Hey Pastor John,

Kevin and I just finished listening to the meeting this morning!  wonderful!  

It reminded me of a dream I had when I first started coming to the meetings and learning the truth.  I had grown up in “church” listening to different preachers.  I remember being confused because sometimes things were said that just didn’t feel right.  I remember talking to an older saint about it and she said, “well, you just have to take the good and leave the bad”.  That was a lot for a new baby in Christ to carry around.

After I began learning the truth I had a dream you were in a kitchen with Jesus cooking food.  You brought it out to me and the spirit said, “this is good food, you don’t have to worry, you can eat every bite”!  How wonderful is that!

I told Kevin, we’re so blessed to be able to eat everything!  Feels good to relax and take it all in!

Thank you Jesus!

 

Michelle G.

Hey John, I’ve been working on this the last couple days. I hope you like it.

Do You Really Know What You’ve Got

dp 10/05/20

Let the Spirit flow, let your feelings show

Let the One who made you guide you

Forget about your choice, pray to hear His voice,

Follow and He’ll walk beside you

Chorus

He will take your hand, Yes He’ll lead you home

If you live by the Spirit of God

It will let you know which way you should go

Tell me my friend, do you really know what you’ve got

In your everyday, or your hardest trial

Did you know that feelings guide you

Give up on yourself, rest in the Spirit a while

Then listen to the voice inside you

Chorus

He will take your hand, Yes He’ll lead you home

If you live by the Spirit of God

It will let you know which way you should go

Tell me my friend, do you really know what you’ve got

Way down deep inside is where the Spirit hides

And it knows better than we do

Pray down on your knees, you’ll feel that cleansing tide

Feel it flow just like you used to

Chorus

He will take your hand, Yes He’ll lead you home

If you live by the Spirit of God

It will let you know which way you should go

Tell me my friend, do you really know what you’ve got

Jesus slowed us down, He has made us still

Tell me, what does He want from us

Is God’s life getting old, or does His life still thrill

Won’t you listen to this chorus

(Chorus)

 

 

Pastor John,

Listened to you sing this song today (below).  It is just beautiful.

I love every time you talk about the love of God.  Jesus didn’t let go of Jerry’s hand, either, and then he took mine and brought us both home. 

I am so thankful for that! 

THE PRODIGAL SON

(Author unknown)

LIKE THE PRODIGAL SON, I WANDERED IN DARKNESS,

I TRADED MY LIFE, FOR A WORLDLY GOOD TIME.

NO PEACE IN MY HEART,

I NEVER COULD FIND, AND I GOT SO TIRED,

EATING AFTER THE SWINE.

LIKE A SHEEP THAT WAS LOST, I WONDERED IN DARKNESS.

BUT THE SHEPHERD SOUGHT ME,

THROUGH THE HEAT AND THE COLD.

THE NINETY AND NINE HE LEFT IN THE FOLD.

TO FIND THIS LOST SHEEP, THAT WAS SO HUNGRY AND COLD.

I BELIEVE I’LL GO HOME, AND EAT WITH MY FATHER,

THE TABLE IS SPREAD, THEY’RE WAITING FOR ME.

I ‘LL SEE MY FATHER, COMING DOWN TO GREET ME.

I’M WILLING TO BE, JUST A SERVANT FOR THEE

Beth Durham

Pastor John,

A story just came up on my phone about Amy Coney Barrett, president Trump’s pick for supreme court justice. It sounds like her religious group is trying to prepare for trouble. It’s sad these folk feel compelled to hide, while everyone they are dealing with is openly embracing lying, cheating, stealing, and filthiness. What a world we live in where someone choosing a godly life is ridiculed but being despicable is the acceptable standard. It is like everyone is standing on their head.

What I read here made me think of Tom.

The report says the little charismatic catholic group has erased all of Coney and her family’s images and any reference to them from their website (apparently feeling they had to – for her sake and due to scrutiny). The article says they “are a Christian group that opposes abortion and holds that men are divinely ordained as the “head” of the family and faith.

Former members have said the group’s leaders teach that wives must submit to the will of their husbands”

“The AP reported earlier this week that People of Praise’s belief system is rooted in so-called charismatic Catholicism, a movement that grew out of the influence of Pentecostalism, which emphasizes a personal relationship with Jesus and can include baptism in the Holy Spirit and “speaking in tongues”.

It sounds like they could use our prayers. The mob called the news does their best to destroy anybody they don’t approve of. They sure could make a wreck out of some honest lives.

After reading this I thought about God’s people being hidden, even to the point of not being able to rent a billboard. If Jesus was now going to shine a light on people with the holy ghost and on simple truths like wives obeying their husbands, this could certainly do that. This could go away or become something much bigger. Much bigger I would say.

That spirit out there burning down buildings and beating people in the streets, could just turn on these folk.

Jerry

==========

Hi Jerry.
The world doesn’t know where God’s true children are, but they will destroy them if and when they find them.  I am so thankful that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God”.   Goodness is anathema to a wicked generation.

Mrs. Barrett may truly be a child of God. If so, I am so sorry she is in there with that political bucket of snakes.  Maybe she will withdraw her name from consideration, go home, and live in peace with her family and Jesus.  I would be happy to see that happen, if she really belongs to Jesus.

Pastor John

Hi John,

I had a neat thing happen at work yesterday.  A week or so ago we had our annual company meeting. This year’s meeting was in a format in which there were stations that we rotated through in small groups, to accommodate the COVID rules.  At each station, just for fun, everyone was supposed to answer a simple question and write it down on a note card.  Questions like, “What is your favorite color”, or “What do you like to do to unwind”.  One of the questions was, “What is your favorite song?”  I wasn’t sure what to answer, because I have so many favorites.  I wrote the first song that came to mind:  “I Wouldn’t Take Nothin’ for my Journey Now, by the Happy Goodmans, as sung by Earl Pittman”.

Well, it turns out the reason they asked our favorite songs was that each day they would play someone’s favorite song over the intercom (this is something they do at my work to let everyone know it’s time for our daily stand-up meeting).  My day was yesterday. Jason, the guy who plays the music every morning, said he had a hard time finding the song, and that when he found it, it was from a video that I had uploaded on YouTube!  It was interesting to watch people’s reactions as the song played.  Some were curious about the song, some had a look like “What in the world is this?”, others just had a blank stare, and a few were bouncing to the beat of the song.  Whatever the reaction, I noticed that the song seemed to bring a peace to the whole building for the rest of the day.  Everyone seemed cheery, and several people who normally don’t have much to do with me made some sort of kind gesture or greeting to me during the day.  And they only played the first half of the song 🙂

At the end of our stand-up meeting, our COO announced whose favorite song it was that was played, and I got to tell everyone how it was a special song to me, and that my father-in-law was the one singing. One of the guys from our shipping department came up to me and said his grandfather used to be in a gospel music group who was around the Happy Goodmans, and he said he hadn’t heard that kind of music in a long time. He thought the name of the group was the Southernaires, but he wasn’t sure.  He said he’s going to see if he can find the album and the name and let me know. I told him a little about our music, and that this was a live recording at one of our prayer meetings.

I loved how this all played out, and to see the effect a song with the Spirit in it has on people.  I remember this being the first song I had ever heard, when I first started seeking the holy Ghost, that I could FEEL something from God.  Hope it blessed someone!

Vince

Hey John,

I wanted to let everybody know the background about my visit to the surgeon yesterday and tell what Jesus did for me.

To start with, in July, I went for my yearly doctor’s appointment, and they sent me home with a test kit to screen for colon cancer, which is a normal procedure.  I usually throw those kits away, but this year as I was looking at the kit, the Lord brought back to my mind the time when Debbie was going through her cancer, and Amanda pleaded in a meeting for everyone to please get their health screenings like the doctors suggest so problems can be caught early on and dealt with when they are much easier to fix.

Something about having that thought come to me as I was looking at that kit made me consider, and I decided to take heed to my sister’s advice and do the test.  The result came back abnormal, so they referred me for a colonoscopy.  I had that done two weeks ago, and they removed a large polyp.  The tests showed the polyp had abnormal cells that were a step below cancer, but not cancer.  The colonoscopy doctor said he thought the wise and safest thing for me to do was to have surgery to remove extra tissue from the area and be sure no abnormal cells were left.  But he left that decision up to me, whether to refer me to a surgeon.  It sounded like surgery was the only safe thing to do, but I needed to decide on a hospital, so I told him I’d talk to my family and let him know the next day.

That evening, I started letting some people know the situation, including you, John, and asking for their feelings about the surgery.  You’ve taught us that when a majority of the body feels the same way about something, it isn’t wrong, and I wanted to get a “multitude of counsel”, even though I felt strongly that I should have the surgery.  Everyone agreed that I was taking the right steps to have the surgery, and the love and support I felt from the body encouraged me and picked up my spirit.  By texting with different ones that night, I also found out the best hospital and the best surgeon.  Debbie T. highly recommended her surgeon, Dr. C–, to see what he recommended; so, I asked my doctor the next day if they could refer me to him.   (They said yes, they use him all the time!)  I was able to get an appointment with Doctor C– on 9/25 – only 8 days after getting my colonoscopy results.  

Debbie says that is fast for him.

Donna and Bess met me at the hospital for my appointment, which is so special that they wanted to take time to be with me for this (and others had offered and would have done the same). Bess was just as content as she could be to wait in the car the whole time, because they would only let one person in with me.  She even knew that possibility ahead of time and still wanted to come and be there.  It really helped me to have Donna there with me, and she was willing to stay there with me all day if need be.  She wasn’t worried about the time or how many things she had to do elsewhere; she was just there for me.  How special is that? How many people in this world get that kind of treatment?  (When I just typed that word treatment, the thought came to me that God gave me a treatment!)

I thought the appointment would only be a consult visit, but they went ahead and did a procedure to look at the area where the polyp was removed.  Dr. C– didn’t see any of the polyp remaining and recommended not to do surgery now but to do an ultrasound in 6 months to make sure there is no growth in that tissue, and if not, there’d be no need for me to go back.  That was such a relief!   (He also told me that he got paid to do surgeries and the more of them he did, the more he got paid.  He said he wasn’t trying to get out of work, but he just didn’t think I needed surgery at this point!)  Praise God!

I am 49 years old and not due for a colonoscopy until age 50, and, honestly, I probably would have procrastinated on having it done at 50.  I had zero signs of anything abnormal going on.  But if I hadn’t listened to the thought Jesus gave me, and followed Amanda’s advice, and had waited another year or more before going for a colonoscopy, that polyp could have turned into cancer by the time it was found.

Jesus has really taken care of me and given me the best possible outcome and care in all this, and the sweetest family!   The other thing I think is important to say is that I listened to the body and let them help me with my decisions.  Different ones told me things I needed to hear, and I made the best choices as a result.  We need each other, and we can’t do it alone!   I thank Jesus for letting me catch this early before it was any worse, and for not needing surgery now, and for my wonderful family!

Lyn

Uncle John,

I loved what you were saying tonight. That’s along the same lines as what Jesus did for me a couple months ago.

For several years I had almost this overwhelming fear of getting closer to Jesus because of the suffering that it would bring.  I didn’t want to go through some of the bad things that you hear some of God’s people going through.  I wasn’t afraid to be hurt or to suffer, but I didn’t want anyone around me to suffer with me or because of me. Kind of like Job’s family being taken away while God was testing Job.  For years I’ve been too scared to pray for the hotter fire.  I was telling Aaron all this one night a couple months ago and I love what he told me!  It lifted the biggest burden off of me that I began sobbing.  He told me that God isn’t unjust.  He’s not going to do anything to anybody that they don’t need.  I knew that, but I guess it never really sunk in.  I don’t know why but it’s like I had truly heard it for the first time.  Like with your mother, she needed to be taken early to save her.  What love there is in that!  It made me feel like “I could have had a V8”, but I was so thankful for the relief it brought me!  I felt like I had so much more faith after that!

~Abby

Hi Pastor John, 

I really enjoyed the meeting this morning and the lesson on Mathew.  In my very limited past with Bible teachings or in any Christian Church service it was never truly explained who Satan is.  I never previously understood what Satan’s role was as it related to the Kingdom of God.  I truly feel blessed by Jesus to have my eyes opened to receiving the Truth.  I also feel blessed and thankful for you as you guide me through these lessons.  As I continue to grow in the Holy Spirit, your words to stay happy and full give me loving comfort and purpose. As Lee Ann acknowledged with her own testimony this week, even when the world around us gets heavy. 

God is good! 

Kevin G

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Hi Kevin!

Knowing the Son is the key, and knowing that he was hidden before the Spirit came.  That keeps us humble while it keeps us full of joy.Thanks for writing.  Good to hear from you.

Pastor John