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

Bro. John:

Last night’s message on sanctifying God in our hearts was so wonderful! Whew! When I think on some of the things said, I can still feel the strength and confidence of the Lord rising up in my soul!

Tonight, I ran across something that you wrote not too long ago titled, “What God Hates Most.” The words paralleled somewhat the message of sanctifying God in our hearts. I wanted to share them because they felt so good to read again, especially added to what we received last night. Here are some excerpts:

“The Israelites failed to destroy God’s enemies out of Canaan’s land because those enemies were a mixture of good and bad, and a mixture of good and bad is not repugnant to men as it is to God. Men typically will not get rid of evil if that evil is mixed with some good things; the flesh is satisfied to settle for something less than purity, but God is not.”

“Weigh the cost before you attempt to walk on the road of holiness. Many have begun the journey without realizing that it is the most dangerous place in the universe for souls who are not fully committed to God. God hates a mixture in His people. He wants no one “on the fence.” He wants us to be like Him and live so that what we are in our hearts is what people see in us every day. With all His heart, He wants us to love Him and be happy, and be saved in the end; but His second choice is that we hate Him and follow the flesh completely, not that we live a life that looks good but disguises the way we really are. That is the thing He hates the most.”

Preacher Clark put a cap on it with one of his “pearls” from a home prayer meeting:

“If you fall in love with the Lord, you won’t have a hard time being true to Him.”

Sandy

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17

Hi Pastor John,

It has been a long 2 weeks for me, filled with sadness and some of the most wonderful feelings I have ever felt from God. He has been very close to me while I have been going through the death of my father, and I will never be the same. One thing that I really felt the most is the hopelessness for someone who dies without being born again, filled with God’s spirit. There is no hope outside of the spirit of God for anyone who dies without it. I felt a sadness that no one else in my family could feel because I know that my father died without having that hope in him, and, in turn, that left me feeling all the feelings of hopelessness that he went to the grave with. I never knew how much that would hurt me and how much I hope I never see that happen again to anyone else, but I know it will unless God calls them to him and they yield to his spirit.

My daughter and I were going over to the funeral home to take care of some business there, and I told her how hopeless that my dad left me in this life, knowing where he is now. I told her I would never leave her with the feeling of hopelessness that I felt for my father (and if she does that to me, it would only be because of her not being where she is suppose to be in the Lord, but I did not say this to her. It was not the right time and I did not want to add to the hurt she was already feeling, but I will when the time is right.) I said, “What we are seeing right now is real, this is the end of the matter.”

We don’t want to leave anyone we love with the feelings of hopelessness when we fall asleep in Jesus.

Bro. S. H.

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Brother S. H.,

I have said many times that the greatest form of child abuse is for a parent to die without hope in Christ. That sin of dying in rebellion against God wars against the heart of the child and forces it either to suffer with the truth or to pretend the parent is not lost. But that latter choice only delays the suffering until the Final Judgment; it does not do away with it completely

I think it is wiser to be faithful to Jesus and suffer now, for we are told, “If we suffer with him, we will reign with him.

We hurt with you, S–, because we have fellowship with you in Christ, and you have chosen to suffer with him.

Pastor John

Hi John,

I have been thinking about the NT class we had this past weekend all week. One part that really stood out to me was where you were teaching us on John 2:13-22, where Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. There, he found men in the temple, selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting at their tables, and he made a whip from ropes and drove the animals and them all out, and overturned the moneychangers’ tables. You asked us a question: “What was so wrong with the sellers and moneychangers being there? It was a needed service. The Jews who came from foreign lands needed the moneychangers to change their money to the right tender. They also needed the animals for the sacrifices they were going to make at the temple. So why was this so wrong?”

In man’s wisdom, it made perfect sense for all of them to be there. It was convenient fro everyone, especially for travelers, because they were providing a much-needed service for the people of God to worship Him. But Jesus said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!“

John, I liked the way you explained it to us. I don’t want to even try to paraphrase what you said because I don’t remember everything. But what stood out to me is how, in man’s wisdom, a lot of things can look good and may even make sense and appear to be fine with God, but it can still be man’s wisdom, not God’s. We are not after man’s wisdom; we want the wisdom of God to reign in our lives. All of man’s wisdom is going to fail. It does not matter what that looks right to man; we want God’s wisdom to direct our lives, no matter how it looks to men.

Thanks
Stuart

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And my prayer, Stuart, is that God will save us from doing what seems good in our own eyes by granting us to know His will in all things. Doing what seems good instead of doing the will of God is the most deadly of earthly traps because those who do what seems good can easily become proud of what they have done.

jdc

I have had some really bad moments watching TV lately in regards to homosexuals.  I was watching a home decorating show the other day and then all of sudden the “couple” who owned the house were two men.   Later I was watching a cooking show and they had to cater a wedding and it was for two men.   YUCK!   I get so mad.  I refuse to watch it even if they never show the homeowners again.   It’s such an evil surprise.   It won’t be long before anything on TV won’t be safe.

t.e.
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Hi Token:

The USA is sick.  And its days are numbered.  God will not continue to bless and protect such a filthy minded nation.  God help us to know what to do to protect our children, and ourselves, from the bold, filthy spirits that are protected and endorsed by this government, schools, and the advertisement and entertainment industries everywhere now.

Pray that God will raise up courageous, clean young men that will speak the truth plainly and will not fear what flesh can do to them!

 Jdc

What does the Bible say about homosexuality?