Hi Pastor John,

Thank you so much for this article.*  I need it. I need to be reminded often, to stay out of politics and this ungodly, earthly mess. It’s hard to watch freedom under attack and be chipped away, but in truth we really are not of this world. And this article gives me the right, godly perspective; the only way to look at it. God is not conservative or liberal, and His kingdom does not operate the way we do! Praise God and Amen!! I’m thankful we have something so much better to look to. We really do!!

I’ll never forget the distress I was in at the last “election”.  I was trembling in fear. The way that I felt was unlike anything I’ve felt. When I went to you about it, you were entirely unmoved by that political mess! I want to be like that. I’m thankful you were the strong tower I needed, and it gave me relief to note how unmoved you were!

And I’m thankful I listened to your advice then; stay out of it. At first it was hard to lay down political things and not get involved or pay it heed. I’ve had to lay down anything political thousands of times. But I continue to do so because I am not of this world. Pastor John, it would feel worse than anything to have not obeyed your advice; and I continually remember that.

Thank you Pastor John, so much! Please pray for me!

Love,

Jenny

*See post March 6, “One Human Condition”, by Pastor John Clark, Sr.)

Good morning,

Your message, “One Human Condition”*, was so good!  I’m hanging on to that last sentence, 

“So, hang in there, fellow sojourner.  How things are in this world is not how things will always be.”

I watched a Billy Graham documentary just last night, and I learned just how political he was.  I thought he just served as a “prayer advisor” for the presidents (from Truman to the second Bush), but that wasn’t it, at all.  He was very involved in politics and preached on the evils of communism and how important it was to vote, etc.  He even made political commercials for Nixon.  During the early 70s, they had a big Billy Graham Day in Charlotte (his birthplace).  Businesses and schools closed so they could have a big parade for him, and Nixon rode with him in the car during the parade.  The whole event was all contrived just for Nixon to get exposure in the south and help him get re- elected. 

They said that Billy Graham had been called “the most famous preacher on the planet” during the height of his preaching.  Last night, I saw more than ever that it was all just a big performance on a stage.  His first big preaching series when he went out on his own was in Los Angeles.  He was a friend to many of the movie stars.  One guy compared Mr. Graham to Frank Sinatra.  He said he had met both of them, and they both had the same charisma (which was probably the truth).  But in Christianity, Billy Graham was, and still is, considered a hero!  He is the face of Christianity.

I remember watching his specially televised sermons with Mama when I was a little girl in the 60s and early 70s.  I thought he must be a man of God.  He was such a powerful speaker, and all of those people would go down for the altar call at the end.  I had no idea that it was all a performance.  Another Hollywood show.  

I really saw it last night.  They showed a few clips of his sermons, and they were so empty.  There was nothing said of substance.  He would tell them if you feel badly for your sins and want to turn your life around, come down here and ask Jesus to come into your life.  That was it.  I imagine all of those thousands of people who went down there, felt a little relief at the hope of getting some relief, but then what?  Unless they received the One Hope, they were back to business as usual within a few hours.  I know that because I’ve answered those altar calls myself.  I cried and felt real conviction, and wanted something to help me change, but within a day or two, I was right back where I started.  Those kind of “sermons” without the Holy Ghost really are “clouds without rain”.  

Anyway, this is timely, that I would wake up to see what should be the rest of that documentary in this writing.  It’s such a mess in all of that political world, and Christianity is a big part of that world.  I felt it last night as I was watching that.  I was so thankful I know the truth and can see Billy Graham and Christianity for what it is!  I’m relieved to know I don’t have a part with any of it.  

Lee Ann

*See post March 6, “One Human Condition”, by Pastor John Clark, Sr.)

I really liked this article.*   

It reminded me that a few weeks ago I was watching the news, and my feelings were along the lines of, “why are President Biden and his advisers so absolutely undiscerning and foolish?”  Then I heard the Spirit’s voice inside of me say: “you’re still a republican.”  I realized, without really knowing it, I had been rooting for the “Republican” political thought process to win in recent events. It was more aligned to my conservative view of things.

But that view could actually be working AGAINST the will of God, because I don’t know exactly what God is doing with recent events.   The thought that followed was that I am an ambassador, a servant of Jesus.  It doesn’t matter how things go. That is in Jesus’ hands.  So it was a very freeing feeling not to worry about those earthly things. 

Those people, whose values are more “aligned” to mine, are NOT me.  They, along with every other political thinking view, would almost always hate the truth when it was spoken clearly.  I just want to be speaking the truth clearly when the opportunity arises, and to please my Lord Jesus.  

Thanks for articulating it so well.  They are thoughts of real peace.  A peace this world can never give us.

Gary

==========

Good morning, Pastor John.

Your message and Brother Gary’s email reminded me of something that happened this week.  I had stop for gas, knowing the prices were going up.  There were long lines at every pump.  As it got to my turn and I was pumping my gas, I was watching the price go up and up.  You could feel anger in the air.  As I finished and replaced the nozzle to the pump, I had the sarcastic thought cross my mind, “Thank you, Joe Biden.”  Before I could let those words cross my lips, these words hit my heart and came out my mouth: “Thank you, Jesus, I can pay for this gas!”  As it came out my mouth, the man at the pump beside me stuck his head around the corner.  He said, “There you go!!,” with a big smile.  It was if those words echoed through the gas station.  I looked around surprised that people heard me.  It changed the atmosphere, even if for a short time!!

People were smiling and nodding yes.

We are ambassadors for the kingdom of which most people aren’t aware.  Looking back, you could feel such an authority over this government just to speak who is really in control of this world, but not in a bad spirit like this world breeds.  An assurance inside that goes beyond their authority.

Thank you for teaching us what has been revealed to you from God.  It is, in turn, changing and shaping us for true life.

Love
Jammie

*See post March 6, “One Human Condition”, by Pastor John Clark, Sr.)

One Human Condition

by: Pastor John Clark, Sr.

There are no political divisions in the kingdom of God, and the life of every believer who walks in the Spirit reflects this truth, for he refrains from engaging in earthly political partisanships.  Being citizens of a heavenly country, believers are “ambassadors for Christ”, operating in this foreign land.  They are “foreigners” and “pilgrims” temporarily living on this dying planet.  This world is not the believer’s home, and those who act as if it is, those who pursue its benefits and pleasures, “pierce themselves through with many sorrows” (1Tim. 6:10).  Jesus commanded his followers to “turn the other cheek”, and he was the perfect example of doing so.  While on trial for his life, he explained to Pontius Pilate, “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight” (Jn. 18:).  We are not here to improve earthly conditions for humans; that is for human governments to strive to do.  God’s saints are here, just as Jesus said he was, only to bear witness to the truth.

No purely human condition exists in the kingdom of God.  That is why earthly socio-political partisanships are contrary to the Spirit.  The life of godliness is neither conservative nor liberal, neither free-market nor communistic.  God’s way is simply not of this world, in any respect.  We find God’s men and women serving Him on earth as kings and queens sitting on thrones (David, Esther), and we find them serving Him as fugitives, running from authorities (David, Elijah).  We find them on earth as slaves (Eleazar, Onesimus), and we find them as slave-masters (Abraham, Philemon).  We find them among the richest people in the world, and we find them living in caves, wandering about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, maltreated (Heb. 11:37–38).  We find them on earth as Jew and as Gentile, as male and as female, as young and as old, as educated and as uneducated.  We find them sick, (Elisha died of a sickness) and we find them healthy.

But in God’s kingdom, all human conditions are irrelevant.  Paul touched on this when he wrote to the Galatians that in Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor freeman, nor male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

There is only one purely earthly condition that is promised to all believers, at all times, in all places, only one earthly condition commonly experienced by all who have ever believed and served the true God: persecution.  Paul left his young protégé, Timothy, with no illusions; he warned him plainly that “all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”  This admonition mirrors that of Jesus himself, who warned Paul as a young man when he first was called, of all things he would suffer for the sake of the gospel (Acts 9:16).

Peter exhorted the saints not to be discouraged when they obeyed Christ and suffered for it: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is coming to try you, as though a strange thing is happening to you.  On the contrary, rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also rejoice and be glad at the revelation of his glory.  If you are being reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified” (1Pet. 4:12–14).

We who believe are promised but one thing on this wicked planet, that is, we will be misunderstood and unwanted by all who belong to this world.  Nevertheless, our sure hope of eternal life and peace overrides all the hurt that this world can inflict upon us.  That precious hope has sustained millions of hurting saints through the ages as it did Paul: “I consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).  So, hang in there, fellow sojourner.  How things are in this world is not how things will always be.

I know you know all of this because you wrote it, but this is so good!  It’s just so good!  Made me think of that song ‘I want to love Him more”, and I changed it in my heart to want to love Him more than anything.  And to hear how Jesus felt about how they treated him!  Jesus had feelings as they mocked him; it hurt him.

It also made me think of brother Gary singing just from the heart the other night.  I loved that, and Ellie dancing was just pure, just pure and free in what she was feeling with Jesus.  We witness some wonderful things from Jesus, PJ.  I had to write you and share how good what you wrote is!  I can picture the Jews in the end, when their hearts are changed and they can see, reading this and it being so clear for them.  A wealth of knowledge laid out for them.  I would love to see that, and just think, God used you to write it!  That’s pretty wonderful.

from God Had A Son before Mary Did*

“To partake of God’s kind of righteousness was beyond the wildest dreams of man.  The rites and rules of the law were intended to lead Israel to receive that righteousness, but they didn’t know it, and in the end, the law that God Himself gave Israel to lead them to that blessing became their prison.  The law became their idol, and that dead idol would not allow them to receive the Messiah of whom it spoke.  They loved the law more than they loved the Son, and so, their temple and their holy days, their priesthood and sacrifices, their lovely candlestick and golden table became their prison, their curse.  The persecuted Son is the one who asked the Father for that justice:

Psalm 69

19.You know my reproach, and my shame, and my disgrace.  All those who torment me are before you.

20.Reproach has broken my heart, and I am in despair.  I longed for someone to pity me, but there was no one, and for comforters, but I found none.

21.They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst, they made me drink vinegar.

22.Let their table become a snare for them, and their peace offerings, a trap.

The liberty that Paul preached was the liberty from ignorance and spiritual weakness.  It was the gift of the knowledge of God’s will and the strength to do it.  In a powerful sermon in the 1970s, Preacher Clark summarized Paul’s message this way: “God can’t use you as long as you are going by a set of rules.  I don’t care whose rules they are.  God is going to give you His law now, today, and His law will be in your heart.  It will make you free from the law of sin and death, and you will be willing and able to do whatever God wants you to do, without a set of rules to go by.”  The liberty that God’s life brings is an incomparably glorious liberty, as joyous to the souls who enter into it as it is strange and frightening to the souls who will not.  The Son of God came to set us free from our fear of breaking a rule and being damned (Heb. 2:15).  He did this by re-creating us as people to whom rules and rites do not apply, as holy people who live under “a perfect law of liberty”, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”.  To keep this law, all we have to do is to walk in the kind of life we have received, the life that knows no rules and fears nothing but the God who gave it, our heavenly Father who loves us so much that He sent His Son to die in our stead.”

also from above:

“The Son of God came to set us free from our fear of breaking a rule and being damned (Heb. 2:15).”

That fear of being damned is so heavy in Catholicism!  From the very beginning that fear is instilled.  I feel like Jesus is still getting that out of me.  You can really see where it is an extension of the righteousness of man, and is so far from what God did for us.

Beth D.

* Going to Jesus.com – God Had A Son Before Mary Did

Hi Pastor John,

I am studying the Old Testament* with the Paynes, Nelson’s and others.  This is my first time studying it in a group, so it’s special to me right now, and I’m loving the class. 

I especially love studying The Law.  It was wonderful, though imperfect.  But it was part of God’s overall plan.  I love how you showed Jesus, and the faithful of God’s ppl, loved the Law.  They were not insolent about it; they cherished it!  Thank you for that; that has gone deep in my heart.  I love that they loved the Law.  Christianity made my heart despise the law, I think, without my knowing it.  But these studies undo that, and I’m thankful for that. 

But most of all, I love how Psalm 119 seems to sum up the law and the love and goodness of God.  My heart’s prayer is Psalm 119.  Before Jesus let me come to the truth, Psalm 119 was not in my heart; I couldn’t feel it at first, I was so numb.  But now I feel it and love it, and I cherish that beyond words.  Brings tears of thankfulness to my eyes. I love Psalm 119. 

Thank you. 

Love, Jenny

* Old Testament Course (Pt. 1) – Going to Jesus.com

Good morning! 

Reading what Paul went through this morning:

2Corinthians 11:

24. Five times I received forty lashes, minus one, at the hands of the Jews;
25. three times, I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a day and a night I have spent in the deep;
26. on frequent journeys, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from bandits, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers on the sea, in dangers among false brothers,
27. through toil and hardship, through frequent sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and nakedness.

That is the same hate-filled spirit that mocked Jesus.  I tried to even imagine being so cruel to any hurting or broken human.  They didn’t know he was God’s Son, but where was just the normal compassion?  I often think about the hardening of the hearts in the world today, but it is not new.  That spirit has been around a long time, designing a way to kill people that ensures the most suffering.  What kind of hearts can do that?

Then I read this: “The Jews in Paul’s time feared that they would face eternal damnation if they attempted to live without that dear old guardian [the law].  After all, had not God commanded them to obey the law, on penalty of death?  They could not imagine God considering them righteous if they did not keep the law’s rules for conduct and worship.  Everyone in Israel, to that point in history, who had disobeyed the law had been condemned and cursed by God, while all who had kept it had been blessed.  Who, then, except a fool or a madman, would think that someone could be righteous without observing the law’s rites and rules?  God did.” 

Amen! 

Whew!   It’s like a tug of war on the heart, until I go back over everything you have taught me.  The truth really does save you.  I thought, “Paul wasn’t asking the Jews to stop following the law.  Paul was telling the Jews that the Gentiles did not have to follow the law and its ceremonies.  God had written the law on their hearts.”  God had done something new and wonderful for us Gentiles, the dogs of this world.  But the Jews were too proud to admit it.

Pride!  What a dangerous and heart-hardening spirit pride is.  When we look at those lost in Christianity or just those without God, our hearts do not want to throw heavy stones at them or whip the flesh from them.  Our hearts want them to have God’s spirit.  We want them to have what God gave to us.  We want that because God changed our hearts and made them like His.  Look at the difference of the hearts, God’s heart and man’s heart.  I think of God commanding Israel to get rid of all the Amalekites, but I feel like even that would have been done with a different heart.

And God is going to change the Jew’s hearts, too, in the end.  Just to understand that touches me.

I hate pride.  I feel like Jesus has been talking to me a lot about pride lately.  Maybe that is why I feel this way, reading this.  I pray for a pure heart from my Father.  A pure heart is the answer.  I want a pure heart.

Beth D.

Pastor John,

You wrote in the book, God Had a Son before Mary Did*, “Adam and Eve were not made sinful by eating the forbidden fruit and obtaining ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ (Gen. 2:16–17; 3:6–7, 22). They ate the fruit and obtained that knowledge because they had already become sinful. Sin is a matter of the heart, and their choice to disobey God was the sin.” 

That makes me think of Judas.  What difference did it make to God if Judas returned the 30 pieces of silver?  It was a matter of the heart.

Wow!  What a thought! 

“Children, in their innocence, are in some measure clean before God. Jesus even said that we must become like innocent children if we hope to ever see God’s kingdom (Mt. 18:1–3). But when young children in Israel came of age and learned from the law what sin was, they realized their guiltiness before God and “died” to their innocence. Paul described how this happened to him:

Romans 7

9.I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

10.And then, the very commandment that was ordained for life was found by me to be for death.” 

Beth D.

* Going to Jesus.com – God Had A Son Before Mary Did

John, 

I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done for us, this morning’s reading of Revelation was so good.  As we were reading about the destruction of Babylon and the end time events for the Jew’s, God’s people whom He loves, a feeling of thankfulness and gratefulness came all over my body, to be able to understand and take in what God has given to you for us is an honor!  All I could think about was all the work and time you have put into us and our education to learn and teach us about the God we love. There is no way to understand these things without the education you have given us all, learning the Old Testament and the prophets and what is in their writings, along with following the Spirit with it all.

Life in God is an education and a lifetime of growing and learning in the Spirit about who and what God has made us and where we are with Him. I know it has been God who has led you and taught you and given you everything you have written and taught us, but you had to be willing and ready to dig all the holes to help get it out to us all!  What an honor to be here with you and everyone else who feels the same way. This is a way of life that we get to live every day and love it, if we want to. I just feel so blessed and thankful to be a part of what He is doing with us in this place at this time.  We need it all, and I pray that we can take it all in.

Thank You, John!!

Stuart