Hi John,

I listened to a message by you this morning, entitled, “Prepare to Die, to Live”, dated 4/98.

In it, you quoted Psalm 90:10-12:
    10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason or strength   they be fourscore years, yet is their strength, labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
    11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
   12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Yesterday, Dee and I were at the grocery store. Probably, about a third of the people there, including the workers, were wearing masks. People were not paying attention to the one-way arrows on the floor, and the checkers were not wiping down the counters each time after checking people out.

Now, the country is on the edge of revolt, carrying signs and threatening politicians that they won’t be reelected if they don’t “open up” the country. What foolishness, what profound lack of wisdom! God’s wrath on this countries’s foolishness could create a second wave or possibly a third. It’s already happened in other countries. This protesting is so selfish, not thinking about the safety and well-being of our healthcare and frontline workers.

John, thank you for teaching us against the things that are foolishness and encouraging us in the things that are wise. Let us not be like the Corinthians that seemed such a burden on Paul because of their lack of wisdom. We need help every day. May the Lord help us in our decision making.

God bless,

Jim K.

Good morning Pastor John,

I thought about Jesus fixing relationships, and teaching us what he wants in this body. I thought about all His people in Christianity at home right now and how if they only knew what Jesus really wanted and had for them. We are being corrected… they have nothing. I wanted to tell them I have a Pastor who not only knows my first and last name, but also knows my spiritual condition. My pastor knows where I am doing well and where I need help. My anointed pastor knows how and what to teach me from Jesus. My pastor really cares about where I am going to spend eternity. My pastor will seek Jesus for me, to get me home. We have a real relationship.

I wish I could tell some ppl I know that I have a husband who really does things to get me home to Jesus. I have a husband that encourages me, teaches me, guides me and corrects me, and prays for me because he really wants me to make it home to be with Jesus.

I may not always have that blessing; Jesus could take him tomorrow, and if he does, I have a family that loves me and loves Jesus and encourages me when I do well with Jesus, teaches me how to do better if I fail, prays for me because they really want me to make it home to Jesus.

This world will tell you to know who your real friends are; this is what they should have with Jesus, not shallow hellos to strangers for an hour every Sunday. God is a REAL God!

I want them to know. I wish they could know. Thinking of them this morning stirs me and makes me even more thankful for the care I receive here.

Beth

Good morning,

I got up this morning and listened to the Malachi clip Lee Ann posted yesterday. I have been sitting here with Jesus. I keep thinking about my childhood. Every year at Christmas my dad would spend thousands of dollars on gifts for all eight of us. Tvs, bikes, pool tables, etc, filled the house full of expensive gifts, going into debt every year. Throughout the year we did not shop or buy clothes or things, so this was not usual to receive gifts. Within a few months of receiving these gifts, they would be damaged, left outside, or just thrown into the squalor we lived in. There was no foundation set to appreciate these gifts and it repeated every year until dad died.

I sat with Jesus this morning after listening to this Malachi clip and thought, “This is my greatest fear, Lord, that I will take for granted what you have done for me, that when you grow quiet, I will build a golden calf or puff myself up in what I think pleases you.” I know what I am without Jesus. That is what I am without him.

I feel like if nothing is between me and Jesus, then nothing will be between the body and me. There will be fellowship between us all. I cried to Jesus this morning that nothing be between him and me. I don’t want to have any of that old girl keeping me from Jesus. I realize more and more how much I am nothing. I keep hearing sister Willie’ words ringing in my heart: “a mouth full of thankfulness”.

That is no small thing. That is a lifeline. Thankful for the day Jesus came into the gutter to carry me out. I just wanted to write you this morning. It always eases my heart, always has. I have enjoyed the deep cleaning time with Jesus. Just talking about these things with him has felt cleaner and better. I fell in love with how real God was when I found Him; all the broken parts were ok to be brought to Jesus. I fell in love with the sincerity of Jesus. I fell in the love with the openness of being able to write you and the openness of sharing my heart here.

I want to live in that place you talk about: just to be the person that Jesus created me to be, so that there is nothing between him and me, or between me and anyone else in the body.

Beth

Bess’s Dream 4/16/2020

The dream took place in a house that our family lived in but it looked a little different from our actual house now. It had a screened in back porch that led into our kitchen area.

It was morning time and I was in our house alone in my bedroom when I heard a woman’s voice call out from the screened in porch. The woman and her daughter came on into the kitchen without waiting for me to invite them in. I was working hard to get to them before they came into the main part of the house, but I was struggling to move very fast because of my knee. I saw that it was two relatives of mine, a mother and daughter, whom I had not seen in a long time. As they walked in and looked around our house, the older woman made a sarcastic comment about how our house was plain and how it was dirty looking. I thought to myself that I didn’t remember our house being dirty or strewn about with things the night before when I had gone to bed, but now as I looked around, I saw several piles of laundry that needed to be washed and folded and dishes that needed to be washed. She had a condescending attitude towards me as I tried explaining to her that I had had knee surgery and I kept up with cleaning the best that I could, and that both Tim and Jonathan worked. I kept trying to explain myself to them and yet I felt so ashamed that things were out of order.

The older woman nor her daughter ever stopped to say why they had come to see me, and they never asked how I was doing, but they walked past me looking around as they walked towards the back of the house where our 2nd and 3rd bedrooms were. It felt like I was not in control but that I was following them and trying to figure out what was going on. I felt intimidated by them because they were pointing out all my shortcomings. When they went into the bedroom, the younger girl flopped down in a chair and the older woman picked up some papers and thumbed through them. I sat on the edge of the bed. They both were making cruel remarks about me and telling me I hadn’t amounted to much of anything in my life and that I didn’t have much to show for the life I had lived thus far. I kept trying to explain myself to them and respond to their accusations but they wouldn’t acknowledge me. With tears in my eyes I told them that they should leave. The older woman got right in my face and said it was too late because she was infected by the Corona virus, and she laughed a mocking kind of laugh. I felt an anger from Jesus rise up inside me and I knew I did not have to allow them to dominate me. I stood at the bedroom door and told them to get out of our house now. They started walking towards the back door to leave.

As they stepped out of the back porch door, I stepped out of the door, too. As I turned to step back inside, I saw Brother Earl, Jimmy and Sue standing right there at the back porch doorway. Brother Earl said he loved our family and it felt good being around us. He was very happy and was bouncing like he does in the prayer meetings. He was smiling and patting me on my shoulder. I could feel the good clean feeling and encouragement of the holy Ghost. Then Sue and Jimmy said the same thing, that they loved the feeling of being around us. We all could feel the Spirit moving on us. It was the complete opposite of the feeling I had felt from those two women. I felt encouraged and safe. Then I woke up.

I asked Jesus what the dream was all about. What I saw was that those wrong spirits are cruel, and they come to take over. They accuse and try to make you feel the things they’re accusing you of. They try to make you feel guilty, and they will tell you who you are if you don’t resist them by knowing who Jesus has made you in the holy Ghost and by keeping your conscience clear. In the dream I knew the house was tidy when I went to bed the night before the women came the following morning, but when they were telling me our house was dirty looking, I started seeing things the way they wanted me to see them, such as dirty dishes and dirty laundry, etc. Those spirits are unreasonable and they try to intimidate, and in the dream I found myself trying to reason with them. But when I stood up and had the right kind of anger in the holy Ghost, and told them to leave, they started heading out of the house. We need encouragement and fellowship to help us have right feelings and right thoughts about who we really are. Those feelings with Brother Earl, Jimmy and Sue were clean. We have to let the holy Ghost tell us who we are and not let a wrong spirit define us.

Pastor John,

Bess’s dream reminded me of a couple experiences that I would like to share.

In early 2007, after my divorce, I was alone for the first time in my life. I had never lived on my own and I was learning how to do things I had never done. I was very new in the Lord and in my mind, I thought I had to have a husband over me who knew me better than anyone else to help me and correct me when needed. One day talking with the Lord about it, I asked, “How will I know if something isn’t right with me and needs to be corrected?”

At the time I owned a Kia Sorento, and Jesus set it up so that it would periodically have minor problems that would require me to get it fixed. One of the problems was with the headlights. The bulbs would go out, and I would have to get them replaced. It happened so that whenever I pulled up to a building with a big window or door I would check my lights in the reflection to make sure they were still working. That was easy enough to do, and I was able to keep check on the front lights, but I had no easy way check the taillights.

One day I was slowly driving through the Walmart parking lot in Burlington. My window was open, and I was able to hear someone calling to me. I looked over, and there was a man waving me down. I stopped and cracked my window a little more so I could hear him better. He told me my taillight was out. I thanked him, and as I pulled away, I felt as if Jesus had sent the answer to my question, ‘How will I know if something isn’t right with me and needs to be corrected?’ The answer was simple and very sweet: He will send someone and they will let me know.

I learned as I went through some difficult spiritual battles surrounding my divorce that having fellowship with you, Pastor John, and Barbara, and my brothers and sisters would save me. You had not known me long, but you all could feel if I was doing ok or needed some correction and guidance. That didn’t come from knowing me as a person; that came from knowing the Spirit of God. I could “check my reflection” in Jesus through my fellowship with everyone else, and make the changes I needed, but I also had to keep my window open and listen to the ones that Jesus would send for the things I could not see on my own. When I would follow a wrong spirit and let it control me, you helped me see it so I could learn to fix it!

That was the first experience. The second experience that was brought to mind from Bess’s dream was something that happened a couple of years ago. I was in my kitchen cooking dinner. When I reached into a cabinet to pull out a bowl, I suddenly felt a familiar feeling that I was once very acquainted with and at one time was controlled by it. The feeling was not from within me, but was on the outside of me. If it was something real; I think I could have seen it. Thankfully, I immediately knew it was not me. I said, “Go away!” And just as quickly as it came, it left. I know that if I would have welcomed that old spirit back, it would have once again robbed me of my peace and joy from Jesus.

I am very thankful for you and for the help I have had. I pray that I will always have the “window” to my heart open enough that I can hear you or whoever Jesus sends, if and when I need them.

Love,

Amy F

Pastor John,

I was reading the exchange between some folk on WhatsApp today regarding a shed, and it reminded me of an experience that I had with Jesus – He taught me a very valuable lesson.

Many years ago I went through a period where I would do my best to help anybody that I could, every time that I could, with any project they were working on. I wanted to do those things for people.

It was during one of those projects that the Lord spoke to my heart very clearly and changed my understanding about what I was doing. The Lord told me:
“You haven’t done one thing ‘unto Me’ until you have taken care of all of your responsibilities at home, first.”

With that startling but gentle instruction came this immediate understanding:
If I was tending to other’s needs before taking care of my wife, I was stealing what belonged to her and giving it to someone else. And only what I was doing above and beyond all of my normal responsibilities counted with God. I received no credit from the Lord for substituting something I was supposed to be doing with another task.

It gave me a new way of looking at the choices I had been making, and convicted my heart that I had been giving away what belonged to my wife. I wonder now if she had been praying, because God showed up to help.

The Lord was very kind to me in His instruction; I had been trying very hard to do good, but I found out it wasn’t holy.

Jerry

John,

Your reminder below about apologies vs repentance and just having an appearance of good but unclean inside goes along with a conversation I had with my neighbor Mr. Patterson. He told me about his peach tree that he grew in his yard. He nurtured it, gave it special attention, applied special fertilizer and after several years it began to bear fruit. And for the following two years he got beautiful delicious peaches. But the tree became infested with insects on the inside. Outwardly the tree looked normal but inwardly it was being eaten up by the insects. That year the tree still bore what looked like the same beautiful peaches as before. But when the beautiful looking peaches were cut open, they were rotten on the inside. He could not restore the tree after the infestation and eventually had to cut it down.

And there is a part two to the digging up roots lesson. Yesterday (Monday) we had the heavy rains. So today I went back to dig up another root. This root was bigger than the previous one and had more tentacle branches. But because the soil was damp and pliable after the rain, the bigger root came up much easier than the previous one when the soil was hard and dry. If our soil is well watered and we are pliable, it’s much easier for roots to be taken out of us. Or if we are hard, closed off, not willing to receive admonishment or be corrected, then it’s much harder to dig out what needs to be gotten out.

Richard French

==========

Thank you, Richard. This is a great lesson. I counseled the parents, some years back, not to train their children to think that an apology was repentance. Making an apology is like cutting off the sprigs that are above ground. It is a matter of the heart. We don’t want to become “whitewashed sepulchres”, as Jesus said, having a good appearance, but unclean inside.

Pastor John

Digging Up Roots, by Richard French

April 12, 2020

In our backyard there was a row of Red Tip trees planted about twenty years ago as a hedge between our property and the neighbor’s property. Every spring the trees displayed beautiful red leaves with white flowers. Over the last few years the Red Tips contracted a blight and slowly began to die. Eventually all the trees died leaving only scraggly dead limbs. So we had them cut down and removed. The tree service which removed the trees had a stump grinder and ground up the stumps and roots. However, they missed a few. And over the last few days as I planted new trees and shrubs in that same area where the Red Tips had been, I encountered those missed stumps and roots.

What could be seen on the surface were just stumps; the remains of what were once beautiful trees. In various spots along the ground around the stumps were little green shoots of new growth springing up. I decided to dig up the stumps and roots to clear them away for the new shrubs and trees which I planted. With shovel and pick axe I dug, chopped, and pulled at the stumps and roots. It was hard work digging up the stumps and roots; repeatedly swinging the pick axe over and over, then digging around the roots and stumps with the shovel, then back to swinging the pick axe. Sweat dripped in my eyes and off my brow. More than once I thought “This is too much work. Why not just leave them alone?” But I would take a break, catch my breath, get a drink of water, enjoy a cool breeze which Jesus would send and then go back to digging.

After much hard work on one particularly tough stump, the roots were finally out of the ground! That small stump had some very large roots; larger than would be expected for the size of the stump. The main two roots from the stump were twisted and turned in 90degree bends. They spanned at least six feet out from the stump. All the new sprouts that were visible above ground came from the buried roots.

Jesus used that experience to show me that we have to dig out the roots in ourselves. It is not enough to just remove the visible outward sign (the dead trees) but we must get to the root of the issue. Otherwise something will spring up again stemming from the root and try to flourish and reclaim life. It may be in another visible form or a different location from the original tree, but when the root is left intact it will re-grow again. We must first recognize and acknowledge there is a root that needs digging up. And it can be uncomfortable work digging out a deep-seated root that may have been there for a long time. We might have to rub elbows and sharpen iron with one another in the process. And Jesus will help us with cool Jesus used that experience to show me that we have to dig out the roots in ourselves. It is not enough to just remove the visible outward sign (the dead trees) but we must get the root refreshing breezes and encouragement along the way for as long as we continue to work on the root. But when the root is removed it’s gone, and no new sprouts will ever come from that root again.

This experience brought back memories as a youth working on my grandfather’s farm. I chopped and hoed many weeds in his fields. My grandfather would say that it’s not just enough to cut off the top of the weeds with the hoe as the roots will re-grow a new plant. And even pulling up the roots leaving them partially in the soil or even touching the soil would not do. You had to pull up the weeds with the roots and flip them over so the roots were exposed to the SUN in order to dry up and completely kill the roots. That feels like what the LORD is wanting us to do. Dig up the long-buried roots in ourselves and fully expose them to the SON so he can completely heal us!

Good morning again!

While working in the yard the other day I had a thought about God being a businessman and expecting a good return. I thought about how Jesus made sure we knew this by the parable of talents. So I have been reading that parable. It would be so easy to say, “I need to do more; I need to give and do works.” My flesh wants some physical work to make Jesus happy.

It made me think about what I really have been taught. I am very thankful to have that knowledge from you and from Jesus, especially now. I have been reading all the instructions you have been giving. I found myself asking Jesus after I read the parable of the talents, “Is this all you want Lord? Can I just ask you to show me anything that is wrong and you want to be fixed? Can I ask you to help me have fellowship and to love your children, like you want them loved? Can I be still and listen? “

Something in me can’t believe it is that simple.

Then I thought about when I worked at Ford. I knew nothing in the beginning. I did not know how to walk in the plant safely, how to find my way when asked to move to another area, how to use any of the tools I was given. I had been a waitress; I had never seen assembly lines or manufacturing processes. Plus, I am not coordinated at all.

But I learned if I listened to what my supervisor wanted, and I really followed my trainer for the three days I had them, I could do the job. I may not have been good at it right away, but I could do what they wanted me to do. Eventually, I flowed with the workings of that plant. I could easily be placed wherever they needed me to work. I was pliable; I took instruction, and I became a useful employee.

I thought about you telling Samuel not to go too deep, to stay simple and follow his mama’s example (what a beautiful example she is to follow). I love the instruction. It is safe, and it brings me such relief, every time you give it. I know how to follow instructions.

I loved Caleb’s email, hearing his heart, and your response and instruction. I love that it is going to Jesus and saying, “Whatever you want Lord.” I pray to take the instruction and be pliable. I just want to be limp!

I do not want to be the selfish child in a household that has been given so much that it expects it, so spoiled it will cause interruptions and chaos. As a parent myself, I can see only one way to fix that. I don’t want Jesus to do that to me.

I am very thankful for the instruction and the examples I have. I am thankful for my foundation you are giving me in the truth.

I look at that last sentence and wish it could have better words to really tell you how I feel. It can’t be found in words.

Beth