Pastor John,

Yesterday I was around the house by myself and turned the news on while I was folding clothes.  Of course all the stuff came on about Afghanistan, and I was watching it.  I had the thought to myself, “Somebody has got to stop this train wreck!”  And as soon as I said that, the Spirit said. “Trump is not going to save you.  I’m going to save you.”  I felt like in my spirit, “Yes, I know that.”  But the Spirit said it again, “Trump is not going to save you. I am.”  The feeling of it was like Jesus was going to show me that HE was going to do something to save me.  So, the day went on and everything was pretty much normal.  I spoke with Rob and Donna on the phone about Joel and got them in touch with Noah’s soccer coach who is a doctor, and he called some stuff in for Joel.  That’s just kind of what I do.  Jesus lets me meet people for circumstances.

After that, I got the kids in bed and everything was fine.  When I sat down, I got so sick!  I couldn’t even hold my head up.  I got so sick and went to bathroom and threw up everywhere.  I felt so bad.  Then the Spirit said “Where is Trump now?”  And I said, “I know Jesus. I know Jesus.”

I got up and took a shower and came out and lay on the couch.  I felt so bad.  I kept saying, “Jesus help me. Jesus help me.”  And I fell off to sleep.  And Jesus came and sat down on the couch and started rubbing my hair and he started talking to me.  I was asking him, “Why do I feel so bad?”  And he said, “Because I am the one who is going to save you.  It’s not because you did something bad; you’re just doing it wrong.”  I always thought that doing something wrong was bad.  But that’s not it.  Then, I said, “But I meet all these people and I can talk to them.”  And he said back to me, “But your soul was not created for this [meaning this world].”

I continued talking to Jesus.  I told him, “I miss my friends. I miss Natalie. I miss her every day!”  But he said, “That was my good pleasure.  I was saving her and I’m saving you.”  It was his good pleasure to save her.  Wow Jesus.  I knew these things, but when you hear it directly from him it changes things.  And then he told me, “You only move and you only live at the pleasure of me.”

Later, I woke up and I went to check on Eden.  I went in her room and she was not in her bed.  I couldn’t find her.   I went into panic mode.  I found her in my room on my couch.  I moved her and put her back in her bed.  As I was doing this, Jesus spoke and said, “That’s how I feel when I come to find you and you are not in your place.”

I feel like Jesus showed me who I am and who I am not.  And it’s good!  He also told me, “Stay under the doorpost.  You don’t want to know what is outside of that.”

The whole world looks difference today.  The whole world is moving at his pleasure.  We are not in a train wreck because Jesus is going to save us.  This is not a train wreck.

And all through this experience, I could hear Amy B. in the background doing her part saying, “J. E. S. U. S!”  

As I was lying in the bed this morning, I could hear Paul. I could hear him getting ready for work.  His belt buckle makes a sound, like a ringing sound, when he puts his belt on.  Jesus made that sound the sweetest sound to me and he said to me, “Isn’t that wonderful that he is stable?  That he will get up and go to work and take care of his family?  And that same belt is stable when your children need it.  Appreciate that sound.”  It was so good.

After I got up and thought about these things, I remembered that’s what the military says to the president: “I serve at the pleasure of the President.”  Jesus was saying it’s all mine and all we have to do is serve at his pleasure.

I needed this!  I didn’t know how bad I need it, but I did.

==========

Thank you, Jammie, for this wonderful testimony.

I have told you all before that the difference between a wise and foolish virgin is that the foolish virgin chooses God over the bad things of earth, while the wise virgin chooses God over both the good and the bad things of earth. 

The spirits of this world lure God’s children into wrong things by luring them into doing good things, joining worthy causes, that are of the world and are not of the Spirit. As Jesus told you, you were not doing what was bad; what you were doing, you were doing wrong.”

There were some very good things Jesus could have said and done, but he would not do them without the approval of his Father.   I remember that on one occasion, he said so: “I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent me is true, and the things I’ve heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”

Good things without God stink in the nostrils of those who prefer God over them.

Pastor John

Good morning Pastor John.

I am looking forward to when we can get back to Mathew studies, but in the meantime God continues to teach. 

While I was walking my dog this morning, God’s Spirit reminded me of a lesson He had taught me sometime back.  My dog can’t go anywhere but where I want her to go because of the yoke I put on her before we start.  She can pull it off with much struggle, but not easily.   God’s yoke is easily put down.  All you have to do is look to something and start lusting for it, and it will fall off.

The message He had for me today was on my first thought, that when this happens, I get what I am lusting after.  “Not true!” was the message this morning.  On the contrary, IT GETS ME, and that yoke is burdensome and almost impossible to put off, like my dog’s.   In a sense, I become that thing’s dog on a leash.  When I look at it that way, it makes it much easier to turn my head back to God’s path and keep the light yoke He has upon me.  It really sets me free instead of binding me.

Have a blessed day,

Mark

Good morning Pastor John,

I pray you are still on the mend.

This morning while walking my dog and talking to God, I felt the tug to raise my hands.  This has happened in the past, but I didn’t and didn’t really think about it, just went on my way.  I didn’t at first this time, either.  So I started talking to the holy Ghost (amazes me still in the past since it was my belief of the fake trinity, I just talked to or more accurately at God) asking is that You wanting me to do this or me?  Silly question, since I never wanted to raise my hands in praise before I got the holy Ghost. 

I got the question “Are you ashamed?”  I thought no, and responded, “I don’t want to be a spectacle or stand out to my neighbors.” But at this point, I started raising my hand to God as I walked.  Hesitantly at first, until I got my answer. 

Then I received the question, “Isn’t that being ashamed of me?”  So I thought, “I just don’t want people to think I am showing off.”  After some more quibbling over the word ashamed I got “so you are bashful?”  This set well with me, so I said “yes”.  Immediately the response was “Isn’t that being ashamed, isn’t saying your bashful a nicer way to express shame?  Are you ashamed to have the holy Ghost?”

I then thought about my new birth, and how once I gave in and allowed the holy Ghost to speak, I was in the floor awhile.  I had been suppressing Him for a long time, bashful if you will, about letting Him speak.  As I thought about it, I realized for the first time in my life that being bashful is a form of shame.  You don’t believe what you have is good enough.  Your thoughts and beliefs are not correct.  So you keep them inside or express them only when it’s safe.  I think the holy Ghost wants you to be bold when He says it’s appropriate!

I pray that God keeps challenging me to grow and that I am up to the task.  Also that I grow the first time He wants; not just go on my merry way blowing by my opportunities.

With much love,

Mark

* https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_books_solomon.html?tname=solomon00

This resonated in my heart.

Many years ago, probably 1993, I worked at a restaurant when I was first starting to seek the Lord. I was partially in Xty and hadn’t yet connected with either Gary or Pastor John’s work.  But I was under conviction for my sins, and was trying to live right, as a “Christian”, and I gave some advice to a younger co-worker (in his 20’s) who drank too much alcohol.  As I vaguely recall, I merely told him that he ought to take a look at how much he drinks, because it could get out of hand.  It wasn’t a reproof, per se, nor a judgment; just some moral encouragement and a suggestion, which came from a heart that was being changed by Jesus, and I felt compelled to tell him that for his own good.  He took the suggestion humbly but little did I know that it would actually have a huge impact on his life.

I never saw him again after I moved on to another job, until at least 15 years later. I ran into him at a copy store. He enthusiastically greeted me, after we recognized one another, and immediately told me that my admonishment had changed his life forever. He stopped drinking, went to AA meetings, found a girlfriend, got married and had a successful job in Real Estate.  He was indebted to me for calling him out for his fondness for drinking because it convicted him and he made a U-turn in his life.  We didn’t discuss God or faith at the time, so that wasn’t part of the equation.  But it was amazing that I made that impression on him, by simply pointing out his addiction!  He thanked me and went on his way.  I gained his lifelong respect for my sincere words, which were only a mild rebuke, if that.  

Thankful to have been used by God, even before I had the Spirit inside.

Brad

This is remarkable.  Just incredibly apt.

I am reading this, this morning, AFTER I just had an experience praying with God up on my hill.  I hiked up at dawn, and felt compelled to go to the “filling station”.  And this GCC Pearl speaks precisely to the truth that I was experiencing today.  

I naively expect to stay happy and full of the Spirit everyday, yet I fail at that. I get troubled by the strife in the world, by decisions, by my domestic tasks, and by thinking too much.  And I assume that I will be fine day-to-day with the fullness of the Spirit, but as GCC explains—every day is a brand new day, for a new portion of God’s manna (happiness and/or love of God).  

Reading this Pearl was a blessing that validated exactly what I was feeling!  

Thankful to God, and to Gary for posting this.

Brad

I love this!  God loved Israel so much that He had them sew tassels on their clothes so they would remember Him and remember to follow His commandments.  Without having new hearts, that is the best they could do.  I am so thankful for our new hearts!

Numbers 15:

29. There shall be one law for you concerning him who commits sin ignorantly, both for the native-born children of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns in your midst.

 30. But the soul who acts defiantly, whether native-born or a sojourner, he is blaspheming Jehovah, and that      soul shall be cut off from among his people.

31. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and broken His commandment, that soul shall surely be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.”

37. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

38. “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them that they shall make for themselves a tassel on the hems of their garments throughout their generations, and for the tassel of the hem, they shall use blue thread.

39. And it shall be for you a tassel that you might see it and remember all the commandments of Jehovah and do them, so that you do not follow after your own heart and after your eyes, by which you go a-whoring,

40. that you might remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.41.I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am Jehovah your God.”

Beth D.

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

Good morning, Pastor John.

I have been thinking about our Bible study* and what we learned and did not learn.  The whys, if you will.  “Why didn’t Abram trust God enough to tell the truth about Sarai”  “Why didn’t Lot just leave the evil place he was living?” etc.  While pondering these things, the question came to me, “Why don’t you?”  We seem to always look at others and wonder why those people don’t do right and trust God more, and we miss our own log in our own eye.  Then the thought came, “It’s a good example for us that even though these great men and women were not perfect, God still loved them because their hearts were in the right place.  If they always had done the right thing there would be no examples of God’s mercy for us to have hope, so that even a lowly being like me could have hope.”  What a great God we have!

I have slowed my pace on my Bible study.  I was trying to finish, and it was revealed to me that it’s the journey to strive for, not the completion.  Going too fast, I was missing important lessons.  Study a bit and reflect on it, and let God work is my goal now.  There’s a lesson in nearly every sentence if you take your time to see it.  The book could have been very huge.  I think that God chose these particular words in the Bible for a reason, and each one carries weight for us. 

What a glorious day for learning the lessons from God!

Thank you for your years of service to God.

Mark

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

Hi Pastor John,

I wanted to share something that I feel like Jesus showed me this morning while working on for the class for the kids (and parents) where we will be talking about the power of our words and taming the tongue. 

As we were pulling in the driveway last night after the meeting, our neighbors next door were pulling out of their driveway. One of the girls said, “I wonder where they are going at 9:00 at night?”  The other answered, “Maybe they are going to get some dinner.”  Then someone said, “It’s too late for dinner; maybe they are going to have ice cream.”  The conversation went on with a few more “Maybe they’s”, and then it was over. 

That conversation in the car seemed innocent at the time, and I didn’t think too much about it until this morning while working on the class.  I feel like Jesus opened my eyes and showed me that it was something.  I remembered the conversation in the car last night, and with it, the thought came loud and clear, “That’s the way rumors get started.” 

I was able to see that with every “maybe they”, the girls inserted their own thoughts and opinions about something they saw without having any other information on the matter.  Oh goodness!  How many times have I done that?  I’m sure it happens more than I even realize.  Most of the time, those conversations amount to nothing and prove to be pointless.  The discussion in the car last night amounted to nothing, but it could turn into something if it were to be repeated, starting a rumor as to why our neighbors go out late at night.

I can see more clearly how speaking without all the information, or even if I do have facts about something, if spoken at the wrong time or to the wrong person, it can cause me or others big problems.  And I feel like seeing it in my kids has put a BIG WARNING sign out!!  I wish I could have seen the conversation as I see it now, so that I could have cut it off.  But I love that Jesus has let me see it now, and I can do something about it, going forward.  What a wonderful opportunity and a loving Jesus for allowing me to see it!

The class we are doing “for the kids” on the power of our words and taming the tongue is a class for us grown-ups, too, maybe even more so

Love,

Amy F