{"id":3107,"date":"2013-04-14T19:44:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T19:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=3107"},"modified":"2013-04-14T19:44:15","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T19:44:15","slug":"pearl-for-april-13-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/3107\/pearl-for-april-13-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Pearl&#8221; for April 13, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"font-family:garamond, serif;font-size:large;\">The point of this &#8220;Pearl of Wisdom, below, is that God cannot be manipulated. \u00a0One afternoon, about 20 years ago, I warned a sister in the Lord that if she did not stop trying to manipulate God into doing things her way, she was going to drive herself insane. \u00a0That same night, long after bedtime, I received a phone call from her distraught daughter. \u00a0In the background, I could hear the voice of that sister I had warned. \u00a0She was walking about the house, screaming, for a long time. \u00a0I couldn&#8217;t make out her words, but her daughter said she was screaming obscenities and other things as she walked around, but then she would stop doing that and speak in tongues. \u00a0Her husband didn&#8217;t know what to do. \u00a0This went on for a good while that night, and there was nothing I could do about it. She had driven herself mad trying to pressure God ito doing things her way.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"font-family:garamond, serif;font-size:large;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"font-family:garamond, serif;font-size:large;\">This &#8220;Pearl&#8221; contains an important bit of wisdom. \u00a0It means, in case any among us is unclear about it, that we are not God. \u00a0And that means that we had better learn how to humble ourselves to His way, or we will certainly face some unsavory consequences.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"font-family:garamond, serif;font-size:large;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"font-family:garamond, serif;font-size:large;\">Preacher Clark had learned this lesson well. \u00a0That&#8217;s why, in a Pearl that you read not too long ago, he said something like, &#8220;If it doesn&#8217;t go the way I like it, then I like it the way it does go.&#8221; \u00a0In other words, &#8220;If God does not do it the way I would like for Him to do it, then I like it the way God does do it.&#8221;<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color:#0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"font-family:garamond, serif;font-size:large;\">Pastor John<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/pearl-041313.bmp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3109\" alt=\"pearl 041313\" src=\"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/pearl-041313.bmp?w=300\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The point of this &#8220;Pearl of Wisdom, below, is that God cannot be manipulated. \u00a0One afternoon, about 20 years ago, I warned a sister in the Lord that if she did not stop trying to manipulate God into doing things her way, she was going to drive herself insane. \u00a0That same night, long after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107"}],"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=3107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}