{"id":10137,"date":"2018-03-04T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-04T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10137"},"modified":"2018-03-04T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T16:23:08","slug":"the-best-that-we-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10137\/the-best-that-we-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best That We Can Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This evening, while I was getting ready for our\u00a07 o\u2019clock\u00a0meeting, I asked Jesus if He would give me something that I could share tonight\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a testimony.\u00a0 I then considered many of the things that God has done for me in my life, some things that I feel certain I have never shared, or if I did testify to them, it has been so long that it has all but been forgotten.\u00a0I wanted to add to the pot, one of the peas that has been given to me.\u00a0 At the same time, I wanted whatever it is that I said, if anything, to be what Jesus is saying,\u00a0now<\/i>; I wanted it to be alive!\u00a0 Not just reminiscent of something that was once living.\u00a0 It is just as you told us in Louisville many years ago, \u201cThe truth isn\u2019t the truth if it isn\u2019t what Jesus is doing right now.\u201d\u00a0 We need Jesus in the present tense, not where He was.<\/span><\/p>\n

I continued getting ready for the meeting and forgot that I had asked Jesus for anything.\u00a0 Then, while crossing the kitchen floor, I stopped as the Lord began communicating to me.\u00a0 He did not remind me of a time in which he blessed me and I failed to tell about it, nor did he stir up something that was long overdue to be told, again.\u00a0 But he did tell me this, and I want to share it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best that we can ever do for God, is to just do what He tells us.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

There is nothing that we have, that He did not give us first.\u00a0 There is nothing that we can add to Him, and there is no way that we can improve upon his eternal situation.\u00a0 We will never have an idea that is better than His own.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can we begin to offer the One who created and controls, everything?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the book of Isaiah, the Lord spoke through the prophet, regarding the day when \u201csacrificing a lamb would be like cutting off a dog\u2019s neck.\u201d\u00a0 That is because, while it is true that Israel\u00a0had<\/i>\u00a0obeyed the Lord in worshipping Him with these kinds of sacrifices in the past, Israel had since failed to obey God in all other things.\u00a0 And the sacrifices themselves had no value at all to God.\u00a0 That lamb was never of any more value to Him than the dog that he compared it to.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

What\u00a0did<\/i>\u00a0make this, or any other animal sacrifice, of any value was that the Lord was willing to accept it.\u00a0 The sacrifice had been sanctified by God\u2019s willingness to receive it.\u00a0 That was its only value, ever.\u00a0 And in response to Israel\u2019s disobedience, the Lord declared that He was no longer willing to accept it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the same today. Whatever God will condescend to accept from us humans, that is the very best that we can ever give to Him.\u00a0 We cannot improve upon that, and it is arrogant to try.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry<\/span><\/p>\n

===========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Jerry.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I guess that is why, as a man told me in my Old Testament class many years ago, “God doesn’t tell us to do the best we can; He tells us to obey Him.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,\u00a0 This evening, while I was getting ready for our\u00a07 o\u2019clock\u00a0meeting, I asked Jesus if He would give me something that I could share tonight\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a testimony.\u00a0 I then considered many of the things that God has done for me in my life, some things that I feel certain I have never shared, or if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}