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  • The Flood

    John,

    This morning around the fire, we all were talking about the Flood video we watched last night at your house. (Bing Videos)  We got onto the subject of fish fossils in different layers of sediment, some being fresh water and some being saltwater species, and not being found at the same level with each other.  I was thinking about that some and I was thinking “what different does that make?”

    I got curious about salt water in the bible.  There is not one mention of the sea being salt water anywhere in the bible, before the flood or after, that I could find anyway.  The only place that it is mentioned is in James 3:12: “A fig tree cannot bear olives, can it, my brothers? Or a grapevine, figs? Just so, no fountain yields salt water and fresh.”

    I started thinking about what you said about how some men take the present and think it represents what happened in the past, and the way we see it now is the way it has always been.  But that is not true.  What we have now is the result of what happened in the past. What if all the water was fresh water until after the Flood?  Or later?  We know that the seas were gathered in one place just as the land mass was one land at creation, then God put the firmament in the midst of the waters, and it divided the waters from the waters (Gen: 1:7).  Was the rainwater salt water when it was divided?  What if God tearing apart the earth created salt water from all the minerals being poured into the waters that covered the whole earth?  We are not told, I know, but it was interesting just looking it up today in the bible and not seeing the sea being called salt water anywhere that I could find.  Maybe you know some place I missed.

    Stuart

    =========

    What an interesting thought!  Was the sea before the Flood salt water?   Maybe someone knows how to tell from the bone structure of fossils whether a fish is a fresh water or salt water fish.  But the pre-Flood world was so different from the world that exists now, we would have to ask how can anyone know for sure that the differing bone structure in fish before the Flood signified a difference between fresh and salt water fish.  Everything in the world, even the physics in nature, changed with the Flood.

    Thank you for the thought.  When we see Jesus, we can ask him all about it.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1886587477453889779

     

     

  • 1Corinthians 11

    Hey,

    I had another thought about 1Corinthians 11:17 to the end of the chapter, and I wanted to throw it out there.   I wonder if the Corinthians were starting to participate in a Christian-like eating ceremony and calling it the Lord’s supper, and Paul was having to set that straight.  Seems reasonable that he would be talking about both earthly food at same time as explaining the Lord’s supper to them.  Just a thought.
    Lyn
    ==========
    Hi Lyn.
    That may have been the case, Lyn, but if they were turning from Paul’s gospel and adding ceremonies to their faith, it seems odd they would have inventing a new ceremony instead of performing the ceremonies God gave to Israel, as other Gentile believers were doing (e.g. the Galatians).  Still, it is possible.  We know that Christians invented many ceremonies for themselves after Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 and that they have continued practicing them to this day.
    Thanks for the comment.
    Pastor John
    Tell us what you think:

  • Confessing Christ

    Pastor John,

    RE: Matthew 21:43–44:

    1. Therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and be given to a nation that will yield its fruit.
    2.  And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but whoever it falls on, it will crush him.”

    Confessing Christ now is “falling on the rock.”  Confessing Him in the end is the rock falling on you!

    Amen!

    Jerry

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1886582274063225003

  • What does the Bible say about being “whole”?

    Good Morning, Pastor John.

    I have been up reading and talking to Jesus and felt to look up everything Jesus says about being whole. In my mind I had a different prayer and reason to look that up, but something else hit my heart.

    If we, who have been given a new heart from God, with His laws written on it, and have God’s own spirit inside of us and guiding us, have any division or lack of blood flow among us and cannot come together as a whole body to praise God, than what did God sacrifice His son for?  It is like God breaking the Israelite Egyptian chains and parting the sea for them, only to have them wanting to turn back to Egypt.  If they who saw how very real God is didn’t want Him, then what was the point?  It is a terrifying thought.

    If we cannot praise God as a whole functioning body after being given the holiest and most precious gift He has to give, then what was the point?  It is terrifying to think God may feel that way, even for a second. 

    I feel like I understand that scripture about not leaving a gift on the altar if you have anything in your heart against your brother. 

    How can we, who have His most holy gift come before Him with any strife or division?  I feel like that would make God feel like we can’t even get it right with His kind of life in us.  And if we can’t get it right with being fed the purest food and an having an anointed man of God leading us, than how could we possibly think starving children of God can get it right?  What would starving children of God see in the well-fed children?  I pray they see grateful and humble hearts in us.

    These thoughts did two things in my heart today.  They made me want to not have one petty, fleshly feeling, just a fully functioning  heart shining up at God.

    And two, I don’t want any other one of God’s hearts to get damaged.  I want God to look down on every one of the hearts that He gave His holiest gift to, and see bright, shining hearts.  Thankful, grateful WHOLE hearts.  

    When we are in that meeting room praising God, I want Him to see the WHOLE room lit up!

    I don’t think I have ever seen that word whole as I do now.  Whole is all of Us.  It makes these scriptures different to me.

    Psalm 9:1 “I will praise Jehovah with my whole heart! I will tell of all your wonderful works!”

    Psalm 119:2 “Blessed are they who keep His testimonies; they seek Him with the whole heart.”

    Psalm 119:34 “Give me understanding, that I might keep your law, and I will observe it with my whole heart.”

    Psalm 119:145 “I cried out with my whole heart. Answer me, O Lord! I will keep your statutes.”

    Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with your whole heart.”

    1Corinthians 12:17 “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?”

    Ephesians 2:21 “In whom the whole building, being fit together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,”

    Ephesians 4:16 “From whom the whole body, fitted together and held together by the support of every ligament according to the work meted out to each individual member, produces the growth of the body for edification of itself in love.”

    Colossians 3:23 “And whatever you do, work at it whole-heartedly, as to the Lord and not to men,”

    1Thessalonians 5:23 “And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

    Luke 11:36 “If your whole body is full of light, not having any part darkened, it will be completely illuminated, as when a lamp gives you light with its brightness.”

    Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.”

    Beth

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1884313318258794580

     

  • 1Peter 1

    Hey Pastor John,

    As I was getting ready for bed, I asked Jesus to give me something to read.  I wanted to hear from Jesus.  Peter came to my mind, so I read him.  This is so good that I wanted to share. 

    1Peter 1:

    1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.  To the chosen sojourners of the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
    2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, even the sprinkling of blood, for obedience to Jesus Christ: Grace to you, and peace be multiplied.
    3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His abundant mercy has begotten us anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
    4. for an incorruptible, and pure, and permanent inheritance reserved in heaven for you
    5. who are kept by the power of God through faith for the salvation prepared, to be revealed in the last time.
    6. In this you rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are distressed by various trials
    7. so that the trying of your faith, much more precious than the trying of gold that perishes, though it be tried by fire, may be found worthy of praise, and honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ
    8. (whom having not seen, you love, and in whom, though not seeing him now, you believe, and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory),
    9. receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of yoursouls.
    10. Prophets who prophesied of the grace that has come to you searched for and diligently inquired about this salvation,
    11. trying to determine who or what time the Spirit of Christ which was in them was indicating when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and of the glory that followed.
    12. To them it was revealed that they were ministering those things not to themselves, but to you, which things are now reported to you by those who preach the gospel to you by the holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which things angels long to look.
    13. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
    14. as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to desires, as in your former ignorance,
    15. but rather, as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all your ways,
    16. for it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
    17. And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your sojourning with fear,
    18. knowing that you were not redeemed from your worthless way of life, received by tradition from your fathers, with corruptible things such as silver or gold,
    19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of an unblemished and spotless lamb,
    20. known indeed before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the end times for your sakes,
    21. who through him have faith in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope might be in God.
    22. With your souls purified by obedience to the truth through the Spirit unto a sincere love of the brothers, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
    23. being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the living and eternally enduring word of God.
    24. For, “All flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like a flower of grass.  The grass withers, and its flower falls,
    25. but the word of the Lord abides forever.”  And this is the word that is preached to you.

    I hope you and Barbara rest well.

    Love you,

    Michelle

    ===========

    Thank you, Michelle.

    Barbara and I read this together.  There are more benefits to reading and learning the Bible than I can even say.  This chapter from 1Peter is full of love and truth!  May God help us all to truly take it in!

    Pastor John

    Comments welcome: 

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1885339233235181690

     

  • Holy Ghost hum

    Morning!  I’m so thankful for the touches yesterday and feelings that we had.  Around the fire yesterday when the Spirit was falling so strong, I could hear a hum of beautiful sounds. It continued later when we were all together.  It made me have thoughts of the day of Pentecost when they described the sound “like a rushing mighty wind.”  It didn’t just blow through, but it sat on them, each one.  What a sound that was!  When we are together in Spirit, and praising the Lord together, there is a sound you can hear, and it’s beautiful.

    That sound is a foretaste of things past and to come! 🙂  As we were saying yesterday, we could sit around and talk about what God did or isn’t doing, or we can live it now.  I love knowing Jesus is still working in us, and the things he did, he is still doing!  To feel the touch of God is much better than talking about it.  And it’s still available to be felt!  No matter what somebody says about it, it’s available to all those who want it.  God is a now God! Until He says He’s not. 

    Amy B. 

    Comments welcome:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1883881160197185568

  • Jesus Hidden in a Good Way

    Pastor John,

    I had the thought today that the religion of Christianity has kept Jesus hidden from this world—in a good way.

    If the only people in all the world declaring to belong to Jesus were spirit-filled saints full of the power of God, it would bring the wrath of the world and all its strange spirits down on the saints of God quickly.  But instead, the loudest voice has been Christianity, which has given evil people in this world little to worry about in the way of being an obstacle to their sin or rendering righteous judgment.  Christianity’s voice has been much louder than the voice of holiness folk, and it has caused evil people in this world not to look too closely at holiness people as representatives of Jesus.  That has kept God’s holy-ghost filled saints safe.  And because the loudest voice is a divided and powerless institution, that has caused evil people in the world not to take Jesus too seriously, overall.  So Christianity has fulfilled a very important purpose there.

    Is that right?

    Thank you.

    Jerry

    ==========

    Yes, it is.  My father often said that Christianity functioned for God’s saints the same way the Outer Banks of North Carolina, protecting the mainland from the harshness of the ocean’s waves and storms.  Christianity is there, claiming to represent Christ, but dealing with governments and cultures so that those governments and cultures don’t come crashing down on us.

    Pastor John

    Comments welcome:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1883878738884165805

     

  • We are Blessed!

    Good morning Pastor John,

    I feel so very blessed today!  I woke up with a peace I can’t explain.  I think I am truly under His wing today.  Not peeking out, not pondering the old me, just living in peace and harmony in the Spirit.  We serve a good GOD!  We have a glorious brother in Jesus!  They gave us what we need, the holy Ghost!  GOD will truly give you the desires of your heart!  We just have to make sure we know what we desire and that it is in tune with the Spirit.

    I was listening to the Matthew study (18:1, I think, talking about our freedom) https://youtu.be/RqHEAsht2LQ?si=vFYA9MH3QwOONGoz, which I have heard several times.  But today it was like it is new!  I feel like Brother Jimmy with the Jerusalem Council book (Going to Jesus.com – The Jerusalem Council)   ; every time I go thru it, something new hits my heart.  After today, I feel like I need to start over with the series.

    As I write this, I have the song, “A Simple Life” playing, so I am writing thru watery eyes sorry for the missed spellings.  I have been so blessed this morning, more than ever.  Today is the greatest day of my life now!  The day I got the Holy ghost got me here but… the day we are born again is good, but it is not meant to be the best day, just the first brick of many.  I don’t know how to tell how I am feeling and what GOD has done to me, but I absolutely love it and I cannot just sit here. I HAD TO SHARE IT!!!!!

    One thing I feel, for the first time I think, is a heart with no self condemnation.   I love it.  I can live my life like this!  I feel the Spirit running up and down me again.  What a wonderful life this is!  I want to praise GOD, thank Jesus, and live in the Spirit always!

    Hope this does not come across a babbling but it is the best I can do!

    Love,

    Mark

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1881063337573888176

     

  •  “The” law

    John,

    I loved being in the translating session this morning….

    With zero understanding of Greek, this question may be beyond my understanding, but if the article (the) is present in the Greek text, is there a case when it should be excluded?

    ==========

    Yes.  To make a translation sound right in English—when it will still be a faithful translation—one may either leave off or add a “the” to an English sentence.

    ========== 

    I assume that we have to trust that the Greek texts that we have are authentic and haven’t been altered?

    ==========

    That’s right.  We have to start somewhere.

    ==========

    Thanks,

    Wendell

    Going to Jesus.com – Bible Translations

    Comments welcome:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1881040513316557049

     

  • Q&A: Leavened bread in Leviticus 7, Part Two

    Pastor John

    I, too, do not know why leaven was required by God in certain cases, but I have noticed a consistent feature of when peace offerings were required.

    The only feast day for which a peace offering was commanded to be offered was the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) (Lev. 23:19). Aaron’s first sacrifices included peace offerings (Lev. 9:18).  The fire that came out from before Jehovah that day consumed the burnt offering and the fat pieces of the peace offerings (vv.19, 24).

    As these peace offerings were not offered for a vow or freewill offering (compare Lev. 7:12 & Lev. 7:16), then it would appear that leavened bread would have been brought with each of these offerings.

    At Mt. Sinai, on the day the Old Covenant was instituted, the young men Moses sent offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (Ex. 24:5).  These were not Levitical offerings, so we do not know the details.

    These peace offerings were all associated with Old Testament figures that foreshadowed the making of the New Covenant, which was when men entered the kingdom of God.  Leaven is used as a symbol of sin in the New Testament, but there is also Jesus’ parable in Luke 13.

    1. Again, he said, “To what will I compare the kingdom of God?
    2. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid within three measures of flour until it was all leavened.”

    So, maybe leaven was required as a figure of the Spirit that men would receive, beginning with the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the New Covenant began.

    Also, the two leavened loaves that were waved on Pentecost were brought out from their dwellings (Lev. 23:17).  I believe these loaves represent people.  The leavened bread in Leviticus 7 was brought by the person offering the peace offering.  So, the act of bringing leaven before God might also point to the spiritual condition of those who are ready to receive the Spirit, or something like that.

    Damien

    ==========

    So, the bottom line of our answer to Zoli is that we do not know, as you said at the beginning of your email.  We can conjecture reasonably about connections with the New Testament, as you have done, if we understand basic truths of the New Testament, as you do.  But we cannot know anything for certain without revelation knowledge.

    Thanks, Damien.  That kind of information is helpful, and may prove to be crucial to out understanding.  Let’s keep digging.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1881035831546368467

     

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