Hi again pastor John,

I wanted to share this because it is so exciting when the Spirit gives me a right thought.  I know that if we are walking in the Spirit, then God is guiding our thoughts all the time.  But it had been a while since I had perceived a specific thought from the Lord.  As I was out for a walk tonight, I was praying and praising God.  As I was praying in the Spirit, I spoke these words: “Turn your light on, and see how many run for the darkness.”  As soon as I spoke these words, I recognized that the Spirit had provoked me to say them, and that was so exciting to me!
 
I continued with these thoughts:
 
Turn your light on, and watch the many who hide in the shadows; pray for them.
Turn your light on, and notice the ones who cannot tell the difference; have pity on them.
Turn your light on, and see the ones who bask in the glow; delight in them.

I was reminded of the Scripture:  “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.”   So I searched my concordance for “the light”.  The following stood out to me, as they related to the above thoughts:
 
“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” (Jn. 3:20)
 
“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.” (2Cor. 4:4)
 
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1Jn. 1:7)
 
“He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” (1Jn. 2:10)
 
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (Jn. 1:4-5)

Amen.  God help me to let the light in me shine, and not be afraid of the result.

Vince

http://pastorjohnshouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-truth.html

 

Hi pastor John,

I loved the blog on 2/17/10 on “What Is Truth?”  It was food for my soul.  It reminded me of the first time that the spirit spoke to me (that I remember).  I was driving in my car heading to work one morning thinking about all the different places and religions that I had been a part of, growing up (Baptist, Jehovah Witness, and Catholic), and I asked God a question from my heart.  I said, “God,  how do I know who is telling the truth? What is the truth, and who is right? ”

Then the spirit spoke back to me and said, “I am right.”  Instantly, it took away all the confusion that was going around in my head about who was right.  I knew that God was right, and everyone else was after their own will.  It was liberating for me.  It set me on the course that I am on now.  I pass by that same place of worship every morning on my way to work now, and I will always remember the words God spoke to me that day: “I am right.”

The truth really does set us free.  All we have to do is be willing to believe and hear His voice.  Thank you for being a voice in this vast wilderness that we are in at this time.

Stuart

http://pastorjohnshouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/prisoners-to-freedom.html

 

I LOVED the blog on “Prisoners to Freedom”.  I have it saved in my inbox to read again from time to time.  I especially have to come to realize the truth of this line: “After all . . . if we are not free to choose disobedience and rebellion, then we are not free to choose love and faithfulness.”  The value of freedom is that you can be free to do GOOD.  If you are not free, then we cannot make any choices, bad or good.   We must be free to make both kinds of choices; then if we have a right heart, we are set free to do the right thing.  I have just come to really see that lately, especially where young people are concerned.   And sometimes it takes a few bad choices before the good choices are made.  I love this blog.  Thank you.

te.

Hi John,

The Revelation study this past weekend was wonderful and brought back memories of how Jesus drew me to him.  One day in our third grade religion class, at the Catholic school I attended, a nun read from the second chapter of Joel, regarding the wonders in heaven to come, i.e. the sun turning dark and the moon turning to blood before the terrible day of the Lord.  Even though I was only 9 or 10 years old I felt terror from those passages.
 
Later, when I was about 24 or 25 years old, I found a dog-eared, paperback book hidden in a cabinet drawer at the place I was working at the time.  It was called The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey.  Even though the author’s interpretations of the end time visions of Ezekiel, Zachariah, John, etc. were for the most part fictional, he used enough truth to put me under conviction.  The same terror I felt at 9 years old was just as real at age 25.  It drew me to Jesus.
 
I realize now the value of the fear of the Lord.  The fact that I could feel a touch of His wrath and act on it is precious and not to be taken lightly.  Not many people in this world give any thought to the wrath of God as you described in the Revelation study.
 
One last thing I would like to mention.  When the planes hit the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001, great and sudden fear came over this nation and others as well. I remember reading this Scripture at that time, Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh, (Pr 3:25).
Putting all of our trust in Jesus is the only way this can happen, no matter what comes in our life time. 
 
I appreciate the time and prayer you have put into the Revelation study.  I pray we will all value the blessings Jesus intends to give us. 
 
Tom

Pastor John

I received the following email from a man I contacted a while ago.  He feels and sees many right things but other of his writings I receive show him to be harsh at times due to ignorance I believe.  Retaining that first love while telling the truth is a problem for many of the people I have found who see the things this man writes about.  He often talks about people being Christian but not having a relationship with Jesus but he does not understand that that is very often the case because the people do not have the Spirit. There is a problem with government too, which shows in this list here and there but there is a lot that is right here.

God, help your people!

Damien

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Thanks, Damien.

You are right.  This friend does see some important truth.  I really enjoyed reading through this.  May God continue to lead this man into all truth by the Spirit, just as Jesus promised he would do, and just as he is doing for us.

Pastor John

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The gospel of “church” is directly opposed to Jesus Christ.  The church is Antichrist in it’s total being diverting believers into submission to itself and guides them onto the broad way to destruction. Church requires a covenant relationship with itself rather than with Jesus Christ.

These are but a few of the differences between the gospel of church and the gospel of Christ:

Come to church – Come to Jesus
Obey the leadership – Obey Christ
Build the church – Build the kingdom of God
Study the scriptures – Be guided by the Holy Spirit
Believe in the Bible – Believe in Jesus
Trust the scriptures and your own understanding – Trust in Jesus with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding
Have fellowship with church members – Have fellowship with Jesus
Be tolerant to sin – Be holy
Serve the church – Serve Jesus Christ
Love the church members – Love all men especially the followers of Christ
Be friends with everybody – Friendship with the world is enmity with God
Love the world – Love not the world or the things of the world
We are all sinners – He who sins is a slave of sin
Everybody will be saved – Strive hard to enter the straight gate, few will find it.
Only believe to be saved – Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of My Father.
God will make you prosperous – Do not gather for yourself treasures on earth
God understands your weakness – If your eye makes you stumble pluck it out. It is better for you to go through life maimed than to end up in hell.
Don’t fear God, God is love – Fear Him, who after He has killed has power to cast into hell.
Come sit in the pews –  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;
This is why the Kingdom of God is suffering. The church has deceived the believers into paralysis and unfruitfulness.
The gospel of Jesus Christ leads us into an intimate relationship with Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit every moment of our lives. We cannot serve two masters, we will love the one and hate the other. Come out from church and her deceptions. Obey Christ and be part of His body, the true church.

Jesus bless you
jan

http://www.youtube.com/user/finalcall07
http://bosjanbaltimore.spaces.live.com/
Get updates of my postings from twitter: http://twitter.com/janboshoff

Hi Pastor John,

I couldn’t help but send this to you.  It’s one of those “what in the world can they be thinking” statements.  I found it on a pentecostal website, TRYING to teach about salvation.  It was two different statements on their same site.
 
“The act of being baptized washes away all your sins making your soul spotless. But baptism isn’t just being sprinkled with water, it is the full immersion of a person underwater.”  AND, then… “When a person receives the Holy Ghost, God literally comes and lives in that person. This is an important step of salvation, and without it a person is not truly saved.  To be filled with the Holy Ghost a person must have asked Jesus for forgiveness(and some people must be baptized) then they must ask Jesus for the Holy Ghost.”
 
Do you read what I am reading?  Crazy confusion!  You know, they may be just trying to fit in a desperate answer of someone getting the holy Ghost before their water baptism (washes their sins).  They just can’t explain it!  Makes you feel so bad for them, because we know the simple answer to their confusion.

Melissa

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Hi Melissa.

Solomon said something to the effect that with much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases in knowledge increases in sorrow.  What we feel when we read such nonsense is the increased sorrow for God’s people that comes with understanding.  May God help them, just as He has graciously helped us.

Pastor John

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You are so right.  It’s hard sometimes.  So many times all you can do is cry, when thinking about it.  I know I do.  I can begin thinking about it all, and the Spirit just takes over and I cry.  It’s really not me crying though, its just floods of tears in the Spirit.

Melissa

Pastor John

What a wonderful weekend!  How good God has been to us!  Fellowship in light and truth, wonderful music that touched the heart.  There is so much to be thankful for.  We are truly in a land running with milk and honey!  We don’t want to forget God who has been so good to us.

I was just standing behind my seat before we started on Saturday night and there was such a sweet feeling in the room and as I stood there enjoying it those feelings just became stronger.  Wonderful!  I really enjoyed going through Colossians the way you did.  One thing that really struck me was how you brought out that false teachers would say much of what Paul would say.  I guess at times false teachers have worked by directly taking away from the truth but most of the time I think they did it by adding to the truth, and in that way eventually everything good and true was lost.  Addition [to God’s word] brings about a complete subtraction!

I got to wondering how those false teachers got past Paul as they mislead those children of God into ignoring his teaching.  One thought I had was maybe they used Paul’s own example of withstanding Peter at Antioch.  That could be twisted into an excuse or precedent for correcting Paul (though they didn’t do it to his face.)  However they did it, it was evil, and here we are 1900 years later being blessed among the mess that God’s people are in.

At 3 to 4 am Saturday morning I woke up and started praying.  I found myself praying for God’s people just as we did that night.  When we were praying, it was hard for me to know what my feelings were.  Sadness, sorrow.  Was there a desperation or a helplessness about ourselves for God’s people in our prayer?  I don’t have words, but it was a strong feeling that reached down into me.  Unless God does something we cannot help them yet.  The food we ate and enjoyed so much this weekend would kill so many of God’s poor children.  It’s like a man I knew when I was young who was a prisoner at Changi in Singapore during WWII.  Even 25 years later he had to eat several small meals each day.  He couldn’t take any more than that as his system was so damaged.  God’s people have been treated just like that.

Damien

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Thanks, Damien,

When I think about Paul living among those people, in Ephesus, Corinth, etc., sometimes for over a year at a time, and yet, later, they were still deceived and led away into a false way, I marvel that we still are rejoicing in the truth.  May God continue to have mercy on us, so that we can continue to do this good work for His precious people.

Pastor John

Pastor John

I just wanted to thank you for the Revelation classes.  I’ve never heard anyone teach the word of God like you.  It was funny this morning I was looking over the papers and I was reading about the third seal.  I was so excited because I read it and could not understand it.  I thought, “Oh good!  Now I’m gonna find out what this means.”  When you read it and said, “Now what does this mean? …. I don’t know!”, I had to laugh!
 
I’ve been enjoying listening to you preach on love and keeping our first love.  The Lord has been bringing to my remembrance things that I was feeling after first receiving the Holy Ghost.  I can’t explain what comfort it is to know that it still holds true.  That the love that drew me has kept me all these years.  Even when my eyes were not on Him, He was still with me and watching over me.  What a dear Saviour!

I thought about what you said this morning, that everything we are, more than dirt, is a gift from the Lord.  How true!  That has stuck with me all day.  I pray that I keep that with me and that the rest of my days, He will help me to serve Him with humility, honesty, and with His love abiding in my heart.  I pray that He will help me to not only be a worthy servant, but that I can be a good sister to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I’m thankful once again that He put you in my path, that I may hear the truth and take it one day at a time.

God Bless,
Michelle