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  • Leviticus 2:11

    Good morning, 

    I am reading in Leviticus this morning.  As I am reading my mind says “this is archaic” –– even after what God has let me learn!   I have had to reset that thought a few times and remember that this is my God and my God’s heart.  I remember taking the Old Testament class with Jimmy & Sue and others and being amazed at learning about who God is, especially His love.  I  knew nothing about Him.

    ==========

    The works of the law are archaic, Beth, but the Spirit still uses them to teach us about our Creator and His Son who became a sacrifice for us.  What Jesus did for us is the thing that makes the law of Moses relevant and interesting.  Isn’t it wonderful?

    ===========

    I wish I could have had a peek at Aaron and his sons throwing the blood and burning the offerings, just to see what they were feeling or saying to each other.  How much time did this take?  They had a lot of people bringing offerings.  It would have been very messy, too.  The carnal mindset would probably make it seem solemn, swinging the smoke-filled incense burner and chanting.  Or at least, my mind pictures that.  I wish I could just have one peek to see them.

    And in Leviticus 2:11, why did God forbid Israel to ever offer honey?  I think I understand the prohibition regarding leaven, but why not allow honey be brought for an offering?  Any reason?

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    I do not know why God forbade “any leaven or any honey” to be burned with the offerings that were made on His altar, Beth, but I am sure that He had a wonderful reason.

    ==========

    I thought about Leviticus 2:3 also, where God commands that a portion be given to His priests, and how it really is a matter of the heart.  God did not need those offerings in order for Him to take care of Aaron and his sons, but He wanted Israel to be blessed for doing it.  Likewise, God does not need our tithes and offerings to take care of His servants, but that is the way He has chosen for it to be done.  And our response answers the question, “Where is our heart?”

    I love that.

    Beth D.

  • Meeting Last Night

    Good morning!

    I loved last night’s meeting!  I agree with Bess, one of my favorites.  I remember when I started working at the hospital, all those nasty spirits around, I would be perfectly happy and joyful and as soon as I started walking in I could feel all the spirits talking.  It was such a heavy burden.  Then I remembered you would always tell us to pray to discern spirits so we can keep our joy.  I would ask Jesus all the time, please teach me to discern the spirits around me.  Every time  I would ask him I would always hear, “Know who you are”.  I didn’t understand that for the longest time and honestly sometimes now I forget it.  But what a wonderful reminder that was last night!  If we know who we are, we can recognize something talking to us that is not us! Staying close to Jesus, happy and free, what a wonderful life!

    I’m also so thankful for Jesus opening my heart to the truth.  The truth is encouraging, uplifting and removes burdens!  It cleans your heart so Jesus can occupy every space!  Every time we have a meeting I close my eyes and see Jesus stretching out his hand and saying come on, I love you, you can do it, I’ve equipped you with everything you need!  There is not one speck of Christianity in that and I love it!

    Thank you, Pastor John, for always feeding us pure, delicious food!  I want to eat every bit of it!

    Michelle G.

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    I am always amazed by the meetings.  Tonight’s message hit an issue I have been having.  It’s like you looked my soul and saw what has been bothering me. 

    Thank you,

    Mark W.

    ==========

    Pastor John,

    I went back and listened again and felt the mercy of God in what you were preaching last night.  I fell asleep afterwards and dreamed a short dream of Haskell & me together somewhere, and we saw a couple who moved together oddly, like while walking or doing other normal activities.  It looked familiar to us and we both said we were thankful for what Jesus had done for us because we used to be that way.  The best way to describe it is they moved like robots instead of just living.  They didn’t seem relaxed or real.

    I woke up with a sweet feeling of peace and hearing Gary sing, “All I Love, I Love….If you get confused, or don’t know what to do, I’ll be there to carry you.”  I don’t want to be a mixture of good and bad, or be like the world and by that, put pressure on God’s children to feel like they’re not good enough.  I know I’ve hurt people by not being full of the holy ghost. 

    Since my last surgery with my teeth, though, I feel like Jesus has helped me give more right responses.  But I pray to have a pure heart.  As soon as you talked about Bruised Reeds, I cried last night.  Just the day before, I had reminded Jesus of how he’d touched me with the Bruised Reeds tract before we had children.  I had gotten discouraged then, and when I read that tract, I felt so much lighter.  It helped me believe he would still do something for me, even though I felt like I had failed him. 

    It touches me to know that Jesus put that prayer in my heart this week. Thank you for the message last night.

    Cris

  • Thank You!

    Hey!
    One of my favorite messages I have learned through the years is who we are in Christ-who he has made us to be! And when we know that, then we know who we aren’t! Spirits that  would try to talk to us and get in our heads have to flee when we keep the mind of Christ alive! I am loving these meetings! It feels so good to my heart and soul! Thank you for teaching and preaching to us what Jesus gives to you thumbsupclapping hands

    Bess S.

  • Leviticus – “Placating Aroma” Part 2

    That answer does something to me.  I read your reply and went back to look at Exodus.  I want to read it all over again.  My mind was filtering everything through the law being a preparation and merciful, God preparing hearts for the day His Son came to rescue us.  

    A few times, it has hit me about God’s wrath, but I read right through most of it without really seeing wrath, even the sufferings He sent for Israel building a golden calf.

    To have wrath and still show mercy!  It is so hard to put those together in my mind.  To know that God sent Jesus to save me from sin and yet, HATED the sins I was committing just makes the mercy so much deeper!

    It’s also scary to think of God’s wrath.  Imagine the wrath you might incur if you went back to your old filth after God called you out of it to be His.  Yet, I have seen him rescue a loved one with just such tender love and mercy.  It is all just swirling around in my mind right now.

    Beth D.

     

  • Leviticus – “Placating Aroma ” Part 1

    Good morning, 

    I am reading in Leviticus and have a question.  I read our translation, and when describing the offerings it says, “it is a placating aroma made by fire to the LORD”, and KJV says a ” sweet savour unto the LORD.”  It just struck me how different that is.  Or is it?  I looked up the word “placate” to see the definition.  Does placating mean to stave off the anger of the LORD?  To “make do” for now?

    Here is your translation of part of Leviticus 1:17: “The priest shall burn it on the altar as a burnt offering.  It is a placating aroma made by fire to the Lord.”

    Beth D.

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    Hi Beth.

    To placate is to stop someone from being angry (Cambridge dictionary), and that is exactly what the law of Moses did, regarding the wrath of God.  The law’s ceremonies, especially the sacrifices, appeased the wrath of God against our sin until His Son came and made a way for us to live in God’s righteousness.  When Jesus did that, there no longer existed a need for God’s wrath to exist against us.  The law was not God’s permanent solution to man’s sin; the power of the holy Ghost is.

    The dictionary definition of the Hebrew word which we translated as “placating” is “quieting, soothing, tranquillizing”; it has nothing to do with a sweet smell.  I doubt that the burning flesh of animal sacrifices was sweet at all.

    Thank you for the question.

    Pastor John

     

  • Insane Additions to the Law

    Hi Pastor John,

    After you talked about the law today, and about the many Jews who are bound under the insanities that their rabbis have added to the law, and about that insanity being their curse from God for rejecting Jesus, I wondered if God allowed Moses to set men to help so that Pharisees and that curse would be put into place? 

    I thought today of the time I was in a Catholic mass, and I felt something that touched me.  It brought tears to my eyes, and I hurried to wipe those tears away and shut down feeling so I wouldn’t cry.  It was unspoken but very known, that we were not to show emotion.  It would have meant being unstable or overly emotional to feel anything.

    To have the Catholics’ kind of communion, one must stand in a line, fold one hand over the other, and make the sign of the cross, then quietly file back to the pew.  To pray was only to chant lifeless words given by them, repeated at certain times, and say a scheduled, “Amen”, for one hour, one day a week! 

    Now, I have real communion.  I can cry when Jesus touches me, and I feel his love.  I can pray to him from my heart, laugh and clap, or praise him when my heart swells and I want to raise my hands and say “thank you, Jesus.”  I can feel him. Oh, to live and not be under that curse! 

    I wanted to weep when you were reading about the rules for the Sabbath that rabbis have made up.  The Jews under them cannot know God’s love; that curse does not let them know God’s love.

    Beth D.

  • Exodus 18: 17–24

    Hi Pastor John, 

    I was reading this section of Exodus 18 to see if God or Jethro told Moses to appoint men to help him judge Israel. 

    1. Then Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.
    2. You will certainly wear out, both you and this people who are with you, because this thing is too heavy for you. You cannot do it alone.
    3. Listen now to my voice. Let me advise you, and may God be with you. You must remain before God for the people, and bring their cases to God.
    4. And you teach them the statutes and laws and make known to them the way they are to live and the thing they must do,
    5. But you look for able men who fear God among the people, trustworthy men who hate a bribe, and set over them rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
    6. And let them judge the people at all times, and it will be that they will bring every great matter to you, but every lesser matter, they will themselves judge. So, make it easier on yourself, and let them bear the burdenwith you.
    7. If you will do this thing, and God command it you, then you will be able to continue, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”
    8. And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and he did everything that he had said.

    In verse 23, Jethro says “if God commands you”.  Then, verse 24 says Moses “hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law,” but it does not say he sought God or that God thought it good.  So, did the elders that began as helpers for Moses eventually become the Pharisees? 

    Beth D

    ==========

    Hi, Beth.

    Moses’ helpers in Exodus 18 pre-dated the Pharisees by about a thousand years, so, they did not become the Pharisees.  And as for who told Moses to appoint helpers, I feel sure that God approved of Jethro’s suggestion for Moses to do so, for Moses really did need the help.

    Remember, Jethro was a Midianite, and the Midianites were the smartest people in the Old Testament.  So, his suggestion was a very good one.

    Thanks for the question.

    Pastor John

  • Praying for Bad Leaders

    Pastor John,

    The other morning, I got up and a feeling of prayer overwhelmed me for president Biden and everyone in his administration.  I felt my heart just collapse, and I began pleading for Jesus to help and to have mercy on them.  I felt such compassion and concern for them.  I have never felt such love and care for people who are doing so much damage to others.

    Immediately, I said in my heart, “Lord, this is how it is supposed to be.  This is how we are to pray for our enemies instead of offering ‘lip service’ because you told us to pray for them.”

    And as if answering a question I had not yet asked, the spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Believe God.  That is how you pray for your enemies. When you believe God will do to them all He has said, it will make you plead for them.”

    I felt a resounding “Yes!” go up from my heart.  I knew God had helped me to do it His way.  The answer was just to believe God and not look at things any other way.

    Jerry

  • Jesus’ Name

    Hi & Yahweh’s Shalom & Blessings!!!

    I personally received the In-Filling & Baptism of The Holy Spirit on June 6th, 1958!!  As you can see that was a few years ago!!!  Hahhelu-YAH!!!  Praise His Name, i.e., Yahweh-!  By & thru His son, “Yahshua Ha Mashiach” ; i.e., known by most as Jesus Christ!!!

    Thank you & Blessings,

    Messianic-Rabbi Harry Shmuel Dombek

    PS:  Our 15 year old WebSite ( WWW.YahwehsFeastDaySite.Com)* speaks about “The Baptism of the Holy” – in the same way you do also-!!!

    PSS: Now, have you – “By His HOLY-SPIRIT” – come into the Truth & Knowledge of His True Hebrew Name, and His Son Yahshua Ha Mashiach – as of yet-???  Here is a brief verse to think  & Pray about: John 5:43� –  “I am come in my Father’s Name, – (- i.e., Yahweh -)-  and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.� Remember, there was never any letter – “J” – in the Ancient Hebrew writings, nor in any of the modern Hebrew writings-!!!

    Etc., etc. …..

    ============

    Hi Brother Harry.

    This is Pastor John.  Brother Gary Savelli passed along your email to me, and I asked him if I could respond.

    I tried to go to the website you attached, but the link would not work for me.  Neither did it work when I manually typed in the website name.  I wanted to see what your website says about the baptism of the Spirit, since you wrote that you speak of the baptism of the Spirit as we do here.  I am always excited when I hear that the Lord has opened someone’s eyes to the truth that he has also shown to us.

    You know that God, through Isaiah, condemned those religious teachers who condemned others over the right use of a word: “who make a man a sinner because of a word, and lay a trap for the judge in the gate, and by false pretense defraud the righteous man” (Isa. 29:21, my translation).  This is what I see with most people who insist that only Jesus’ Hebrew name is to be used.  I do not believe that God refuses the prayers of righteous souls who speak to Him in their own language.

    You mentioned that Hebrew has no “J” sound.  That it correct.  Latin has no “J” sound, either, nor does it have a “V” sound.  And the Romans always pronounced the “e” at the end of their words.  So the correct pronunciation of the chief of Rome’s gods, Jove, is pronounced very close to, if not exactly this: Yahweh.

    In case you are interested, here is an article I wrote about that, some years ago now.

    https://www.isaiah58.com/clark/clark03_13_97.html

    I wish you well, and I hope at some point to be able to visit your website, and I would love to hear your testimony someday of the grace of God that came to you in 1958.

    Your servant for Christ,

    Pastor John

    *Web address inoperable at time of this post.

     

  • This is a Good Scripture

    This is a good scripture (Phip. 1:12):  “Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.”

    It is encouraging to know that all things are working for good when you are suffering. But to know your suffering is furthering Jesus’s gospel (the covenant of life in the spirit), that makes you feel like you can run the extra mile.

    I know that was Paul’s testimony about his imprisonment for Christ’s sake and what it did for others, but I think a lot of people’s suffering has furthered the gospel.  Every time someone is encouraged in the Lord by another’s steadfastness during a trial, it furthers the gospel.  It makes me think of the tract, “Trials are Opportunities”.  Trials are opportunities to further Jesus’s Gospel.

    Jerry

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