Pastor John,

Years ago when I would heard you say, “…the Truth is a Who, not a what!” I always understood that to be because a man – Jesus – embodied all the elements of the truth that God gave.  I was still believing the truth was a WHAT…I just didn’t realize it.

Then one day, like a light switch popping on, I felt the words you were saying and understood, GOD’S TRUTH IS JESUS.  Not because Jesus represents God’s list of what is true, but because God created a Son and his name is Truth!  He is Truth!  Jesus doesn’t fulfill or represent anything in God’s creation.  He is the beginning.

It reminds me of listening to an Old Testament teaching CD* one day and thinking, “What kind of man was Jesus, to be able to come and fulfill all of God’s Law!?”  And the Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Jesus wasn’t sent to fulfill the law, the law was sent to try to fulfill Jesus!”

Jesus was the first of everything! 

So good.

Jerry

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

Pastor John,

I loved reading this random thought for the day. It reminded me of my relationship with sister Natalie.  I had known her my whole life; she was there when I was born.  Jesus put us together!  I thank him for that.  I miss her greatly.  She was the friend that made me stay close to Jesus to be her friend.  Our relationship was strictly Jesus; he was the common denominator.  We never one time went shopping together – Not that there is anything wrong with shopping, but it was just a connection beyond this world and what people call love or friendship.  If she didn’t hear from me in a day or two, she would call me and say, “What have you and Jesus been talking about?”  When I needed it, she would even say, “That doesn’t sound like God.”  She pushed me closer to Jesus!  

We all need to have and to be that kind of friend.  Paul said “She showed you how to be that kind of friend; so be it! “

Here is that Thought for Today that I read:

Love Is Not Fellowship

From a conversation with Brother Stuart

Hi Pastor John,

While I was staying at your home this weekend, I dreamed that I was visiting some saints at their home, along with a group of other saints. There was about 8 to 10 people gathered there, and we were sitting around talking about God and other things in general. Everyone there loved one another, and we had a good time. But when I left there, I felt like something was missing. Something did not feel right. I felt a little ashamed.

Then the scene changed, and I was at another saint’s home. There was about the same number of people there, but different people, and you could feel the Spirit flowing from breast to breast, one to another. It was wonderful. We were doing the same thing as was the group in the first home, and we all loved one another as in the first home, but the feelings were so strong here! Even when we did not say anything, it was there.

Then the scene changed again, and I was sitting in your office talking to you, and I was saying, “The Father loved the Son, and the Son loved the Father, and the love was going back and forth from the Son to the Father, and from the Father to the Son.” And then you said, “It takes more than just love; it takes fellowship.”

And instantly, like a light bulb going off in my mind, I knew what God was showing me in the dream. I love a lot of people and would do whatever I can for any one of them, but love does not make fellowship. That is something that is only given by God, and I can’t tell anyone how to have fellowship any more than I can tell anyone who God is and make them understand it.

Bro. Stuart 

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Hi Brother Stuart.

I like the way you said it to me here in my office. “Trying to explain fellowship is like trying to explain God.” That is true.

Fellowship is when we have the same mind and share the same feelings and judgments about matters in this life. There have been people in my life whom I knew and loved for twenty or thirty years, or more; they were in prayer meetings many years; we went places and did things together; and yet, I never had fellowship with them. They never knew it, because they never knew God. Or me. Or even themselves, really.

Fellowship includes loving people, but fellowship is not love. It is more than that. It is the unity that Jesus and the Father had and that Jesus prayed we would have, in John 17. And where there is that kind of harmony among the children of God, there is peace, healing, and sound judgment for the good of the body of Christ.

Pastor John

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Jammie

Hi, Pastor John.

The Matthew reading was so rich and full. But towards the end, the Lord gave me a vision.  He showed me a poisonous snake crawling in my front yard.  It was going towards Judy, who was hanging flowers by the pool after the storm that day.  I was on guard (so to speak) after we left your house.

When we got home after the meeting, Judy started getting the flowers from the deck on the back of the house where we had them sitting under the roof overhang and walking them to hang on the plant hangers along the pool fence.  I walked our dog as we normally do at night.  As I was walking the dog, the dog started jumping and flinching; I thought it was after frogs.  The more the dog sniffed, the more it started jumping.  I pulled her away, and I saw a brown colored snake slithering in the grass going from the front of the house in the grass towards the pool where Judy was.  I spoke somewhat loudly to Judy, “Be watchful and careful where you’re walking, I just saw a snake coming your way.”. Of course, Judy was now on alert, too.  Nothing happened.  Jesus warned us and kept us from getting bit – He kept us from harm.

This morning Judy said, “I’m glad the Lord was thinking about me.”  I replied, “I know . . .if he is thinking about you in carnal things of this world to help and protect you, how much more is He thinking about you in Eternal things.  Isn’t it wonderful to know He is thinking about you?”  I also told Judy, “If Jesus gives bread to God’s children, how much more is the meat that He has to give.”

We serve a “big” good Master!

Billy

Pastor John,

I was thinking about the tract, “Trials Are Opportunities” Trials are an opportunity to build our faith, but they are also an opportunity to love God in a way that we normally could not do. A hard situation in our life where we remain unmoved and go boldly forward in the knowledge that God loves us is a sweet response to the One who has been so good to us.

I feel like God would move mountains for His children. If someone was hungering and thirsting after Jesus and doing all they could do to reach Him, and something out of their control stood in their way,  I feel like God would move Heaven and Earth to clear the path for them. There is rest in that. It means everyone that wants Jesus will have Him.

Jerry

I was listening to the morning conversations that Sister Betty put out!  They are so good! 

I got to feeling so good and so thankful, and in the middle of that, I remembered something wonderful!

Right before God sent Jerry, and shortly after I came out of the coma, two very sweet ladies convinced me that I needed to be water baptized.  I was a broken-down mess, but I wanted to be fixed.  I remember right before I was getting in that big tank of water, I was hoping and praying to come up different.  I wanted to come up clean and different.  I didn’t, and I remember how sad and disappointed I felt because it wasn’t real.  I really had hoped it would be.

Why did I ever think that!!!  It surely wasn’t from anything I grew up thinking or having been taught.  As a Catholic, I was baptized at birth and was taught I was good to go!

So where did that thought ever come from, or Praise God, Who did that thought come from! 

That is just absolutely wonderful to me.  And bless those sweet ladies who thought they were helping me.  Something in them thought baptism would change me, too.  They just had the wrong one! 

I pray Jesus gives them his baptism. 

Beth D.

If any of you would like to view the contents of the IK database that Damien made for my notes, the link below allows that.

The Outline for my notes is on the right, with the Bibliography down below that.

You can click on a topic in the Outline or click on a book in the Bibliography to view the notes on that topic or in that particular book.

Or, if you prefer, you can do a word search in the box provided.

Or, if you prefer, you can search by century (0-7), to see the notes that apply just to that century.

Damien has done a terrific job with this. I wanted you to see it, and I hope you benefit from it. These are the notes that I am using to write the next book in the Iron Kingdom Series.

jdc

https://www.goingtojesus.com/ik/ikdatabase.html

Good morning, 

I read the email on the Iron Kingdom database*, and it is amazing how much food God has provided for His children.  I sat for a while this morning thinking about all that is available for someone needing something from Jesus. Questions or feelings, things to gain or things to get rid of, God has laid it out for whosoever will.  I can’t think of something God has not covered!

I read to Joshua, and I have not wanted to leave Moses, so I went back and read Genesis, and now I am back with Moses in Exodus.

I thought of God bringing Damien all the way from Australia to help layout treasures for His children.  Look at all the hearts God spoke to and placed here to give to His children! The anointing and the truth in the music alone can open and draw hearts nearer to God.  How many times I have been fixed, or felt Jesus with me, through a song or a testimony!

Even the translations provided are cleaner and purer; they feel different . I feel it when I have to look something up in KJV. My heart sinks a little when I have to go to the KJV.**

It is overwhelming to really sit and see what God has done for the ones He has called or, or will call.  Look what God has had you layout for us!  Flowing with milk and honey, just like He said it would!

Praise God!  It is big!

Thinking about that and reading Exodus 4 made me smile – made me smile and filled me with faith!  God has everything under control; we really do just have to be available and move when He says move. 

Exodus 4

10. And Moses said to the Lord, “If you please, my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither before nor since you began speaking to your servant, for I am slow of mouth and tongue.”

11. And the Lord said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes the dumb or the deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Do not I, Jehovah?

12.Now, go! I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you should say.”

13. But he said, “If you please, my Lord! I beg you, send . . . send by the hand of another!”

14. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said, “Do I not know that Aaron your brother, the Levite, can speak well? Also, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

Verse 15 just thrills my soul! 

15.And you will speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth. And I will teach you what you should do.

I know I have said it before but it’s so good to me what God has given us! I had to say it again! 

Beth D.

* https://www.goingtojesus.com/ik/ikdatabase.html

** Going to Jesus.com – Bible Translations