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  • TFT “The Gospel Part Three”

    http://www.goingtojesus.com/site/php/thoughts.php?tname=tfe10-09

     

    Good Morning!

    I guess this would be a real quick testimony to share…cause I had to grin as I read the Thought of the Day this morning.  The Gospel Part Three. The grin came at this statement;

    “Satan is afraid of this Gospel.  He gets nervous when God’s people get close to it.  In just about every case I know of, when God starts revealing to one of His children the truth of the Gospel, Satan’s ministers start offering them prestigious titles and responsibilities”.

    Yep.  I can remember something similar… When I finally gathered the strength & made the meeting w/my pastor to share all these truths that the Spirit had been revealing to me.  There we were, at that big conference table, doing a little chit-chat, and before I could even begin with the real reason I came … the pastor basically began offering me a position that I cared about deeply.

    I remember thinking “what in the world?”, and almost feeling bad … because there he was, placing a trust of me in this position … and I was about to drop an unannounced BIG bomb!!  I was so uncomfortable…and within myself began doubting if that was the time to tell him what I came to tell!

    Well, I hung on & stuck to it.  I did respectfully listened to all he had to say, and etc. about what he was asking of me.  But when it came my turn, I honestly told him that after all he said, he probably may change his mind, once he hears what I came to talk about.

    I shared truth, and he listened…but when it was all over with, he hadn’t changed his mind. He still wanted me to take that position.

    I was doing my best to be led by the Spirit, and somewhat alone, try to figure that whole thing out!  But it didn’t change his mind a bit…and I ended up being in that role for 5 more months…before making that decision to leave earlier this year.

    So, here is a question.  Now I know that Satan does not know ALL things like God does!

    But what is your take?  Could Satan have been aware in advance of what I went to do (and how) … and beat me to the punch (since the offer came before I shared truth)?  Or maybe could it had been a test to see I would back off…or stay strong and still speak?  Makes one wonder.

    Melissa

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

    Hi Melissa.

    As I said in that Thought for the Day, this is a fairly common occurrence.  It is God, giving you the opportunity to spurn the vain offers of man bound in darkness in order to attain to “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

    It is a spiritual matter, Melissa, not an intelligence issue.  The spirits of Christian ministers, as well as Satan, can feel it when they are loosing their grip on a good member of their sect.  They don’t have to know a thing.  Their response is often to try to please that member with extra honor. or load him with extra responsibilities, so he/she will feel obligated to stay there and not to follow Christ out of Babylon.

    The difference between that scenario and the way of Christ is that when people begin to walk away from Jesus, he first thanks God that for relieving him of the burden of dealing with those foolish people, and then he invites others who are still with him to leave with them. Consider this scene from John 6:

    66.  From that time, many of his disciples turned back to former things and no longer walked with him.

    67.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to leave, too?”

    Melissa, seeing this is the way Jesus is, I have never called or written a soul who has chosen to leave me and go some other way.  Everyone here knows very well that they are free to walk away — without me chasing them.  They know they will never be bothered by me again.  Now, as long as they are here, they will be fed the word of God and protected from evil influences, to the extent that Jesus equips me to do that.  I will, as Paul told Timothy, “Preach the word . . reprove, rebuke, exhort with all patience and doctrine.”  But if anyone wants to leave, and if I have done my part according to the will of God, then their leaving can only be that to be a part of my work is not given to them by Jesus.  So, I rejoice in that judgment of God as much as any other.

    This precious light that we see is too wonderful for us to have to beg or try to bribe people to be faithful to it.  The truth judges us, Melissa; we cannot judge it.  And if the truth judges someone unworthy to participate in this holy and good work, then I rejoice, not complain about it.  And then, I will invite you and everyone else here to leave, too.  I only want the ones God sends me.  They are precious souls, both to me and to the Lord.  The merely interested, the half-committed, and those who think of this as just another Christian sect are all dead weight, and its just a matter of time before they are offended at something I do or say.

    Pastor John

  • Pentecostal Holiness Church (phc)

    pastor john,

    when i read an email of yours today, the lord brought back to me the dream he gave me before i left the pentecostal holiness church i went to.  in the dream i was in a taxi cab.  i could see the driver but i could not see the person next to the driver.  there was a woman in the back seat when i got into the taxi.  once i got into the car the woman started to make advances toward me that i knew i did not want.  when i tried to open the car door, it was locked like a police car door.  she would not stop and as i kept resisting her advances, i realized she was a harlot.  my next thought was “why wouldn’t the men up front help me?”  when i had this thought, the passenger turned around and it was the pope.  after this i woke up.

    when i had this dream, i was taking your old testament class at the community college.  when i told you about the dream and asked you about it, your answer to me was “Jim, that is where you are.”  after you told me, this i still went to the p.h.c., but the spirit kept telling me, “having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof.”   i was slow to understand where i was until one sunday morning, while the spirit was moving and people were being blessed, the pastor there at the p.h.c. jumped up from his seat and said, “it’s time for another song” and cut the spirit off.  as soon as he did this, God asked me “what are you going to do now?”  when i heard this question, i knew what God wanted.  i leaned over to debbie and told her i had to talk to the pastor when the meeting ended.  when the meeting ended i spoke to the  pastor and let him know that i was leaving because the lord wanted me to go to the meetings at your house.

    another little bit of my background is that the p.h.c. i was going to is where my grandparents and parents attended.  i never thought i would go to meetings anywhere else.  God makes things so simple.  i am thankful God put you in my life when he gave these experiences to me so i could have a true pastor.  i know god can give me the experiences and encouragement I  needed to come out of a place “having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof.”

    jim g.

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

    Thanks Jim.

    The passenger in the front seat of that taxi was the pope, but the driver was Satan himself.  The harlot in the back seat was your ancestors’ particular brand of christianity.  I am glad God opened the taxi door and let you out.  I have seen him open it for others, and they chose to stay inside.

    I teach anyone who will listen that if the place of worship they attend does not welcome the truth and power of God, flee from that death trap and LIVE!

    Why not?

    jdc

  • Uncle Joe Blog – The Offender, The Offended, and Jesus

    Hi John,I wanted to write to you about this thought from Uncle Joe, because it stood out to me as heavenly (but simple) wisdom.  Normally, when you send articles, they settle in to my spirit fairly easily.  In other words, I usually “get it” without too much strain.

    On some of these thoughts from Uncle Joe though, such as this article on the Offender, etc., it seemed that I had to read his statements 3 or 4 times before I would truly “understand” where he was going.  It was like listening to an old tape from your father’s days, and saying, “what did he say?” and pressing rewind to hear it again and again to make sense out of it – it goes by so fast.   Things like:

    “As long as we are among those offending “one of the least of these” or among those being offended by “one of the least of these”, we cannot be of help to either of those two groups. In fact, we are found to be in one group or the other, needing help ourselves.

    or

    Before one can be used of the Lord to help God’s people, we have to move from the stage of being an offender or from the state of being offended at every little thing that comes our way — and move to the plateau of which Paul wrote when he said, “none of these things move me” (Acts 20:24).”

    or

    “In doing what he did on this occasion, Jesus demonstrated that, to him, the offender and the offended in this world were on the same level. And he was able to help them both because he was neither one.”

    They are clear after a few times reading them through and focusing in on them, but I must say that these things were “meaty”…. I had to read them a few times, and it took a while for me to get what Uncle Joe was saying.   Reading this one made me want to touch Jesus more  – to not be an offender NOR the offended, as he said.  Jesus is on another level…. and Uncle Joe saw it.

    Thanks for sending these.

    Gary

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

    Hi Gary,

    Uncle Joe did have godly wisdom that broadens our understanding as we take it in.  Uncle Joe and my father used to refer to a Scripture in Psalms fairly often.  It is this: “Great peace have they that love thy law; nothing shall offend them.”  They taught us who were young in the Lord that if anything offended us, that is, causes us to get off the right track with Jesus, it can only be that we did not love the law of God.  This is one reason why Uncle Joe lumped together both those who offend and those who are offended.  Both are lacking in the love of God.

    My father used to say during his sermons that if what he was preaching hurt our feelings, he would forgive us.  That’s what I’m talking about.

    —

    jdc

     

  • a mess

    Wow.  The texts you have been sending sent me to praying for God’s people, and just as I was getting up, the word “mess” came to mind.  I knew to look it up.  It’s the condition God’s people are in.

    1 a dirty, untidy, or disordered condition:

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

    Without faith, Donna, none of us can even believe how bad things really are for God’s precious people.  He has to help us not only to see it but to admit it to ourselves.  But then, when He does that, the grief can be suffocating (Eccl. 1:18).  Dear Father, help your divided, confused children!

    jdc

  • things of value

    Good morning John.

    Today I was organizing and mailing out various tract and CD orders from the Isaiah 58 site that came in over the past couple of days.

    For when a person orders a CD from the site, Earl has given me extra old CD’s from the meeting room that went un-purchased, and I usually add one or two of those to the order, since it does not really add anything to the postage, so that people can hear live meetings.

    This morning as I reached into the box, of perhaps 50 to 100 CD’s the sweetest feeling came over me.  I could have picked any of the CD’s in that box, knowing that whichever CD I picked, it would be a thing of value.  Things that go unclaimed among us just might be golden nuggets of life to someone who is hungry for reality in the Spirit.  They’ve never heard what is on a CD that we have hundreds of extras of!  Tears came to my eyes, just to have things of such value.  Where would we be without them, without each other, without this truth?  It’s hard to even wonder.  I am thankful, after your wonderful message from 1Corinthians, for you, for the saints before you who paid a price, and for every child of God whom Jesus has put in my life right now.

    And beyond that, I am thankful for soberness, for sanity, and for the readiness of mind and heart to want to get this truth to God’s wandering sheep.

    Gary

  • Paul water baptizing people at Corinth

    Pastor John, I received this question from the web site.  I know Paul regretted doing so and that he only baptized a few, but I couldn’t find anything that specifically addresses this man’s question.  Crispus was Jewish, Stephanas was of the firstfruits of Achaia and quite likely Jewish as Paul started in the synagogue and I can’t see any details regarding Gaius of Corinth.  Any other thoughts?

    djc

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

    Web Comment:

    Hi.  If Paul states that water baptism is not required, why did he still baptize the Corinth believers?

    Name: Thomas

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

    Hi Damien:

    Paul baptized those Jews in Corinth (and then taught the Gentiles that water baptism was useless) for the same reason he circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:1-3) and then taught the Gentiles that if they submitted to circumcision, they were backslidden and were “fallen from grace” (Gal. 5.4).

    This is why we cannot use the book of Acts to formulate any doctrine.  The Law of Moses was not quite dead yet (Heb. 8:13), and much confusion resulted.

    Pastor John

  • God repenting

    Hey Bro. John:

    I have a question regarding what you wrote in the blog “The Law was Prophetic”  It came to my mind as I was reading this:

    “God has never had to go back and correct anything He has ever said or done!”

    Would God repenting for wanting to destroy His “stiffnecked” people (and speaking this to Moses) be considered “correcting anything He has ever said?”

    Exodus 32:14: “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”

    Thanks!

    Sandy

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

    The key, Sandy, is that God didn’t have to to that.   He had not made a mistake and then was trying to correct it; He was showing mercy because he is good.

    —

    jdc

     

  • A brief history 2

    Pastor John’s House Teaching Materials and Music Store

     

    Pastor John

    I woke up very early yesterday morning and after praying some in bed I got up and found the computer was sleeping and not shut down.  I bumped the mouse and saw that that man [who was offended at “non-Christian recently) had sent another email.   I had known in myself since Saturday night when I received his second email what had happened but still there was a moment of hope.   I read it and I replied briefly to him about being reasonable.   Afterwards I went through thinking “Did I say too much? or, “Am I to blame in some way?”.  The Lord reminded me that I had not even replied to him when I received that second email late after Saturday’s meeting, criticizing us for being non-Christians.

    He also let me understand exactly what you later wrote about.  He had listened to 9 tracks of the New Birth series but then was “offended”.  He had all he needed but had gone past his answer and was looking for a way out [of believing the truth].   Then I had one more thought that I put aside as being too sarcastic or “smart”.  It was to write and ask the man to let me know when he no longer believed that the spirit baptism was the new birth experience.

    Wednesday morning, we went over John 6:66 in the Greek, and you pointed out how the Greek implies that those people went back to their “former things”, the religion of the Jews, after they left off walking with Jesus.   Later in the afternoon I was working steadily on a report for Cedar Rock when those two things were brought together for me.  That man will go back to his former ways and beliefs and lose the truth God showed him.  The saying was too hard for him and he went away from Jesus.  I guess he will probably come to believe that it was indeed another gospel he was believing in (as he at first had feared, he said) and will thank God for escaping the curse Paul wrote of to the Galatians.

    Few are blessed to hear those 9 tracks of the New Birth series.  About 45 minutes more truth than he will ever likely hear in the rest of his life.  It is sad but I am with Peter who said “Where shall we go”  Ha! I checked that.  He didn’t say that at all!  He said “to whom shall we go?”  He was still looking for a man to guide him.

    Damien

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

    Hi Damien,

    It struck me as true that you said he had listened to the first 45 minutes of that CD and  was looking for a way out.  That’s usually how it is.  What they point the finger at is almost never what their problem really is.  I told a sister yesterday at lunch that the accusation recently made against them was not the real reason her son and daughter in law won’t come see or call her any longer.  Their hearts had turned from Jesus, and they were looking for something or somebody else to blame.

    jdc

  • “Honor thy father and thy mother”

    Pastor John,

    I have a question about honoring parents.  The Lord has been allowing me to see my mother’s moral state better than I ever have.  I see her largely as a bad influence who is also my mom.  (Our relationship has always been distant and strange, so I don’t think I understand “mom” like most people do anyway.)  For two months recently, I thought it would be good for me not to talk to her; connecting with her feels like spiritual chains.  I don’t want to ignore God’s commandment (which comes with a promise), or be cruel, yet talking with her as often as it seems she’d like feels like forcing myself to keep a bad acquaintance.  J– and I are praying about our relationships with our earthly family.  What does it mean to honor one’s parents?

    Thank you,

    B–

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

    B&J,

    That is not the commandment, atvin least, not as Paul gave it to us (in Ephesians 5:1?)  The commandment is “Children, honor your parents IN THE LORD”.  You must be led by the Lord in all your relationships, even with your mother and father.  Custom of the culture or the expectations of people cannot be the determining factor.  According to everything the gospel teaches, you will please people only if you displease God.  But if you please God and displease people, expect to be misunderstood and maligned.  Such persecution comes with the honor of hearing from and following Him.

    jdc

  • Sharing a thought I had

    Hey John,

    Sunday when I was in Bob’s vineyard picking grapes, I was chewing on what you said to us Saturday night.   I am so thankful to be able to have eyes to see and ears to hear these things that you are teaching us, and it is amazing that we have been chosen out of this whole world to hear and understand it.

    Anyway, while thinking this, I had this thought come to me, which had sweet feelings with it too.   It was, “You believed the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” — and that was it!   It was the phrase that people say when they put their hand on the bible in court, but the word is tell instead of believed (Do you swear to tell the whole truth, etc.)   It felt like the spirit was letting me know why I am here, and everyone else too.  It was a sweet thought I wanted to share.

    Thanks!

    Cathy B.

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

    Thanks Cathy.  You are right.  It is such a great blessing for Jesus to open our hearts to what the Spirit is saying.  His mercy is why any of us are “here” together in spirit.  The truth of the gospel creates among us a fellowship that the world cannot understand.  I pray we walk worthy of the Lord so that he will continue to bless us as he has all these years.

    jdc

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