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Pastor John,
I had a thought this morning that if there had been one thing in Paul’s life that he did not count as “dung”, then God could not have used Paul to preach the gospel he preached. Whatever of this world Paul would have clung to would have pointed to something else besides God’s Son.
Billy M.
Pastor John,
Wishing you and the family a wonderful day giving praise and thanksgiving as we ought today and everyday.
I thank God everyday for you and your house that has kept me and enlightened me on the things of God. You were God sent to be a light and you have never faltered at the task.
With at debt of gratitude I Thank You for being a light, educator, leader, advisor, a channel, a provider of all things Godly and holy, a friend of God that has allowed me to see and be apart of something holy.
Thank you again and God bless you all.
Venus D.
My John!
I am just sitting here in my tree stand talking to The Lord. What has he asked us to do that is so hard that we cannot do it? He is the most caring God, and he is easy to please – if we want to please him. We can serve him right here in these bodies. We don’t have to find a building. We can touch him wherever we are. So simple! Not hard at all!
Stuart
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That’s true, Stuart. We can have our minds on the things of God and please him even while sitting in a tree stand!
Praise ye the Lord!
Pastor John
Hey Pastor John!
Tonight in the tract room was so sweet! Standing there sealing envelopes, I had the sweetest most satisfied feelings! Listening to everyone, listening to laughs, and just talking about our week to one another just overwhelmed me with thankfulness. There is truly no other place I want to be! I feel so blessed tonight!
Michelle
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Yes, Michelle. There is a wonderful feeling present when we do work together for our brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God.
Pastor John
John,
This Psalm touched me today, especially the latter part. Now is a prayerful time for the mercy of God.
Gary
PSALM 90
¹Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Hi Pastor John,
I have started reading your Father and Son book again. I wanted to find out what Muslims thought about Jesus, and I read some excerpts from the Quran.
Muslims believe that Jesus existed and that Jesus was born from a Virgin, and they believe he was the Messiah or prophet for the Jews and that Jesus is coming back again to set things in order for the Jews. But they do not believe that God had a Son or that Jesus was for them because their prophet is Muhammad, who came 600 years after Jesus. Believing that God did not have a Son is believing that Salvation DOES NOT comes through Jesus.
I was reading these verses in your Father and Son book:
John 17
20. Not only do I pray for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word,
21. That they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us so that the world might believe that you sent me.
22. And the glory you’ve given me, I’ve given them, that they might be one as we are one:
23a. I in them, and you in me, that they might be perfected in unity.”
At the end of verse 21, Jesus said that if we were one with him and his Father, the whole world may believe that God sent Jesus. I thought about all of the divisions in Christianity and had to ask myself, if we don’t obey God and come out of that confused, divided abomination, how in the world can we expect Muslims or anyone else to believe the gospel and follow the Spirit?
Paul had an anointing from God through Jesus, because of his experience with Jesus. He had the message of the true Messiah for ALL of mankind. If only our Brothers and Sisters in Christianity could believe the message that Paul had, they would become one with the Father and the Son, then we would see more people leave that abomination and become examples of God’s righteousness for all the world to see. People, Muslim and otherwise, would see Jesus’ undivided love from the Father, and see true Holiness and worship of the Father, and happy and peaceful lives.
Reading the book and thinking on these things has given me a deeper thankfulness for Paul and the love he had for God’s people.
Hope all is well there and you’re getting some good things done,
Billy M.
Hi John,
I‘ve been thinking of the first time I felt the Spirit speak to me after I received the holy Ghost.
While walking out on one of my favorite wilderness paths at a park on the edge of town, I saw the familiar sight of the big set of stone buildings off in the distance that make up some sort of Catholic convent. I remember hating that thing every time I came to it and saw it sticking out of the beautiful landscape like an ugly sore. When I saw it, I said to myself, “There is that prison!” And as soon as I said that, the Spirit said to me, “Hate the prison, but not the prisoner.”
Thinking back on this experience reminded me of the only real difference there is between a Christian church and all of the other man-made religions of the world; that is, most of God’s people today are in bondage to those places, thinking that is where Jesus is and where he wants them.
Vince
Bro John:
I ran across this email of a sermon your father preached from 1947 when he was going through a time of persecution, and there was division among the body. There is such authority and strength in his words, and his confidence in God is amazing, considering all he endured. The first part of his sermon, which is not included here, addressed the issue of the union that God had created between your mother and him. But as you said in the story, “His nature was not to be on the defensive when he knew that God had done something for him, and so, as usual, he went on the offensive with the knowledge of an experience he knew his opponents simply did not understand.”
From George C. Clark, Pioneer of the Faith stories:
“What have you done to put you where you are? . . . What effect has your stand taken on you? Do you love everyone better? Are you humbler? Has your tongue been made tamer? Are you happier? Or are you more miserable than ever before? Has the grumbling spirit taken hold on you so you can’t be satisfied? Has your patience been destroyed? Where are you?
Is your God keeping you happy? (There may be many gods). How do we feel now? Are we calm? Are we feeling so peaceful that everyone feels freedom in our presence? Or are we nervous? Are our faces covered with hatred, condemnation for the other fellow, or sadness that keeps us from perfect peace? Would we be satisfied to live forever just like this? Is this the fruits of the Spirit of God? Or is this the effect of coming in contact with the truth and finding ourselves on the wrong side?
Let’s be honest, how many of [you] have the same spirit towards me now that others held toward you when you first started into this truth? I am receiving the same condemnation now from some of you that I received then, and listen, I am using the same weapons that I used then (they are not carnal). As you have seen others fall and dry on the stalk, so shall it be with you. I am no more anxious for you to change now than I was then for those who kept on fight[ing the truth] to change. I only give thanks to God for all, regardless of the part they play. You can play no part other than your own, as others have played theirs. I want no part other than mine. I am what I have been and expect to remain; yet I realize not many have known me or know me now. There is not one who has stood by me and known me who will not stand now. Those who have stood but can’t stand now have been deceived and are deceived and if we can be deceived in one person we can be deceived in another.
We have never been in the strait that we are in now. This is life or death. I want you to know the truth. The things that you believe, I wish you only knew, your freedom lies there. Death or life may be there for you.”
It really blessed me to read this again today. So thankful for the old saints who stood strong and faithful. I want to see them again one day. Because of their faithfulness we are the recipients of glorious blessings in the truth. As Preacher Clark said, “This is life or death. I want you to know the truth. The things that you believe, I wish you only knew, your freedom lies there. Death or life may be there for you.”
~ Sandy
PS “If you are sincerely thankful, then the ones whom God has used to bring His blessings into your life will feel that you are thankful, not just for your blessings but for them personally.” JDC 6-20-2006
John,
There are some wonderful songs that have been written in Christianity about Jesus, but I am feeling more an more alienated from the mainstream Christian music of today. A lot of it is for show, and it has a feeling of ”yuk” in it.
Billy M.
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Hi Billy.
The spirit of the religious system called “Christianity” infects to one degree or another everything and everybody that is a part of it. Yes, there have been some good songs, and some other good fruit, that have been produced within Christianity, but that is only because there have been sincere souls who kept themselves pure in spite of the wicked Institution they were a part of, not because of it. May God persuade all His children to “come out of her and touch not the unclean thing”.
Pastor John
John,
This article below brings to mind the experience I had about 23 years ago. I was walking down the street parallel to main street in Henderson after a good meeting. I looked over at the large Baptist Church and in a moment of time, I felt no respect for the place or its religion. I had no idea how to express what I had experienced.
Later, when you told of the same kind of experience, you used the words, “There is no difference between a Christian church and a Muslim mosque.”
Now, the example of what you said then is here.
Wendell
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Yes, Wendell, after Jesus called us out of Christianity, what amazing feelings and thoughts came to us from heaven! I remember my experience very well. I was driving along Hwy. 52, when I turned to the right and saw a Christian church far off the road, and I was stunned at how completely foreign it felt to me. That was an entirely new and unexpected experience! What a surprise to feel no more kinship with a Christian church building than I felt with a Muslim mosque!
Of course, I am thankful for anywhere that the Lord Jesus is spoken well of, but speaking well of Jesus, as we have learned, is a long way from belonging to him and from being acceptable to him and his Father. May God help us all to stand before Him blameless in His Son!
Pastor John
