Good morning, Pastor John!

I was thinking about fearing God this morning.  Why people don’t want to fear Him.  Why I didn’t want to fear Him in my past, before I knew better.  I know this is a decision and something that is being taught, like God’s mythical “unconditional love” is a favorite saying among Christians now.  The thought, “not fearing God is the worst form of arrogance humans have,” was put on my heart.  This feels right to me, but I have never had that thought before.  I wanted to share this thought.  I feel like His Spirit put that in my heart.  

Thanks,

Mark W.

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Hi, Mark!

I believe that is true.  It has always seemed incredible to God when mere humans dared not fear Him.  These verses from Jeremiah come to mind:

5:21. Hear this, if you will, O foolish and senseless people!  (They have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear.)

22. Will you not fear me, says the Lord, nor tremble before me‽ Who made sand a boundary for the sea by an eternal decree, that it cannot pass beyond.  Yea, its waves rush back and forth, and roar, but they are unable to go beyond it.

23. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they are turned aside and gone.

10:7. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?  For it is your due.  For among all the wise men of the nations, and among all their kingdoms, there is none like you.

32:37. Watch me!  I will gather them from all the countries to which I banished them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place and cause them to dwell safely,

38. and they will be my people, and I will be their God.

39. And I will give them one heart and one way, that they might fear me always, for their good and for the good of their children after them.

Pastor John

Whew, I almost can’t take reading Hosea.  It pulls on my heart!  All I could think as I poured through those pages was, no wonder Catholicism didn’t have us read the Bible. The god they were talking about, sure didn’t match up with God in Hosea.   There would be so many questions and feelings by just reading Hosea!

I am so thankful I understand the sin of Jeroboam, the great showing of love and faith God tried to give them in Exodus, the mercy given to David, etc.  I am so thankful I know the story, Pastor John.  When I read Hosea, I know how much God has loved them, and I almost can’t take hearing His heart break.  Oh, Israel! 

Hosea 11

4. I led them with cords of a man, with ropes of love, but I was to them like those who lift up the yoke onto their jaws, though I had bent down to feed them.

Beth D.

Hi Pastor John,

I am up thinking about Job this morning.  As you and Jesus have been taking us through Job, I have tried to imagine how he felt in the day-to-day suffering. I know I have no idea how awful some of those days really were, or how encouraged Job felt on some of those days either.  I spent the last week with this migraine and just to see how I felt, in my heart, after mere days of pain, puts more awe in my heart for Job.  What a heart God gave Job!

When Jesus lifted that pain in my head and then it came back worse than it had been, my first thought –– my very first thought –– was, “Are you mad at me Jesus?  What did I do wrong, Lord?”  That hurt worse than the pain. 

At times, I would lie perfectly still and try to take the pain, and at other times, I would cry and beg Jesus to please take it away, telling him I couldn’t take another day of it.

When I looked up pain in the scriptures, I found this one. 

Job 16:6

6. If I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I forbear, what pain of mine leaves?

To see and feel that for just a moment, and then to think of Job, does something more to my heart about what kind of heart he must have had.

God has children here with us right now who struggle to breathe every day, that have painful procedures to endure, that have cancer, that have lonely, hurting hearts. To see them and their beautiful hearts as they go through these things makes me love them more and more.  It also puts a deeper prayer in my heart for Jesus to encourage and to comfort each one of them as they go through these things. A touch to feel Jesus there does so much.

What a beautiful story of God we have here in front of us!  And what beautiful hearts He put in it! 

Beth D.

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Thank you, Beth, for that precious testimony.  I believe that it is a seed that is now planted for your healing, and I believe you will reap what you have sown.  May God give the increase!

Pastor John

Dear Pastor John,

I’m in the process of translating the tract “Taking the Name of the Lord”* into Hungarian (almost done), and it is such a good tract.  As I was reading it and translating it tonight, it felt like every word, every sentence was for me.  I felt convicted, exhorted, encouraged; I just felt the Spirit moving and working inside of me.  Then I had to stop before the last paragraph because tomorrow I need to wake up early for work.  But before shutting down my computer I decided to check my Facebook feed, and quickly go over the news.

I found a news feed on what’s going on with Israel and the war against Hamas, and I only spent maybe 2 or 3 minutes with that, but then, as I was going to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I realized that the feelings I was feeling while translating the tract had already gotten dulled.  The urgency to live my life fully for God’s glory, so that I don’t bear His name in vain, was gone.  I felt the spirit grieved inside of me.  The phrase that immediately came to my mind was “choking the word”.  Then I was thinking about what Jesus said can choke the word in our hearts, and one of the things he mentioned was “the cares of this world”.

Then I asked the question in myself: What are “the cares of this world”?  What does the news about Israel (or anything else for that matter) have to do with “the cares of this world”?  And then I heard these words, not audibly, but in my heart: “Anything IN THIS WORLD that you care about.”  I immediately understood: Anything in this world that I care about CAN become the thing that chokes God’s word in my life, if I’m not careful enough.  (Family, politics, sports… anything.) And I know that having certain interests or preferences in this world, in certain areas of our lives, is not inherently evil.  But we need to always be led by the Spirit, and we shouldn’t allow any of those THINGS take up a place in our hearts that would allow them to hinder God’s holy work in us.

I pray that God would make us wise, so that we would realize when something is about to become a “care of this world”, that has the potential to choke out God’s word in our hearts.  And I pray that we would love the truth enough that when that happens, we would always choose to run the other way — to Jesus.  God help us!

Zoli

*  Going to Jesus.com Tracts – Taking the Name of the Lord

Pastor John,

I was listening to an old lesson on the book of John on YouTube tonight when a remembrance of a conversation with a relative was brought to my mind.  She was telling me about a friend who left Catholicism and went to Buddhism because she couldn’t believe God would or should allow babies to be killed, nor the innocent to be harmed.  I had reminded her of the flood and other times when God killed babies and children.  I told her God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.  He is not a big one of us.  And I ended with God is always right.  Then tonight, suddenly, this thought was put in my head when I was not even really thinking about this: “What makes us think God would reverence our children more than His own Son?  Didn’t He allow His own Son to be killed by men who hated Him?”  I have never thought about it that way.  It puts a different light on it.  I can see the truth in it, though.

Mark W.

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Hi Mark.

I agree with you, Mark.  The God of the Bible who fully revealed Himself in Jesus Christ is perfect in all His ways — and His ways are far superior to ours.  That is why we need the Spirit that Jesus suffered for us to have.  It teaches us God’s ways and gives us His thoughts.

God is love, just as the apostle John said, and He has always been love.  That means that when He rained fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah, and when He destroyed the entire human race except for eight souls in the ark, He was still love.  And as we have seen in the book of Job, God is accountable to no one for His actions.

Our part is only to submit to His Son, and be faithful.  And we willingly do that only when we understand that, regardless of how it may appear to the human mind, every act of God is entirely perfect in every way.

Thank you for writing, brother.

Pastor John

Pastor John,

I feel hesitant to speak because words detract from it, but my, my, that was so rich tonight!  It felt like you could swim in the spirit accompanying that good message.

I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) speak for some time afterward.  I feel saturated with the spirit that came with (or delivered) that message.  I feel it now.  It is indescribably rich.  That spirit changes things – it changed me!

When brother Earl obeyed the Lord Saturday and stopped and prayed for Beth’s headache, which immediately lifted, I heard the spirit of God say “Expect Jesus to change your day!” Glory to God, something is going to change when Jesus shows up – that is the gospel of Christ!  My, my, what feelings in the power of God.

So rich. I can’t say that enough.

Jerry

Pastor John,

Beth and I were discussing today’s wonderful meeting, and we had to consider what an honor and a privilege from God it is to be given a CHOICE to be holy!

Men whose hearts haven’t been touched by God cannot choose to be holy because holiness isn’t in a man; it isn’t of this world.  Without God’s help, men can only choose a path devised from their own sinful heart.  Some sins look better than others, and sins that are decorated with money or education often appear to be good, or not as bad, but it is all just sin if it comes from the heart of a man.  Jesus said so.

Holiness is from God, not man, and it is not an option for us humans unless Jesus takes his abode in our hearts.  Then (and only then) do we have the choice to die out to the fleshly nature we are born into, so we can live according to the new nature of the holy One who now abides in our hearts.  And we will all be judged in the end according to our choice.

There are about seven billion people on earth now, and only those who have been filled with the holy Ghost can make the choice to live a holy life in Christ so that they can one day meet God in peace. (Heb 12:14: Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.)

What an opportunity from Jesus!

Jerry

Pastor John,

What you said today about how the world treats God’s people is so right and simple — and as you said, “It sums it all up:” 

“If you do what’s right, people are going to call you a ‘cult;’ because what’s right is not from this earth.”

You also said, “Let them do it.  It’s just the world without God. We probably would have said the same thing, before Jesus had mercy on us.”

That is so good. The goodness of God allows for everyone to hear from Jesus and repent  🙂

Jerry

Good morning!

You wrote:

Jesus did not invent the idea that those who hear and obey God belong to Jesus’ family; Jesus got that idea from his Father in heaven!

We know how Jesus answered the question, “Who is my family?” Now, how do you answer it? 

https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt10-12

I read this excerpt from the Random Thought, October 12.  I love this because when Jesus first brought me here to the body, this is exactly how I felt.  It wasn’t manufactured or drummed up; it was what Jesus put in my new heart!  Somewhere along the way, I began to feel like I was taking that too literal, but you know what … I wasn’t.  This is exactly what Jesus put in my heart then and it is still there now.  I text with Ashley for just a minute this morning, and just seeing her name on a message made this feel even sweeter.  Ashley is my sister.

I think I am learning that going back to the basics with Jesus is a wonderful thing!

Beth D.

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Amen, Beth!

Never get far from the basics.  There is peace with Jesus in those simple truths of the gospel.

Pastor John