I just read the Iron Kingdom forward, and I can’t tell you how much I loved it!  I love how you begin by simply stating your beliefs, and also stating simply that Jesus has filled you with his spirit and taught you, and you are his servant.  I imagine most believers who read the first paragraph will say “Amen”.

Then, there is the second paragraph that is equally wonderful, but I imagine it will only be by the grace of God that your reader will make it past the first sentence of this paragraph you wrote:

I also believe that the religious system known as Christianity is an abomination to both God and Jesus. I believe that, to date, Christianity is Satan’s crowning achievement, that by it, he has successfully divided and confused the body of Christ, and that he reigns over the flock of God through Christian ministers, though they do not realize it. And I believe that in order for God’s people to attain to the unity and purity that Jesus prayed they would enjoy, they must come out of Christianity. 

The second paragraph is written in faithfulness to the revelation given to you, and faithfulness to the One who filled you with his spirit and taught you!  I love it so much!  My prayer is that reading that will echo what the spirit is already saying to sincere children of God, and reading this book will give them the courage they need to come out of her! I pray that some sincere child of God will read the second paragraph and say, “Amen!”  Oh Jesus!  Let it be so!

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this chapter!

Good night,

Lee Ann

Reading more of the first chapter of your Iron Kingdom book is giving me a clearer understanding of at least one reason Christianity began.  Since its inception, Christianity has been a hiding place for any backslidden saint who didn’t want to obey the will of God.  Who chose to live in sin.  Simply put, Christianity is a hiding place for sin!  It doesn’t matter your lifestyle, Christianity welcomes you with open arms!  Think about some of Christianity’s most seductive little catch-phrases, all designed to justify the sinner:

Come join the church of your choice
You gotta love everybody unconditionally
Once saved; always saved
Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven
The blood of Christ covers a multitude of sins
Take it on faith; Don’t go by your feelings
It’s by grace that we are saved, not by works
Stand on the word
God loves everyone
Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior
Bloom where you’re planted
The Bible is the Word of God
John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life)

I looked up Christian slogans and found a few that are not as common, but were notable:

The church is the safest place on earth
Keep quiet and let it be handled by a Christian
Live today as a Christian, or burn tomorrow in hell
Follow Christianity to cleanse your sins
To be like Christ is to be a Christian
Christianity is the only true religion 

In all my search of Christian sayings or slogans, I can tell you what I didn’t find:

“You must be born again with the evidence of speaking in other tongues”. 

Amen!  I love the simplicity of the truth!  I love that our hiding place is in the shadow of his wings!  I want to stay hidden in Him!

Lee Ann

       

Pastor John,

These are some of the good thoughts that have been rolling through my heart lately. They aren’t in any particular order but as they came up, I wrote them down. I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your work on The Iron Kingdom as well as listening to The Law series. The music and testimonies have been beautiful to my heart, too. All the feelings and thoughts just filled me up with thankfulness.

Love, Bess

-there is a right way to treat each person who is in our lives

-God is a God of relationships

-Jesus shows us through the Spirit how to live as the head and not the tail

-I love living under the authority of Jesus and PJ

-I love how all the things PJ taught us by way of the Spirit are meant to enable us to keep the standard of holiness and to live in the liberty Jesus purchased for us

– I love how this little body values each other and the testimonies and blessings from Jesus as he knits our hearts together. We need each other

-I love the thankfulness I feel towards PJ for being willing to dig in with Jesus so that we can learn God’s heart

-it is amazing how The Iron Kingdom information PJ has been putting together goes hand in hand with The Law Series.  Through slander, the false prophets controlled what God’s OT people believed, just like Xty got control over believers through slander

-I love The Law and how Jesus has put it on the inside of us now.  We have learned that Xty puts no value on learning The Law, therefore they cannot value the Holy Ghost

-the false prophets always downplayed the significance of The Law, and God’s faithful prophets always pleaded with God’s people to realize their need for it before it was too late. It’s the same today with Xty devaluing the hG and God’s faithful men telling His children to love it b/c it is life, their resting place and refuge.

-tongues are the sign of where the holy Ghost is. God’s people don’t know this

-God’s people are ashamed of the Holy Ghost b/c of slander, but we have been blessed to love it and value it and stay hidden in it. It saves us from our own opinions and our own carnal nature.

-the faithful who declared the goodness of The Law to those who did not value it put their lives at risk. That is like the Iron Kingdom.

-I love what we are learning as a body about the Iron Kingdom – to have an understanding that Xty never was from God and it’s full of men’s opinions – it is that straw man that God gave PJ a vision of as a young man

-the Spirit brings God’s Law into our heart by the power of the Holy Ghost

-Jesus has allowed us to understand and love that there is only one way to worship him – by the Spirit – and any other way is wrong and unacceptable

-it is worth everything to have found my place and to live in it and love it

-we are happy because Jesus filled us with his holy Spirit and his wisdom

==========

Amen, Bess!  Thank you.

jdc

Good morning. 

The past few days, I have been pulling up YouTube and these Tsunami videos have been coming up.  Being the weather person that I am, I started watching a few of them.  The ones that kept coming up were of the tsunami in March 2011 in Japan. It was overwhelming the amount of destruction and damage caused by it.  It was a nightmarish experience I’m sure.

All throughout the videos, you can hear the warnings.  They are in Japanese, but the words are written across the screen, and the alarms, the man talking, over and over again.

As I watched, I noticed time and time again, people not heeding the warnings.  Curious to take a look or not thinking much about it, “we’ve had these before” attitude.  Some people went down to the water and others carried on like business as usual (you could see cars going back and forth and crossing the bridges).  The videos show people running at the last minute, or trying to drive away, and even being pulled out putting others in danger.  They had no idea their lives were going to change that instant. That night some of the survivors were standing on rooftops with the only light being the fire on the water.

This morning when I woke up, I just kept hearing over and over: “heed the warnings.”  The Spirit is talking all the time.  It made me pray to be in tune with what the Spirit is doing and to stay ready for whatever the Spirit says for us to do, and pay attention to where it comes from.

Pretty sobering thoughts.  I feel like I’ve been “waiting” in my spirit lately.  It really is true that things are going to change. Lord help us be ready when it comes.

Glad to be feeling better.  And hope to see you soon.

Amy B.

Pastor John,

Do you remember a few years back when Jerry told a testimony about me needing a finishing point with God, the feeling of being saved?  At one point Jerry said, “What are you trying to do?  Sneak in with something in your back pocket?  Are you an ax murderer and I don’t know it?”

I hope you remember because the sweetest thing has happened.

For days now I have been overwhelmed with peace, a peace about everything.  I have been listening to you singing “A Deep Settled Peace” over and over.  As I listened to it, I thought, Jesus, the truth in songs is so much better when you experience it. Sometimes you can sing it and know it’s true, but not experience that truth yet, and it’s so much sweeter to sing and feel it when you do!  I was telling Jesus that I would like to tell about this peace, but I know as soon as I do, I will probably fall apart or something.  I said out loud to Jesus, “But it’s in there Lord!  There isn’t any talking it away when it’s in there!”

Then Jesus brought to mind that testimony Jerry gave, and my feelings about needing to feel saved.  That has always been there since I found out the truth.  Something in me needed to feel the security of being saved.  I have had a fear that if I could mess it up with Jesus, I would! 

Well, when Jesus brought that testimony and fear to mind, it was instantly followed with what he just let me experience with Jerry’s mom.  I will try to explain.  I didn’t know Jesus was coming that day.  Jerry’s mom did not know Jesus was coming.  Jesus came in that back door so fast that we didn’t have time to pray, or think, or do.  His mom’s heart met all Jesus’s requirements in that moment, and our faithful Jesus came in like a mighty rushing wind and saved her.  Not in the way the world says “saved”, but really came and rescued a dying woman. 

I had Jesus in such a box, but I couldn’t even see that until he came in and worked outside of that box.  I saw it with my own eyes.  I would have told her to do all these things, but none of it was what Jesus required of her.  Jesus did not need me to help him save her, and Jesus does not need me to help him save me!

There is such a peace in that!  I feel like Jesus let me see him work so he could add that peace to me.  I am still in awe at what I experienced that day.  And deep inside, I know I still have him in a box BUT I know I do, and that brings me such faith! Knowing it gives me such faith!  I absolutely know Jesus works outside of my box; I saw him with my own eyes! 

I feel like I started out with Jesus blindly and wildly groping for him in the dark, terrified I wouldn’t be able to grab onto him, and over these years, with experience after experience, the wild groping has stopped and a calm listening for his voice has begun.  I would almost say I feel a sweet, finger-snapping stroll at the moment … but I’m not that brave yet! 

But isn’t that wonderful, PJ!  Jesus is always working for all of us!  What a faithful and true friend we have!  I sure hope you remember that other testimony so you can share this sweetness with me. 

Beth D.

Thanks John for your labor explaining Christianity’s mess. The simple truths we were taught has saved us over and over again. Thank God for His mercy on us! Christianity’s straw man will fall.

Love You,
Earl

Hey!

I just finished reading Psalms, and when I started reading I began to keep track of everything that David called God, or used to describe Him. I thought it was so good! Here is my list:  

• Our strength
• Our shield
• Our strong tower
• Our mighty rock
• Our salvation
• Our fortress
• Our help
• Our atonement for transgressions
• Father of the fatherless and protector of the widows
• The One of Sinai
• The Almighty
• Our King
• Israel’s fountain
• Our help
• Our deliverer
• Our rock of refuge
• Our trust
• Our Father
• Our Rock of Salvation
• Our glory
• The lifter of our head
• O most High
• Helper of the Fatherless
• Our King forever and ever
• Savior of those who seek refuge
• Our stronghold
• The Horn of our salvation
• Our support
• Our light in darkness
• Our redeemer
• Our shepherd
• The saving refuge of His anointed
• Our hiding place
• The Mighty One
• The Upholder of our Life
• Our dwelling place
• Our Song
• The strength of our salvation

I thought it was a good reminder of everything that God is to us, and can be to us if we take hold of the opportunity. 

Samantha

=========

Beautiful, Samantha.

It is good to have those thoughts in our hearts.  And God is more than even all that!

Pastor John

Hey Pastor John.

Sure missing you and being together.

For days now I have been thinking on how blessed we are to have been given this life in the spirit, life in the spirit together.

Some have not been given what we have.  Some never feel what we feel when we are all together praising God because we love the truth in a song!  Some never feel the spirit quicken when Jesus gives you food for us and we feel it run through you and us!  When all our “amens” ring in unison! Some never know how it feels when it feels like it’s Jesus talking straight through you to us.  The experience with Jerry’s mom, and being separated because of the recent sickness, has left me so thankful that we have been given life in the spirit together.  Jesus didn’t have to bless us with life together in him.  Some never have what we have. 

I listened and was blessed by some songs posted recently.  Your brother sings on some of them, and I thanked Jesus for the time he gave us your brother.  We have those songs and blessings because of that time.

I also saw a video with you preaching and brother J– sitting behind you.  In the video, you asked Jesus to let you love the ones who you have in front of you right now.  It sent a pang through my heart for him.  I don’t want a time frame in Jesus; I want an eternity, an eternity with Jesus and all of you. 

I was talking to Jesus this morning and just thanking him for the life he has given me, and then I heard that sister Doris had a rough night!  My whole heart cried out for her, and I sat in the kitchen speaking in tongues.  That is life.  I am thankful for every moment of life we have. 

Beth D.

I am really in awe of the Introduction to Book Three in the Iron Kingdom Series.  In awe of what Jesus has shown you, and you in turn have shown to us.  In awe that we have escaped the tight grip that Christianity has had on God’s own children for centuries.  

I can’t tell you how many times I have had to lay my computer aside and talk to Jesus about what I was reading and feeling.  It feels so big!  And makes me feel so small!  And I’ve found myself asking Jesus “Why us?”

And then tonight I read this simple sentence on page 61, and it answered, at least in part, my “why us” question: “Thankfully, we have in Paul an example of a faithful servant of God.  He was faithful to the revelation given to him and to the One who gave it.”

I believe Jesus has revealed these things to you, John, for the same reason He trusted Paul with the truth of the gospel.  You have been a faithful servant to the revelation given and to the One who gave it.  It really is that simple.  

I feel certain that others have been shown the truth about Christianity, but were either unwilling or afraid to pay the price for telling it.  I don’t know their reason.  But you, like Paul, believed the truth when you heard it.  And you have been faithfully exposing the truth that Christianity is the “hairy-legged Roman Empire in drag, passing himself off as the Bride of Christ” ever since Jesus revealed it to you.  

It’s so big!  And I don’t feel worthy to even know it, but I’m thankful I do!

All I know is that I am sitting here tonight feeling thankful to call you my pastor and my friend. 

Lee Ann