Hey Pastor John,

I have had the sweetest couple of weeks.  I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night with praises and thankfulness just pouring out of my heart.  I’m not exactly sure what Jesus has done but it’s been so wonderful!

I had a dream the other night, one part of the dream I was in a house and the carpets were being cleaned.  I watched as the dirt and mud was being washed away, in my mind I remember thinking, “Wow, I always thought that carpet was a dingy beige” but it wasn’t!  It was a beautiful, bright shiny white carpet!  Wow, that is what Jesus is doing for me!

I’ve been trying to write an email to tell you how thankful I am and what Jesus is doing, and has done, but I could not find the words.  Today, I was reading a book (Hinds’ Feet on High Places), and as I was reading, it felt like I was reading my own testimony:

This (from the book) is how I felt when I went backwards one time, and thought I had lost Jesus, you, and the body:

“During that awful moment or two, it seemed to her that she was actually looking into an abyss of horror, and to an existence in which there was no Shepherd to follow, or to trust or to love, no Shepherd at all, nothing but her own horrible self.  Even after, it seemed that she had looked straight down into hell.  At the end of that moment she shrieked–there is no other word for it.”

But this is what I felt after hearing from you, “it’s not too late, Michelle”:

“‘Shepherd! Shepherd! Help me!  Where are you?  Don’t leave me!’  In the next instant she was clinging to Him, trembling from head to foot, and sobbing, over and over again, ‘You may do anything, Shepherd.  You may ask anything, only don’t let me turn back.  Oh, my Lord, don’t let me leave you!’” 

Jesus brought me back, and I started one of the hardest but sweetest trials of my life…. (thus far)

“He lifted her up, supported her by her arm, and with his own hand, wiped the tears from her cheeks.  Then said, in his strong cheery voice, ‘There is no question of turning back.  No one can pluck you out of my hand.’

Looking back, the awful glimpse down into the abyss of an existence without him had so staggered and appalled her heart that she felt she could never be quite the same again.  However, it had opened her eyes to the fact that right down in the depths of her own heart, she really had but one passionate desire, not for the things which the Shepherd had promised, but for He himself.  All she wanted was to be allowed to follow him forever.”

Pastor John,  I sat here and read that and just started crying because that is my heart!  That is what Jesus has done for me!  He is my everything.  My dearest friend.  These quiet moments in my little apartment talking to him and hearing him talk back to me are priceless.  I love the sweet, precious life that Jesus has given me.  It’s truly remarkable, the deep settled peace I feel in my soul.  I never thought this was possible, but God.

Love you,

Michelle

The Iron Kingdom reading was especially good this morning.  When I sat down to read, I asked Jesus to help me take in what I was reading.  I asked him to let me feel about Christianity the way he feels.  I saw it so clearly this morning that this thing was never from God.  Its origin was man made, and satan has used it to deceive the whole world; including me at one time.  How thankful I feel to be out from under that curse.  I just want what is from Jesus, pure and clean.
Lee Ann

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John,

As we read the end of the first chapter of the Iron Kingdom last night, I could feel undeserved respect for men of high esteem leave. I was sitting there thinking, “Maybe next time someone says they are saved, I might agree with them and say, ” You have been saved from the truth.”
Wendell

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I know what you mean.  When that “undeserved respect” leaves, you can finally love them the way Jesus does.

jdc

Morning!

This blog is so good.* It’s tough sometimes when I think back on the times of my teenage years that I was away from the saints and the precious things Jesus was doing in peoples lives at that time, and to remember the foolishness of my youth. I remember my thinking at that time and how I thought I was wanting to do my own thing, but really, I was just running from God. I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. BUT, when Jesus started tugging on my heart, and I began to humble myself to his call, my life changed, my attitude changed, everything changed.  (I was 26 by then.)  Then I started seeing and feeling the remorse of the things I had done and missed. As time went on, it would be heavy on me the more I learned and felt in the Spirit. I would pray and ask Jesus for help and relief often. One night in a meeting, the Spirit was blessing us all, and in the middle of that, I heard “I have restored what the canker worm has eaten”. Shew! That went straight down to my heart. I knew from that moment on, everything that was happening with me in Jesus was new and not repentance from the past. What a sweet feeling that was!

Then, a few years later, after that relief, I would ask Jesus why I went the places I did, like why was it so bad the way I acted and some of the places I ended up in my life. I read a blog you wrote on “The losers are the winners”** written for Uncle Joe. When I read it, I just cried and cried. It put me under conviction. I got still and read it over and over again. At the end of it, I heard the Spirit say to me the answer to my question of why it was the way it was. The answer was so tender: “Because I wanted you”. That put an end to the wondering and the feeling so bad about things.  It allowed me to be happy and understand. Now I say, I’m so sorry I was that way Lord, but thank you for rescuing me! And he put a joy down in my heart that is everlasting!

When I read the George C. Clark stories***, and read parts of him feeling the feelings of things he had done wrong in his past, he said they made him go to God instead of going away from Him. That really pricked my heart. And I have tried to implement that in my own journey with Jesus. Sometimes I “need a little help from my friends” but I’m so thankful that I have a love in my heart for the truth and life Jesus has given me. The love of the truth and what Jesus has done for me has saved me thus far.

So, I agree that my years are not wasted. I have learned so much through my mistakes. And Jesus gave me what I needed to see those things for what they are, the love of God for me. I do wish I would have taken the higher road many times, that’s the best way, but I needed to learn who I was in order to be who I am.

Shew, that brings tears to my eyes. I love this life, and I love you all who Jesus has put around me.

Amy B.

* Pastor John’s House Blog: 12/14/22 (pastorjohnshouse.blogspot.com)

** https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=tfe12-15

*** The Pioneer Tract Society – Burlington, NC

Good Morning.

Jerry and I were talking yesterday, and we had such a good conversation!  We started our conversation talking about bad spirits hanging around and the fact it didn’t matter if it is a loved one dragging around a bad spirit or a bad spirit wanting us to drag it around, it’s all the same, and we don’t want it in the clean life Jesus has given us.  We want to honor what Jesus has done for us. 

Jesus once told me that it is dangerous to hold hands with bad spirits.  I feel like that has gone so much deeper in my heart these last two years.  Sister Willie has said you can’t be thankful and grumble at the same time.  They don’t fit together.  Man, she is so right!  I feel around for that nugget in my pocket a lot.

Our conversation led to Jerry talking more about wrong feelings, and he said that you can get to a place with Jesus where you don’t expect things to be your way; you are just thankful to belong to  Jesus.  I am paraphrasing because I can’t say it is as wonderful as Jerry does.  Jerry talked about a few times he has seen Barbara be an example of this.  We had a sweet time talking about your wife’s sweet spirit.  We talked about Bess too.  Their nothingness is what makes them great to us.  The world might get upset with me saying “their nothingness”, but that is such a precious gift to them from Jesus, to get to that humble place and to have a heart like that.  I hope this is coming across with the feelings we felt in loving their sweet spirits.  It left me asking Jesus to make me more like them.

Our conversation left me thankful for the examples and help that Jesus gives us.  We are not down here blindly feeling around.  Some are lighting the way for us and showing us exactly what to pray for.

Jesus gave you a good wife! 

And he gave me a good husband! 

Our conversation felt so sweet, I just wanted to share it with you!

Beth

Good Morning Pastor John.

I was just reading the TFM for today, December 9.  It was about a wonderful experience brother Billy M had with Jesus.  At one point, brother Billy tells of Jesus telling him he cannot come into God’s house with muddy feet.  Jesus had just talked with me about this.

One of my adult children has burned many bridges and is soon to be homeless or on someone’s couch. This happened because of the sin and mess they continue to bring into the lives of those trying to help them.

I was told by another of my adult children that their father was going to have that child call me.  So, mentally, I was preparing myself for that phone call, and Jesus showed me just how I should look at it. 

In 2010, I was living on someone’s couch.  Literally (but also spiritually). I was in a run-down shack in a bad neighborhood.  Jesus came and laid a new foundation in a wonderful, safe and clean area.  Jesus built sturdy walls and floors, furnishing it with everything I need to live in this beautiful, clean place. Jesus has surrounded me with loving neighbors, and Jesus taught me how to care for and maintain this wonderful place and is teaching me how to be a good neighbor.

Jerry and I take our shoes off, figuratively, and do not bring dirt and muck into the life Jesus built for us.  Why then would I let someone else bring dirt and muck into it after all the hard work Jesus did cleaning it up?

If someone wants to wear their dirt and muck into their home, then so be it, but they cannot bring it into ours.  They cannot bring it into His house.  The day they want Jesus to build them a clean house and kick off those dirty mucky shoes, I’ll be right here waiting for them, pointing to the Master Builder.

Here is that Thought for the Morning: https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=tfm12-09

An excerpt:

“The Spirit was telling me on the tour through the Temple that I would not be allowed to have mud on my feet, or run in and out of God’s house as an unruly child does. I had to be clean (spiritually speaking) and would not be allowed to get mixed-up with the world by coming in and out of the place where God dwells; but if I keep myself clean, there is a place I can go where I can commune with God”

Beth D.

Pastor John.

It seems that everyone who will be successful in Jesus will be whole-heartedly wrong first, if they ever hope to be whole-heartedly right.

The apostle Paul was whole-heartedly wrong in the beginning, but he did what he did with his whole heart toward God. Jesus just had to point him in the right direction.

If we don’t do what we do in the Lord with all of our heart for fear of making a mistake, we will forever miss the blessings that come with getting it altogether right.

Jerry D.
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Hi Jerry.

It is possible for Jesus to change a half-hearted sinner into a whole-hearted saint.  But it is certain that no half-hearted believer will be saved.  Jesus showed us this in his message to a pastor in Revelation: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.”

Pastor John

John,

The humility in your answer to Zoli really touched me.*

Among religious people, I think generally, not having an answer, or a complete answer, is forbidden.  And that’s where the trouble begins.  That’s where opinions become doctrines, and where there is exclusion to those who question those opinions.  When I read your answer to Zoli, my thought was, “Who really cares about the answer … I just want a spirit like that man has (you).”

I thank God over and over for where he has me.

Gary

p.s. I didn’t want to leave the impression, after reading my comment, that answers are not important.  They are very important, but sometimes we don’t have them, and I thank God that I have learned from you that when we don’t have them it’s OK to say “I don’t know.”

* See post: Zoli – God’s Son and Mary’s Son (11/30/2022) 

Good Morning Pastor John,

I was reading in Deuteronomy and this part (below) really touched me.  To know that Moses desperately wanted to see God’s promised land, but it was not what God was going to give him, and that God told him to encourage and strengthen the brother He was going to give it to (Joshua) touched me.  God knew Moses had a heart that could do that for Joshua (even though he wanted what God was giving to Joshua instead).  And it is the same heart He wants us to have with each other, and be happy for those who receive things from God that we would like to have received.  I am praying to have that kind of heart.

Deuteronomy 3 

23. “And I sought the favor of Jehovah at that time, saying,
24. ‘O Lord Jehovah, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what God is there in the heavens or in the earth who can do such as your works and your mighty deeds.
25. I beg you, let me cross over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, this good hill country, and Lebanon.’
26. But Jehovah was cross with me for your sake, and He would not hear me. And Jehovah said to me, ‘Enough from you! Never speak to me of this matter again.
27. Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over this Jordan.
28. And charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.’

Beth

Hi John,

I just got home from having a colonoscopy a short while ago.  I had the sweetest experience just before they began the procedure, and I wanted to share.

I’ve been super busy with work and life lately, so I’ve hardly had much time to think about this upcoming colonoscopy.  Today, after I got settled in my room and was waiting to be wheeled back for the procedure, it hit me what was getting ready to happen, and I started to feel uneasy and a little afraid.  By the time they wheeled me into the procedure room, I felt really nervous. There were at least six people in that little room, including doctors, nurses and two anesthesiologists. While they were all busy doing their part to prep me for the procedure,  I started talking to Jesus.  I told him I felt afraid, and he very gently spoke this to my heart:

“Listen to me.  You are going to be just fine. To them (the medical team), you are just another patient; the next procedure, but I am in charge of every person in this room and I love you and I’m going to take care of you.”

His voice was a calm that cut right through the scurry of activity going on in that room. He felt so close, and tears started falling down my cheeks.  There was a sweet lady standing behind me and she started rubbing my forehead and patting my arm.  I reached up and patted her hand and thanked her for taking care of me. When I did that, she bent down and whispered in my ear, “We are going to take good care of you”.  It felt like Jesus whispering in my ear. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so comforted and so loved.  The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room.  

It’s so, so sweet to feel Jesus loving us, and to be reassured that he is taking such complete care of us.  I know he’s on the job 24/7, but I’m thankful I got to especially feel that today.   

His love is overwhelming, and it’s real.  

Thank you precious Jesus, for loving us.

Lee Ann 

p.s. Everything looked good on my colonoscopy.  I don’t take that for granted either.  Thankful!