Pastor John,

Jesus did something else for me this week that I wanted to tell you about because it has really encouraged me.

During the night on Sunday, a dog woke me. It sounded like a hound, howling right outside our bedroom window. I didn’t see a dog on Monday, but I did see evidence that one had been here. That night, I woke up again, twice, to a howling dog. Some sort of emergency vehicle with a siren was going along the highway just before 6am on Tuesday morning and that dog went to howling again. It woke Haskell and me. When Haskell went off to work that morning, we found the dog on our back porch, on the mat up against the door. It was a huge red and white husky with light blue eyes. Haskell had to push the door open to get out, and the dog seemed to cower. It did not seem like an aggressive dog. Later that morning, when I opened the front door to let in the sunshine, I saw a spot of blood on the porch. The dog was still around at the back deck and did not seem to be hurt. I didn’t know if it had killed something or why that blood was there. The dog smelled really bad and was shedding hair. It had left a big fur ball on the mat at the back door. I didn’t want to sweep it up yet, because I knew it would just leave more hair. The dog did not seem to want to leave here either. When the kids woke up and saw it, they liked it. I didn’t want to teach them to hate or fear dogs, so I told them that we didn’t know that dog and it needed to go to his home. It stayed on the deck when the kids left with Haskell’s parents for the day and I was glad that it didn’t try to get friendly with them. It was a HUGE dog, and it really did smell bad. I called the animal shelter to see if they would pick it up and they referred me to the sherriff’s office. The sherriff’s office said that they didn’t have anyone doing animal control that day and to call back tomorrow……… 🙂 I went upstairs and did my work hoping it would leave. I heard it howl a couple of times and knew it was still outside. When I came down for lunch, it was still hanging around. And that big fur ball was still on the mat. I heated up some food in the microwave and walked over to the back door. I would normally go outside and walk around to get some fresh air and maybe eat on the steps. But that dog was there! It had come up to the door when it smelled my food I had heated. Then, I felt like the Lord invited me to tell him what I wanted. So, while I was chewing and looking at that dog, I said, “Lord, I want it to leave.” The dog went to the steps, hesitated for just a second, then slowly walked down the steps. It was walking away slowly and looking around like it didn’t know what it wanted to do. Then I said, “I don’t want it to come back.” It began walking faster, like it knew what it wanted to do, and went out of my sight. I felt hopeful and excited inside. Then I saw that hair on the mat again. Now I felt like sweeping it. I went to get the broom from the closet and heard these words, “full assurance.” I felt like the Lord was saying, “Sweep with ‘full assurance’ that the dog will not be back.” While I was sweeping, I remembered Uncle Joe’s testimony about forbidding Aunt Myrtle to hang out the laundry because he was praying for rain because he didn’t want anything to hinder his faith that God would answer his prayers.

We haven’t seen or heard that dog since. 🙂 And I am very thankful for that experience.
Love you,
Cris

Pastor John,

Hey, just wanted to say hello and say thanks to everybody for the work put forth on the live listenings on the skype. It’s great! I have thought on one particular part all day. That is when you spoke on being the happiest in the Lord, was it the day you received the New Birth, or Today? If it was the first, then something is off. I seemed to have enjoyed my day so much better today with those things on my mind.

Be good to see you this weekend….
Thanks alot!
Paul

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Hi Paul.

John David got the skype thing going for people. It has blessed a bunch of folk so far, it seems. I am glad for that. John David is doing what I exhort all these young people to do: make your life valuable to others.

It’s good to be happier today than when you were born again. If it is true that “of the INCREASE of his government (the Son’s government) there shall be no end”, then we ought to have more joy, more knowledge, and more love, than we did when we first submitted to his government, shouldn’t we?

Thanks for writing, Paul. Greetings to Jammie and the boys, until we see you again.

Pastor John

Pastor John,

This morning’s meeting was so good for me. It’s no small thing to be apart of such righteous work. I want to do my part. Your message today was especially good for me as I have so many family and friends who rest confidence in “church”, believing it was ordained through Peter and therefore of God. So, I have summarized your lesson today so that I can forward it to family and friends. Please read it and make corrections where need be. This truth is too precious not be said correctly and, of course, told by someone who is not right with God.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you next weekend God willing.

MD

Dear ,

Prior to reading this please read Matthew 16:18 and Acts Chapter 10 through 11:18.

I learned from Pastor John today why Jesus said Peter was to be the rock, the rock upon which God will build up His people (Jesus never used the word church, but ecclesia, “called out people, or assembly”). Firstly, know that the Greek word “rock” sounds similar to the word “Peter” and that literally speaking, we should not look much into his title “the rock”. What is important to draw from this is the steadfast determination not to budge that is attributed to a person when called a rock. Peter in that regard lived up to that name during his ministry especially as he stood in front of the apostles in Jerusalem the day he defended God’s pouring out of His Spirit at Cornelius’ house, an event until then no Jew would believe true.

When the Lord spoke to Peter in a vision while in Joppa, Peter thought he was being put to the test. Peter, determined to pass this test, defiantly said “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”. Three times Peter declined to eat of the animals that descended from heaven until God declared “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” When Peter awoke, he rightly followed the will of God, despite the traditions and customs that separated the uncircumcised and the circumcised nations.

It was no small thing when Peter spoke “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him”. For until then, any Jew could not be faulted for believing to enter the kingdom of God was first to be a circumcised Jew. After all, Jesus himself instructed his apostles to only go to the houses of Israel to heal and preach “the Kingdom of heaven was at hand” (Matthew 10;5). However, what occurred in Caesarea was remarkable and certainly unimaginable in the minds of early saints. For Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit without circumcision, much less prior to John’s water baptism, was simply without precedent or doctrine. Paul’s revelation, or doctrine, which specifically defined God’s kingdom to include Jew and Gentile had not yet be revealed. Therefore, Peter was working without understanding, he was in uncharted waters and without Paul’s doctrine, who could blame him for trying to impress only what he knew at the time to do, grant them John’s water baptism.

When Peter returned to Jerusalem and news of this trip was made known, Peter was not met with praise and joy from his brethren but rather “contention”. “You went into uncircumcised men and ate with them!” was their reaction. However, thankfully, Peter boldly recounted how the love of Jesus poured out his Spirit on those Gentiles just as it happen to them on Pentecost. For Peter, it didn’t matter that they had not been water baptized or circumcised for he remembered the word’s of Jesus, “John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; 11:16). Peter’s defense for what he saw both in his vision and in Caesarea depicted the last of the three keys God gave him to open up His kingdom. The first two being the Jews the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 14) and to the Samaritans after they had believed (Acts 8:15). Peter’s instrumental role in ushering in the Holy Spirit to all those who repent and believe, despite the contention and religious traditions that made it hard for others to see, make him the rock that Jesus will build up his Kingdom.

But the early saints would continue to find it hard to believe what God revealed through Peter to be true. Judaizers as they are called would impress upon uncircumcised but Spirit filled saints that they had to be circumcised and follow the laws and traditions of their Jewish counterparts. Therefore, Jesus needed another man, but not just any man, but arguably Judaism’s most popular zealot, Saul. For only Paul with his personal testimony and revelation straight from Jesus could declare “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness EVERYONE who believes.”

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Dear MD:

Your summary of the message could not have been explained any better. Well done! The actual video of the sermon is now on line and can be seen at http://www.pastorjohnshouse.com/video/whoweare.html

Pastor John

Bro. John:

The Lord woke me this morning with such a wonderful and sweet thought:

“Out of one Name, many”.

There is no end to the Father and the Son.  Out of one Name many are still being born.   As Peter said in Acts 4:

[10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
[11] This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
[12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

How many of us today could say as Peter did: “. . . .  by him [Jesus] doth this man stand here before you whole.” Earthly fathers can have many children, but only “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” is one born of the everlasting seed.

I love waking up to the Lord!  He gives food that is so satisfying!  His words soothe way down deep in the soul, and the more you ponder them, the sweeter they taste!

Sandy  🙂

“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Isaiah 66:8

Here are more amazing excerpts from sermons from Preacher Clark.

(Illustrating how that if you have the victory, you don’t have to claim it.) There was a man in Oklahoma who had been drilling for oil unsuccessfully. He and his wife were struggling financially, and they finally came to the last day that they could keep trying. He went out that morning, drilling as usual and he hit the jackpot. Oil gushed out and he caught it in his hat and ran to the house to show his wife. When he got to the front gate it was closed and without thinking he put his hat on his head so he could open the gate. As he was running to the house, he wife came out and she said, “You don’t have to say a word, I can see it all over you.”

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A man asked Preacher Clark, “What’s your hobby?” GCC said, “Loving humanity. That’s my hobby, avocation, vocation, and everything else.”

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“Men may say, ‘I don’t see it as you do.’ I’ll tell you one thing, you’d better see it as God sees it.”

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GCC Pearl: “You cannot know something you don’t experience.”

As a Baptist, I believed that Jesus was Lord the same way I believed that George Washington was the first president, and I would have been an ignoramus if I didn’t believe both. You must know God!

GCC Pearl: “I don’t preach to the lost; I preach to the ones who are going to be lost if they don’t repent and get right with God. If they’re lost, I don’t mess with them.”

GCC Pearl: “I have never been promoted [by God] without being forsaken [by men].”

Bro. John:

I have been in the midst of riches all day today working on your father’s stories! His story below reminds me of how we pray at times, thinking we know what we are asking for, but when God sends the answer it may come with a cost.

STORY about an answer to prayer that was not so pleasant. Back in Kinston there was a Sister Tew. She was the saint who stood on the corner with young Preacher Clark and asked him with tears, “Why can’t we all be together?” That was the question that helped start him seeking God for the truth. She had a wicked husband and two wicked sons and another little boy named Charlie. Her husband would lock her out of the house at night if she went to a prayer meeting. Sometimes she would see other married couples believing in God together and say that she wished that her home was a home of prayer. Time passed and her husband became ill and died. Her oldest son got in trouble with the law. On one occasion it took six policeman to control him. He was convicted in court and sentenced to serve on a chain gang in prison. Her next oldest son, an alcoholic, married and left home. That left no one but Sister Tew and little Charlie, who received the holy Ghost as a 12 or 13 year old boy in a meeting where Preacher Clark and Aunt Onie were present. Not long after that, Sister Tew and little Charlie were praying together at home, little Charlie speaking in tongues and being blessed, when it dawned on her that she at last had a home of prayer. God had answered the desire of her heart but at such a cost. Sister Tew testified in the next meeting, “Oh my Lord, if I had known how God was going to answer that prayer, I’d a never asked for it.”

Sandy