{"id":15937,"date":"2025-09-16T10:32:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15937"},"modified":"2025-09-17T10:33:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:33:49","slug":"thoughts-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15937\/thoughts-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As I sat at my computer working today, these thoughts started coming.\u00a0 They were for me, but I believe they are for us all:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jesus asking: &#8220;What if I made sure you married the person you are married to?\u00a0 What if it was all my idea?\u00a0 What if I gave you that sickness you are dealing with?\u00a0 Are you going to quit and run?\u00a0 Are you going to blame everyone and everything else just because it&#8217;s not going according to your plan and your timeline?\u00a0 Are you going to quit now?\u00a0 Are you going to pout, get angry, throw a fit because it&#8217;s not going &#8220;smoothly&#8221;?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What if\u00a0<strong><em><u>I<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0did it?\u00a0 What if I really did put you with the perfect person, the perfect pastor, the perfect body to perfect you, help you, and make you happier than you could ever imagine?\u00a0 What if I gave you the perfect sickness at the perfect time to teach you to rely on me as you&#8217;ve never had to in your whole life? to teach you to slow down?\u00a0 What if I planned every\u00a0one of these things because I love you that much?\u00a0 What if my love is so great for you, that I would do whatever it takes to save you?\u00a0 What if I love you enough to make you humble? to slow you down? to teach you how to love?\u00a0 What if I love you so much that I would give you boundless opportunities to learn and grow until you come home to be with me?\u00a0 What if I planned the whole thing and it was all my plan to save you in the end and be with me forever?\u00a0 And you&#8217;re mad, thinking I tricked you.\u00a0 Well, I did it.\u00a0 I did the whole thing.\u00a0 Who are you really mad at, but me?\u00a0 Who are you really discontent with, but me?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is just as you have said before, &#8220;God is FOR us!&#8221;\u00a0 His love is, really, more than tongue can tell and more than our human minds can fathom.\u00a0 I am so thankful to be here with you, with us, alive, learning, living.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Donna<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor John, As I sat at my computer working today, these thoughts started coming.\u00a0 They were for me, but I believe they are for us all: Jesus asking: &#8220;What if I made sure you married the person you are married to?\u00a0 What if it was all my idea?\u00a0 What if I gave you that sickness [&hellip;]<\/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-15937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15937"}],"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=15937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15938,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15937\/revisions\/15938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}