Good morning Pastor John!  

I woke up this morning thinking about what Brother Billy said last night about staying spiritually healthy for the body’s sake. It made me think about when you’ve been working out physically and stop for a bit, starting again can feel daunting. You just have to jump in and begin to get back into shape.

I read Lesson 9 in the Lessons from Isaiah book, called “Becoming”, and it was so good to me. But this time, something struck me more deeply than it did before. This parable:

 “Who, then, is a faithful and prudent steward, whom the master will put in charge over his servants to issue rations at the appropriate time?  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. . . . But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the men servants and women servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will show up on a day that he doesn’t expect, and in an hour that he doesn’t know, and he will cut him off and appoint him his portion with the unbelieving.” (Lk. 12:42–43, 45–46)

This is about God’s servants — not unbelievers. I don’t think I ever really slowed down and took in that this wasn’t about unbelievers and Jesus coming back.  It’s about those who are His, and what shape they’re in when God sends Jesus back.  That makes being in shape even more vital when you read how God will deal with those who let themselves go.

P.S. I loved Samuel’s testimony last night. Beautiful to see.

Beth

Pastor John,

I saw the YouTube video of young people gathering in a home to worship God. The point being that they were assembling outside of the institution of Christianity to do that. That is big, it seems, as someone had to be feeling something in their heart to want to do that, and as the narrator of the video pointed out (I’m paraphrasing), “…we wanted to get together without a set agenda for how things would go.” 

That sounds like a move in the right direction, as serving God outside of the religious system of Christianity is necessary for anyone wanting the freedom during worship to hear from and act on what the Spirit is doing right then.

But as many viewers of the video commented, “Now what?” That is the truth. Without direction from Jesus, how can they become anything but a group of folks performing Christian ceremonies at home versus inside a building decorated with stained glass and crucifixes?

It isn’t the fault of those young people getting together that they don’t have the answer to the question, “Now what?”

God bless them for trying!

When I watched that video this morning, I could feel their answer – what they needed, and that feeling from Jesus moved me so much.
Their need is the same as what was needed in Paul the apostle’s day. Paul was sent to teach God’s newly grafted-in children, the Gentiles, how to worship God acceptably, that is, “in Spirit and in truth.”  Isn’t that your job, Pastor John? Isn’t that the job of every man sent by God, to point those who are feeling God’s pull on their heart to the Spirit of God; that is, to the baptism of the Spirit, which is only administered by Jesus from Heaven, and to teach them the necessity of following that Spirit every day of their lives? 

The folks meeting in that home need someone sent by God to point them to the Spirit of God, and to KEEP pointing them to the Spirit of God, as that is the only acceptable way to worship God today.

As you have said, Pastor John. The importance does not lie in knowing that Jesus is good; it lies in knowing that Jesus is good enough!  Nothing at all can be added to worshipping God in Spirit and in truth, and that is what you have spent a lifetime teaching: Jesus is sufficient in all things.

I hope young people in this generation will pay the price to be able to carry that message to those sincerely seeking God.

Jerry

Pastor John,

So many times God forgave Israel for their transgressions. I think that is so telling when considering how in Deuteronomy 17, God commanded that any Israelite man or woman caught worshipping other Gods were to be taken outside the city and killed.

It wasn’t because God hated the offender that God destroyed the man or woman, but it was His love for those who hadn’t gone astray that caused Him to take their life. God loved them all too much to let an ungodly heart influence them. 

The Father proved over and over that He loved them and would forgive them if they only would obey so they could be blessed. 

It makes for a very different view of the living God versus the one so many have misunderstood as being cruel in the Old Testament for handing out death sentences.

Jerry

Ohh John I feel so good right now…

For over 25 years, I’ve been reading and studying the KJV (King James Version) since I first began with brother Gary in the OT (Old Testament) class.

I’m currently reading s l o w l y through Genesis, YOUR version, PJV (Pastor John’s Version),* and I am getting so much more out of it!  It almost makes me cry… how much more vivid are my visualization of the scenes, and my understanding is heightened.  

As I compare each sentence to the KJV, I can appreciate our translation SO MUCH MORE.  I can appreciate the BIBLE so much more!   The stories are more emotionally moving than ever before. I really FELT for Hagar when she was cast out by Sarai, and God’s angel met her in the wilderness.

I feel the value of our translation is in the familiar vernacular, in which we speak, but also the accuracy of the translation comes through! 

I feel so blessed–as if the holy ghost is really influencing my reading this time.

I thank God for your tireless work.

We are all enjoying the OT class, by the way.  Stuart fervently emphasized that the MAPS are important! 

We’re a good group and the fellowship is valuable.  

Brad

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

Good morning, Pastor John;

Some of Donna’s thoughts that our Lord gave her reminded me of some of the thoughts that I had while experiencing some of the worst physical, mental, and spiritual pain in my body than I ever had in my life. I have never had that kind of pain before and since that time during my cancer at the hospital in 2009. (https://www.pastorjohnshouse.com/pdfs/ingodsshadow.pdf)

Here are some of those thoughts (paraphrasing). 

      – Are you going to get mad over feeling this pain?

      – Are you going to get so angry that you punch the wall and hurt your hand?

      – Are you going to mistreat my servants that I have set in place to help you? 

      – Are you going to quit (on me)? 

My answer:

     No Lord, I’m not quitting, nor will I be angry. I won’t mistreat your servants and I’m   not getting mad at you or anyone. 

This was at about 2:45 PM talking with the Lord. At 2:55, I heard Dr. U singing in the hallway coming to my room, “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day.”  Within a few minutes after 3:00 PM, my test for my soul was over. I asked the Lord, “Did I drink everything in my cup that you gave me to drink?” He said, “Yes son, not a drop left.” Then, the greatest peace and joy flooded my heart knowing that I was faithful during those trying times and above all, Jesus was pleased with me. It made all of the pain and suffering from my post operation worthwhile. 

I do believe in my soul, that my name was written in the book of life by God before creation.

     I do believe that he called me.

     I do believe that he gave me His spirit to feel His thoughts and His life. 

     I do believe that he hand-picked a little country girl named Judy to be my love and companion these past 45 years.

     I do believe that Jesus gave me a real, true family in God.

     I do believe that Jesus will use everything at His disposal to save me and teach me; pain, trials, misunderstanding, etc. All things are created by Him and are used by Him. 

I do believe that Jesus brought me here and will keep me here with my cooperation   and behaving myself. 

I do believe that I love Him and His body only because He loved me first. 

Love always,

Billy

 https://www.pastorjohnshouse.com/pdfs/ingodsshadow.pdf

Pastor John,

Whew!  In the Lessons from Isaiah manuscript that I am proof-reading, I have read Lesson 4, “Devilish Wisdom”, multiple times, and I keep going back to it.  Today I read Lesson 8, “Two Choices”, and it is so good!  It has struck me that when we struggle against doing it God’s way, we are just wanting our way.  Leaves me praying to “go limp” to do it God’s way!  This reading is so good that it leaves the feeling everyone should see this!  I am continue to read, but I can’t leave Lessons 4 and 8 yet.  I am not done chewing! 

RE: Jn. 8:44 – When God’s children choose not to do His will, and yet they continue to maintain an appearance of righteousness, they become “children of the devil” instead of children of God, for that is what the devil did.  He tries to look good, but he is no longer truly good.  The devil did not love the truth that God taught him; he loved himself more. Maintaining an appearance of righteousness without really doing the will of God is not the will of God, and if we do the devil’s will instead of God’s, then we will share in the devil’s coming judgment.

John 8:44 “You are of your father, the Accuser, and you want to carry out the desires of your father.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has not continued in the truth because truth isn’t in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from himself because he’s a liar and the father of it.”

Beth D.

Pastor John,

As I sat at my computer working today, these thoughts started coming.  They were for me, but I believe they are for us all:

Jesus asking: “What if I made sure you married the person you are married to?  What if it was all my idea?  What if I gave you that sickness you are dealing with?  Are you going to quit and run?  Are you going to blame everyone and everything else just because it’s not going according to your plan and your timeline?  Are you going to quit now?  Are you going to pout, get angry, throw a fit because it’s not going “smoothly”?

What if I did it?  What if I really did put you with the perfect person, the perfect pastor, the perfect body to perfect you, help you, and make you happier than you could ever imagine?  What if I gave you the perfect sickness at the perfect time to teach you to rely on me as you’ve never had to in your whole life? to teach you to slow down?  What if I planned every one of these things because I love you that much?  What if my love is so great for you, that I would do whatever it takes to save you?  What if I love you enough to make you humble? to slow you down? to teach you how to love?  What if I love you so much that I would give you boundless opportunities to learn and grow until you come home to be with me?  What if I planned the whole thing and it was all my plan to save you in the end and be with me forever?  And you’re mad, thinking I tricked you.  Well, I did it.  I did the whole thing.  Who are you really mad at, but me?  Who are you really discontent with, but me? 

It is just as you have said before, “God is FOR us!”  His love is, really, more than tongue can tell and more than our human minds can fathom.  I am so thankful to be here with you, with us, alive, learning, living.  

Donna

Pastor John,

I am writing this out while my heart is still pounding from tonight.  I love what Damien said about the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread both being a shadow of the sacrifice of Christ.

I have to start at the beginning of this testimony.  Jesus has been talking in the meetings lately.  One thing that has been said over and over is to keep your mind on Jesus and what he has done for us, and we will bubble up to the top and be who we are supposed to be.  

The other day I asked Jesus to stir my heart and help me just be so full of zeal that I cannot do anything but think of him.  That is my prayer, and I even prayed it on the way to the meeting.  I thought maybe he would use a song or something you would preach on tonight.  I never thought He would stir me up with Leviticus!

Funny thing is, I have always loved Leviticus because I love seeing the shadows of Jesus and the truth.  So it makes perfect sense Jesus would give my heart a stir with Leviticus.  

I have always had a question in my heart about fellowship.  I can’t even explain it.  I just stayed worried about if others feel fellowship with me.  And the more I thought about it, the stranger and more apart I felt.  It isn’t  a mind thing—it is a heart thing!

Well, when Damien pointed out tonight that Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are actually, together, part of the sacrifice of Christ—part of that beautiful shadow of what Jesus did, part of the greatest love story we can know—it hit my heart.  When Damien explained that part of the shadow was eating the bread, having fellowship, it stirred my heart.  

In my heart, Passover was the shadow of what Jesus did for us.  We did not play a part in that.  But the other part of that Passover is that we are supposed to eat.  And that is fellowship.  That is part of the sacrifice of Christ.  The Passover didn’t stop at the blood being put on our hearts.  The other part is that we are to eat of the fellowship of the body!  It did something in my heart tonight to see that part of the shadow.  

I think Damien started tonight by saying there was an open window for him to tell this.  I feel like Jesus opened a window for me to crawl through.  I had to write out how this feels while my heart is stirred.  

I love how Jesus does things.

Love, 

Beth

Pastor John,

I would like to share an experience I had today. My mom and I were in Budapest, as she had to go to the eye hospital for a minor procedure (which then did not happen, since the doctor who was supposed to do the procedure was not there, so we will have to go back again – but that’s a different story).

The train from Dunaújváros to Budapest now terminates at a different railway station than it used to, which is part of a larger transport hub (with the train station, a bus station and a metro station in it), and I’m not completely familiar with it. After Mom’s appointment, we had lunch at a nearby mall, and then headed back to the train station, but I miscalculated how much time we would need to get there in time, so we ended up missing the train. Thankfully the next one was leaving in an hour, but we still needed to figure out how to get to the railway tracks, because it really is not that simple, if you’re not traveling through there regularly. Once I realized that we had missed the earlier train, I had a passing thought of “I wonder if God has a reason for us spending an hour here with nothing to do” – but I quickly brushed it off thinking, not every single event has to have a “mystical” divine reason behind it.

As we were walking through this hallway, looking at the signs, trying to find out which way the railway tracks were, we walked past a young man who was standing to the side, playing his guitar, singing a song about God; and then we walked past him again, until finally I asked a man for directions to the railway tracks. I now knew which way we had to go, but we still had about 45 minutes before departure, and that moment I started feeling the tug of the Spirit to walk up to the young man with the guitar and engage in a conversation with him. So I did, and we ended up talking for about 15 minutes. As I found out, he belonged to the biggest charismatic church in Hungary, and when I asked him if he had received the baptism of the holy Ghost, he said he had. He asked me what congregation I belonged to, and I told him I belonged to the body of Christ, and that God had called me out of Christianity. Then he started talking about the importance of the church, how God gives the anointing exclusively to the church… and this part of our conversation gave me one of the big takeaways. Namely, how the way this young man (who I believe is our brother) talked about the church was hardly any different from the way Catholics talk about the Catholic Church. At one point he even called his congregation “my holy mother church” that he would never leave. I think I had never seen for myself, so clearly, how much the spirit of Christianity (regardless of which branch we’re looking at) is really the spirit of Catholicism.

I had the feeling that the young man felt something from the Spirit, and his reaction to it was that he just kept talking, not really wanting to hear what I had to say. I didn’t want to argue with him, I mostly just listened to what he had to say, even praying for him in my heart, but I felt that it would still be good to drop a few seeds of truth, if I had the opportunity. So, I ended up mentioning to him 1 Corinthians 12:13, Jesus’ words to Nicodemus about the new birth and the sound of the wind, and Revelation 18. In fact, I only had to refer to Revelation 18, because he knew immediately what I was trying to say. When I mentioned the Bible reference, he interjected saying “Oh that’s old news, that’s old news” – meaning he had already heard the interpretation of that scripture that I was going to tell him. I ended up giving him a card with the quote “You must be born again” on one side, and links to websites on the other side where he can find gospel tracts, short videos and longer teaching videos translated into Hungarian – which he accepted. 

My other big takeaway from our conversation was that the truth “works”. You don’t have to add anything to it, or take away from it (nor should you) for it to have an effect. The truth (when Jesus is the one sending you to share it) is going to do its job, whether you’re an eloquent speaker, or not, or whether you feel like you did a good job explaining it, or not. You just need to obey the Spirit and open your mouth, and God will do the rest. I knew in my heart that me walking up to this young man was not in vain, because the Spirit spoke to him through those few sentences that I was able to say – not because of me, but because I got out of the way, and let the truth speak for itself. 

Even though on the surface nothing major happened, I still know that our encounter was an extraordinary event, because the Spirit of truth touched this young man. Maybe months or years from now, he will remember the feelings he felt while talking to me, or he will remember the truth that he heard about the new birth, and he will start digging. I hope he will, but regardless of his response, I know that God did something for him today. 

Zoli