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  • Psalm 22

    Morning Pastor John,

    I was listening to The Father and Son, chapter 4, that you posted on Facebook, and Psalm 22 really hit me. 

    Starting with verse 14:  “all my bones are out of joint.”

     I cannot even imagine the pain Jesus was in. Just one bone out of joint is terrible pain. 

    “My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.”

    Jesus did not have any strength left.  I hurt for him, reading this.

    Verse 17: “I can count all my bones.”

    I tried to picture that image and imagine what kind of hearts it really took to torture someone who is so thin that all his bones shown.  What kind of heart could be so wicked and cruel? 

    Verse 18: “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”

    What kind of heart divides a dying man’s things in front of him.  If I picture that scene in today’s time, the wickedness of a heart like that is so awful. 

    As I thought about what kind of heart that it took to be used by God to kill Jesus, I can see why God used them, and how it was a just reward for God to give such a heart a job like that.

    Then I thought of what you said yesterday about what kind of man wouldn’t want Sister [name withheld] for a wife.  I thought of the condition of some men’s hearts, who forsake godly women with small children who were following Jesus. What condition their hearts must be in to do such a thing!  They are hurting God’s daughters and little ones; their hearts are like the hearts God used to kill His son.  

    But God! 

    Verse 19: “But you, O LORD, do not be far off! Help, come quickly to my aid!” 

    When I look at what wonderful and full lives God’s daughters and their children have, verse 19 never read so sweet!  It’s like I am watching a scene from the Bible!  We can see God do it, right in front of us!  Jesus is near them, listening to every hurt that crosses their heart; he knows how cruelty feels. 

    These thoughts touched me today! 

    1. Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encompassed me!
    2. They opened their mouth like a lion, tearing and roaring at me.
    3. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
    4. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue is stuck to my palate; yea, you have brought me to the dust of death.
    5. Dogs encompass me; the congregation of the wicked encircle me. They pierced my hands and my feet.
    6. I can count all my bones. They gaze and stare at me.
    7. They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
    8. But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O my Help, come quickly to my aid!

    Beth D.

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  • The Father and Son Book Reading

    John,

    Last night’s reading of the Father and the Son book was enlightening!  It changed something in me and opened my eyes to see what God was doing with his servant Job, in the book of Job.

    Job was the most righteous man on earth, and yet his righteousness was not enough; it failed in comparison to God’s righteousness.  Job was living as righteously as a man could have possibly lived at that time, and God knew it! 

    He took Job beyond human righteousness, and as you said last night, He rewarded him with a glimpse of His kind of righteousness.  It was never a trial of whether Job would fail or not; it was God rewarding Job with something that Job knew nothing about!  

    I thank God that we are living in this time, after He sent his Son so that we can live in His kind of righteousness, right now on this earth!!  I pray to God that I can take it all in and walk in it every day.  Thank you John!!

    Stuart 

     

  • New “Remembers”

    Wow!  I can’t wait to read the rest of Chapter 6 tonight.  These “Remembers” are so good.  The section on “God Took Him There” was especially good to me.  And these specific ones:

    • God is patient with us because He is so determined to bless us, just as He was determined to bless Job
    • To be carried by God is the only way anyone ever gets to the “secret place of the Most High”
    • None of us who have God’s kind of life have it because wewanted it; we have it because He wanted us
    • God had to create in us a hunger for His kind of life, and when He did that, we fell on our knees and sought Him for the relief from ourselves that His Spirit brings  (this is so good to think about!!!)

    That last one made me stop and remember when God began to create that hunger in my young, 29-year-old self.  I was hungry, even though I had no idea where or how to begin seeking Him.  The only thing I thought to do was read my Bible, so I began in Genesis and planned to read straight through.  (We just take our little baby steps and Jesus will meet us there:)

    Around that same time, I was at Mama’s house one Sunday afternoon and “happened” to pick up a  Davidson County Community College flier and saw your Old Testament class was being offered.  Something inside of me felt excited!  I had no idea what the class would involve or anything about its teacher, but I knew I wanted to sign up.  Leading up to the class, however, several people thwarted my excitement by telling me how boring “religion” classes had been for them.  As I was walking out the door for the first night of class, I felt a little apprehensive about going. Looking back at my two young girls sitting with Robert on the couch,  I remember telling him,  “I’m gonna go for this first class, but if this turns out to be some lofty, religious professor who just likes to hear himself talk, I’m not going back”.  (So little did I know!)

    I’ll never ever forget that first class.  It was unlike any class I’d ever had before.  I could just sense how much you loved the Old Testament and teaching this class, and it made me excited and eager to learn it, too!  

    You gave us our maps and the list of people and places we needed to pay attention to as we read.  You talked about those Old Testament  characters like they were family, and you made their stories come to life.  And as we continued through the class, those characters  began to feel like family to me, too!  I have never been so excited about a class; ever!  For our first class we lacked the  twelve students required to continue the class, so you urged us to go home and  tell our friends and family about the class.  I went straight home and called anyone I thought might be interested and invited them all to come with me to the next class.  Mama was the only one who accepted my invitation, and she  joined the class for a short while.  

    I followed you from the community college to Psalm 91, to Billy H.’s basement, to your Lexington house, and finally to Elderwood Lane in Burlington.  God had created in me a hunger for His kind of life!  I’m so thankful for that this morning, I can hardly keep typing!  God wanted ME!

    And it wasn’t long after that, I “fell on my knees and sought Him for that relief from myself”!  And oh what a sweet relief I feel, to this very moment, every time He comes!  

    Still following :), 

    Lee Ann

    New Remembers PDF

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  • Our God of Relationships

    Hi Pastor John,

    I started reading the biography of your father today: (https://www.pioneertract.com/)

    The experiences those saints had were so real and even physically visible to everyone around.  That story about Sister Murray seeing the light encapsulate her vehicle so she could get her family back home from the prayer meeting and how Brother Hunnings’ leg was healed late in life was so powerful.

    The saints at that time were so free in Jesus! They expected things to happen in the NOW because of the Spirit; they weren’t waiting on things to ‘stabilize’ due to a false sense of security from modern civilization/technology. Sometimes, individuals are too ‘secure’ in the current world or modern tech/healthcare we live in to see their vital need for God.  Those saints showed up to a prayer meeting and were available for JESUS to do something…anything…for them.  I love to visualize those holy meetings where people could be healed from merely hearing the music.  They expected for those miracles to happen when they got together!

    I want that kind of faith that they had!  I want the healings that those old saints experienced for us…now!  We have the same holy ghost that can heal us as those saints were healed…and we need Jesus just as much as they did.

    I got this book in a binder from Aunt Sandy’s, sweet little side note! I cannot wait to read the rest, thank you for writing about our family history (Je-(sus)-neology, ha!).

    Wendy

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1803065814951546932

  • Jesus Saved the Day

    Pastor John,

    I have got to tell on Jesus. I went on call midnight Friday night.  I worked yesterday to make up one of the days I was out for my catheter.  While in the parts room (which is very much like the dream before I was hired, full to the ceiling) looking for a part I needed, I found a cast saw blade taped to a box.  My first thought was, what an odd place for that blade and then went on looking.   Well, last night at 1030 pm I get a call from the nurse manager, “someone from your shop took the cast saw from ER and didn’t return it.  They have a kid who fell into a pool and they need to cut off his cast and we can’t find one anywhere.”  Cody, the guy who took the saw texted and told me it was on his bench, he took it because the blade was bad and he was waiting for the new one to come in.

    When I first got to work, the manager was already in the shop looking for a power cord.   So I went right back to where I remembered that blade being.   It was actually the correct blade.   I installed it and had the unit working in just minutes.  I remembered thinking “what a crazy place for a saw blade” when I first saw it and Jesus immediately was on my mind. 

    So, I told Alice, the nurse manager, what Jesus had done for me by showing me the blade earlier and letting me remember where it was (you have no idea how crazily our parts room is misarranged)!  Cody called me shortly afterwards and I also told him the story and that Jesus had saved the day!   His reply was, “I know God takes care of you.”  I love my new life in the Lord! He is so very good to us!

    Happy fathers day to all our blessed fathers!

    Mark W.

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1803059651740656055

     

  • Father and Son Reading

    John,

    I have read over the papers and the new stuff on the phone you sent out.  It is wonderful. I can hardly believe we are in exactly the same place they were in heaven, our hearts being tried every day all the time!  How can ANYONE ever hope to make to make it through without completely being subdued to the Spirit and mind of it, and the mercy of God.  His silence tries us through and through.  It makes my heart tremble, and LOVE IT MORE at the same time!

    Jimmy T.

    F&S Sentences PDF

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    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1802098903707275604

  • Job 11:12

    Pastor John,

    Your translation of Job 11:12* says, “An empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man.”

    I think it means an empty-headed man will never learn wisdom –– empty-headed concerning the things of God, I think.

    Mark W.

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

    ==========

    Hi Mark.

    That is right.

    Pastor John

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  • Four Kinds of Soil

    RE: Jesus’ Parable of the Four Kinds of Soil

    Pastor John,

    Do you think people are always the third type of soil in Jesus’ parable or does it develop gradually, changing over time?  I feel they don’t see it in themselves probably.  If you are the third kind, will the holy Ghost still talk to you or will He eventually stop?   Can the third type grow into the fourth if God lets them see it in themselves?  I have these questions because it scares me that I could be deceived and not even know myself.  But the times the holy Ghost has answered me or chastened me gives me great hope.

    Thanks for the video on evolution.*  The holy Ghost in me loved it.  It dispelled many myths about the earth.  Amazing how many of these were the same questions I have always had, as  in “How did ocean animal fossils end up on mountain tops?”  And many more.

    The meeting last night was good food for my soul!

    Thank you,

    Mark W.

    =========

    Hi Mark,

    Our choices determine which kind of soil we are.  Based on that, I would say that a person can at least stop acting as if he is bad soil.  But I don’t know that if a person who is the third kind of soil can actually change into the fourth kind of soil.  God alone knows that.  It is clear from the scriptures that a person who is the third kind of soil does not realize he is in the spiritual condition he is in.  Sometimes, the Bible makes it plain that such people are so blind that some of them consider themselves spiritual guides to others in the body of Christ.

    It is sobering just to know that within the body of Christ are both wise and foolish believers.  God speaks to all His children, by one means or another.  He always has.  But the unwise do not put into practice what they know is their heavenly Father’s will.

    My father once warned me not to be hasty in judging anyone to be a wise virgin or a foolish one because, he said, there may be some foolish things about a wise saint and some wise things about a foolish one.  We will do well to leave that judgment to God, and pay attention to our own lives, making sure that we are doing the will of God.

    Pastor John

    PS You are welcome for the evolution video.  I learned a lot from it, too.

    * https://youtube.com/watch?v=hRoQL7W5jg8&si=-ytmswk0qpKHKNaB

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1802089166567604548

  • You Set Me Free

    Pastor John,

    Everytime I hear this song by Donna Nelson it touches me.  Her beautiful testimony!

                                         You Set Me Free

    You thought that I had lost my mind, gone perfectly insane

    when all of my old habits changed, my life was rearranged

    The Master of the wind had come, He touched my cold, stone heart

    and gave me life and liberty and set this dead man free

    I was dead but now I live Through the blood you shed for me

    I was blind but now I see Jesus, you gave sight to me I was dead to

    the love that you had for me, but one touch from your hand you set

    me free

    I used to think that I was right in how I love and serve the Lord

    but then he spoke to me one night and sweetly changed my life

    His words so kind and yet so true, all your ways are filth to me

    I left them everyone behind and Jesus set me free!

    I was dead but now I live Through the blood you shed for me

    I was blind but now I see Jesus, you gave life to me I was dead to

    the love that you had for me, but one touch from your

    hand, you set me free!

    I am so thankful that Jesus has set us free!  Free from the lie that Christianity is of Christ, free from a crazy mixed up world, and free from ourselves!  It stirs up faith in my soul.  What do you need?  Peace? Healing?  Comfort?  Strength?

    It’s available!  All it takes is one touch from the Master!

    He is truly good to us!  

    Michelle 

    Tell us what you think:

    https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1800326789593743838

     

  • Why Did Saul Persecute the Jews?

    Hi John,

    I had always thought the reason Saul persecuted the Jews after they received the Holy Ghost was because they stopped keeping the law.  Since the Jews were required by God to keep Moses’ law after they received the Holy Ghost, why did Saul persecute them?

    Thank you,

    Randell

    ===========

    That is a very thoughtful question, Randell.  It is one that I should have asked myself a long tome ago.  Thank you for asking it.

    One would think that Jewish believers would have been highly respected by their fellow Jews since believing Jews were devoted to the law (Acts 21:20).  But Paul told the Thessalonians that believing Jews had suffered many things at the hands of other Jews (1Thess. 2:15).  When you asked me this question, I realized for the first time that the Bible provides us with no clear answer for it.

    Leaders of unbelieving Jews hated Jesus because they envied his popularity with the people.  Even Pontius Pilate saw that they envied Jesus (Mt. 27:18).  They invented a rule that forbade the sick to be healed on a Sabbath in order to condemn him, for they saw that he healed people every day.  And they condemned him for claiming to be their Messiah.  Maybe that is why Paul as a young man joined others in persecuting their fellow Jews who believed in Jesus.  Maybe it was just a case of Jesus’ reproach falling on those who believed in him.  They were certainly not hated because of immoral conduct.

    It is fascinating to me that I had never considered that the Bible never tells us why believing Jews were so hated by their fellow Jews.  They arrested Peter and John because they preached the resurrection from the dead, and many people believed them (Acts 4:1–4).  They stoned Stephen because he told them that they were resisting the holy Ghost, and that he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:51–60).  When Paul was a young Pharisee, he was commissioned to travel to Damascus to bind believers and return them to Jerusalem simply because they believed the gospel (Acts 9:1–2).  Later, the Jews plotted to kill Saul because he had found out Jesus was the Messiah and was telling it in the synagogue (Acts 9:20–23).

    In no case that I have found was there any justifiable reason given for the hatred and persecution.  They were always hated for doing something that was actually good, or for testifying about Jesus.  We are seeing more and more of this irrational hatred in our time.  But let us continue in doing good in the sight of God anyway.  The reward for doing that will far outweigh anything this world can throw at us, as Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

    Thank you for a great question!

    Pastor John

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