{"id":15108,"date":"2024-09-27T19:46:14","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T00:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15108"},"modified":"2024-09-29T19:50:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T00:50:44","slug":"life-over-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15108\/life-over-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Life over rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Beth and I were discussing a doctor’s testimony that she heard recently.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor had declared that he was an atheist all his life, though he had respect for a particular colleague who feared God\u2014while also counting him as foolish for his beliefs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The unbelieving doctor was then struck with a sudden and incurable illness that he knew, unquestionably, he could not recover from. He knew he was about to die at any time. He said he felt an urgency that he must speak to his colleague who had always had faith in Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n

(The sickly doctor noted: “It is easy to be an atheist – until you are lying on your deathbed.”)<\/span><\/p>\n

The doctor received the much-wanted visit from his colleague and, in earnest, submitted to the man’s efforts to help his soul. The sickly doctor said with all sincerity that he repeated the \u201cLord’s prayer\u201d with his newfound friend and that he sincerely believed.<\/span><\/p>\n

That once-ailing doctor said that he went on to recover 100% from that incurable disease and that his life completely changed after that.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Beth finished telling me that story, I felt such love for that man and his experience. I understood, because of the goodness of God revealed to us through Jesus, that the doctor’s sincerity meant everything to Jesus, and the manufactured prayer he was offering up didn’t do a thing to hinder God’s love for him. I also realized that everything any of us have ever had to offer God is “manufactured” until the Son gives us something acceptable to offer \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

After hearing of the doctor’s experience, considering his testimony, and feeling such love for him, I felt myself (internally) countering that by considering what the apostle Paul had told the Galatians (Gal 1:8-9): “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we preached unto you, let him be accursed.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I then thought (out loud, and to Beth), “Doctrine matters. It matters what we believe\u2014Paul said so. But then, it doesn’t matter, not in the light of sincerity towards the Lord.”\u00a0 And for just a moment, I could feel how those things appear so conflicting; I understood how they both exist, and how both are true and are right, but I felt almost helpless at that moment to express it. I then (almost involuntarily) asked aloud, “So what is right?” And I heard myself respond, “Everything, and nothing. Because it isn’t ‘what’ is right; it is ‘Who’ is right.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, the sweetness of that answer\u2014and I felt like all the years of hearing you say that the truth is a Who, not a what, sank just a little deeper into my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whew. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Or, as I heard the Spirit once say so sweetly, “There is no right or wrong, there is just Jesus.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Glory to God that is good!<\/span><\/p>\n

You can’t be wrong with Jesus, and you can’t be right without him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We can’t be saved without Him. It’s impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

So good.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Tell us what you think:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1840554626556268808<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Pastor John, Beth and I were discussing a doctor’s testimony that she heard recently.\u00a0\u00a0 The doctor had declared that he was an atheist all his life, though he had respect for a particular colleague who feared God\u2014while also counting him as foolish for his beliefs.\u00a0 The unbelieving doctor was then struck with a sudden and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15108"}],"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=15108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15110,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15108\/revisions\/15110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}