Pastor John,

Today I was in the kitchen doing the dishes. This commercial came on it was an advertisement for a big tent-like meeting place you can rent. I had this thought: “I wish we could fill that place with folks getting the holy ghost.” Then I heard the spirit say, “Then what?” As I was standing there, it was if I was having conversation with God. It wasn’t that the thought was bad, but really “Then what?”

I don’t believe God is expecting any big thing either. I know you have told us what he told you about “neither expect nor desire any big thing, but make your work perfect.” The feelings I was having was that He is not expecting any big thing, but he is going to have perfection. We have seen that lately.

It just did something to me on the inside. His ways are not like we think. We are not going to save the world!! He is not in numbers; never has been. Driving down the road thinking on this today. All the way through, it has never been a big thing!! Only eight people saved in the flood! Only 2 of the 603,550 in the first Numbering that lived to see canaan’s land (Joahua and Caleb). Only 120 on the day of Pentecost!! Tonight I was praying and the spirit said, “Teach this to your children over and over, until it’s like the breath they breathe. It is their life!”

Jammie

Today, in the parking lot of Home Depot, I saw a man pull into a parking space, and his window was down so I heard a fragment of the loud radio show he was listening to: a Christian radio show preaching salvation. The man dashed from his car to run into Home Depot, and I wasn’t going to wait around for him to return so I could give him a tract and a card, so I quickly placed a “What is Salvation?” tract and a Going To Jesus card on his door. When I went back to my car, he reappeared from the store. (He was quicker than I had expected.) I was going to go speak with him, but he was in a rush. I noticed him glance at the tract, as he got into his car, then drove away quickly. As I drove by his parking space, the tract and the card were on the ground.

My heart was crushed.

Oh well.

Here was a guy who was listening to a Xn station, but apparently the title of the tract didn’t make him the least bit curious.

How strange! I was probably expecting too much. People—even so-called religious people—are not what they seem.

So, I picked it up off the ground and will continue to look for another opportunity, as always.

Brad

=============

A couple of things.

First, it is going to take much more than our telling people the truth for them to “get it”. God Himself will have to do something before the truth is ever even going to be an issue. I believe those things that Sandy said the lord spoke to her because He has made me feel those same things: What He has shown us is not for everybody, and we are not going to save the world.

Secondly, to own a Bible is required in order to be a good Christian; to know what it says and to understand it is not. Over the years, I have had orders from many Christians for gospel tracts that they have not read, nor would ever read. For them, I have returned their money and asked them plead read the tract(s) they were ordering, and if they still wanted them, I would send them the tracts. To this day, I have never heard from a single such Christian. I knew they were ordering those tract only because they had religious-sounding titles and that they would pass those tracts on to others without ever reading them, and I did not want them to do that. One case in point that comes to mind is the Baptist woman who wrote in desperation a few years ago for a bunch of our materials because she was appointed a Sunday school teacher, and she said she didn’t know enough about the Bible to teach. I could not in good conscience send her the tracts she ordered (“Salvation”, “The new Birth”, etc.), knowing that if and when she read them, especially if she waited and read them for the first time in her Sunday School class, she would be embarrassed, if not angered, by what she read. I wrote her a kind letter, with one copy of each of the tracts she wanted, along with her money, and asked her to read them first, and if she still wanted them for her class, I would send them. She never wrote again.

Your story of the man who was listening to the Christian radio program reminded me of these incidences. It was not what he was hearing, but simply that he was hearing, that satisfied him. Just as it is not what is actually in the Bible, but simply owning a Bible, and possibly even carrying it around sometimes, that satisfies very many Christians. You may have interrupted his satisfaction with something real; then again, it may have been that God didn’t want that man to know what you know.

So, I would not call that a trivial incident, at least not altogether. It is an event worth considering.

Thanks for letting me know about it.

jdc

Here’s another quote, this one from Lesslie Newbigin, a missionary bishop in the Church of South India:

“The disunity of the Church is a denial of the promise and a contradiction of the purpose for which the Church is sent into the world. How can the church give to the world the message that Jesus is able to draw all men to Himself, while it continues to say, ‘Neverthless, Jesus is not able to draw us who bear His name together’? How will the world believe a message which we do not appear to believe ourselves? The divisions of the Church are a public denial of the sufficiency of the atonement.”

Back to studying….

Bekah
===========

Hi Bekah!

Here is an excerpt from the next chapter of the book, God Had a Son Before Mary Did. Just today I added it.

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, just as we are one;

23. I in them, and you in me, that they might be perfected in unity, and so that the world may know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.

Paul said: “We have received the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us from God” (1Cor. 2:12). Paul wanted everyone who received the Spirit to take advantage of their gift from God, to learn from the Spirit and come to understand the things of God, but he was forced to admit that such was not always, not even often, the case (e.g., Gal. 4:9). Through the Spirit, the children of God share the Father’s life with Him, with His Son, and with one another. The very purpose for the Spirit being given is so that we who believe in Jesus might call on the name of the Lord together and serve Him as one (Zeph. 3:9), thereby offering a testimony to the world of the love and power of God. The fact that the children of God are divided, that they do not call on His name together or serve Him as one, is a horrible reflection on Jesus, and great reproach on his name.

The disunity of God’s family on earth may be the greatest tragedy that has ever befallen mankind, surpassing even the tragedy of the original fall of man in the garden of Eden. At least, in that case, Adam and Eve did not have God’s kind of life within them. The confusion that reigns now among those who believe is a disgrace. It is a testimony against us, and to the world, against Jesus. We are all less in Christ than we could be because of it, and only God knows how much less. All our praise of God should be mingled with fear, lest on the Day of Judgment, when all things will be made known, the righteous Judge find any of us to the least degree responsible for the divisions that exist in the family of God.

Dad

Hey John,

Token read this psalm a few months which I heard on a cd recently. The psalmist wrote in verse 4 that he “called upon the name of the LORD.”

You’ve mentioned in the past that unless you are born again, you couldn’t call upon the name of the Lord. How does this fit in? Thanks.

Jim K

=========

Hi Jim.

I think that what I have said is that only God’s people, whether old or new testament, can do what is referred to by the phrase “calling on the name of the Lord”. That is a biblical phrase which refers only to the communication of God’s people with Him. There was an old testament form of it, but the new testament form is in the Spirit (Zeph. 3:9). Unbelievers do not and cannot “call on the name of the Lord”.

jdc

Hi John,

I want to thank you for coming to Louisville this past weekend and the others that also made the trip. How does one describe the feelings from Saturday night’s reading of chapter 3 of your new book, God Had a Son before Mary Did? All I can say is, “Thank you Jesus!’ From the very start of the evening, it felt as if I was feasting on a banquet especially prepared by the Father for His children. I wanted to savor every bite.

It was a privilege to witness Brother Danny’s reaction. I was overcome by what he was saying and feeling. I thought to my self later that this is really why we do what we do — for others’ blessing. This why the work Jesus has given you was created. I feel like what we witnessed through Brother Danny was actually Jesus, saying, “Thank you.”

I feel honored to have any part in this work. It is not to be taken lightly.

Thank you John for all the work and love you have put into this book.

Tom

Quotes by William Jennings Bryan that I found while studying for my final exam:

“If a man believes that he is a descendant of the ape, he can go to the zoo and speculate on how far he has come; if he believes the Bible, he goes to church and considers how far he has to go.”

Another one: “It is better to trust in the Rock of Ages, than to know the age of rocks.”

I think my new favorite psalm is Psalm 25, the ESV version:

http://www.esvbible.org/Psalm+25/

Bekah
===========

Yes, that is a wonderful Psalm, Bekah. It is one of the Psalms that I read during some of my darkest days, when it became so clear that we have to experience some degree of what the biblical writers suffered in order to perceive their meaning and their hearts. It was amazing to see, for the first time ever, while reading through the Psalms at that dark time, how very hated and hurt was the man who wrote that and other Psalms. Before that time, I had always read past all of his pain and confusion without really feeling it, but during that time, I couldn’t read past it. There was too much of a connection.

One verse in the ESV Psalm 25 that might be translated differently is verse 14, though what is there in the ESV is fine, I am sure. Those translators had it, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him”, but a more literal rendering might be better, such as “The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear Him.”

Daddy

Dear Pastor John

Yesterday I really felt to listen to messages on the Law from your OT study again. They were so good! You read from Deut. 4:5, where 120-yr-old Moses was telling God’s people, “You Have been taught! This Law is your wisdom! This Law makes you a Great Nation! It is God”s Law!”

I feel so thankful! We have been taught! You have taught us! It is up to us to use what you have taught us!
Thank you so much Pastor John. You have been a wonderful gift to my life!

Sue

Dear Bro. John:

I am so thankful for the feelings of God that only come through what we have been reading about in The Father and Son book – – God’s life.

Tonight, I was finishing up some typing on one of the Iron Kingdom books – Christian Liturgy. As I was typing, I had the music playing from pastorjohnshouse.com. Reading sentences such as the following, I began to weep:

“On the post-baptismal ceremonies Pope Innocent asserts: ‘it belongs solely to the episcopal office that bishops consign and give the Paraclete Spirit.’ “

and . . . .

“The witness of the church fathers is unequivocal that what the faithful receive in Holy Communion is the body and blood of Christ, even if they variously refer to the bread and wine as figures (figurae), types (typoi), antitypes (antitypoi), or signs (sacramenta) of the body and blood of Christ.”

As my eyes fell on these words (to mention just these few), my heart was crying out, “Please don’t talk about God’s life this way!” Then the heaviness I felt was relieved as the beautiful music flowed into my heart from the website. Songs such as “Lift Him High”, “Worthy”, “Take the Time”, “Come Behold the Lamb” and “Loving Me” . . . . true words and feelings of God’s life! How sweet this felt! What a contrast from the words I was typing and the feelings coming through these songs. I was humbled and thankful for God’s life! I was thankful that the words I was typing were foreign to me, but the feelings I felt from God were real!

Typing these books has furthered my understanding of what Jesus meant in this verse: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”

I know our work is to get this message of love out to God’s children. But, I wondered as I typed tonight, if what we have been reading (and typing) and learning of God and His Son is to convince our hearts of how thankful we should be for this great love bestowed upon us. I want to stay humble and thankful.

Typing from these books has truly been a blessing. Thank you, Bro. John, for all you have done to help us and teach us of the Father and Son.

Sandy