Hey Pastor John,

The testimonies today reminded me of an experience I had as young person in my 20’s. I had just started in a new department at work.  All of the sudden sitting at my desk, I would start having thoughts come out of nowhere. It was to the point it was becoming a battle and troubled me daily. I knew I didn’t think that way or say those things I was hearing. I didn’t understand why this was happening. A few weeks later a gentleman a few cubicles down either got fired or quit. The thoughts never came back. It wasn’t me! It was that spirit the man was under sitting at his desk. That was a huge lesson for me as a young person.

It also reminded me of a situation with Jonathan years ago. He developed a fear of the dark all the sudden. It happened several nights in a row of him coming in my room terrified. Jesus immediately let me feel it was a spirit bothering him. I told Jonathan he could talk back to those spirits himself and tell them to leave. His reaction confirmed it had been talking to him. I told that spirit to leave my child alone and it needed to leave my house. It wasn’t welcome. He hasn’t had a single issue with that thing coming back around all these years later.

Today made me think of the story you have told before. The old saint walking by the well with the baby, and a spirit talking to her. That story has been a shining example to me throughout life. Not every thought is from Jesus and we really need discernment and to know who we are. Knowing what’s from Jesus is our protection walking through this life: to know what to discard and what to keep. I am so thankful for that experience at a young age and as a mom. Experiences like that have helped me in adult life and even as a mother teaching my children what’s God and what’s not.

Have a good rest of the day!
Margo

A few days ago I read Psalm 18 with Ellie and something really touched me.  As I read through the first 30 or so verses, it talks about God being a shield, girding up for war, abasing enemies and God giving strength and mercy, David says “Your gentleness makes me great”. Makes me tear up as I’m writing thinking about all my life, even through the hard times, corrections, it’s been God’s gentleness that has pulled me out and made me higher.  And it makes me want to be more like that with my children, and others. 

Anyways I just wanted to share, still loving that this morning.

Ashley

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

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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

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

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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

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!

Beth D.

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

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.

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!

Beth

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