Hey Pastor John,

Tonight, when you first started preaching, I couldn’t understand everything you were saying, but it felt so good in my spirit.  I kept thinking, “Oh, Jesus, this is so good!  Let me take it in!  Help me understand!” Then it started turning in my soul: the spirit of Antichrist is low-down, conniving coward!  It will lie and cheat, but it will also bring you flowers and tell you everything your flesh wants to hear.  But stay close to Jesus, and that thing will stink; you’ll be able to smell it a mile away!  It felt so good to know we’ve been taught the truth and to know what we’ve been given.  I stood up before I even realized it, it just felt so good!

Good night!
Michelle

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Good morning, John,

I read these verses in Jeremiah Chapter 2 this morning and it’s God pleading through Jeremiah for his children to come back to him, but it reminded me of what we read and what you taught us last night:

vs 7:  But I brought you to this garden-land, that you might eat of its fruit and its goodness.  But you went in and defiled my land.  Yea, you made my inheritance an abomination. 

vs 11:…my people have exchanged their glory for that which will not profit.

vs 12, 13:  Be appalled, O heavens, at this!  Yea, be horrified, and devastated, said the LORD!  For my people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, to hew out for themselves broken cisterns which hold no water”.

That was hundreds of years ago, and yet, nothing has changed!   ….God’s children have exchanged their glory (the Holy Ghost), for Christianity with its rituals and doctrines that will profit them nothing!  They have made their inheritance an abomination. 

Jesus is still calling His children out of that abomination of desolation back to Him! 

We should be appalled and horrified and devastated about the way Christianity has turned the hearts of God’s people away from the very fountain of living water, and for what?  Broken cisterns, which hold no water!  Oh God!  Help us!

My prayer is that I hate that thing and what it’s done to God’s children as much as God hates it. 

Lee Ann

As I listened to Gary sing*, and throughout the meeting, I felt how absolutely backward and absurd it is that the dumb spirit will have people stand there stained and in chains, blindly pointing at us and wanting us to be ashamed.  I can see that picture so clearly.  The one across from the other. Jesus has cleaned us up and removed our chains, our eyes are opened, we are no longer blind.  We know the Answer, their Answer.  Like Jonathan said recently, they are staring at the Answer.

Oh, I pray our young people can see what stands across from them, blindly pointing at them and trying to persecute them.

It’s insane.

Beth D.

* Isaiah 58 MP3 Music Downloads – Gary Savelli

Hi John.

I have really been enjoying the next book that I started reading, “Tithes and Offerings.”*

One thing that stood out to me this morning was what you said about Malachi 3, where God commanded his people to bring their tithes and offerings to His storehouse. 

God’s people we’re not allowed IN the storehouse. Only God’s servants, the Levites, etc., were allowed in that place in the temple.  In other words, for God to ask the people to bring their tithes and offerings to the storehouse, was for Him to require something of them that they could not do! God’s servants had to do that part.

I always love it when man is taken out of God’s ways!  Just as men have no part in giving the Holy Ghost (for it takes Jesus), so, men have no part in bringing tithes and offerings to God’s storehouse – not without a man whom God has anointed to receive them and get them there!

That was so good!  We are not going to get around God, and we are not going to get around Jesus, and we are not going to get around the Holy Ghost, and we are not going to get around you.  No Assembly anywhere is going to get around the pastor that God has given them.  The best we can do is to do it God’s way. I just enjoyed that thought this morning.  The way of truth is so true and good.  Thanks for sharing these good, heavenly thoughts with us through your writings. 

Gary

* Going to Jesus.com – Tithes and Offerings: The Right Relationship Between a Pastor and His Congregation

Good morning Pastor John

The Mathew readings have been so very good!  EVERYTHING I was taught in Satan’s religion was exactly backwards.  I am constantly having to forget and relearn the messages from the Bible.  Even this morning, while reading the “Thoughts for the Morning”* book, I was presented another of the lies I had been taught.  I was taught to build my strength and that in my strength, I could do God’s will; 180 degrees off from reality.   After reading and letting the lesson soak in, the holy Ghost explained to me that if I thought I had strength, I would be off doing my own will.  And God would not get through to me because I would be relying on me, and not listening.   That is not what God wants from us.  He wants us wanting to and having to rely upon Him, for everything in the flesh (which is what relying upon my strength and will is) is sin.  We need Him to guide us in what is right.  And “what is right” can change, depending on what God wants, and only by being meek will we be be able to listen.  Soooo very far from my upbringing.

Thank you for bringing the truth into my life.

One more good experience this morning.   I turned on the tv to catch the news, but it was on a different station.   There was a very funny segment from a show that I used to watch.  So, I paused for some chuckles.  The first advertisement was from God.  It started with a white robe hanging in the darkness. A song came on singing, “I will kill you,” and at the same time, the robe started burning.  I  felt it was God telling me to choose the tv and to focus on Him.  Needless to say, I immediately turned off the tv and returned my thoughts to God.  He can make me laugh when i need it, and that’s good enough for me.

Love you all
Mark

* Going to Jesus.com – Rejoicing in Weakness, Part 1

I loved last night!  I love how real it is, how real the truth is!  Sin is pleasurable for a time, to be able to say that and not have that over-spiritual, Christian silence about it is so good to me!

Being disappointed, discouraged, and heavy-hearted at times is real!  Living in a world full of sin feels awful sometimes!  I think just being able to say that is freeing!  I know it sure feels good!  To be able to say we will be discouraged is the most ENCOURAGING message!

Is there another word, other than real?  I wish I knew how to say it, to get down to the raw bones of it!  I love the truth of the truth, I love how real it is!

All my hope is to get out of this world and be with Jesus!  I had enough of this world to know how awful it is.  As much as I regret that life, I am so thankful to know what this world will give you.  It makes me cling to my Jesus, who came and carried me out!

Where would I be without the real Jesus!

I am so thankful Jesus is real!  And what you feed us is real!

Stay on the hook!
Beth D.

Pastor John,

This morning Richard was reading the “Suffering and the Saints” book.  When he finished the first part, he said that it was so good.  He loved how you wrote out the message and how it feels and that it is such a good reminder of how God is in charge of our lives and taking care of us.

I wanted to read what he had just read, so I picked up the book. He was using the book cover to mark the place where he finished reading.  When I opened the book, it opened up, not where he had it marked, but two pages before on what he had just read that he said was so good. This is what it said:

“I believe that the key to this kind of steadfastness in faith is a genuine knowledge of God and that the key to that knowledge is the revelation of Creation. When we experience the revelation knowledge of God as Creator, the rope of trust in God is no longer something at which our wondering hearts desperately grasp; rather, faith becomes woven into the fabric of our mind and spirit so that it becomes part of who we are. It becomes our foundation instead of our goal. Then, growing in this grace and knowledge of our Savior, we survey past experiences which we once denounced as evil attacks against us and perceive the short-sightedness of such a view. We see those experiences as the very stones upon which we now stand and view the glory of God, as stepping stones which were hewn by caring hands to match our toddling steps. Yes, evil spirits or men may have shoved those stones into our pathway, but they did neither determine the size of those stones nor when in our pilgrimage we would face them.”

I couldn’t believe it!  I didn’t even know that was in there!  Last Spring (sometime before our beach trip in May) I was in the shower and I had a vision in my mind of myself standing on a stone path.  Each stone on the path had a trial written on it.  I could see each stone being thrown to me in every trial by someone or, something which Jesus sent.  Sometimes those stones felt like my heart had been torn out, like when my children were kidnapped.  Or they felt embarrassing when I received correction.  I saw myself holding the stone and I had a choice to make.  I could place the stone down and use it as a stepping stone to get where Jesus was taking me, or I could use the stone to build a wall to protect me from the hurt.  I could even throw the stone back at the person Jesus was using.  The choice was up to me. 

When I got out of the shower, I drew out the vision on a piece of paper, with me standing on one side of the stone path and Jesus on the other, and I wrote this down:

“Sometimes trials can feel like stones being thrown at you. Don’t use them to build a wall instead place them at your feet and use them as the stepping stones to get where Jesus is taking you. He is sending them, they are the path that leads to him.”

I loved reading these things in the “Suffering and Saints” book this morning and hearing it echoed again in the message tonight. I  am thankful for each of those stones (trials).  They are now a blessing to me.  I needed each and every one of them, from the biggest, hardest trials to each and every small one.  They were perfectly designed by Jesus for me, and I learned to trust him to see me through.  I love that! 

Goodnight!

Amy F.

I’ve been reading in Galatians.  It has meant a lot to me.  The Jews were put in bondage to keep them from following after their flesh and the Gentiles were left in bondage to follow after their flesh.  There was no answer.  We all needed the Seed of Abraham to come and rescue us!  Now we can be made righteous by believing in Jesus.  Wonderful.

John C.

I loved reading the testimonies this morning on the Signal group about striving with your whole heart to do your best while you are young.  As the testimonies and responses were still coming in, I started working on putting together some Acts CD sets on my table, and remembered that I had one more Old Testament CD to listen to for our OT class* this week.  Below is what I heard immediately on the first two minutes of that CD.

Psalm 90 (Rob reading KJV, but I’ve put in our translation)

7. For we are consumed by your anger, and we are dismayed by your wrath.
8. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret in the light of your face,
9. and so, all our days pass away because of your fury. We end our years like a sigh.
10. The days of our years are seventy years, but even if by reason of strength they be eighty years, their pride is but toil and trouble. Quickly, it passes, and then, away we fly.
11. Who knows the power of your anger or your wrath to the measure of the fear that is due you?
12. So, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our heart to wisdom.

Pastor John said: “Tonight.  It’s the only ‘tonight’ you’ll have, as far as this night goes.  So, when we sing this song, let’s take advantage of the opportunity, to sing it with our whole hearts, as unto the Lord.  I imagine that just about everybody who is already dead wishes they had an opportunity we have tonight to sing a song to the Lord – whether they were saints and went to be with the Lord, they wish they had it to do all over again, so they could sing it with more gusto – and whether they were sinners who are right now in torment, you know they wish they had the opportunity right now to take advantage of the time they threw away while they were on earth. So when Moses said, “Teach us to number our days,” basically what he means is ‘teach us to know our days are numbered.’  And if we know that, we are going to apply our hearts to wisdom, which is, to serve the Lord with your whole heart.”

Donna N.

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

Pastor John,

I’m listening to you preach on the book of Hebrews.  When you said this, my whole body shook under the power of God!  This stirred my soul!  So good, I wanted to share:

“When God gets ready to speak – He’s spoken!  He doesn’t get ready to speak.  He’s never gotten ready to move in his life!  He speaks!  He moves!  He doesn’t have to think about it!  There is no thought process with God.  He doesn’t have to work things out!  He is not a big one of us!  In just a moment it’s over, in just a moment you don’t have that problem anymore!  A woman bent over crooked 38 years, Jesus passed by….she’s walking straight now!  He didn’t think about it, ponder over it, wonder if it could happen!  Oh God, give us faith like that!”

Whew, this is so good!

Michelle

*Pastor John’s teaching on the book of Hebrews may be found at the following link:

Pastor John’s House.com Gospel Material Available for Purchase. (pastorjohnshouse.com)

Hi Pastor John,

I LOVED the meeting today!  There were so many highlights, so many good things, I had to go back and watch it again!  I loved how you brought out the connection between Christianity and Babylon.  We were in captivity, but Jesus set us free!  Yes!  

This was so encouraging to me: When Christ ascended on high he led captivity captive!  He led everything captive that will bind you!  Everything captive that will bind us!  Just think about that!  Everything!  That just makes you want to shout!

I also love how you explained Luke 14:26.  “If any man comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and his wife and children, and his brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  It’s not a hate like this world thinks, it’s a love for Christ.  Loving Christ first.  It just feels so right.

I am so grateful for the mercy that Jesus has had on us.  To hear and love this truth is such a precious gift.  Just thinking about his mercy brings tears to my eyes.  It didn’t have to be this way – but God! 

Michelle