{"id":6283,"date":"2015-11-01T14:57:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T14:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=6283"},"modified":"2015-11-01T14:57:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T14:57:21","slug":"the-gospel-of-john-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/6283\/the-gospel-of-john-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel of John, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Bro. John:<\/span><\/p>\n

I am still thinking on what we read\u00a0Sunday<\/span>\u00a0morning about John the Baptizer.\u00a0 Particularly, this part:<\/span><\/p>\n

“And John testified, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove, and it remained on him.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And I did not know him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>said to me<\/u><\/em>, ‘Upon whomever you see the Spirit descend and remain on him, he is the one who baptizes with holy Spirit.’<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And I have seen, and I have testified that<\/em>\u00a0this is the Son of God!”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When we read that today, it touched my heart thinking how John must have felt when “that moment” occurred just as God had said it would.\u00a0 Though we don’t know exactly when God spoke that to John, and though John did not have the understanding of what God was saying to him,\u00a0he believed God<\/u>\u00a0and held on to what God gave him.\u00a0 All he could have known that day was that the Word of God that came to him prior to this event\u00a0was fulfilled before his eyes!\u00a0 What a moment that must have been!<\/span><\/p>\n

As in many of the prophets, when God spoke to them, the thing to be fulfilled had not yet occurred.\u00a0 They had to believe and hold on to what He had spoken.\u00a0 Jeremiah and the captivity of God’s people came to mind:<\/span><\/p>\n

“For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>perform my good word<\/u><\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>toward you, in causing you to return to this place.<\/strong> \u00a0For\u00a0I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Whew!\u00a0 It took great faith in God to wait 70 years for His Word to be fulfilled.\u00a0 Some probably\u00a0lost hope and became disheartened.\u00a0 But those who held on got to see how much God loved them – – that beautiful “moment” when the Word of God is fulfilled and the heart is made glad.\u00a0 I pray that we can hold on to\u00a0whatever God says long enough to see what He has in store for us – – the “moments” of His fulfillment, however long it may take.\u00a0 For surely, with every promise of God, there is a performance of His good word!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved the feelings in the reading today. Thank you for all you do to teach us and stir up the Gift of God in us!\u00a0 There is so much more of God to learn than what we will know in this short life, but I am so completely satisfied with the beautiful things He is showing us thus far.\u00a0 We are so richly blessed . . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

Dear Bro. John: I am still thinking on what we read\u00a0Sunday\u00a0morning about John the Baptizer.\u00a0 Particularly, this part: “And John testified, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove, and it remained on him. And I did not know him, but the One who sent me to baptize with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283"}],"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=6283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}