{"id":14605,"date":"2024-01-30T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T15:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=14605"},"modified":"2024-02-28T10:09:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T15:09:19","slug":"you-dont-get-away-with-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/14605\/you-dont-get-away-with-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"“You Don’t Get Away with Anything”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I just finished watching the Sunday morning meeting, which was wonderful, and towards the end you said something about God’s love that perfectly echoed an experience I had about a week ago. You said something along the lines of Jesus didn’t let his disciples get away with anything.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I am right now in the process of reducing the amount of gastro resistant tablets I’m taking for my stomach issues, that is, I’ve started taking them every other day instead of one pill per day.\u00a0 In the meantime, I’ve been learning that I still need to be careful (and apply self-control) about the kind and the amount of dishes I eat.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, about a week ago I was getting ready to have lunch at my workplace, and I was looking at the selection in the dining room.\u00a0 Among other things, you could choose a hamburger, as well as a hot-dog.\u00a0 Just a hamburger or just a hot-dog seemed a bit less than necessary, so I started entertaining the idea of going with a hamburger AND a hot-dog.\u00a0 A very still and gentle voice inside of me (that I later called the “spirit of a sound mind”) asked me, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”\u00a0 I had the thought that I could just choose a soup and a hamburger, but I brushed it off, and ended up going with the hamburger and the hot-dog.\u00a0<\/span>
\nWell, both were indeed delicious, but 15-20 minutes later, I already started having that straining feeling in my stomach that signals when something is not right in there.\u00a0 I knew, right away, that it was the consequence of making an unwise choice, even though God did give me a right thought at the time, thus, a chance to do what is good for my health.\u00a0 I was thinking about just that when I went into the bathroom to wash my hands, and I heard this sentence in my mind: “You don’t get away with anything.”<\/span><\/p>\n

If I was carnally minded, it could have sounded like a threat, but thanks be to God that I immediately felt and understood how much love was in these words.\u00a0 I was thinking how thankful I should be that God won’t let me get away with anything because it’s a sign of His love for me.\u00a0 The words from the book of Hebrews came to mind (as they do so often, praise God!):<\/span><\/p>\n

“My son, do not lightly esteem the\u00a0Lord\u2019s correction; neither be discouraged by His reproof, for whom the\u00a0Lord\u00a0loves, He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives (…)\u00a0But if\u00a0y<\/em>ou are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then\u00a0y<\/em>ou are bastards, and not sons.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I also thought and had a glimpse of the feeling of terror for the people who get away with everything in this life.\u00a0 Because that means they don’t even have a chance to repent, to change their ways, to change the way they think and the way they live their lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you, God, for your chastisement!\u00a0 May we never grow weary or get discouraged by Your reproof, but consider it as a sign of Your love, that You are still treating us as sons and daughters.\u00a0 And may we grow in wisdom, in holiness, in love, as You’re teaching us Your ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope you all are having a beautiful week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoli<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Pastor John, I just finished watching the Sunday morning meeting, which was wonderful, and towards the end you said something about God’s love that perfectly echoed an experience I had about a week ago. You said something along the lines of Jesus didn’t let his disciples get away with anything.” I am right now in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14605"}],"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=14605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14606,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14605\/revisions\/14606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}