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  • Your Integrity

    Pastor John,

    I thoroughly enjoyed this morning’s Proverbs reading and our various conversations before and afterwards, even though I got stuck on that unusual word, “natron”.  Ha.

    I went home and reviewed some of the Jerusalem Council YouTube video, and then picked up the book* again, read the Forward on page xi, and was compelled to pray and praise God…for your integrity.

    I’ve always been a devoted admirer of your writing, but when you write straight from your heart-of-hearts as you do in your declaration in the Forward of the book, it really touches me.  It’s a staggeringly honest and zealous statement, yet with humility and simplicity.

    It certainly sets the stage for what the reader is about to encounter, although I would wager that many Christians would be challenged in their understanding of it.  I am giving a copy to a man whom I’ve met who claims to be a [part-time] preacher, hoping it might provoke him to seek a deeper understanding. His heart seems to be honest and teachable, but one never knows, until the truth exposes someone’s condition.   I always hope, even though I’ve been continually disappointed.

    It saddens me so often when the valuable things you have taught us don’t affect someone’s heart in a positive way.  But, that is all up to Jesus.

    I am grateful to have played the role of Hillel to discover what it felt like to be so stubborn and sincerely locked into a belief that he couldn’t relinquish. Only God can open a chamber of the heart to let in the wisdom of the Truth.

    THANK YOU, again, for being such an obedient servant of God, and remaining faithful for our benefit. Your integrity brings tears to my eyes, and I LOVE you for it.

    Now, get back into the kitchen.  It was a good breakfast, and we’re hungry for lunch!

    Brad

    =========

    Hi Brad!

    I am so thankful for the blessings Jesus has given us, Brad.  What a wonderful group of saints he has made us a part of!  Often, I have heard him say in my heart, “Walk worthy….”  May God help us all to do that!  We have a lot to walk worthy of.

    Jesus deserves all our devotion, and that devotion belongs not only to him and the Father, but to one another as well.  Jesus said, “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.”   We walk worthy of him when we love one another with the love of God, fervently and without dissimulation, as the apostles said.

    Thank you for doing the part of Hillel in the reading of The Jerusalem Council.  Several people remarked how well you did it.  I wish that all God’s children everywhere would read it, and that we were one with them all, in Christ.

    Pastor John

    * Going to Jesus.com – The Jerusalem Council

  • Perverse

    Good morning, John,

    I want to share some thoughts I was having as I woke up this morning.

    I was thinking of a tv show Arnold and I watched last night.  I said to myself, why does every tv show you watch have to have a homosexual scene.  My thoughts were, because they want the young people to think it’s normal and right. My next thought was, it’s not right, it’s perverse.  

    I knew I’d used the right word but I wasn’t sure what the word meant, so I looked it up.  Here is what it said: “turned away from what is good and right, corrupt, improper, incorrect.   Obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable or acceptable.”

    I love it when the Spirit gives me good thoughts to start my day.

    Margaret

    =========

    Hi Margaret,

    The target of movie producers, advertisers, and educators around the world is young people.  God help this generation of souls that are being perverted by them!

    Pastor John

  • Our Suffering

    We have been reading in 1Samuel and 2Samuel for the Old Testament course.*  I did not remember how much David went through, or how much raiding he and his men did.  David did have a lot of blood on his hands, being the warrior he was!

    As I read through this, I have been trying to picture what daily life for him and his men in those years, as well as the Israelites, would have been like.  What a silly Christian thought it is, to believe that God will not put you through things.

    It just strikes me how dangerous that thought can be for God’s people.  If David had thought like that, surely he would have given up on seeking after God, long before he met Bathsheba. I haven’t got to that part yet, but Jerry and I were talking about how David must have felt after going through everything he did with God, and then to have sinned so greatly.  Hard to imagine the feelings he must have felt.

    Anyway just thinking out loud….with you! smiley face2

    Beth D.

    * https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_otcourse-1010.html

  • Loved by God

    This is really something to take in.  This is us.  It didn’t have to be.  Verse 19 got me! I could have been condemned.  I could have loved sin.

    Beth

    John 3:

    16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that every one who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

    17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
    18. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe has been condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the unique Son of God.
    19. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
    20. For everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed.
    21. But he who does the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.

  • Elijah

    Pastor John,

    Did Elijah suffer from depression?
    Matthew

    ========
    Hi Matthew.

    I would not call it depression.  No.  He was thoroughly frustrated with God’s people, and angry, no doubt.  The day after proving to Israel on Mount Carmel that Jehovah is God, the queen (Jezebel) wanted him dead.  He escaped her, left Israel, traveled way down south to Mount Sinai, and basically quit.  God accepted his resignation, but told him to go first and anoint Elisha to take his place.  Then God carried him away in a chariot of fire, and Israel saw him no more.

    Hope that helps.
    Pastor John

  • “What Is This Thing that Separates God’s People?” 

    https://youtu.be/M7Or025B0iI

    This is so good! I listen to this and think, “What is wrong with this? Name one thing wrong with this! It’s so clean and pure!” 

    If a heart is really wanting something from God, something real, that heart is going to love this! 

    And if not, what is that heart hanging onto? 

    The truth welcomes truth! And a lie welcomed lies! 

    I’m so thankful Jesus made me love this! red heart

    Beth

  • Reasoning with God about Sin

    Good morning,

    I was thinking about how much I love watching our young men become God’s men. I could watch that forever! 

    I thought about Jonathan’s testimony last night, and I remember asking Jesus how he feels about ” once a sinner, always a sinner?”  Jesus answered me in the most perfect way.  Jesus told me ” If I was ok with sin, I would have left you in it.”

    The first thing Jesus did for me was to clean me up from the life of sin I was drowning in. 

    Fast forward 9 years and my daughter asked me about that very thing. I was able to pass on the most perfect answer Jesus gave me, because it would clear it up for her too. She witnessed Jesus cleaning all that sin from her mama and was experiencing Jesus cleaning things up for her too, so it was her most perfect answer too. God is so good!

    Before Jesus sent Jerry, my sister-in-law came to me hurting because of my dying condition and asked me to please come get baptized. I was so close to death and so miserable, I wanted anything that might make it stop. So, I went and said a prayer with them, and got dunked in a big tank, hoping I would come up different like they said. I can still feel the hopelessness I felt when I didn’t. 

    Now, I got in that big tank because they told me it would wash my sins away, and I would be different. But after my family witnessed the real Jesus come and fix everything, change my whole nature, then they told me I would always be a sinner.  Well, what was the point of getting in that big ole tank of water then? Bless their hearts, they really are confused. They don’t know what they believe. It makes me very thankful for answers from Jesus. 

    You said last night, “Come let us reason together.”  I love that. I took my question to Jesus and Jesus answered it. We reasoned together, and I didn’t even know we were doing that. What a wonderful God we serve. 

    Isa. 1:18: “Come, I pray you, let us reason together, says Jehovah. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.”

    Love 

    Beth

  • What Will The Harvest Be – Tract Reading*

    Hi, Pastor John.

    I loved the track reading last night. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the scripture, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.
    For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7, the way I heard it last night.

    My entire life, even as a kid, I’ve heard it. Mom would say you will reap what you sow.  Or you hear people say, “Don’t worry, God will get them.”  I think somewhere along the way it had been ingrained with looking at that scripture from an earthy/fleshly, and maybe even Christian prospective.  Do something good and good happens to you.  Do something bad, and wait for the hammer to drop.  In today’s times, I’ve heard people call it “Karma”. I remember being scared of that scripture at times.  That scripture gets used so much in reference to earthly situations, like God is a boogie man waiting for you to do bad.  Had a bad day?  Well, that just means you did something God wasn’t happy with, which I always thought was odd because we don’t always see a direct result of someone’s poor choices.  Sometimes, but not all.

    Am I correct in thinking that in that verse, Paul was specifically speaking of an eternal reaping, and nothing of earthly reaping good or bad?

    I know God has certainly made things go haywire for me at times when I made a bad decision.  He has definitely gotten my attention that way.  However, last night made me see how many things are taken from scripture from a fleshly point of view.  The original way of thinking seems so surface level, with no regard to where eternity will be spent.

    I want to see things from a heavenly point of view.  Sure, we reap well from taking care of our business here on earth.  We reap well for being a good employee, etc.  But what about the end result?  How did we obey Jesus and take care of others hearts?  How are we being an example to others in Christ with our testimony?  I want that to be most important, above any earthly gain.  I don’t want to get so caught up in doing well on this earth that I forget about why I am even here.

    Thank you and Preacher Clark for obeying Jesus.
    Margo

    ========

    Hi Margo.

    To answer your question, yes, Paul was speaking of reaping from God our eternal reward in the Final Judgment.  If we keep our minds on that, we will do well and be blessed forever.

    Pastor John

    * Going to Jesus.com Tracts – What Will the Harvest Be?

  • God of Mercies

    I was just listening to Sister Donna and Brother Aaron singing ‘Good morning, Mercy’, and it reminded me of something that happened yesterday early in the morning, around 3am, as I was getting ready to go to work. It was one of those mornings when, waking up, I didn’t really feel anything from God. I still praised Him, thanked Him for life and hope, and did my morning routine, part of which is sitting down in the kitchen, usually drinking a coffee, and reading something from the Bible. As I was sitting there, I started talking to God, and asked Him, “Please let me feel something from You. Please let me feel Your mercy”. Then I picked up my Bible, and started reading 2 Corinthians, which is where I’m at, going through the New Testament. And this is what I found:

    “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

    And as I was reading these words, the mere fact that God had just put it in my heart to ask Him to feel His mercy, and then allowing me to read that He is “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort” made me tear up, because I felt that it was Him telling me “I’m with you”, it was Him comforting me with His presence on an ordinary morning. He knew how I was feeling that morning, and He cared enough to give me a gentle touch, a moment of comfort, that really did last only for a few moments, but it meant a lot for my soul right then and there, and it gave me strength for that day at work.

    So, I just want to thank Jesus for this touch, for his kindness. And I thank him that he reminded me of this through Sister Donna’s song, because this morning I was just thinking that I hadn’t written to y’all for a while, and I was contemplating if there was anything that had happened to me recently that would be worth sharing 🙂

    God bless you all.
    Zoli

  • Salvation for Those Who Don’t Know God

    Hey Pastor John, 

    I have had a question in my mind for a while now and I was wondering if the Bible or the Spirit had an answer for it. 

    Do people who have never known the existence of Jesus have any hope of salvation? I’m referring to extreme removal from a religious belief other than whatever is their cultural beliefs. Example: Native Americans before colonization and tribes in Africa or Asia where there was no known spread of Jesus. 

    Since Jesus loves humans and died for them; what happens to the people who never had the opportunity to know about him? This also can be asked about babies or young children who can’t know God. 

    I know Jesus died for all, but how does that aspect work? 

    Much obliged,

    Jonathan S.

    =========

    Hi Jonathan,

    Almost everyone who thinks seriously on holy things wonders about this issue.  The Bible has nothing directly to say about it, other than general statements, such as “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

    When dealing with such unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable, questions, it is good to remember what Moses told Israel: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Dt. 29:29).

    Thankfully, God has revealed so much that we can learn, so that we can occupy ourselves with those things our entire lives!  And we can throughout our lives rest in the sure knowledge that whatever God does in the Final Judgment with babies that have died, or the mentally ill, or the others you mentioned, it will be perfectly just.

    And after all, isn’t the real challenge for us who have matured and have sound minds to take advantage of what God has revealed to us?  If we do that, and leave the unknown to God, we will be happy and blessed.

    Thank you for the question.  I hope my answer helps.

    Pastor John

     

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