Hi Pastor John,

I was so glad to have been at the reading on Sunday morning. I love Psalm 119; it’s definitely one of the best. What I love the most about Sunday morning was Jesus helping me with something. In particular, helping me know God wrote through David. When you talked about Psalm 119, you explained how the Psalm is divided into 22, 8-verse segments, each segment starting with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. As soon as you said that I immediately began to think of how I’d been told in Christianity that much of the time, OT writings were written this way by man as a memory device. That was why I’d asked that question about whether David had written Psalm 119 on purpose!

After I’d asked that question I felt like a bit of a dummy, and then I began to think of how in Christianity, that was the way I’d been taught, and that influence was still in my heart – to think it was man, and not God. And overall, to be taught to never trust my feelings. That’s very sad to think of. But Jesus was there to help.

And then we all began to read, and you had us all read a segment each, and by the end of the reading, it turned out there was just the right amount of people there that morning to each read a section. That was exciting to me, coming down to the last few people and seeing that there would be the perfect amount of readers! But also that God had spoken to Jimmy T at the beginning, “Watch this” (I forget exactly). I was so glad to be there for that! I know that was a help to me. It was kinda like Jesus was letting me know! I know Jesus does many things at one time to help us, and that was him helping me. I’m so glad He woke me so early so I could be there! My prayer is that Jesus keeps removing that
Christian influence from my heart.

Jenny

Hey There,

I want to share with you what Jesus did for me this morning. This morning when I came to your house, I felt like I was carrying a burden. But, after talking with you this morning, I was feeling some relief. Then we started to read from Psalms. In the reading, God was reminding His people of the times when they (His people) messed things up, how He rescued them. So, I prayed that Jesus would send His help again for me.

Looking back, I think I just got in a hurry and missed what I needed before moving forward on this job.

So, I had planned on picking up one of the repair kits Stuart was talking about. But on the way to Lowes, I had the feeling that I was to go straight to the job site first. So I went with that first. As I approached the driveway, I saw a Spectrum van there. This guy was a supervisor who was there to help fix the problem. He was writing up a door hanger because the homeowner was not there.

I asked him if he would look at things to see if he could fix the problem. He said, “Sure I will, that’s what I’m here for.”

After looking things over, within 10 minutes, he said, “It looks like I fixed it.” He wouldn’t know for sure until the homeowner lets him see the internal connections. But if he didn’t have it right, he said he would swing by after 5:00 today to make it right.

I told him that I was the one, who messed it up, by being in a hurry. He looked at me and said, “That’s okay. I can fix it.” John, just like you said, Jesus sees the heart. And when we slow down and see where we missed it, and then be willing to say “I messed it up,” he can then say to us, “That’s okay I can fix it.” Then Restoration can happen.

Thank you for asking what’s been going on with me lately. It opened the door for the help I needed.

Tim

Pastor John,

I want to tell you about my experience with you at lunch. It means a lot to me.

When we were ordering our food this afternoon and it came time for you to place your order, you told the server, “Just surprise me – pick something that you think is good.”

That tickled me – I thought it was a courageous thing to do and I said as much. You then said, “it’s just food.” Your words struck me and that grew into something bigger as the day went on. I want to tell you what I felt from the Lord about that.

A lot of years ago, I realized something about myself: I enjoyed food too much. I was finding a kind of pleasure in food that was allowing me to check my hunger for God, momentarily. I was able to put my mind and my expectations toward an excellent meal and stop feeling, briefly, the longing for the next touch from Jesus. It was temporary comfort.

When I saw this behavior was costing me in Jesus, I set out to stop worrying about what I was eating and began eating because I needed to – to sustain myself. I quit contemplating the things that would taste best, how to prepare them, where to get them, etc, and began choosing food and portions to simply stave off hunger; whatever was relatively healthy and convenient. I didn’t look forward to a meal anymore – it just didn’t matter.

I wasn’t long on this new road when I woke up one Sunday to find an email that you had sent out late in the night, it was from Amy B. and you had shared it with everyone. I read that email and soon found myself on the floor making snow angels in the carpet. The feelings from Jesus were pouring over me so that I felt I had gone someplace heavenly. I then realized as I continued carving out snow angels in the carpet knap, smiling with a joy that only comes from Jesus, that I was experiencing a feeling in the Spirit that was hidden within that email. By staying hungry, refusing to be filled with anything else and waiting on God, God had opened a door to feelings that I could not have otherwise experienced.

I realized today, pastor John, all these years later, that is the true fast – fasting from earthly pleasures that fill in the down times – those same downtimes that you warned us about today. Those are the times when we aren’t feeling Jesus – when we aren’t “flying high” in the Spirit. Those times are uncomfortable, we feel wanting, hungry, and in need of something that we can’t give ourselves. You warned us today to beware of how we fill those times of wanting. The true fast is when we refuse to put any earthly thing in that place, choosing instead to stand fast in our feeling of need for Jesus until he comes and fills us up again.

Things in this world, earthly pleasures, can temporarily fill that longing for the next touch from Jesus. We can put (give) our heart to something earthly so we don’t have to feel the wanting. It can be food; the momentary high from buying something new, exercise, TV, working – absolutely anything if we begin to wear it tight enough so that it insulates us from feeling that need that should drive us deeper into the Lord. It is a temporary comfort against God’s absence.

That is what I felt like you were saying pastor John, when you said, “It’s just food”. Not that you had taken a stand against enjoying food, but that you had taken a stand long ago against caring much about food or anything else temporal. You wouldn’t give it power today to satisfy your needs. Nor did you give it power to disappoint!

In that place, pastor John, a man no longer selects his clothing to satisfy his desire to look a certain way, but instead looks around to see what the world is wearing, and dresses similarly to fit in best he can – in a world where he does not belong. Waiting, wanting, and suffering patiently for Jesus to come, and refusing to be comforted (or dulled) by anything else.

Thank you for your time today, it taught me a lot 🙂

Jerry

Pastor John,

This excerpt is good. It takes me back to the Jerusalem Council debate that you wrote. It is (and always was) about the Son! Whew!

Jerry

(The excerpt below is from the book titled, God Had a Son before Mary Did.)

Hi Pastor John,

The meetings on our last meeting weekend were so good to me. Once again, I’m astounded at how the meetings match up with my life. In particular what was so perfect for me, was all of what was said about making right choices, getting our own way, and then looking back in 6 months at the decisions you’ve made, and then you’re in a mess.

Recently I was saved from a potential mess. There was a situation that came up where I could have pushed some, and then a little bit more, and possibly gotten my own way in something which would have been very bad. And I was really of the mind to push and get my own way. But thankfully an elder pointed out to me the right choice in that situation. I really didn’t want to do what was advised, but I knew in my heart that she was right, and so I listened. I followed through with the right choice and did what my elder said, and did not push to get my own way. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to where I could look back and see what a mess I could have gotten in to, and that I was spared from a bad situation. It feels completely different now, and I am so thankful that in 6 months time I won’t have to look back in a mess at the wrong decisions I made. It feels good to have made the right choice, and it feels like a bit of victory, actually. And I’m thankful for feeling safe. That’s the underlying feeling – I feel saved, and I feel relieved. I know I made the right choice.

I’m also thankful for my elders. If I did not have an elder to go to, I believe I would not have figured out what the right decision should have been, in that particular situation, so I’m thankful for elders, too. This is really the one time I’ve seen for myself what a blessing elders are, and what protection and safety they provide – if we will just go to them, be open with them, and listen. Even if what they say is not what you think you want.

Jenny

Do you think Mercy and Truth might have been names of angels?

Ps. 61:7. He will sit in God’s presence forever. Appoint Mercy and Truth, that they may keep him.

After all, the prophet said,

Ps. 91:11. He will give angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12. In their hands will they bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Probably not, but the angels who were appointed to watch over Jesus must have had names, whatever they were. But I will add for your consideration the fact that the angel of destruction in the book of Revelation was named “Destruction”, and the angel of death and the angel of hell were named “Death” and “hell”, respectively.

Just an interesting idea that I thought I would pass along.

Have a nice day.

jdc

Hey!

I don’t have any suggestions for you, as to how to resolve the issue you mentioned in The Jerusalem Council, but I do want to share some thoughts that I have been having.

I’ve tried to get to the root cause of why some believed Paul’s doctrine and some did not. One of the main things I believe was pride or the lack of it. Those who believed Paul did not have a problem with pride. Those who did not believe Paul did have a problem with pride: pride in being a Jew, pride in being a member of God’s chosen people. Pride that made them feel superior to Gentiles even if those same Gentiles had received the Spirit. Pride that had an ill effect on their heart that would not let them receive the truth, or be able to forgive Paul’s past sins, in their heart.

Unable to trust Paul, they were therefore, unable to believe Paul. The new Truth that Paul brought exposed what was in the heart of all who were present. The prideful ones were camouflaged under Peter’s gospel, but the light of the Truth destroyed the camouflage and they were no longer able to hide. Those who believed Paul would have been able to discern the hearts of the others, and as you have shown, would have treated them with much love and patience hoping to win them over.

As for those who did believe Paul. Why did they believe him? There was more to it than a lack of pride, or being able to forgive Paul for his past. You have taught us many times that the only thing we really have to share is our testimony. And the thing that they were able to do was to believe Paul’s testimony. But it is not quite that simple. There is more to it than that. The answer I believe may lie in which part of his testimony they were able to believe. It wouldn’t have been the part about his experience on the road to Damascus, or the things he experienced with Ananias. I believe the part of Paul’s testimony that they had to believe was Paul’s testimony of being carried into the third heaven and being taught by Jesus face to face. All of the other Apostles had been taught by Jesus face to face too! Paul said that he was “as one born out of due time”. Jesus couldn’t come back down here to teach Paul. Paul had to go there, and the Apostles and others had to actually believe that really happened! Paul being caught up to the third heaven and being taught by Jesus trumps all of the scripture that had been written before. Paul’s gospel was what God was saying concerning the Gentiles at that time! And because the Apostles and others were able to trust and believe Paul, they were also able to trust and believe the revelation he received from Jesus.

Billy H.

Pastor John,

What a blessing it was for the things we all felt this weekend, and heard! What an honor it is for Jesus to show us favor, and let us feel just a tad bit of His feelings.

Just had to say something while sitting here thinking over it.

Thanks,

Paul

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Amen, Paul!

To be touched by Jesus is a honor, and to touch him back, with our praise and worship, is another honor.

I am thankful for what we felt this weekend from Jesus, and what we felt for him.

Pastor John