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  • Jesus Saved the Day

    Pastor John,

    I have got to tell on Jesus. I went on call midnight Friday night.  I worked yesterday to make up one of the days I was out for my catheter.  While in the parts room (which is very much like the dream before I was hired, full to the ceiling) looking for a part I needed, I found a cast saw blade taped to a box.  My first thought was, what an odd place for that blade and then went on looking.   Well, last night at 1030 pm I get a call from the nurse manager, “someone from your shop took the cast saw from ER and didn’t return it.  They have a kid who fell into a pool and they need to cut off his cast and we can’t find one anywhere.”  Cody, the guy who took the saw texted and told me it was on his bench, he took it because the blade was bad and he was waiting for the new one to come in.

    When I first got to work, the manager was already in the shop looking for a power cord.   So I went right back to where I remembered that blade being.   It was actually the correct blade.   I installed it and had the unit working in just minutes.  I remembered thinking “what a crazy place for a saw blade” when I first saw it and Jesus immediately was on my mind. 

    So, I told Alice, the nurse manager, what Jesus had done for me by showing me the blade earlier and letting me remember where it was (you have no idea how crazily our parts room is misarranged)!  Cody called me shortly afterwards and I also told him the story and that Jesus had saved the day!   His reply was, “I know God takes care of you.”  I love my new life in the Lord! He is so very good to us!

    Happy fathers day to all our blessed fathers!

    Mark W.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1803059651740656055

     

  • Father and Son Reading

    John,

    I have read over the papers and the new stuff on the phone you sent out.  It is wonderful. I can hardly believe we are in exactly the same place they were in heaven, our hearts being tried every day all the time!  How can ANYONE ever hope to make to make it through without completely being subdued to the Spirit and mind of it, and the mercy of God.  His silence tries us through and through.  It makes my heart tremble, and LOVE IT MORE at the same time!

    Jimmy T.

    F&S Sentences PDF

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1802098903707275604

  • Job 11:12

    Pastor John,

    Your translation of Job 11:12* says, “An empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man.”

    I think it means an empty-headed man will never learn wisdom –– empty-headed concerning the things of God, I think.

    Mark W.

    * https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_translation.html

    ==========

    Hi Mark.

    That is right.

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1802093647929708707

     

  • Four Kinds of Soil

    RE: Jesus’ Parable of the Four Kinds of Soil

    Pastor John,

    Do you think people are always the third type of soil in Jesus’ parable or does it develop gradually, changing over time?  I feel they don’t see it in themselves probably.  If you are the third kind, will the holy Ghost still talk to you or will He eventually stop?   Can the third type grow into the fourth if God lets them see it in themselves?  I have these questions because it scares me that I could be deceived and not even know myself.  But the times the holy Ghost has answered me or chastened me gives me great hope.

    Thanks for the video on evolution.*  The holy Ghost in me loved it.  It dispelled many myths about the earth.  Amazing how many of these were the same questions I have always had, as  in “How did ocean animal fossils end up on mountain tops?”  And many more.

    The meeting last night was good food for my soul!

    Thank you,

    Mark W.

    =========

    Hi Mark,

    Our choices determine which kind of soil we are.  Based on that, I would say that a person can at least stop acting as if he is bad soil.  But I don’t know that if a person who is the third kind of soil can actually change into the fourth kind of soil.  God alone knows that.  It is clear from the scriptures that a person who is the third kind of soil does not realize he is in the spiritual condition he is in.  Sometimes, the Bible makes it plain that such people are so blind that some of them consider themselves spiritual guides to others in the body of Christ.

    It is sobering just to know that within the body of Christ are both wise and foolish believers.  God speaks to all His children, by one means or another.  He always has.  But the unwise do not put into practice what they know is their heavenly Father’s will.

    My father once warned me not to be hasty in judging anyone to be a wise virgin or a foolish one because, he said, there may be some foolish things about a wise saint and some wise things about a foolish one.  We will do well to leave that judgment to God, and pay attention to our own lives, making sure that we are doing the will of God.

    Pastor John

    PS You are welcome for the evolution video.  I learned a lot from it, too.

    * https://youtube.com/watch?v=hRoQL7W5jg8&si=-ytmswk0qpKHKNaB

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1802089166567604548

  • You Set Me Free

    Pastor John,

    Everytime I hear this song by Donna Nelson it touches me.  Her beautiful testimony!

                                         You Set Me Free

    You thought that I had lost my mind, gone perfectly insane

    when all of my old habits changed, my life was rearranged

    The Master of the wind had come, He touched my cold, stone heart

    and gave me life and liberty and set this dead man free

    I was dead but now I live Through the blood you shed for me

    I was blind but now I see Jesus, you gave sight to me I was dead to

    the love that you had for me, but one touch from your hand you set

    me free

    I used to think that I was right in how I love and serve the Lord

    but then he spoke to me one night and sweetly changed my life

    His words so kind and yet so true, all your ways are filth to me

    I left them everyone behind and Jesus set me free!

    I was dead but now I live Through the blood you shed for me

    I was blind but now I see Jesus, you gave life to me I was dead to

    the love that you had for me, but one touch from your

    hand, you set me free!

    I am so thankful that Jesus has set us free!  Free from the lie that Christianity is of Christ, free from a crazy mixed up world, and free from ourselves!  It stirs up faith in my soul.  What do you need?  Peace? Healing?  Comfort?  Strength?

    It’s available!  All it takes is one touch from the Master!

    He is truly good to us!  

    Michelle 

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1800326789593743838

     

  • Why Did Saul Persecute the Jews?

    Hi John,

    I had always thought the reason Saul persecuted the Jews after they received the Holy Ghost was because they stopped keeping the law.  Since the Jews were required by God to keep Moses’ law after they received the Holy Ghost, why did Saul persecute them?

    Thank you,

    Randell

    ===========

    That is a very thoughtful question, Randell.  It is one that I should have asked myself a long tome ago.  Thank you for asking it.

    One would think that Jewish believers would have been highly respected by their fellow Jews since believing Jews were devoted to the law (Acts 21:20).  But Paul told the Thessalonians that believing Jews had suffered many things at the hands of other Jews (1Thess. 2:15).  When you asked me this question, I realized for the first time that the Bible provides us with no clear answer for it.

    Leaders of unbelieving Jews hated Jesus because they envied his popularity with the people.  Even Pontius Pilate saw that they envied Jesus (Mt. 27:18).  They invented a rule that forbade the sick to be healed on a Sabbath in order to condemn him, for they saw that he healed people every day.  And they condemned him for claiming to be their Messiah.  Maybe that is why Paul as a young man joined others in persecuting their fellow Jews who believed in Jesus.  Maybe it was just a case of Jesus’ reproach falling on those who believed in him.  They were certainly not hated because of immoral conduct.

    It is fascinating to me that I had never considered that the Bible never tells us why believing Jews were so hated by their fellow Jews.  They arrested Peter and John because they preached the resurrection from the dead, and many people believed them (Acts 4:1–4).  They stoned Stephen because he told them that they were resisting the holy Ghost, and that he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:51–60).  When Paul was a young Pharisee, he was commissioned to travel to Damascus to bind believers and return them to Jerusalem simply because they believed the gospel (Acts 9:1–2).  Later, the Jews plotted to kill Saul because he had found out Jesus was the Messiah and was telling it in the synagogue (Acts 9:20–23).

    In no case that I have found was there any justifiable reason given for the hatred and persecution.  They were always hated for doing something that was actually good, or for testifying about Jesus.  We are seeing more and more of this irrational hatred in our time.  But let us continue in doing good in the sight of God anyway.  The reward for doing that will far outweigh anything this world can throw at us, as Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

    Thank you for a great question!

    Pastor John

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1800319481761435826

     

  • The Spelling of Names

    John,

    Why are the names different?  For example, in Luke 3:36, we have “the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Sem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech.”

    But in Genesis 5:32, we have “And Noah was five hundred years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

    Just Curious,

     

    Wendell

     

    =========

     

    Hi Wendell,

    Names often undergo a change as they go from one language to another.  In this case, Genesis is written in Hebrew, and James is written in Greek.  That’s all it is.

     

    Pastor John

  • Old Testament Class, a Thought

    Wendy’s reply reminded me of what we always asked our kids when they come back from spending time with people. We’d ask if they had a good time and then we’d ask “more importantly how did “so and so” enjoy you?”… that was what was the most important question. It wasn’t about the kids. I loved that, Wendy!

    Ashley

    ==========

    Hi Pastor John,
    One piece of the first class that stood out to me today that you said from the Old Testament audio*, “We weren’t made for our pleasure, we were made for God’s pleasure. It’s not about us enjoying God, but is God enjoying YOU?!”

    He made us because he wanted us, out of all the other things he could have created, he created US. He doesn’t want to be alone in Heaven in the end, he wanted us to be there! With him now through the new covenant from Jesus’ accepted sacrifice…AND forever.

    You want to find more adjectives to describe the magnificence of it!

    Wendy

    ==========

    Hi Wendy!
    I am so glad you caught that. It is a good reminder of our purpose, and our responsibility to God and to one another.

    Pastor John

    *Old Testament Course (Pt. 1) – Going to Jesus.com

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1800136285656653929

  • Free from the Bondage of Fear

    Pastor John,

    I am up reading the Thought for the Morning, and it is a letter you wrote a sister named Jill, who got the holy Ghost and went into the Baptist sect.  I love the love in it as you are trying to explain to her why it is wrong.  You are saying the same things you said last night. 

    https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=tfm06-06

    I thought about my own experience in Catholicism.  I was trained to not move, not question, not seek, not feel.

     I was trained to not feel!

    And I didn’t dare question or step out of that box because I was terrified God would be angry and I would go to Hell.  I was scared not to make the sign of the cross; I was scared not to take their communion; and very scared not to baptize my children and make them His.  It was only when this world got too heavy for me to bear and I couldn’t even do those things, that Jesus came.  In a sober state, I would have been terrified to even hear you say Catholicism was not of God.  I would have thought it made God angry to even hear those words.  So, when you quoted Hebrews 2:15 last night, it made my heart hurt for those bound so tightly by man’s religion.  It is evil because it separates hearts from Jesus.  It keeps you bound until Jesus cries, “Lazarus come out!” And I was not even a devour Catholic!  I was just trained from infancy to follow these rules, or God will be angry.  Imagine those hearts who really are trying to please God by doing all those things!   It is perfect love, that God sees the heart, and perfect love that Jesus takes the binding off so we can raise our arms up to our Father.  The love in your responses to Jill is that same love. 

    Heb. 2:15: “and set free those who through fear of death were subject to bondage their whole lives.”

    Verses 16,17,18 are pretty wonderful too. 

    Beth D.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1799042939378975159

     

  • Overwhelmed!

    Pastor John, 

    Whew! If these “Remembers” are any indication of what we are in for tonight (and I believe they are), I absolutely can not wait to read part 2 of chapter 5! I am overwhelmed by what I am reading here.

    Overwhelmed that Jesus has let us see the truth. Overwhelmed that the gospel of Paul, a gospel that has been rejected by most, is the very gospel we love! If Paul were living now, I believe he would write to you and our congregation here a happy letter. I hope so.  

    I also appreciate more than ever why David begged God to incline his heart to Him! Having the spirit does not mean we are automatically going to live righteously. We must stay humble and walk close to Jesus or we can fall into greater transgression. That’s my prayer as I read this. Please incline my heart to you, Jesus. Help me to love and appreciate this truth you’ve shown us! Help me to love others the way you’ve loved me.  

    I looked at these pieces of paper I was holding in my hands and just cried. Thanking Jesus for the gold nuggets of truth he has given you for us. It’s so valuable.  

    See you soon!!

    LeeAnn

    Remember PDF

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1798709620581847417

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