Hi Bro. John,

I  read in Psalm 11:5, “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

The way that is written sounds like the LORD tries whom He loves. That is comforting.

Jerry

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Hi, Brother Jerry.

The Lord chastens and tries only those whom He loves, Brother Jerry.  As I old everyone here on Sunday morning, the only people who qualify to be delivered are those who are in trouble.  Isn’t that what Jesus said, that are the only people he came for are people in trouble because “the healthy need no physician”?

The gospel is only for the weak, the needy, the sick, the downtrodden, the betrayed, the sorrowful, the abused.  And there is no trouble suffered by anyone except the trouble that God wants to show His love by fixing.

 jdc

Tonight was wonderful!  I was feeling the words in that song “Let me Follow Jesus” in the depths of my soul.  I realized as you were talking afterwards about nobody understanding who Jesus was in the Old Testament, that I could not feel what I was feeling about following Jesus and walking close to him without the holy Ghost inside feeling that for me.

Lee Ann

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Amen, LeeAnn.  We are so blessed to experience God’s thoughts and feelings about His Son!  That is really what’s going on with us, you know?  That’s really what the gospel is all about.  This is what no OT figure could feel or think, and it is what “the angels desire to look into.”

jdc

Hello John,

I want to tell about something I have been thinking about since last weekend.  One morning this past week I wanted to read something before I went to work.  Isaiah 58 came to mind.  So, I started reading about the true fast and continued reading through chapter 61.  The words from those chapters seemed so sweet to me even though I couldn’t understand half of what I was reading.  It was as if Jesus was applying a soothing salve to my soul with the words.

After I finished reading I wanted to take some CDs with me to listen to.  I opened the cabinet where they are kept and right in the front of the stack were three CDs titled “The True Fast” 1998.  Needless to say, I chose those to listen to.

There have been so many emails this week from the saints testifying how Jesus healed them from various things and also how the internet is being used to reach so many people around the world with the truth.  In that light, these words from Isaiah 58 really stand out to me.  Is not this the fast that I have chosen?  To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?…

It goes on to say that God promises many blessing to those who fast this way.  One promise that seemed to get my attention at the time was in vs 8.  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily…

So much effort is being made by you and others to get the truth out to God’s people.  Why shouldn’t we expect the promises of God to fall upon us?  I pray that we can remain humble and ready to receive whatever He chooses to give us.

Tom

Tuesday, we listened to Preacher Clark preaching a 1971 sermon.  At one point, he started to speak about technology developing back then.  He drifted away from that, but it made me think.  Look at what we have, less than 40 years later!   On that recording was the ring of a party-line phone.  Now, that may not have been typical in 1971, but it was still around.  It is amazing.

Damien

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Hi Damien:

When my father was born, 99% of the people on earth were still traveling the way father Abraham did.  Paved roads were a rarity, and animals still provided most of the mobility for the armies of earth.  Twenty-five years before my father died, men were flying in space!  And twenty years before he died, men were walking on the moon while talking to men on earth!

Daniel said that as the time of the end drew near, “knowledge shall increase”.  Even men of the world are astounded by the vastness of the knowledge that is coming to them.   But they are astounded, Damien, in large measure because they are not the ones producing the knowledge!  God is pouring out knowldge on the inhabitants of the earth in order to fulfill His word!

Pastor John

John,

I had a good experience today that I’d like to share.  It concerns healing, and it was encouraging to my faith.

Today I had a cup of coffee that went cold, and I had micro-waved it to heat it up.  I put it on the counter and forgot about it for a minute. Later I reached over to take a sip (from the straw I had in the cup top), and when I swallowed a mouth full of it, I did not know that it was still going to be scalding hot. I mean SCALDING hot, like boiling water.

I panicked, and by instinct to get it out of my mouth, even though it was too late, I ran to spit it out in the sink.  As I was spitting, I felt the words, “if they drink and deadly thing it shall NOT harm them” come up out of me, before I could even think about what I was saying inside, I raised my hands and felt the Spirit shake me.  I felt right then that I was not going to be burned, even though at any other time, that amount of boiling liquid for that long would have left me with burn boils all over the roof of my mouth and elsewhere.  In less than a minute though, my mouth just cooled down, and has been fine and no burns or boils.

And on a side note, after I thought about it, I wondered why I did feel to say “if they drink any deadly poison it shall not harm them”, because that’s what I thought I remembered that verse to say.  So I looked it up later, and it says:  “and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them” (even though it probably means a poison), but the fact that it came out as it did, and it was really in there as it came out, blessed my faith again.

I’m thankful to have no burns at all in my mouth, and was grateful for the experience.

Gary

Hi John,

I really enjoyed your sermon on the 3^rd commandment (Ex. 20:7): “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”  You were explaining how someone takes the Lord’s name in vain and how that the only way you can take his name is to be born into His family (by receiving his spirit with the evidence of speaking in another tongues).

I have heard you speak on this matter so many times over the years but this time it went in so deep and I felt it so strong inside of me, like I have never felt it before.  It was wonderful.  I got up the next morning early and sat down to do some reading in the bible.  I started reading in Psalm 91, which is wonderful.  Then I turned to Psalm’s 139 and started reading there, and I read to this verse (20) “for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.”  A light bulb went off in my head.  Gods own people are his enemies!  They are the ones who take his name in vain, because they are the only ones who have his name at all.

I know I have heard that before from you, but it was so clear and focused to me at this point from what you said the night before that it just jumped off of the page and devoured me.  It was so pure and clean. Then when I read the next verses, I felt the same way he did, very strongly (21-22):  “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee?  and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?  I hate them with perfect hatred.  I count them mine enemies.”

I count them mine enemies as well.

I also thought about this verse this morning in Mat 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

You can only know how to have a perfect hatred and a love for your brother at the same time, if you yourself are being led by the same spirit that created both perfect love and perfect hatred.  There is no other way any one can know how to do this in this world without God leading them. God help me and us to do just this thing every day in our lives.

Bro.
Stuart

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Dear Brother Stuart:

For a long time now, I have thought about perfect hatred and perfect love.  I have found that there is little or no difference between them.  I remember being young and preaching to the old saints that perfect hatred will cause us to treat people the same way that perfect love does.  Human hatred and human love differ greatly.  But consider how Jesus said God treats both the evil and the good.  The same rain falls on them all, but the purposes for that rain are nothing alike.  How many times have we seen the Spirit bless someone who was backslidden in heart, trying to fool the congregation as to where he or she really stood with God!  Undiscerning souls looking on such things do not sense the difference between that curse in the form of a blessing and the blessings that were falling on the upright, but it is real.

When we hate with perfect hatred, we bless those who curse us and refrain from reproving their evil deeds.  Perfect hatred is deadly; it withholds correction from those who have gone astray and blesses them instead.  But perfect love rebukes, chastens, and guides.  In fact, it scourges and commands.  But in the end, it saves.

jdc