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  • The door is open!

    Hey Pastor John!

    I had the sweetest time with Jesus last night. The sweet feelings from the morning reading* stayed with me all day. As I was going about doing housework I kept feeling this tug and feeling “seek me”. I said Jesus I don’t know how, what would you like? I got in the shower talking to Jesus still feeling that tug at my heart. When I got out of the shower and dressed the pull was so strong I just fell on my face. As I started praying I started speaking in tongues, I couldn’t speak in English anymore. This went on for a few minutes and then I remember asking Jesus to give me more. I didn’t know what specifically to ask for, just more. The feeling I got back was, “the door is open”. The door is open to everything Jesus has, all we have to do…is do! I felt Jesus surround me. He was everywhere (I don’t know how to explain that) After awhile I felt myself swaying back and forth, I felt Jesus swaying with me. Whew..it was wonderful. Jesus suffered and died to give us the holy Ghost! He wants us to have everything! The door is open!

    Michelle

    ==========

    Wonderful, Michelle!  Thank you for letting me know.

    Pastor John

    * F&S Chapter 7 Section 4 The Last Supper

  • Iniquity or Lawlessness?

    John,

    I was listening to a recent sermon, (I think it was the one entitled “How do you make Jesus feel?”)   I don’t remember where it was in the sermon, but you made a point that there was a difference between iniquity and lawlessness – and that lawlessness was the more accurate word for that scripture sentence.

    Why?  

    I studied the references in my concordance, and they both seem to indicate that both words are “transgressions of the law”, although iniquity seems to include the definition of wickedness, but lawlessness just means those who were not subject to the law, such as Gentiles.   

    I would appreciate your clarification on this, if we must make the distinction between the two words. 

    Thanks,

    Brad

    =========

    Hi Brad.

    Iniquity is lawlessness because “sin is lawlessness” (1Jn. 3:4).  What I was saying is that in the King James translation, and some others, the word that is translated “iniquity” is actually the Greek word for “lawlessness”.  We have chosen to translate that word as lawlessness because, in our view, it more precisely reflects the original mindset of the New Testament authors.

    It is not that big a deal, really.  If someone prefers to use the word iniquity, that is not a problem.  It still gets the point across, which is, sin is bad, so don’t do it!

    Pastor John

     

     

  • Was Jesus Different Than Us?

    Hey, Pastor John!

    I thought of a question yesterday that I wanted to ask you: When the Son of God came down in the form of a dove into Jesus’ body, was that life any different from the holy Ghost power?  Was Jesus any different than we who have the Holy Ghost now?  I know that the holy Ghost and the Son of God are separate things.  The Son of God was created by the Father as another heavenly being and the first of all creation, and the holy Ghost is the kind of life that both the Father and the Son share.

    Thank you, and I look forward to your response!

    Hope M.

    ==========

    Hi Hope!

    Thank you for the question.  It is a good one.

    The Spirit that Jesus received at his baptism is the same Spirit that he gives to us (cf. Jn. 5:21).  It is the Spirit of eternal life which is in the Father and which the Father gave to the Son (cf. Jn. 5:26).  Jesus overcame the world by the wisdom and power of that Spirit, and he suffered so that we could have the same power to overcome the world that he had.  When Jesus came up from being baptized by John in the Jordan River and received the Spirit, he was “born again” just as we are when we receive the Spirit.  He was, as Paul said, “the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29).  He also became a new creature, just as we do when we receive the Spirit.  The difference between the pre-baptism Jesus and the post-baptism Jesus was remarkable, especially after his forty days in the wilderness Temptation.

    Nobody can be who Jesus is, of course.  There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is “the man Jesus Christ” (1Tim. 2:5).  He alone is the Savior of the world (Acts 4:12; 10:36).  However, Jesus has made the way for us to experience what he experienced (cf. Mt. 20:22), to be holy as he and the Father are holy (Mt. 5:48; 1Pet. 1:15), to share in their life, and to live in peace forever with them.  What a precious opportunity!  May God help us all take advantage of it!

    Thanks again for the question.  I hope the answer is clear.

    Pastor John

  • Food

    Good morning, Pastor John.

    I love what you said last night about how if a plant became an animal, it would want to eat grass, and if an animal became a human, it would want human food, and if humans became angels, we would want angel food!  Jesus filled us with His Spirit, and now we want to eat what Jesus eats.  We really are not human anymore – at least our hearts are not!  These human bodies have to eat this worldly food to keep going, but what Jesus gives us is what makes us live!

    Oh, Pastor John, that is so good to me! It deepened the feeling of Psalm 74:19: “Oh, do not put the life of Your turtledove into a creature, a creature among Your afflicted people! Do not ever forget!”

    Whew!  We really were born again with new hearts and new natures.  We do not belong in this old world.  And how can death have a sting when we know that!

    I love how right that feels! 

    Psa. 63:5 “My soul will be satisfied as with the best food and abundance.  And with joyful lips, my mouth will praise you and abundance.”

    Psa. 78:18 “And they tempted God in their heart by asking for food according to their own will.”

    Jn. 4:32 “But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you don’t know about.’”

    Jn. 4:34 “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”

    Jn. 6:27 “Do not labor for food that perishes, but for food that endures unto eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for God the Father has sealed him.”

    Beth

     

  • Question concerning J​ob 15:10

    Pastor John,

    I’m just curious.  In the verse below, I assume that Eliphaz the Temanite is referring to men who were older than Job’s father.  Is that correct?  Do you think this implies Job’s father was still alive?  Or does this just imply that Eliphaz the Temanite was older than Job?

    Job 15:

    10: Both the hoary-headed and aged are with us, much older than your father.

    Wendell

    =========

    Hi Wendell.

    I have never understood that verse to mean that Job’s father was still alive, but it is possible.  We are not given that information in the book of Job.  Neither are we told the age of Job’s three friends, including Eliphaz.  I have always taken that comment as referring to elderly men who were there with Eliphaz and his two companions (“with us“).  But again, we are not given that information.

    Pastor John

     

  • John 18

    Good morning Pastor John,

    I am up reading John 18 this morning, and it hurts my heart.  

    Judas went to a place where Jesus had gathered many times before with His disciples.  I wonder what intimate conversations had taken place in that garden.  I wonder if the place held something special for Jesus.  It was where He chose to go and speak to his Father in his final hours.

    And Judas came with weapons.  I don’t think I’ve ever paused long enough to absorb the gravity of that – he brought weapons!

    It hurts my heart.

    John 18:

    1. After Jesus said these things, he went out with his disciples across the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden into which he and his disciples entered.

    2. Now, Judas, the one who betrayed him, also knew the place because Jesus had often gathered there with his disciples.

    3. So, having received a cohort, as well as officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, Judas came there with lanterns, and torches, and weapons.

    Then, Jesus told them who he was, and God let them feel His power –so much so that it knocked them to the ground.  Yet still, they kept coming.

    5.They answered him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” (And Judas, the one who betrayed him, was also standing among them.)

    6.Then, when he told them, “I am he”, they went backward and fell to the ground.

    Others have also felt the power of God, and still hurt Jesus.  I pray I never do.

    Beth

     

  • The Father and the Son reading

    Pastor John,

    This morning after the reading, I excitedly came home and read to Dee an excerpt from the end of chapter 4,* under the section titled, “The point of the Son”.  As I was reading through all these points that have been revealed to us, I began to weep.  It was like a new chamber in my heart was opening to take in what I was reading.  Weeping, because of the sadness I felt for what the Son went through for me/us.  Weeping also for joy, because he has allowed me to receive these wonderful, but mysterious truths.  As Peter said, “to be partakers in the divine nature”.  Whew!  This is no small thing, and I am very humbled by it. 

    Thank you, Pastor John, for diligently plowing through this most difficult work for us and for whomever shall take it in.  God be with you!

    Jim K.

    * God Had a Son chapter 4, 2nd half

  • Father and Son reading*

    Pastor John,

    Listening to the F&S recordings and feel a place I never want to leave. It’s like a blanket Jesus lay across my heart. To really take in that God revealed His son to us, and to some He never will. Just taking that in puts your heart in order on how to love – a humble love. I don’t ever want this to lift off my heart.

    Beth

    *  God Had a Son Chapter 1

     

  • Father & Son reading Chapter 3*

    Ohhh John,

    Rereading a section at home after this morning really touched me!

    On page 108, at the bottom, paragraph, speaking about the Fellowship of God being a testimony to his Son, and the fact that believers are divided and not serving God together in unity is a testimony to the world against Jesus, not for him. That is just so sad to me. Millions are content in their divisions, their denominations, thinking they are all right. Not only does it divide God‘s people from one another, but it also invokes an insidious measure of pride in each person’s heart that they are the ones who are worshiping properly, as opposed to their neighbors across the street.

    You continue to write in the final page that this is perhaps “the greatest tragedy in history, even surpassing the tragedy of the original fall in the garden of Eden.”  We are all less than we could be in Christ because of these divisions.”  Oh, it just tears at my heart.  I’m so grateful that after I was finished church-hopping, trying to find one group that made sense to me, that God whispered to me and called me away from all of those sects.  I thank the Lord that He chose to reveal a desire for the truth in my heart, and I sniffed it out like a dog when I found brother Gary’s radio broadcast and felt something brand new and refreshing and healthy; something that made sense. That was God; not my intellect!!

    Not my wisdom!! 

    Like others said this morning, this truth about the Father and the Son is what God’s people are looking for – and what they really want.  

    We were all sinners, but God enabled us to want it too. So I still pray for those who are lost in the world, as well as our brothers and sisters, who are lost in Christianity. 

    Brad

    * F&S Part 2 chapter 3

     

     

  • Isaiah 43:6-7

    Hi Pastor John. 

    RE: Isaiah 43:10–11

    In Isaiah 43:10-11, why does God say there was no god formed after Him, nor is there a Savior other than Him?  Wouldn’t this be Jesus who is the savior and who was formed after God?  Or is it that because God and Jesus are one in spirit that God is including Jesus in his statements?

    Isaiah 43

    1. Before me, no god was formed, and after me shall be none.

      ¶11. “I, even I, am Jehovah, and besides me, there is no Savior.

    Thank you,

    Anna

    =========

    Hi Anna.

    Jesus would agree with what his Father said through Isaiah.  You will remember that the apostles taught that the Son was God’s agent in creation.  The author of Hebrews, for example, said of the Son that God, “has appointed him heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2).  However, when Jesus spoke of creation, he mentioned no one but the Father (Mk. 10:6; 13:19).

    We know that the Father appoints others to positions of authority and calls them “gods” (e.g. Ex. 7:1; 22:28), and so, it is not surprise that the father would address the Son s “God”, as He did in Psalm 45:6:

    1. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.  A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.
    2. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.

    And yet, when Jesus was here, he spoke of the Father as the only God, and the only One who is holy (Mt. 19:17).

     

    It is the same with “Savior”.  Jesus is the only Savior that God has appointed for mankind (cf. Acts 4:12), but it is only because God has made Jesus who he is that he is able to save.  I am sure that Jesus would say that God is the only Savior and that he, himself, is only God’s obedient servant.

     

    When God said no other god was formed, He was speaking only of a god who could replace Him.  Israel was acting as if there were other gods equal to their God, and God was telling them there was no such thing.  And again, Jesus acknowledged this when he said, “My Father is greater than I” (Jn. 14:28).

     

    Hope that helps!

    Pastor John

     

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