{"id":3682,"date":"2013-11-20T14:32:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T14:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=3682"},"modified":"2013-11-20T14:32:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T14:32:15","slug":"real-religion-and-each-other-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/3682\/real-religion-and-each-other-2\/","title":{"rendered":"real religion and each other"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I was thinking about the scripture today, \u201cPure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world,\u201d\u00a0and it hit me like a ton of bricks that real religion is mostly a matter of\u00a0who we are<\/em>, rather than what we do (I think I would have said, really, that it was the other way around).\u00a0 Anyone can visit the fatherless and widows, but if\u00a0who they are<\/em>\u00a0isn\u2019t full of God\u2019s spirit (or under conviction to receive it), and they aren\u2019t unspotted from the world, then they haven\u2019t done anything of real value.\u00a0 This made me feel like one of my chief concerns in life should be to keep a clean heart, for if that\u2019s lacking, there\u2019s nothing I can do to \u201cmake up the difference\u201d.\u00a0 Seeing this also made it more obvious how backwards this world really has it \u2013 the world will encourage people to \u201cdo good\u201d (you\u2019ll see that on TV, in other religions, etc.), but they think they can do that regardless of who they are, with or without God\u2019s help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was coming into one of our meetings last week, I said hello to a few people at the door.\u00a0 By the time I got to Randell, it hit me, \u201cThese precious people!\u201d\u00a0 To have\u00a0just one<\/em>\u00a0person in my life like Randell, a man who understands the truth, walks in it and loves it – what value!\u00a0 I felt like scales fell off my eyes to see the enormous value of\u00a0anyone\/everyone<\/em>\u00a0whom God has touched.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t know just one Randell, we know a hundred or more!\u00a0 This reminded me of what the spirit said through Sandy\u00a0on Saturday\u00a0night, \u201cDaughters and sons, I\u2019ve given you the best that I have\u201d (or something like that).\u00a0 I feel like God has put the very best people He has in our lives, and we are so very rich because of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taylor<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0==============<\/span><\/p>\n

Amen, Taylor!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0To “visit” the sick or someone in need means more than to just show up where they are. \u00a0In the Bible, whenever God. “visited” someone, things changed! \u00a0 May God help us be like Him, and bring real comfort, encouragement, and healing with us when we visit those in need.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

jdc<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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

John, I was thinking about the scripture today, \u201cPure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world,\u201d\u00a0and it hit me like a ton of bricks that real religion is mostly a matter of\u00a0who we are, rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682"}],"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=3682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}