Bro. John:

Paul said:  “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Preacher Clark’s “pearls” of wisdom from the Old meeting CD’s are sweet, sobering nuggets of God to my soul.  I love them!  They are “things that are true”.  He learned obedience by the things that he suffered.  His words were not vain words.  They were Life to those who believed then and they are Life to those who believe now.

So good!

Here are just a few GCC Pearls, taken from various CD’s of the Old Prayer meetings at your grandmother’s farmhouse that Brother Earl recorded on his old reel-to-reel during the 1960’s and 70’s:

“I’ll tell you one thing.  You’re going to pay for the truth.  It’s going to cost you everything you ever hoped to be, and you ever could have been, or ever wanted to have been.”

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

“You don’t come here to serve God.  You come here because you’ve been serving God.

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

“Of all the places [of worship] you’ve ever been, and all the congregations, and all the preachers, and all the preaching you’ve ever heard, you’d be better off to go to hell from those places listening to those men preach than you would from here.  There is going to be a hot spot in hell waiting for you if you ever go there from this place.”

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

“You’re not good because you don’t do something or because you do something.  You’re that because you think something.  And those thoughts, and that mind, is the mind of Christ.  You’re going to be to the place you have the same mind that he had, you do the same things that he’d do, you’ll desire the same things he’d desire.  And when you get fastened to that, you’re ready for the wedding.  You’re ready for the wedding, and until that happens, you’d better pray that [Jesus] won’t come.  Don’t pray for him to come.”

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

“You’ll have the righteousness of God or you’ll go to hell.  You’ll have it or you’ll perish.”

You’ll put [the righteousness of God] on, just like charity; it will come on you from God.  And it does come on when you find God.  But what about when you find God, and you exercise yourself by it, and you’re scorned and you’re put down, and after a while you get tired of that?

Your relatives, they don’t like for you to be there.  They say, “You don’t have to throw yourself away.” Did [people] ever tell you that?  They used to tell me that.  They said, “You don’t have to throw yourself away just because you get into holiness.”

“Oh, yes you do have to throw yourself away!”

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

” ‘Let the meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be acceptable in thy sight.‘  If your heart’s not right, your words won’t amount to much anyway.”

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

I loved these, and there are so many more!

Sandy  🙂

Dear Brother John,

We just listened to the Wed night prayer meeting at your house, live and on-line (skype). It was very clear nearly all the time, CD quality.

Anyway, during your message, you said, “When people think of you when they need something, you have done something right in the past.” And, “When they don’t think of you when they have a need that you can fill, that is a bad testimony for you.”

Brother John, that makes me so happy. I told ***** “people need me!” They call me when they need help. That means that I have made them feel like they can. That means I have taken care of God’s landcape — His people! Even sis.***** lets me fix and install her stuff. She doesn’t often call on anyone because she says she doesn’t want to be a bother. That means that I have made her comfortable enough to go against her normal way of behaving. That makes me feel like doing a cartwheel. I am so happy that I have gotten into peoples hearts that way. If I can’t help people, I don’t feel complete.

When ***** and I were in Burlington, staying with LeeAnn, ***** broke the spicket off the bathtub. LeeAnn made me feel so good about it. She left me with no heaviness for my mistake. Then I called Jim for help because I know nothing about plumbing. He had worked all day and came straight from a service call to help me. I marveled at how good he made me feel for “bothering” him. He was just glad to see me. When it was all over, I felt like I could cry for the goodness that was shown to me.

God commanded me years ago “when you’ve done your best, be happy.” Mistakes happen, even when we do our best. Sometimes our best just isn’t good enough for some earthly situations. But, even if you drop the ball, when you have given 100%, you can be happy, even when others around you don’t. I learned so much about relationships this weekend by watching LeeAnn and Jim. take care of me.

Thank you so much,
 *****

Bro. John:

Thank you for opening up further understanding about obedience when we talked about what the Lord woke me with: “Introduction in obedience”. I had never thought about it in the way you explained it, but it made perfect sense to think of obedience (even from the time of the garden of Eden) as merely acknowledging the order of God. Just thinking of all the places where disorder exists in this world shows how much disobedience there is to God. There was perfect obedience because there was perfect order in the Garden of Eden until sin (disobedience) entered in. Then, disobedience to God led to everything on earth being out of order.

It was the first time, too, that I had really paid attention to the fact that God gave the commandment not to eat “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” to Adam and Eve together, but only to Adam before Eve was created. That was the order of God — to the head.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Now, I understand that in Genesis it was not only the “introduction in obedience” on earth, but the “introduction in order” on earth.

Thank you again for adding to my understanding of this. It is really good!

Sandy

“. . . . and with all thy getting get understanding.”

Hi Pastor John,

I am so thankful for what God and his son have done for us. With all of the other ways in this world that we could have fallen into, God chose us to be a part of what he is doing in the world with his truth right now. It is not a small thing; it is a BIG thing for us.

With all of the things that are going on around us it, makes me value it more and more every day. I would not have had a life if it was not for what Jesus has done for me. All I would have would be lies and false ways of thinking and believing, no matter what my life looked like to others.

How valuable it is to hear from God and walk in his ways and not our own! How much more valuable it is to live for others and believe what God is telling us! To put aside our own thoughts and to want his thoughts and feelings in our bodies, leading us and guiding us every minute of the day! I love this way; I desire this way, and this is my life, not just something I put on and take off again when it fits what I want. It is life in Jesus.

I am so thankful for the ones that came before us and cleared the path way that we are walking on right now! They paid a price and we will, too, if we love it and value it as they did. How valuable is it to any of us? How we live our lives will tell how important we think it is. John, I am so thankful that God has allowed me to know you and to learn what he has done for you with his truth. Jesus and you are cutting us a clearer path way for us to walk on, and I value that very much, it is not a lite thing.

Bro. Stuart

Dear Bro. John:

The Blog sent out on 5/13/09 “Do You Want Jesus to Want You“ and the email on “Respect”, went right along with what I was reading today in Luke.

[57] And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
[58] And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
[59] And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
[60] Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
[61] And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
[62] And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

There were probably many that day who thought what Jesus said to those men were hard, even rude, sayings. After all, what could be wrong with burying a father or bidding farewell to relatives? But Jesus was respecting his Father and offering LIFE at that very moment to those men when he said “Follow me”. Jesus was the most important thing happening for them, but they chose first to “respect” and give particular attention to things and persons of this world. I like what you said in an earlier email reply: “We are to treat everyone, including those who have wandered off the right road, with respect. But we are foolish if we allow them to influence us after we see that they have spurned the sweet influence of Jesus that was offered to them.” To be influenced by anyone or anything other than Jesus is to become as Jesus said, unfit for the kingdom of God.

[I found it interesting what Webster’s said about the word “respect”: Middle English, from Latin respectus, literally, act of looking back, from respicere to look back, regard, from re- + specere to look]

This story in Luke helps me to understand more about respect. Jesus was not rude. He just told the truth. And by telling the truth to those men, he gave his attention to what and Who was most important for them and for others to follow. The question seems to be: “Do we want to be courteous with the truth or just be courteous with others?” There is a difference.

Thank you for all the good emails.

Sandy 🙂

Dear Brother John,

The story we read today in First Samuel was so touching. How that King Saul was moved by the fear of people, according to his own report and spared the life and influence of King Agag. For this, king Saul was rejected of the LORD and “Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul………”

That has always been a consistent trait for those who were truly following the Spirit of God in the bible. Samuel pitied Saul for he knew Saul’s desperate position with God.  He knew God was right, yet he mourned for Saul’s condition.  How selfless that attitude was.  It was Samuel’s intimate relationship with God that gave him that pity for Saul, he couldn’t have felt such sorrow for him and his unrighteous condition if he didn’t know of God’s most certain existence and judgment.  His was a very mature spirit.

Jerry

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

And a good example for us all, Brother Jerry.

Pastor John