”

Us talking to God:
“And I ‘m bind! so so very blind, I’m a man, can’t you see what I’am ?”

God speaking to us:
“I live and breath for you! but what good does it do if I ain’t got you! if I ain’t got , You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t know what it’s like, to love somebody, to love somebody the way I love you!”

Wow!!

Stuart

*Song lyrics taken from the Bee Gees

Dear Bro. John:

I would like to share something the Lord gave me yesterday.

I always love to hear his Voice, whatever it may be! Yesterday as I was getting ready for work, I took time to read the WhatsApp messages that were coming through. One of the messages was concerning the “new” variety of hornet called the “Murder Hornet” that had been found in North America, in WA state, I believe. Still thinking on what I had just read as I showered, I thought to myself, “Well, that hornet has a purpose, whatever it may be.” As soon as I had that thought, the Spirit spoke and said, “Can you think of anything that God created that doesn’t have a purpose?”

Well, I started thinking about different things that God has created such as animals (for food) and trees (for shade/fruit and beauty) and flowers (beauty/pollination), etc. Lots of things that have a purpose. Then I thought about not only does he create things, but he also creates situations such as the present Covid-19 virus. (and many more situations in the Bible that he created) There is a purpose for this virus, though we may not understand it fully. God ALWAYS has a purpose for his creations. That was about as far as this feeble brain would go because all I needed to believe was that it was GOD! No matter what God does, there is always a purpose!

This morning, I read the whole book of Ecclesiastes. My, what sobering scriptures and wisdom from Solomon! It humbled my soul to read and feel what Solomon was saying. It makes no difference regarding anything of this earth; all is the same and all will end up the same – dust! The king will end up the same as the servant, the rich the same as the poor, the mighty the same as the weak, and so on. Whew! All that matters is God! “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

And: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

There are just too many good scriptures to quote here from Solomon, but it sure blessed me to read such wisdom this morning. As you have said, Bro. John, this virus that is upon us is not about the virus. And it is not about the hornet. It is about God and his purpose for us. What season is it for us? What time is it? What is God’s purpose?

The question that the Spirit asked me: “Can you think of anything that God created that doesn’t have a purpose?” He sent it for a reason. What is God’s purpose for us? It seems Solomon searched and searched and found nothing but vanity, and that fearing God and keeping his commandments was all that mattered.

Bro. Gary’s new song, “I Come to Save You” says: “take this time, get to know My mind”. Help us to do that, Jesus.

Sandy

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalms 46:10

Hi John,

I loved the Livestream Sunday morning on fellowship, the testimonies from JD and Tom, Rob, Bob and JD3 were top of the line. It really is that easy and simple when we touch God and confess where we really are. I don’t know how you can put it any plainer than what you did Sunday morning with what you said and read about true fellowship with the Father and the Son, and how we have it with one another. If we have fellowship with the Father and the Son, we will have fellowship with anyone else that has fellowship with the Father and the Son.

It was really a sweet feeling, the relief and the fellowship between JD and Rob and Tom, telling their parts of the testimony of what God did. I also felt the seriousness of what God is doing with us. We want to please Him always, searching our hearts to make sure we have fellowship with His people. Like you said, we know when there is something wrong. Really, we just need to be honest and follow the Spirit to get it straightened out. Thank you, John

Stuart

Pastor John,

I was just listening to brother Gary sing “I Came To Do Thy Will”, and there is a verse in that that says “betrayed now with a kiss”. It struck my heart. I thought about what an intimate gesture a kiss between brethren is, a holy kiss. I thought about what that really meant, to be betrayed with that kiss by Judas.

Then the thought of Satan betraying God came to mind. Satan had such an intimate place with God, I wonder if that hurt God’s heart? I always pictured God just angry and casting him out, but I wonder if it hurt him? It made me hurt thinking about hearts that have left God after having been given such an intimate part with Him. It also made me think about how we treat each other’s hearts that have been given such an intimate part of God. I want to take very special care of the hearts so intimately a part of God’s heart. That song touched me today.

Beth

Pastor John,

I want to share my dream.

I was standing in the center of a room somewhere near the top of a very tall building. Maybe I was in a tower. There were huge windows that made up most of the walls of the room. A pilot was in front of me wearing a pilot’s jacket and helmet. He pulled off his helmet and it was brother Earl. He placed his keys on the table and immediately began singing the Lord’s praises for delivering him during his flight and giving him a safe landing. Earl was full of confidence and thankfulness in what the Lord had done for him – his joy was contagious! I could sense there had been trouble in the plane during the flight but Jesus had kept brother Earl. I then walked to the window and I was allowed to see the landing that Brother Earl had just achieved. He was piloting a small, single-engine seaplane, there were floats on the bottom for landing gear. I watched as he swooped down and landed smoothly on the water.

That was brother Earl’s landing and that is what he had been thanking Jesus for moments ago – attributing all his success to the Lord’s doing.

The feeling in the room changed and another one of God’s children came in, removing his helmet. He had piloted a plane as well, just as brother Earl had. But this man was upset, disgusted even. It was apparent this man’s landing had gone poorly.

I was then standing at the window again looking out just as I had done before. I was being allowed to see this second man’s landing. As his plane flew by I could see it was missing one of the floats on the bottom, the float was used for the water landing. The plane didn’t descend much further before it started spinning out of control. The plane spun off and out of sight before ever getting to the water. I turned around saddened by what I saw and certain of the tragic outcome.

I then heard the second pilot exclaim aloud in defense of his failed landing, “But I was missing part of my landing gear!”

And I then heard your voice, pastor John, right beside me though you were not in the room. You said, “He could have (landed) too, if God said so.”

I immediately woke up. I was wide awake as if I had not been sleeping. I began to consider what I just saw and realized that I understood what you had just said to me, “He could have (landed) too, if God said so.”

If God says you can do something, it isn’t because of your abilities, it is because of His. If God says you can land a plane with no landing gear, you can land it, not because you’re an extraordinary pilot, thus he chose you, but because he is going to do the work.

At the end of this morning’s live streaming on Youtube, you prayed for us all …. God help us do these things and “to get past all the excuses.”

It made me consider my dream and what you had said – “He could have too, if God said so.”

Jerry

Hey John,

I had a couple things that I wanted to share. First, when I saw this Excerpt below from the Solomon’s Wisdom book, it got my attention because sometime during the last few weeks the words “self-indulgence” came to me, just out of the blue. I didn’t know if it was the Lord was saying this to me, but I do know I didn’t think up the words myself. And I’ve been praying for the Lord to help me do my part for fellowship or show me if there’s something I can do. So, I have been paying attention to my own “self-indulgence” and being more careful about that in everyday things such as eating. When I saw this excerpt, which associates self-indulgence with a lazy person and it killing him, it made me get up and get to work doing some extra cleaning (instead of lounging around). That felt good. And there’s a Thought for Today on the Carnal Mind (April 14), that I read recently where you talk about over-indulgence in carnal things and the carnal mind dividing us. So all those thoughts seem connected to me.

Then this morning, I decided to read a section of your Apostate Fathers book on Polycarp. When I was reading that, the Lord blessed me with a better understanding of the verse in 1John 4:3. Somehow I’ve always just read that verse as a verse, and not realizing the context of what John had been talking to the saints about. I don’t know why (and feel a little embarrassed about it), but that particular verse has always been a little fuzzy to me. But this morning when I was reading what you wrote on Polycarp’s misunderstanding of that verse, something started clicking for me, and I read in the Bible what John said, starting a couple of verses before that, at the end of chapter 3. Here is what stood out to me…(paraphrased): “Hereby we know he abideth in us – by his Spirit…but don’t believe every spirit because there are false prophets (men that lie)…hereby know the ye spirit…every spirit that confesses.” And then I read in the Polycarp section where you said that John knew better than to think that anyone is of God who said Jesus lived in a fleshly, human body…I thought, of course! It’s simple! The murderous men of John and Jesus’ time all would have said Jesus lived in a fleshly human body. And then you explained that John was warning the saints not to think the Spirit comes any other way than the way it first came. That was even better and more perfectly explained and confirmed what I was understanding in those verses. That really blessed me.

Thanks John, Love you!

Lyn

Hi John,

This morning’s gathering on Skype, with the testimonies, and songs, and your teaching and preaching, was WONDERFUL! And very much needed. I loved your message on fellowship. And I feel like Jesus opened a deeper understanding in me of why fellowship, and honesty with ourselves, and openness with the body is so important.

Recently, I heard about a sister in the Lord who would sometimes hear a voice, in her mind, telling her about certain situations with other brothers or sisters, and she would believe this voice, thinking that it was God speaking to her. She would then make judgments of that particular brother or sister in her heart based on what she believed God was saying – judgments that, it turns out, were not right because the voice she was listening to was not God, but some other spirit.

When I heard about this, the Scripture that immediately came to mind was 1John 4:1, where John says “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God”. I thought about this, but I really didn’t have a clear understanding as to what, exactly, it means to “test the spirits”. Test them, how?

Well, after watching the recording of our Livestream gathering again this afternoon, and talking about it with Amy, I found myself telling Amy (because Jesus was showing me) what that Scripture means, at least in part: There is at least one way we can try the spirits, when we feel like we’ve heard from God but are unsure if it is really God speaking. It is by testifying! If God has truly spoken to any one of us, and we are open with our experiences from God, and tell about it, we are going to know, based on our fellowship with the body, and with our pastor, if we are listening to the right voices!

That was so good to me! You really can’t have fellowship with the Father and the Son all by yourself! God has set it up so that the only way you can have fellowship with He and Jesus is with each other!

Vince

p.s. Ironically, now that I think of it, I am “testing the spirits” by sharing with you what I feel like Jesus showed me this afternoon. Ha!

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Amen, Vince. Cathy B. and I were talking about this same subject this evening. It is very important to test the spirits by telling somebody else in the body, and preferably more than one person, about what you think and feel. There is safety in openness! That is why Paul cautioned Timothy not to receive any accusation against an elder without witnesses. He knew that faithful witnesses would protect Timothy from the evil influence of unjust accusations against an elder. And he also knew that the Slanderer always works in the dark.

Thanks for writing,

Pastor John

Pastor John,

The Excerpt below is a warning against being lazy. The last sentence reads: “Idleness produces hunger.”

When I read that, I realized it was God’s judgment against slothfulness. It is meant to teach us when we are young, or even punish us when we are old.

The world gets in the way of God’s lesson. Whether it is a government that supports the able-bodied when they will not work or a parent that habitually supports their grown children when they fall in and out of employment, it teaches folk that there are no consequences for their actions.

It is a simple lesson: If you don’t work you don’t eat, but it is God’s wisdom. It teaches us early that we reap what we sow – if someone doesn’t get in the way of that precious lesson.

It is a lot easier to believe that God will judge us for our sins in the end if there are consequences felt now for our foolish choices.

Jerry