No Choice

"And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon fought, and his angels, but he did not prevail,
neither was there place found for them in heaven any longer.
The great dragon also was cast down, the ancient serpent,
who is called Slanderer and Satan, who deceives the entire world.
He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. . . .
For this, rejoice, O heavens and those who dwell in them!
Alas, earth and sea, because the Slanderer has come down among you,
having great anger, knowing that he has just a little time.
And then, the dragon raged against the woman,
and he went away to make war against her remaining seed,
those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus."
Revelation 12:7-9, 12

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
Luke 10:18

Let me ask you an odd-sounding question: If Satan hates God, as many teach, and if he despises what God says and does, as most believe, then why was he cast out of heaven? Doesn’t that sound like a strange question? Think about it, and it may not seem so strange.

My real question is, if Satan despises God and hates what is good and holy, then what was he doing in heaven at all? Why, if he despises holiness and hates God, didn’t he just leave heaven on his own instead of hanging around until God had to throw him out? God gave him no choice. "Choice" is a blessing that sin causes one to lose. Satan had to leave, and being given no choice in that matter made him very, very angry.

The fact is that Satan loves the glory of God, but he loves it in the wrong way. He envies it, and that is a destructive kind of love. He loves the glory and power of God for his own benefit, not because he loves others, including God. Satan even loves truth, but not all of it. He loves only that part of the truth which serves for self-aggrandizement. He loves the name of Jesus, and according to Paul, Satan inspires men to declare the name of Jesus to others (2Cor. 11:13-15), but he loves it only in a way that also brings him glory. He loved certain Scriptures from Psalm 91 when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, but he didn’t love the Scripture Jesus quoted back to him, because it exposed his self-serving love of the Bible.

Satan doesn’t hate holy things. He loves them and wants them for himself! He covets the blessings of God. He longs to enjoy the glory of the Lord in the midst of God’s saints. He longs to be back in the light of God’s presence. And it makes him absolutely furious to know that he can never have those things again. That is why he became so angry when he was cast out of heaven. That is also why, when he was cast out of the kingdom of God and thrown down to earth, Satan struck out at God’s chosen people, first against the Jews, and then against those "who keep God’s commandments and who have the testimony of Jesus." People whom God rejects often react in the same cruel way.

Satan envies your blessings from God. He wants them, but he wants them for the wrong reasons. Therefore, God judged Satan to be unworthy to live in His presence. As for Satan, he judged himself to be more than worthy to be in God’s presence, and he no doubt feels misunderstood and mistreated because he is no longer welcome among the assembly of the sons of God. He became proud of his blessings from God. He lightly esteemed his glorious place in God’s kingdom and devised wicked plans to steal more glory than he had already been given – and lost it all.

Like Satan

Over the past few months, I have commented to a number of people that in the past, if people began to doubt the truth I or other servants of Jesus preach, or if they grew discontent with the way matters were handled among the saints, they just went away. But over the past few years, I, and I suppose other ministers as well, have had to face another breed of backsliders, people who love the freedom and blessings of God that are among the saints too much to go away, even though they feel discontentment in general and feel superior to their pastor in judgment. Here among us, it has been difficult for me to get some people to leave who ought not to be here!

It has been awkward, but I have actually had to sit a few people down over the past few years and tell them what is in their hearts. I have had to tell them, "You do not like it here. You are not happy. You need to go find your pastor. You need to go find the place where you really belong." Oddly enough, they often become angry when told they do not belong here, just as Satan grew angry when he was told (rather unceremoniously) that he did not belong in heaven. One would think that if you did not like the way things were in a congregation, you would leave. But not Satan, and not those who are like him. They want to stay and share in the glory and enjoy blessings they have not earned, and benefit from precious gifts that have not been given to them.

The question could be asked of such people, just as I asked in the beginning about Satan: If they hate me and despise what I and others here teach and do, then why were they asked to leave? The real question being, Why were they hanging around here in the first place? The truth is, they had a love for me and for the benefits of the truth I teach, but they only loved the parts that suited their private purposes. And in imitation of my Father, I will not tolerate that kind of love. Like Him, those around me are going to love me sincerely with all their heart, as I love them (for their welfare, not mine), or they will not be welcome in my presence. They will be given no choice in that matter.

Why would any one of us welcome or even tolerate people in our homes and lives who love us for their own benefit, and not love us the way God loves? That’s just simple common sense. It is also the way of our wise God conducts His holy life.

Praying for the Day of Destruction of All Bibles

"As many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God."
Romans 8:12

A brother phoned me this morning, full of the Spirit and glorifying God. He and his wife had been hiking in our beautiful Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina, and they were overwhelmed at the beauty and majesty of God’s handiwork.

"That’s how I feel", I told him, "every time I meet a child of God. I feel as if I am looking at a magnificent work of God, and it can be overwhelming."

He agreed completely, and then he proceeded to tell me of two people he had met earlier that morning while hiking on the mountain. They were an older couple, and after some conversation, this brother felt led to offer them some gospel tracts, which they gladly accepted. One of the tracts concerned the baptism of the holy Ghost, and when the older man saw that, he said, "I have had that experience! There is nothing like it on earth."

What followed was a glorious time of two couples, all four of them belonging to God, standing amid glorious scenes created for them by their heavenly Father and speaking to one another of their Father’s glory, sharing many experiences of His wonderful love and grace.

"It was so good," my brother told me, "until one of them started talking about ‘what is in the Bible’." In other words, talking of the things God had done for them all was glorious, but when one of them brought up a doctrine she had been programmed to defend with Scripture, it marred that rare and beautiful experience of peace and fellowship in Christ.

As he told me that part of the story, I could sense his deep grief and disappointment, and I found myself praying silently for the day when there were no Bibles for people to resort to when God’s glory was being manifested.

My sorrowful friend continued, "Pastor John, I kept praying, ‘God make it stop! Make this go away!’ " He was asking God to help those dear people to focus on Him and His work in their lives rather than to begin quoting the Bible and debating Scripture. But while I listened, my spirit was hearing his real prayer, the one God had put in his heart to pray at that moment, though he did not realize it.

"When you prayed that prayer," I asked him, "do you know what you were really praying for?"
I could tell that my question momentarily stunned him. He hesitated but finally replied, "No. What?"

"You were praying for the day when God will destroy heaven and earth and everything in them, including all Bibles. You were praying for the day when there will be nothing left but the Word of God for men to deal with, for the day when there will be no Bibles to quote and nothing for men to debate because there will be nothing left but what God says and what God does."

He answered, "That’s right!"

When Jesus sets up his kingdom, he will not rule the world for a thousand years by looking up Scriptures. He will rule it "by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." And we are supposed to be learning how to rule and be ruled that way right now, before he comes, so that we will be judged worthy to reign with him. We are supposed to be learning how to be led by the Spirit instead of the Bible.

Beyond that, when "heaven and earth are destroyed", and the "new heaven and the new earth" appear, there will be no Bibles there, nor any need for them. Salvation doesn’t just mean that we will see no more wicked people; it also means that we will read no more holy Bibles. Salvation is liberty from everything of this world, both the good and the bad.

All wise virgins pray for the day when there will be no more Bibles because that means they pray for the day when God Himself will dwell among us on a new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness." And for those who have learned "to walk in the Spirit", the Bible is not really needed now (except to help others), any more than Abraham, Joseph, or Noah needed Moses’ Law in order to know what God wanted them to do.

Healing: An Expression of God

In 1959, at the age of 53, Uncle Joe was given 60 days to live, but an angel was sent to him from God, and Uncle Joe lived in good health for another 37 years. He wrote the following message shortly after he was touched by God and delivered from the cancer that had been ravaging his body:

An Expression of God
"Healing"
by Joseph H. Murray

The healing that comes from God is not our own expression or confession, but it is a manifestation of His love and care for us. And for us to attest to its occurrence before it really happens is a false confession. Isaiah did prophesy, "by His stripes we are healed," but you do not really have that confession until God expresses it through you by a touch of His Spirit and power. When you feel that surge through your mortal being from head to toe, it brings with it those precious words of Isaiah: "by His stripes we are healed." When it is felt, then it is real, whether we say so or not. Healing is God in spirit acting out the words written aforetime by the prophets; it is not a mental thing to be claimed and put on display to satisfy the vanity of men.

If our healing is real, it will show itself in evidence more than we can ever tell with our tongues. There is nothing wrong in confessing we are healed if God has really done it. But it is radically wrong for us to say we are healed when God has not said we are healed. It’s the same as in the beginning when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." When God says you are healed, then you are healed, and not before – no matter what you say – because for God to say a thing means that it is so – Amen! He is God, and no man nor condition can stay His hand.

Random Thoughts

"LORD", or "Lord"?

"The LORD said unto my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ "
(Ps. 110:1)

"Lord"

If my memory serves me correctly, this Old Testament verse is quoted in New Testament books more than any other. Therefore, we know that it contains some wisdom that is important for us to grasp. We know that in this famous verse, the Father is speaking to His Son because Jesus himself said so (Mt. 22:41-45).

In the Old Testament, when "LORD" is spelled with all capital letters, it refers to Jehovah, but "Lord" (only the "L" is capital) refers to anyone in authority lower than Jehovah. Every time you see "Lord" spelled with all capital letters (not just a capital"L"), the original word there is the word for Jehovah.

In the verse above, the LORD (Jehovah) is speaking to someone whom He especially loves, one who has been made so great by Jehovah that king David calls him his "LORD". In that verse, Jehovah is honoring someone with the greatest honor possible for any creature; that is, the exalted honor of being seated at the right hand of Jehovah in heaven. But no one ever knew who Jehovah was speaking to until the spirit of God was given to man in Acts 2. With the spirit’s coming, the understanding came that Jehovah was speaking to the young man crucified by the Romans at Golgotha: Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Jehovah’s ancient promise to this mysterious person continued in the next verse to speak of Jesus reigning on earth for a thousand years from Zion (that is, from Jerusalem): "The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies!"

Then, Jehovah’s promises to this highly honored person continued in verse 3, as He promised him perpetual youth (eternal life), and then, in one of the most famous verses in the Bible, He promised this blessed man an eternal priesthood. He said, "The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, ‘You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.’ "

"Lord"

In the remaining verses of this amazing prophetic Psalm, David speaks no more of what "the Lord" will do and speaks instead of "the Lord". Moved by the Spirit, David said, "The Lord at your right hand will strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the heathen; he will fill the places with dead bodies; he will wound the heads over many countries. He will drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up the head." Here, the singing prophet is speaking of Jehovah’s Son, the Lord Jesus, who will make war on the nations and crush them with terrible power when he returns to "rule with an iron rod" over the earth for a thousand years.

Praise ye the LORD!

(And you can praise the Lord, too, while you’re at it.)

Those Who Hated Them

"He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them."
Psalm 106:41

In Psalm 21, David sang, "The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ " But how do we know what is in anyone’s heart. Or a better question: How did David know what was in someone’s heart? The obvious answer is that he did not know anyone’s heart, but God did, and that it was the Spirit of God speaking through David, revealing what is in a fool’s heart. David himself said on his deathbed, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue" (2Sam. 23:2).

It is wise to pay close attention to what the Spirit says, whether through David or anyone else. Here, the Spirit revealed what is in a fool’s heart, not necessarily what comes out of a fool’s mouth. When God, through Isaiah, revealed what was in Satan’s heart when he began to stir up rebellion against the Creator, the words that Satan was thinking could not have been the words that he spoke out loud to the creatures in heaven. His words to them would have been "smoother than oil", even though "war was in his heart".

The Spirit still reveals what is truly in the heart, and it is the only thing that can. Many times, it reveals what is truly in the heart by its silence. Isaiah (66) reveals that God will bring vengeance on those whose hearts are far from him by leaving them out, when He poured out His Spirit from heaven on the day of Pentecost. While Jesus’ followers were reeling under the power of God, praising God and speaking in tongues, those God condemned (and who in their hearts condemned God) remained speechless. Many of those left out of the Blessing were deeply religious elders, highly revered by God’s own, gullible people. But God knows the heart.

God still leaves out of the Blessing those who hate Him in their hearts, no matter how religious they appear to be. God does not judge by the appearance. He judges righteous judgment, and He is always right. In the Old Testament, as our beginning verse suggests us, God cursed His own people to be ruled over by those who hated Him and them. But anyone who studies the ancient world knows that all those nations that ruled cruelly over God’s people were extremely religious. But God was judging their hearts, not their beautiful ceremonies and claims of devotion to Deity. He had judged those heathen nations unworthy of His Blessing of the Law, but He also gave them power over His own people to rule over them.

So it is now. In many places, those whom God has left out of the Blessing, those who know nothing of the holy Ghost baptism, rule over God’s own people. They are deeply religious leaders, and they know how to impress the gullible children of God with an appearance of righteousness, but what is it that God sees in their hearts that He would refuse to give them His Spirit? Only God knows, and He is always right. Whoever He takes in, and whoever He leaves out, we still trust Him to have judged us all rightly.

Why do the saints of God remain under the yoke of teachers with no power and no truth? Why do they sit quietly and hear things they know are not right? If God has punished His people again with imprisonment to such masters, they have no choice but to sit there until God chooses to open a way for their escape.

I believe He is doing that now. Many among the saints are hearing His call to "Come out of her, my people", and what a precious call that is! It is a call to freedom from the rule of men and women who in their hearts hate them and their God, though they claim to be serving Him.
Does this sound preposterous? Does it sound impossible that God’s precious sheep should be ruled over by men who hate them and their God? The Old Testament, which Paul said "was written for our admonition", tells us not to think so.

He Answered Them!

"Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name.
They called upon the Lord, and He answered them. . . .
You answered them, O Lord our God."
Ps. 99:6, 8a

When I read this, these words seemed to leap off the page at me. God answered them! And they were people just like us! This means that God is a God who can be called upon! Oh, the thought of it! What a great and wonderful thing!

James encouraged the saints to consider this wonderful truth about our God when he wrote this: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man subject to passions similar to ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the space of about three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

Do you need a job? Do you need a friend? Do you need healing? Do you need wisdom from God? Call upon the Lord, "for He cares for you." Jesus said that we do not need to talk a lot when we talk to God, pointing out that some people think that they were gain a hearing with God because they throw a lot of words up at Him (Mt. 6:7). Then he said, "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him." And He will answer! He is listening. He cares. He knows. And He will be your friend. He will even answer the prayer you don’t know how to pray. He will even help you pray it!

"For we know not how to pray as we ought,

but the spirit itself makes intercession for us . . . according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27).

Moses, Aaron, Samuel, and many others believed God was listening and that he cared, and that He was more than able to take care of them. The result? They prayed. And because they believed God and trusted in Him, He answered them. Everything in the Bible consistently proclaims that those righteous people were people just like us, and that God is the same to all generations.

That understanding, that feeling of joy and faith, is really what leaped off the page at me today. I believe I was being invited to ask, to seek, and to knock, and that I was being given a promise that God would answer me, too!

What "Kingdom" Means

"The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice!"
Ps. 97:1

"Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King."
Ps. 98:6

A kingdom is the domain of a king; it is not a democratic state. None of God’s subjects advise Him or have a hand in determining the laws of His kingdom. His word is the law, the only law, of His kingdom. Heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible, exist and move at the King’s pleasure, and there is nothing that can resist His power. His title, "Lord of hosts", means "Lord of armies", but in reality, He needs no army. He governs by His word. The universe itself was created and is sustained by the breath that comes out of His mouth (Ps. 33:6). We exist only because the King wants us to exist.

God does whatever He pleases to do in His kingdom, and "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord" (Prov. 21:30). There is no second ruler, or third, in God’s kingdom; there are only servants and sons. He does not need Jesus any more than He needs the heavenly armies of angels. It is only because He willed to have a Son that He has one, and the Son’s very life came from God and is in God’s hands. Jesus made this point when he said that God had given him life (Jn. 5:26) and that he lived only by the Father’s continued mercy (Jn. 6:57). God raises up, and God casts down, and there is no creature who can begin to comprehend His power and wisdom.

In God’s kingdom, He alone determines everything, and because of that, only a fool would dare to devise a standard of his own rather than to submit to the standard that God has ordained. Beyond that, it is a privilege to be allowed to live by God’s holy and good standard, for God is no beggar. "The Lord is a great God and a great King" (Ps. 95:3), and no great king begs for followers; a great king makes men bow.

Our King has chosen to make men bow by overwhelming us with His goodness. "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" (Ps. 33:5), and yet, for all that, most people on earth refuse to bow . . . for now. The King will not tolerate such insult forever. He has already announced that at some point, "every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess." But for the time being, wise men repent and submit themselves to the King of glory because of His goodness (Rom. 2:4).
God will be King forever (Ps. 10:16). He will always govern. For this reason, those who "despise government" will be cast into the Lake of Fire. God will always reign; He will always have standards that He expects His servants to meet; He will always give commandments (though "His commandments are not grievous"); and He will always be good.

Those who think that commandments are oppressive feel that way only because they are like Satan, who envied God’s power to make the rules. Those who seek a place where there is no government are fools; there is no such place anywhere. Even in Hell, God reigns according to His own good pleasure.

We praise God precisely because there is no place where He does not reign. We do not want to be anywhere without Him; we do not want to be anywhere but where He reigns because "He is good, and His mercy endures forever." We praise Him because we cannot live without Him. We don’t want to live without Him because He is good, and He loves us too much to leave us without His protective shadow. Like Jesus, we live by Him, and we love living by Him.

Our God is great! He is a great King and a good God. His kingdom (thankfully!) is forever, and if His holy spirit is in us, we are in the eternal kingdom "of His dear Son", for in Christ, "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy ghost" (Rom. 14:17). The King loved us so much that gave His only begotten Son so that we could partake of life in His kingdom. He will move heaven and earth for those who trust Him. He would make the sun stand still, or cast the stars down from heaven, or make a sea move back to make a way of escape for His children. It is no wonder that David sang, "The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice!" Who else would a sane man want to have sitting on the eternal throne?

Planted By God

"When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish,
it is that they shall be destroyed for ever;
The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted by the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God."
Ps. 92:7, 12-13

"Then his disciples came and said to him,
Don’t you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?
But he answered and said,
Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up."
Matthew 15:12-13

We become the planting of the Lord when He plants His seed in our hearts. Such planting can only be done by God; no man can penetrate the heart and create new life within, though a man may be used by God to deliver His seed (that is, His word) to others. Jesus warned us that every plant will be plucked up that is growing among the saints which is not the product of the incorruptible seed of God. But not only so; those intruders into the congregation of God will also be cast into the fire of God’s wrath (Mt. 13:30).

Those who truly delight in the law of God will be like a tree planted by rivers of water; their leaves will not fade, and they will always produce their fruit in the appropriate time (Ps. 1:3). They will be pruned by God, but they will not be discouraged by the pruning. If they stray from righteousness, they may even have dung spread around them (Lk. 13:8), but if they receive that correction from God, they will flourish again and be spared His wrath (Lk. 13:9). In other words, they will receive the chastisement of the Lord and will learn obedience by the things they are made to suffer, just as Jesus did (Heb. 5:8). They will not be called bastards, but sons (Heb. 12:8).

It means everything to be who you are and where you are because of something God has done instead of what you have done. If who you are and where you are is the result of your plans and your choices, it is not eternal; it will not last. You will be moved. But if you are who you are because God’s word came to you and made you who you are, and put you where you are, then there is hope. Abide in that place, and thank God for the opportunity to be a part of something that He has done. It is no small thing to have your life shaped by God’s hand.

Another Comforter

"But I have prayed for you ..."
Jesus, in Luke 22:32

"The Spirit prays for us according to the will of God ..."
Paul, in Romans 8:27

When Moses was about to die, he promised Israel that God would raise up a prophet like him from among them. This was Jesus. Likewise, when Jesus was about to die, he promised his disciples that God would send them "another Comforter". This was the holy Spirit.

The Greek word "another" that is used in this verse is a word that means "another of the same kind", not another of a different kind. Jesus was telling his disciples that they would be helped, or comforted, by the Spirit in the same way that he helped, or comforted, them. One example of this is found in th area of prayer.

Both Jesus and the holy Ghost pray for us. Jesus is our advocate with the Father (1Jn.2:1), interceding on our behalf (Heb. 7:25), and the holy Ghost is here within us, interceding for us to the Father (Rom. 8:26).

Even though our minds do not often understand what the holy Ghost is saying when it prays through us, we can rest assured that no one speaking by the Spirit is saying anything bad about Jesus (1Cor. 12:3). That is impossible because God’s Spirit is a Comforter of the same kind Jesus is – for us, not against us.

Strangers and Pilgrims

“Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken,
and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill,
the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
Jesus, in Matthew 24:40-41

“I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed,
the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Two women shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken,
and the other left. Two men shall be in the field,
the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
Luke 17:34-36

Jesus is talking in these two Scriptures about the day he appears in the sky to “catch up” those who have been faithful to him. This event is often referred to as “the Rapture”, even though those words are not found in the Bible. When Jesus appears in the sky, the dead in Christ shall be raised up, and then they and the saints who are yet living will be taken up together to meet the Lord (1Thes. 15-17).

In the two verses above, Jesus is teaching something that is often overlooked; that is, that we need not withdraw ourselves from society in order to be prepared for the Lord’s appearing. You will notice that Jesus said that two women would be working together, but only one would be taken away, and that two men would be working together, “one shall be taken, and the other left”. This tells us that in order to prepare for the Lord’s return need not seclude themselves in caves or communes. Jesus was not a hermit, and neither were any of his disciples. They “mixed it up” with people.

Jesus also mentioned a home scene where there was “two men in one bed, the one shall be taken and the other left.” This teaches us that there is no need to completely detach oneself from unbelievers who are close to them, even relatives living in the same house. It is true that Jesus said he considered his family to be only those who did the will of his heavenly Father (Mt. 12:47-50); at the same time, when Jesus was in agony on the cross, he asked his disciple John to take care of his mother for him (Jn. 19:25-27). This tells us that although Mary was not among those who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to him (in fact, she probably was among Jesus’ relatives who thought he has lost his mind, Mk. 3:21), still he retained his “natural affections” for her and, I suppose, for the rest of his natural relatives. We know that after he ascending to the Father, his mother and his brothers were among those waiting in the upper room for the Promise to be sent (Acts 1:14).

We Cannot Do It

Years ago, the Lord warned me not to try to make myself “a stranger and a pilgrim”, but let him make me different from others because he is the only on who knows how to do that rightly. He told me that those who separate themselves from people are over-religious and are trying to make themselves strangers and pilgrims. And at the same time, he told me that whenever anyone tries to make himself a stranger and a pilgrim, he makes himself strange, but not in a godly way. In fact, he showed me, the harder we try to make ourselves strangers and pilgrims the more over-religious and weird we become. In other words, the harder we try, in our own power and wisdom, to become strangers and pilgrims in this world, the more we fit into it. Only the righteousness of God makes us truly different from this world.

The Lord does not want you to separate yourself from anyone, other than what he leads you to do, and the Scriptures are very plain about who to be separate from. The Lord wants you to trust in him and let him set your standards and be the Separator if there is any separation to be done. You never have to choose your company when you walk in the Spirit; God will choose your company for you.

Paul said that only those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. I say, based on what the Lord has taught me, that those who try to separate themselves from the world only become more a part of it and the longer they stay away from people, the less likely they are to ever become sons of God.

Three Reasons For Meeting in a Home

“Likewise greet the congregation that is in their house.” (Romans 16:5)
“Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord,with the congregation that is in their house.” (1Corinthians 16:19)
“Salute the brothers who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the congregation that is in his house.” (Colossians 4:15)
“And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the congregation in your house.” (Philemon 1:2)

At one point or another, every time we deviate from God’s original plan, we hurt ourselves and others, and we end up having to do things God’s way after all. A prime example of this concerns Abraham’s nephew Lot. When God’s angels rescued Lot and his family from Sodom, they told him to take his family and flee to the mountains. They informed Lot that God was about to destroy the five nearby cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. But Lot did not want to flee to the mountains, and he begged God’s permission to enter into the city of Zoar instead. This meant that the city of Zoar would be spared the wrath of God that was about to fall on those cities. God mercifully allowed Lot to flee into the little city of Zoar instead of going to the mountains, but after God destroyed those other four cities, Lot and his daughters had to flee to the mountains anyway because the people in Zoar were so very wicked.

If Lot had done it God’s way to begin with, the wicked inhabitants of Zoar would have been destroyed along with the wicked inhabitants of the four other cities, and the whole world would have been a happier and safer place. Lot should have listened to the angels’ first instruction and gone to the mountains for safety.

Judging by the information available in New Testament books (see the verses above), God’s preferred place for His children in this covenant to gather together is in private homes. There are good, sound reasons for this. Three that stand out are the following:

(1)
Throughout the Bible, we see God, at times, speak to His people in unusual ways. We read about Ezekiel sitting silent among other Israelites, unable to speak for at least seven years unless the Spirit of God overshadowed him with a prophecy. We read about Jesus spitting on the ground and making mud with which he anointed the eyes of a blind man to heal him. We know that Jesus could have simply touched the man without making mud from his spittle, but for whatever reason, God ordained that Jesus do it with mud. We read about a prophet named Agabus who took off part of the apostle Paul’s clothing and used it to tie up his own hands as a prophetic sign of what would happen to Paul when he went to Jerusalem.

There are many such examples in the Scriptures, far too many to list here. But my point is that if God chooses to speak to His people by some unusual means, it is better for the saints to be gathered in a private home than in a public building because doing so reduces the chances that someone skeptical and unfamiliar with the ways of God will be there to ridicule a holy act of God.

God has spoken to us here in unusual ways during gatherings of the saints in my home. In one instance, a sister, moved by the Spirit, spent several minutes walking forward a few steps and then backward a few steps, saying over and over again, “Forward . . . Backward . . . Forward . . . Backward . . .” It was an unusual scene, but we knew that God was trying to tell us something, which He did. Through that same lady, He emphasized the great difference between the forward thoughts of God and the backward thoughts of man. It was a message that has, since that night several years ago, proved itself repeatedly to have been a message sent from God. The Lord was not speaking to the general public that night when this sister was walking forwards and backwards, and it is far better that we were meeting in my home than meeting in a building open to the public. I am sure that sister whom God was using felt freer to yield to the Spirit without having to be concerned about skeptical gazes of an unbelieving world being directed at her.

2)
A second major reason for God choosing private homes for His people to meet is that in a private setting, God’s children are much more likely to open up their hearts to one another. The Scriptures say to God’s children in this New Testament, “confess your faults to one another”, but what sensible child of God would feel free to confess a fault before the general public? The world neither understands nor loves God’s people, and it would be foolish for God’s people to confess their faults before the world.

It is no exaggeration for me to say that in over thirty years in meeting with God’s children in a home, either mine or someone else’s, I have heard God’s children a thousand times either confess their faults, or discuss personal problems, or ask for prayer for relatives or dear friends concerning private matters. Now you tell me, you who have some experience attending typical religious services in public meeting places, how many times in your life have you seen someone there stand up and talk about personal problems, or confess sensitive, personal faults, or ask for prayers for specific private issues? For most people, the answer will be, “never.”

How can we as a body of believers do things God’s way in public meeting places? It will never happen. And when God’s people, long ago, forsook God’s original plan of meeting in homes, and when they began to meet in abandoned heathen temples and to build churches, they lost the sense of family that God intended for them to share. Meeting in public places, which began in earnest during the time of the Roman emperor Constantine, was the beginning of the end of genuine fellowship among the saints of God.

3)
A third principal reason that God chose private homes for the gathering of His people concerns the government that must be exercised if there is to be a healthy body of Christ. Paul exhorted one young minister to “rebuke before all” anyone in the assembly of saints who sinned. Now, Paul certainly did not mean that transgressors should be rebuked before all the world; Paul knew better than to do that. He was dealing with sin in the presence of the household of faith, the gathered assembly of believers, where there was love enough to “cover a multitude of sin”, with the possibly of restoring a fallen brother (Gal. 6:1).

Even in cases of great wickedness, such as Paul mentioned to the Corinthians (1Cor. 5) and to Timothy (1Tim. 1:19-20) there was a healing purpose for severe chastisement. In the latter case, Paul plainly said his purpose for “turning some over to Satan” was so they “might learn not to blaspheme.” In other words, the punishment was intended to help those foolish men, not to destroy them. Paul did not publicly humiliate those transgressors; at the same time, he made certain that the body of Christ knew what had happened and why. That was Paul’s obligation to the saints, and he fearlessly fulfilled it.

These are three of the reasons for God’s choosing private homes for His family to gather in. This is the only way of serving God I have ever known, my father having been pastor of a home meeting group since before I was born, and I am convinced that for God’s people to meet regularly in public meeting places is contrary to the will of God and works against the development of genuine fellowship among the saints. Those who meet in my home understand these things, and they expect me to fulfill my obligation as their pastor just as Paul fulfilled his. They feel perfectly free to hear from God for themselves, to glorify God and edify one another, and to be filled with the Spirit of God while here.

I encourage every person who reads this who is not part of a home fellowship to pray about returning to God’s way of doing things and abandoning, as your place of gathering with other believers, public meeting places. They work against your growth together as a family in Christ.

Equal With God?

“But Jesus answered them, Up to now, my Father is working, and I also work. For this reason, the Jews then wanted all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (Jn. 5:17-18).

The last part of John 5:18, above, has never made sense to me. I never have been able to understand why John says Jesus was claiming to be equal with God just because Jesus referred to God as his Father (in verse 17). After all, God had sometimes called Himself the father of His Old Testament people long before Jesus came. For example, in Malachi 1:6, God asked His people why they did not respect Him: “If I be a father, where is my honor?” And Isaiah cried out to God on behalf of us Gentiles who in the future would believe, “Doubtless, you are our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. You, O Lord, are our father, our redeemer; your name is from everlasting” (63:16). Do those verses imply that either the Gentiles who believe in Christ or the Israelites who lived under the Law are equal with God? Of course not. Then why would John have written that Jesus was claiming to be equal with God by calling God his Father?

Consider what Jesus said in the next verse: “Truly, truly, I tell you the Son can do nothing of himself except what he sees the Father do.” Does that sound as if Jesus is making himself equal with God? Moreover, in the verses that follow, Jesus makes many statements that show he did not think he was equal with God:

verse 20 For the Father delights in the Son and shows him everything that He Himself is doing, and greater works than these will He show him that will make you marvel.

verse 22 The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son

verse 23 so that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

verse 26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has also given the Son life in himself,

verse 27 and He has given him authority to exercise judgment because he is the Son of man.

verse 30 Of myself, I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I’m not seeking my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.

verse 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness isn’t true.

verse 32 There’s another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness He bears of me is true.

verse 36 But I have the witness greater than John. For the works that my Father gave me to complete, the very works that I’m doing, bear witness of me, that the Father sent me.

verse 37 And the Father who sent me has Himself borne me witness.

verse 38 And you don’t have His word abiding in you because you don’t trust the one He sent.

verse 43 I have come in my Father’s name and you don’t receive me

verse 45 Don’t think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you put your hope.

Jesus is not equal with God. No one is. So then, how could John have written that by calling God his Father, Jesus was making that claim?

The answer, I think, is that John was not saying Jesus was making that claim but that the Jews thought he was. Therefore, in my translation, I am considering adding a clarifying phrase, as here:

“But Jesus answered them, Up to now, my Father is working, and I also work. For this reason, the Jews then wanted all the more to kill him, because, they said, not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

Now, that I can understand. Evil men, influenced by spirits of envy and strife, have always twisted the words of good men to promote themselves and condemn the upright. The Bible states that Pontius Pilate discerned that the Jews were bringing Jesus to him for crucifixion because they envied him. And after all these years, I think I have finally discerned that, from that same envy and strife, the Jews were twisting Jesus’ words to mean something he never even thought; namely, that he was equal with God. When one young man flattered Jesus by calling him, “good master”, Jesus stopped him cold. He said to the surprised youth, “Why do you call me good? There is none good but God.”

That is the real Jesus. That is the way Jesus feels now, and has always felt. The fact that evil men tried to make it appear as if Jesus was puffing himself up to be equal with God is only to be expected. They are still around, and they are still doing as they have always done to those who really do love God and seek to honor none but Him.

A Proud Man

“There is more hope of a fool than for him.”
Solomon, in Proverbs 26:12

Anything good a proud man does, does him no good at all. If he reads the Bible, he just becomes prouder because of the fact that he has read the Bible. This was a terrifying lesson to me when I first learned it, for it taught me not to take credit for anything good I might do.

If a proud man worships God, he only becomes prouder because of the fact he has worshiped God. If he falls on his face and cries out to God, he only becomes prouder of how much he has prayed. If he helps the poor, the sees himself as better than the poor man. If he brings God his tithes and offerings, the larger the amount he brings, the prouder he grows. If he ceases from doing evil deeds, he becomes proud of his goodness.

Pride is a horrible trap. For if a proud man does good, he becomes more evil because of it. This is why Solomon said that there was more hope for a fool than for a proud man.

How Long Will It Be?

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

“How long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be, ere they believe me?” (God, in Numbers 14:11)

There is nothing good that God’s children are doing that they could not do if they obey the call of the Spirit and come out of Christianity. We do not need to participate in any earthly religious system in order to accomplish the will of our heavenly Father. We can do whatever we are doing that is right and, I contend, do it even better, without being under the yoke of religious traditions and doctrines. There is no commandment of God that requires His people to join any of man’s religions to be able to do it.

Can you think of anything that God’s saints are doing that is right and holy, that they would not be able to do if they were out of Christianity instead of in it? I can’t. They can even gather together to edify one another without partaking in an earthly religious system.

The mystery is this: If God’s people do not need it, and if they could serve God better without it, then why do they cling so fiercely to it? And why does the call to come out of it anger so many people who believe in Jesus? Outside the gate of Christianity, we can only love him more – more purely, more completely, more acceptably, more “in spirit and in truth”, more in harmony with the Father and the Son, and more in unity with one another.

God’s call to come out of her, my people” is only a call from the Father to more of His spirit and power, more of His knowledge, more of His love and truth, more of His grace and goodness; in short, more of everything that is pure and holy in Christ. Where is the down side of doing our Father’s will and coming out?

Other Questions

I just asked, “Can you think of anything that God’s saints are doing that is right and holy, that they would not be able to do if they were out of Christianity instead of in it?” But let me ask the opposite question now. Can you think of anything that is wrong and unholy that God’s children are doing simply because they are in Christianity? Those of you who know the truth can point to many things that you know God’s precious people are doing that are not right in God’s sight, precisely because they participate in one of Christianity’s many sects. Wouldn’t it be better for us all to come away from the wrong, so that we can do more of what is right and please our heavenly Father more fully?

We can trust our heavenly Father. He is not calling us to a heavy burden. On the contrary, He is calling us away from one, the heavy burden of the doctrines and commandments of men. Our Father is not calling us into a trap. He is calling us out of one.

He is calling in love, for our good. And there is no doubt in my mind that His heart is hurting again for His children and that He is asking again the question He asked Moses after the Great Wilderness Rebellion, “How long will it be ere they believe me?”

How long will it be, I wonder, before God’s people finally recognize that it is His loving voice, not mine or any other man’s, crying out, “Come out of her, my people”, and that He is only calling them to where they really want to go?

Hiding the Children’s Food

“What I tell you in darkness, that speak in light;
and what you hear in the ear, that preach upon the housetops.
And fear not them who can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;
rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Jesus, in Matthew 10:27

There are several reasons why I have chosen not to be part of a religious organization, but one of the most important has to do with what I have seen and heard from men who minister within the confines of religious sects.

In years past, I have spoken with ministers who confided to me some truth they had learned from God, but who would not dare to reveal to their congregations what Jesus had taught them. These were not wicked men. Some of them were good men whom I loved and respected for their moral integrity and their love for God and people. But they were in an incredibly difficult position. They had been hired by a religious organization to teach that sect’s brand of the gospel, and they knew that if they revealed to their congregation what Jesus had taught them, they would certainly be fired as pastor.

One such brother, a Pentecostal Holiness minister whom I still love, called me one evening to discuss what Jesus had shown him about communion. I could tell that he wanted to teach the truth to his congregation but that he feared to do so. So, he had come up with a clever plan. He would teach the truth about communion along with several other ideas about it, ideas that were taught by various sects around the world. That way, the congregation wouldn’t be able to say he was actually teaching it as the gospel, or that he really believed it himself. If the truth was taught as only one of several possible interpretations, he figured, people would see him as only doing his duty to educate his flock in what some people thought about the subject.

There are others here with the same testimony I have. One minister, for example, told Sister Lou that if he confessed before his congregation that he had received the holy Ghost baptism and spoke with tongues, they “would run me out of town.”

There have been others, men from the Church of God, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other sects, who received things from God and talked to me about it, but who could not muster the courage to confess the truth they knew to their flocks. And again, I am not speaking of evil men; I am talking about men with the light of life within them, though it was concealed, as it were, under a bushel. They had all been hired to teach only those things that fit within the doctrinal limits of their respective sects.

It was an awfully hard trial! They knew that their family’s financial security would be put at risk if they dared to tell the congregation what they had received from God, and it was heart-breaking to watch them bear that burden. In time, judging by what I saw in the lives of such dear brothers, I came to hate the whole idea of “religious organization”. Where is any such thing found in the Bible anyway?

I am free to tell my flock that I have been wrong and that they have been wrong because they have not hired me to do anything. They have no influence over what I preach or when. They, like me, are after the truth, no matter where it leads us. Doing the will of God is of first importance to all of us. And they are confident that if God shows me a better way, I will not hide it from them. They know that I am free to embrace it and that I will tell them about it, in case they want to come with me.

In truth, these precious souls are here with me because Jesus sent them here to help me, just as I am here to help them. I have never gone out looking for “members”. Jesus sends me the help I need. These sheep of God’s flock have simply heard the truth from me, and the truth has made them free. Moreover, God put it in their hearts to forward the work He gave me by joining with me in it, and by bringing in their tithes and offerings so that the good things we publish for God’s people everywhere may continue to be published, and so that I, their servant, can “live of the gospel”, as God has ordained (1Cor. 9:14). Tens of millions of gospel tracts, books, and audio/video productions have been produced and sent out by the people associated with this work over the decades. And as far as I can tell, they all “do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto man”, and would not stop living and giving as they do even if told to stop. They know the will of God, and doing His will is first in their lives. Following Jesus’ perfect example, we have never “taken up a collection”. Nor has anyone here ever heard me ask for money. If the congregation does the will of God, the shepherd does not have to beg for wool. Happy, well-fed sheep produce that without being told to.

This is the way it ought to be for God’s servants everywhere. The servant of God must be free from all forms of pressure to hide from God’s children what he hears from God. Every minister of Christ everywhere ought to renounce the system of pleasing a religious organization and be a true servant of God for His people – boldly and in love speaking the truth they hear from Jesus. They would be amazed at the results. Feeding the sheep in God’s pasture is the way to bless the sheep so that the sheep can feed the shepherd.

To hide children’s bread from them, for fear of their reaction to it, or for any other reason, cannot possibly be the way Christ wants us to live. It is the word of God that will unite us who believe. But how can that happen so long as His servants are afraid to tell His people what they have heard?

Time, Purpose, and Judgment

Dear John,

I just want to say thank you for writing the All Things book. It has touched my heart so deeply that I can only cry as I read it page by page. I just finished proofreading the chapter on Solomon. I am very grateful to Jesus that he let you understand Solomon’s wisdom concerning time, purpose, and judgment, so that we could be taught it and live. I cannot even put into words how I feel right now except to say that I feel overwhelmed with God’s love and mercy.

I don’t know if it’s available or not, but it would be nice to have that one chapter of the book made into a little booklet that could be given out to hurting people. There is healing in it because it shows God’s heart towards His people.

With love,
Bess
========

Hi Bess:

You have helped us a lot in getting this book ready to be re-printed. Your proof-reading help, as well as the help of others, is invaluable.

That particular chapter in Solomon’s Wisdom, concerning “time, purpose, and judgment” seems to have an especially powerful effect on people who have been hurt. A lady from my Community College OT class took the book on her vacation some years ago, and when she returned, she told me the same thing you said. For me, it was touching when she described sitting on the beach in her beach chair, crying behind her sunglasses as she read that part of the book.

If, from reading the book, someone like this lady, who is going through an especially difficult time, gets the sense that God really loves and will take care of her, then I have accomplished my mission in writing it. It is difficult to have faith in God unless you really feel that he cares about you as a person.

I am doing so much work right now in preparation for re-printing all our books that I can’t see making that portion of the book separate booklet just yet, but I will keep it in mind for a possible future project, and I do thank you for your comments.

jdc

Humbling Ourselves to the Scriptures

A letter from Brother Jerry.

Hi Brother John,

Sheila and I have been reading your new translation of the Gospel of John this morning, and there are two things in particular that have really stood out to me.

In chapter 8, Jesus plainly explained to the Jews that they could not hear Him because He told the truth and the truth was not in them. He told them that they seek to kill Him because he told the truth and that “Abraham did not do this”.

Then we continued reading into chapter 9, about the blind man who stood before the Jews after Jesus opened his eyes. They did not want to accept that Jesus, by the power of God, had made this blind man to see. In 9:27, it says he (the healed blind man) answered them, “I told you already, and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again?” I told Sheila, “Wow, we just read this in chapter 8. Jesus had already told them, “You can’t hear me because I tell the truth”, and now they can’t hear this man telling the truth, so they asked him to tell it again, looking for something else. I thought that it was incredible that Jesus had just told them their condition in chapter 8.

Then it says in verses 30-34: “The man answered and said to them, ‘Well, here is an amazing thing. You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God doesn’t hear sinners, but if anyone be God-fearing and do His will, He hears him. From the beginning of time, it hasn’t been heard that someone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man weren’t from God, he couldn’t do anything.’ They answered and said to him, ‘You were altogether born in sin, and do you teach us?’ And they cast him out.” Wow.

The other thing that thrills my soul is this. In 12:37 it says, “Although so many miracles had been done by him in [the multitude’s] presence, they did not believe in him.” Then, in verse 39 it says, “This is why they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, [God] has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and be converted, and [God] should heal them.”

Those verses about God blinding and hardening the hearts of the people made me think of this. I just read in Exodus about Pharaoh’s heart being hardened over and over again by God, to fight against God. Pharaoh had no choice but to resist God because God chose to use him that way. I have read in the scriptures that “By the hands of wicked men, Jesus was delivered up.” And God said through Isaiah that the people could not hear or understand “lest they be converted, and I heal them.” God made choice among all of those people, to not allow them to obtain to His righteousness. Pharaoh was not allowed to please God and do the will of God by letting the people leave Egypt. The crowd in John was not allowed to understand and be converted and be healed and, ultimately, saved. And the will of God (to have Jesus crucified) was put into the hearts of men, by God, to be carried out. And afterward, God would judge them for it.

I thought this. If a man wanted to have a bank robbery carried out, by someone other than himself, he would not go to a righteous man’s home to find a robber; he would go to a den of thieves. He would go to a man that already had thievery in his heart and then just give him a new idea about what he already wanted to do.

Yes, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But all that means is that means that Pharaoh was not a righteous man. He was a man who was going to defy God anyway. And his heart was hardened so that the glory of God could be seen amongst God’s people. God did not choose a righteous man to harden, to carry out the evil deed; he chose a man who only needed a new idea of how to be himself.

In John’s gospel, God chose everyone in that crowd that day, who would believe or not believe Jesus. It says that God made them blind and hardened their hearts so that they would not be converted and be healed. I bet, with all confidence, that God did not leave one person in the dark who had a right heart.

And when it was time for the awful deed of crucifying Jesus, only wicked men could do such a thing. I have heard you say that “They could not have gotten Peter to do it.” God just gave a new idea to men who already had a heart to kill an innocent man.

There are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. Doesn’t it read “God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and harden whom He will harden”? I am so thankful that I sincerely believe that God would pass me by if he was looking for a wicked man to sin against Him. What a privilege to be a vessel of honor!

God uses darkness to contrast the light, and dark-hearted people to work in that darkness. Thank God for being called to the light! I was in darkness before that call. It was only God’s choice that got me out and got me to Him. I was worse than many around me. It was just by His mercy that He chose me.

What a good day.

Thanks,
Jerry
============

Hi Jerry:

Over the years, both as a student and a teacher, I have noticed some significant differences in people’s attitudes toward the Bible. I have had professors and students who, when considering difficult passages in the Bible, just shrugged them off as evidences that humans were the authors of the Bible, and so, errors and contradictions were only to be expected. On the other hand, I have seen people humble themselves when they come upon Scriptures that seemed contradictory or difficult to explain, and confessed their need of God’s help to comprehend His book. Let us choose the latter course.

The Bible’s assertion that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart has given many people theological problems, for that act of God conflicts with the nature of the sweetie-pie god that is often proclaimed to this generation. God will harden hearts. The Bible says so; therefore, let us humble ourselves to fear before Him!

You have chosen the path that leads to a real knowledge of the true God. You have chosen to confess that what the Bible tells us about God is true. When we do that, our understanding is enlightened, for we receive what God has given to us for our good. I would that all people everywhere would simply confess that the Bible is true. If they did that, they would grow in the knowledge of God.

Your explanation of what kind of man Pharaoh must have been in order for God to harden his heart is a prime example of what I am talking about. Rather than argue with the facts that the Bible gives, you have chosen to believe the Bible, and the result is that you have increased in the knowledge and fear of God.

May God grant all of us, always, that same humility when we face things that we cannot make sense of. God is always right. Praise His holy name!

Pastor John

Taking Away the Flesh and the Blood

From the Gospel of John, chapter 6:52-56, 60-63

"Then the Jews murmured among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Therefore, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, if you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I’ll raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."

. . .

"Then, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you should see the Son of man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is worthless. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Sitting in his tiny apartment in about 1960, Uncle Joe never guessed, as he sat reading the Bible and writing out his thoughts, that in 2008, his writings would answer a question that I had often asked myself when reading the words of Jesus from John 6:62 (above).

I never understood why Jesus all of a sudden changed the subject from eating his flesh and drinking his blood to that of his coming ascension into heaven. That comment seemed to me to be out of place, and there are several scriptures just like that in the Bible. When I read them, I say, “What is that comment doing here?”

But Uncle Joe answered my question about John 6:62 this morning. This is a portion of what he wrote:

"Now we know, and all sensible people will agree, that the wine that Jesus poured and gave to the disciples to drink, and bread that he brake and gave them to eat, was not his natural body nor his natural blood, for his flesh was still on his bones and his blood still ran warm in his veins. And, yet, he tells the Jews in John chapter 6that they must eat [his flesh and drink his blood] or “have no life in you” (verse 53). Since we see that the wine and the bread partaken of by the disciples were not really his flesh and blood, we know that it was symbolic of something else, yet to be given to them.

"In John 6, when Jesus saw that he had offended the Jews by his saying, he said to them, “What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?” In my understanding, he was saying to them, 'Suppose you see me go away into heaven, taking this flesh and blood with me? What then?'

"Then again we hear his words, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63)."

Of course! This is the reason Jesus made that surprise comment in John 6:62 about his return to the Father. Seeing that the Jews were offended because they thought Jesus was teaching that people had to eat his natural flesh and drink his natural blood, he asked them what would they do if he took his natural body away from mankind, and no one could ever possibly eat his flesh and drink his blood? Why, that would mean nobody would ever be saved! In reminding his followers that he would be returning to the Father, Jesus was trying to show them that he was not talking about eating and drinking natural things. That is why he finished by saying, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is worthless. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Coming Out For Unity

The apostle Paul said, “I appeal to you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same understanding and in the same judgment” (1Cor. 1:10). Just hours before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus earnestly prayed for those who would believe in him, that “they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me (Jn. 17:21).

The unity of His children is a matter of the highest concern to our heavenly Father. And His will in this matter is why we have come out of all sectarian religion. Just look around, and you will see that every religion that is of man on the earth is hopelessly divided. And for God’s dear children to join any of the sects within these religious systems, including the one called Christianity, automatically separates that believer from God’s other children who join other sects. Supporting one sect’s doctrine and traditions is to oppose the efforts of other believers who support the doctrines and traditions of other sects. We are opposing each other as long as we belong to sects with conflicting doctrines and rituals.

Since God’s will is for His children to be one, as He and His Son are one (Jn. 17:20-23), then it must be His will for all us who believe in Jesus to forsake all that divides us. He can heal us! But this healing can never happen as long as we cling to our preferred sect.

We, and others like us around the world, are badly misunderstood, and we have been criticized severely for refusing to participate in anything that would divide us from God’s dear people, but I maintain that what we have done is the only reasonable course for the children of God to take. We live in this country, and are divided by geography from most of God’s people in other lands. But we can do nothing about those kinds of differences. But we can do something about our choice to join or not join a denomination and sect. We have been shown by Christ Jesus to love our fellow believers too much to do that.

Admittedly, it will require a mighty miracle for God to unite us, even if we all do His will and abandon the sects which we have joined, but should we not at least make ourselves available to our Father in hope that He might at least possibly do that miracle? In just six days, God created this entire universe out of nothing. Think of what he might do for us if we would just co-operate with Him and give Him a chance! On the other hand, please consider this: If we refuse our Father’s call and cling to the sects and denominations we have chosen, there is no possibility that we will ever be one, as the Father and the Son are united. Is that what we really want?

If we love fervently one another, and if we love our heavenly Father with all our hearts, then surely we will feel compelled to come out of all that divides us and to pray, as one, that Jesus will show us truth that will heal the breaches in our fellowship. Does it make any difference how impossible it seems now? Our God is mighty! He can unite us, we believe, if we will but co-operate with Him. Oh, let’s trust our heavenly Father to help us be what He has always wanted us to be! He can make it possible that we “speak the same thing and have no divisions among you, but be united in the same understanding and in the same judgment.”

The apostle Paul told the saints in Philippi that he wanted them to have the same love, one for another (Phip. 2:1-4). I, and others I know, hold you so dear to our hearts that we have forsaken everything under our control that would divide us from you. Now, how much do you love us?

Happy Is The man Whom God Corrects

From Sister Ashley.

Lately, it has been stressed that we need to know why we are here, and know that this way of life is what we want. Of course, this makes you go through a period where you "check" yourself. Asking God how you're doing, if anything needs fixing, etc. A friend of mine had the best testimony the other week, and in it she was saying she had been going through a time like that. She was wondering if in her heart she was 100% for God’s way of life. And she said the Spirit reminded her of everything she has gone through in the past year or so, and how she gave up something that she'd always wanted, marriage and a family, because the man she was married to didn't want God anymore and was very abusive, physically and mentally. But she didn't have to keep loving God. He was showing her that she did have a heart to do what is right, and that she showed it by the life she chose to continue living.

Well, last week, I was going through the same thing, asking God if I really had a heart for him, and the same thing happened. I started remembering everything that I have gone through this past year. I lost my father, brother, and my mother to this world, but I hung in there, by the grace of God. And then He blessed me beyond what I could have imagined. During this past year, I have been scourged to the bone by God, and I was thinking about that, and I was reminded of a conversation with Token a few months back. I was very sick, and she came to see me. She was rubbing my head and said "God sure does love you." I looked at her, kind of wondering where that came from, and she reminded me of the scriptures in the bible referring to God chastening those He loves. And when you think of that, what love it is! Not that it feels good to be chastened at the time,but afterwards, the cleanness and the love in it overwhelm the rest. Here are the scriptures that I found referring to the love of God's chastisement, from such great men as John, Paul, Job, and David (you can tell that they had their share, but loved God for it):

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: (Job 5:17)

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; (Psalm 94:12)

The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. (Psalm 118:18)

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:11)

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:32)

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 3:19)

The Road To Salvation

Good afternoon Bro John,

I drew near to the Lord this morning, and this is what I heard.

If you are overtaken in a fault, you do not need to repent of the fault, you need to repent of the road you are on, the road that had the fault on it. There is no sin on the road to salvation. This road, the road of the Spirit, leads home to Christ and it knows the way perfectly. Sin is not on this road.

On this road, a living road, God is always communicating with His children. Like a shipmaster constantly guiding. He never stops tweeking the wheel. God is a living voice in our inner ear, and if we follow, then we are being led by the Spirit, and that makes us sons of God, according to the scriptures.

We need to seek to learn the voice of God, knowing that it leads to salvation, and follow it perfectly. We should expect for it to tell us things that we would not have thought of. Or give us instruction that we would not have chosen on our own. If we were doing all the things that it told us already, we would have no need for it.

Sometimes, it might tell us to do something that we may not especially want to do. Or tell us to refrain from something that we see no harm in or might enjoy. God may give us such instruction with no further insight into it. Our place is to obey, not asking why before we do it. Asking our Father why we should do something is the lesser attempting to qualify the motive of the greater. To ask why is to say "Let me see if your reason is good enough for me to carry this out." That is what children are doing when they ask why before following the instruction of their parent, and it is not good in the sight of the Lord. If left to grow in children, it will produce an adult defiant to authority and unable to obey God without some painful reconditioning.

Men should obey the Lord with complete submission, knowing that everything He does is for our good, even when it hurts. And by that, we are made fit to be followed by our wives in the same manner and then we can, with all confidence, require our children to follow us both.

Feeding the Lambs

It is the tendency of the human fleshly nature to shirk its responsibilities. A person “walking in the flesh”, as Paul would put it, will be inclined to escape duty, sometimes by making another feel that the duty is his. And this can happen among believers as well as those of the world.

It is a father’s responsibility to lead his family in the ways of Christ. It is not a pastor’s responsibility to teach anyone else’s children about Jesus and the truth of the gospel. The flesh would have a parent to take the children to religious gatherings and be content with that for their education, but there is nothing that can ever take the place of godly instruction from the parents, at home, especially instruction from the father.

It is the shepherd’s responsibility to feed the sheep, but it is the ewe’s responsibility to feed her lambs. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice; the lambs do not. The little ones follow their parents wherever they go, and they trust their parents. It is the parents’ responsibility to know who they are following.

It can be flattering to a minister when the congregation begins to laud him and lean on him and look to him for spiritual guidance for their whole families. It can puff up a man to think that he can actually feed the whole families of other men, but to try to do that is a self-destructive trap. To labor to supply others’ families the spiritual meat which the head of each house alone is ordained by God to supply is too much of a burden for any man. It is to spend one’s strength doing what is another’s responsibility to do, and no man is capable of bearing that burden for long.

Fathers, guide your own children, whom God has placed in your care, “in the fear and admonition of the Lord.” No one can replace you in your children’s eyes. Mothers, diligently do your part in teaching your children of the ways of God. No one else can do that for them as you can. Everyone in the body has a part in the life of everyone else in the body. But no one in the body can play the part of anyone else, for “God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He wanted. But if one member were everything, where would the body be?” (1Cor. 12:18-19).

Uncle Joe, 2: Peace

After Uncle Joe had been healed of cancer, he continued to receive a disability check from the government until his health so much improved that the checks were discontinued. During the time that he was receiving the checks, he was consumed with Bible study and writing little messages which, to this day, almost no one has ever read. The following quote is taken from one of those little messages. It is a wisdom that is obtained only by those who find themselves utterly alone with God. This is the place Uncle Joe found himself in 1959 when he was given no more than ninety days to live. He spent the remaining thirty-seven years of his life praising God and testifying of the value of finding oneself alone with God.

“Before peace can be established in any country, there must be a conquering power. The aggressive forces of evil must be subdued by a power greater than they. This is also true in the life of every individual. No man or woman has ever found peace until the power of God’s holy Spirit has driven out the natural human tendency toward rebellion and strife.”

The nature of man is sinful and stubborn and must be subdued by God before anyone can have peace in his heart. We must be delivered from ourselves! May God help us to submit quickly to His authority and to receive Him as conqueror of our souls. He demands our unconditional surrender, and only those who yield to His demand ever experience the joy of real peace.

In God's Presence

After Uncle Joe had been healed of cancer, he continued to receive a disability check from the government until his health so much improved that the checks were discontinued. During the time that he was receiving the checks, he was consumed with Bible study and writing little messages which, to this day, almost no one has ever read. The following quote is taken from one of those little messages. It is a wisdom that is obtained only by those who find themselves utterly alone with God. This is the place Uncle Joe found himself in 1959 when he was given no more than ninety days to live. He spent the remaining thirty-seven years of his life praising God and testifying of the value of finding oneself alone with God.

“The nearer we get to God, the harder we seek Him
because in His presence, we feel our weakness.”

Social Introductions

From a home prayer meeting in 1969

Uncle Joe testified in a meeting in 1969 and left us this pearl. I’ll summarize how he started his testimony that day:

I think we ought to forget about all that formal, social introduction to each other when we meet the children of God and let God introduce Himself. Let the Spirit of God in each of us have fellowship through each other, and then we’ll know each other, and we won’t have to ask very many questions. We don’t have to go through all that commotion the world goes through in order for us to get acquainted. God’s already acquainted with Himself, and we belong to Him. We’re all one family.

This testimony reminded me of an observation made by Sister Donna not long ago. She laughed when she thought of how often we all have greeted one another when we meet and the Spirit of God would fall on us. After that blessing of God was given, we often back up a little and then do the obligatory, "How are you?" But the holy Ghost has already told us how we are! It is as Uncle Joe said, just let the Spirit within us have its fellowship among us, and we will know each other. And we will know how each other is really doing by the feelings of the Spirit within us. We will not have to go through the usual, worldly motion of introduction and inquiry..

The apostle Paul said something like this when he told the Corinthians that he was coming. There was some controversy among the saints at that time, and Paul said that when he arrived, he would know how everyone was doing by the power of God that they had (1Cor. 4:19). I doubt very seriously that when Paul arrived in Corinth and gathered with the saints, he shook their hand and said, "How ya doin’?"

Of course, this can be taken to an extreme and make people afraid to ask any questions of each other, but Uncle Joe’s point was a good one. We really do not know how anyone is doing unless we know their spirits, and with enough spiritual discernment, there will not be many questions that we need to ask.

Pearls from the Preacher

"The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd."
Eccl. 12:11

From a home prayer meeting in 1969

When I listened to the sermon of that Sunday afternoon prayer meeting in Grandma’s house in 1969, I wrote down some of the wisdom that I heard. Here are a few examples from Preacher Clark:

"When you quit seeking God, that’s when you quit getting God."

"You know, a hypocrite never bothers anybody but another hypocrite."

"I’m not even worthy of the honor and the praise of the clean children of God until I get equipped to stand the persecution of the others."

"I’m the happiest man in the world that I know. The happiest man in the world that I know is me because I’m not battling disappointments. If it doesn’t go like I’d like it to go, then I like it the way it does go. I rejoice in tribulation. I praise God for tribulation."

"You’re not going to win anybody to Christ until they decide they want to be like you."

"If you fall in love with the Lord, you won’t have a hard time being true to him."

"Just tell me you love Jesus, and you’re my friend."

Know Thyself

Hey Pastor John!

I have been listening to the Philippians/Colossians teaching series that you did and we are preparing as a series for everyone. I heard you say this last night on one of the CDs, and I wrote it down:

"If you know why you are doing what you are doing, and why you are where you are, what can intimidate you? What you want and need to know is you. What you want to know is you, in God.

Who are you? What are you after? Where did you come from? How did you get here? And, what's your point? Even Socrates said, 'Know Thyself'. He knew that is where you needed to start.

Know your own heart. Know your own mind. Pray, 'God, show me myself!' If He shows you that new creature He created, you are going to like yourself."

Then, I thought about what you told us last Sunday when reading in Ephesians chapter 4. What seemed like "commandments" in the New Testament are really descriptions of who we are in Christ. If you don't know you, you can start there! 8-)

Amy

The God of Eternity

"I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever."
Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 3:14

Bro. John:

I want to share something that the Lord gave me today about how important it is to submit ourselves to God’s love.

Yielding to the Spirit IS submitting to God’s love. It is letting God love us. I was thinking on that this morning, and how God has a purpose in everything that He does. The Lord spoke to me and said, "I am the God for Eternity." Then He began to teach me what that meant.

God is not a "temporary fixer-upper." What He does for us when we yield to His Spirit goes towards readiness for Eternity. His touches are FOR Eternity. He does something in our souls that is lasting. God is FOR Eternity! And what He does for us is for Eternity! He is not offering His love to us for us to sit and watch it fall. What else can you call the Spirit than the love of God in action? It is only in submitting and yielding to that love through His Spirit that we will find the "forever" touches that will prepare us to live with the "God for Eternity". Nothing is temporary with Him. He means it for Eternity.

When I woke up this morning, I got my coffee and was going to catch up on the news. The Lord said, "Why don’t you spend some time with me?" Praise God! I am so glad that I did. I started reading in Colossians, and then was led to read in Ecclesiastes, and ended in Joshua 7. God had something for me in every place I read. The news reports would have been temporary; what God had for me took my heart towards Eternity.

Later in the day, thinking about what the Lord had shown me earlier, I found in Ecclesiastes 3:14 what Solomon said: "I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: Nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it; and God doeth it, that men should fear before him."

Sandy
===========

Thank you, Sandy. That is so good!

I learned from your testimony that when God is blessing us, He is doing something in us and for us that He intends to last forever. He is not preparing us just to survive the next few hours. He is the God of eternal things. If we understand that, then when God blesses us, we will be more likely to hold on to our blessings.

Now, we know that when God blesses, the blessing doesn’t decrease. It is an eternal thing. If we lose the joy, it is not because God didn’t give us enough of it; rather, it is because we went somewhere where the blessing was not. We left it behind. When I thought on that, I realized that holding on to the blessings God gives us is what the Bible calls being faithful. We are faithful when we refuse to leave the place where God blesses us. We are faithful when we refuse to be drawn into a quarrel, or join in a dishonest scheme, or go anywhere, spiritually, where God’s blessings are not given. The faithful man stays in that spiritual place where God blesses.
Let’s hold on to the attitude that God blesses. Let’s keep walking in the way that God blesses. Let’s keep confessing Christ and loving our neighbor as ourselves because those are "places" where God blesses.

Your testimony reminded me of some words from Darren’s new song (what a holy song that is!): "Doesn’t everybody know the feelings last forever?" Our fellowship in Christ lasts forever, for, being from God, it is a forever thing. May God give us strength to stand fast in the place of that holy fellowship and not be lured away by the flesh or by unclean spirits.

Pastor John

A Greater Is Here

"Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. . ."
Hebrews 6:1

In the verse above, "leaving" does not mean denying or ignoring; it means building upon. All the truth God reveals now builds upon truth that was revealed before.

No one truly understands or believes in John the Baptist’s baptism until he understands and believes that John’s baptism is no longer to be practiced. The truth of "one baptism" does not deny or ignore John’s baptism; it simply leaves it behind as we are brought nearer to God. If there is anyone on earth still making the animal sacrifices that Moses commanded, that person does not understand animal sacrifice as well as I do because I have left it behind. By the grace of God, I have believed those sacrifices were of God, but I am now closer to God than the Old Testament characters who had to perform such sacrifices. In Christ, I am beyond those works of the Law. In Christ, I understand those animal sacrifices, and, understanding them, I do not participate in them.

Jesus didn’t deny that Solomon had wisdom from God, but he did say that "a greater than Solomon is here." He did not deny or ignore the fact that Moses’ tabernacle or, later, the Temple in Jerusalem was holy, but he did say, "in this place, is one greater than the temple." He knew the story of Jonah was true and that the whole population of Nineveh, over one hundred twenty thousand people, including their king, repented at Jonah’s preaching. But he told a group of Pharisees, "a greater than Jonah is here." We do not deny the truth God revealed to the prophets and elders of Israel by leaving their revelation behind to draw closer to God. On the contrary, we deny that Jesus is greater than those Old Covenant men and objects when we do not leave them behind.

Paul knew that the Law of Moses was holy (Rom 7:12). He did not deny that. He made it perfectly clear to all his listeners that he understood the glory of God was in the Law and its ceremonies. Nevertheless, he had left those things behind as he built upon them to view the surpassing excellency of Christ. He wrote, "Now if the ministry of death written in letters engraved on stones was so glorious that the sons of Israel were not able to look steadily upon Moses’ face because of the glory of his countenance (which glory is being brought to an end), how is the ministry of the Spirit not more glorious? If there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound with glory. For indeed, that which was made glorious has come to have no glory in comparison to the surpassing glory of Christ." (2Cor.3:7-10). Paul neither denied nor ignored the holiness of the things God had given to Israel, but he left them behind. He rose above them to live in the Spirit of Christ.

In Christ, we leave behind what once were holy things, such as holy days and Sabbaths, physical circumcision, an earthly temple, the burning of incense, and ceremonial robes. We do not deny those things were of God. We leave Moses behind because a greater than Moses has come. We leave behind the burning of incense that God commanded Israel because, in Christ, we have a better kind of fire, so much purer and more acceptable to God that the old kind loses all its glory. We leave behind the animal sacrifices God commanded because a greater sacrifice has now been made, one that was so precious in God’s sight that He is now willing to forgive all the sins that have ever been committed by mankind on earth, if those people will simply approach Him in the name of Jesus for it.

Paul spoke of certain men who "profess to know God, but in works they deny Him" (Tit. 1:16). This is a wise observation. There are many who profess to know that Jesus is Lord of all, but they continue performing ceremonies as if he is not. Their works deny what their mouths profess. Don’t let your works make your words worthless. If the Messiah has really come, then let us act like it and leave behind all those things God once used to foreshadow his coming.

This is a far better covenant than the first one, so much better, in fact, that every holy and good thing in the first covenant has lost its glory. We do not deny or ignore the fact that God anointed certain people and things under the Old Covenant; still, we have left it behind because Jesus, a greater than all those people and things is here, and we refuse to deny him.

Two Ways To Be Delivered

"I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right,
and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me."
David in Psalm 119:75

If we do wrong, God is faithful to cause us to suffer for it, if in no other way than in causing us to suffer the heavy feeling of condemnation in our hearts. A large part of God’s work in our lives is to cause us to feel guilty when we have erred, and it is a precious gift from God to be able to feel bad for doing wrong.

There are many people on this planet who can commit great wickedness and yet suffer no pangs of guilt at all. These are the people God hates. Conviction for sin is part of the chastening of God, and God chastens only those whom He loves (Rev. 3:19). Without chastisement from God, no one can possibly repent. Man has nothing within him that causes him to feel like repenting for evil; conviction for sin comes only from the Spirit of God.

The chastening of the Lord is more precious than gold. It is an invitation from God to come be forgiven. David knew this well, and he wrote (Ps. 94:12-13), "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy Law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity." It made David tremble to think that God would refuse to chasten him when he needed it, but he knew God would be faithful to His people and correct them for their errors, "for the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance" (Ps. 94:14). The man whom God will not chasten has been forsaken by God.

Jesus will work with us for years, constantly making our conscience feel guilt when we are overtaken by a fault. This is part of what being a Savior means, for by the pangs of guilt we are prodded away from the way of sin. It is then, when we turn from sin to God, and God then forgives and cleanses us from sin, that we experience "deliverance" from the guilt that burdens our heart when we have sinned.

Another Way of Deliverance

But being forgiven and washed from sin is not the only way to be delivered from feelings of guilt for sin. We can also be "delivered" from that burden if God ceases to grant us those feelings of guilt. Over the years, I have seen several cases of this. I have heard testimonies from those who have claimed to be delivered, when what had really happened is that they had provoked God for so long and had resisted His conviction so stubbornly that He finally turned them over to their own will. He stopped convicting them for sin. The relief they felt was not the relief of being forgiven and cleansed; rather, it was the relief of not feeling any more conviction from God for what they were doing wrong.

When, after long years of patient forbearance, God finally turns a person over to his own will and refuses to chasten him any longer, that sinner may feel happier and freer than he has felt in many years. And in the cases of this that I have seen, those people usually feel as if they have been released from a sort of prison. Some even assume that they have taken a step of faith into a higher realm of fellowship with God. But that is the way of God’s curse. It is a "strong delusion", as Paul said, and under such a delusion, one thinks he is traveling one way when he is, in fact, going in exactly the other.

It is possible to be delivered from sin, or to be delivered over to it. Either way, we will feel a great relief. The only question is, what kind of relief do we want? The kind that is true and real, or the illusion that makes us think we are something we are not?

What Do You Do With Your Shame?

"If I covered my transgressions as Adam
by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom . . ."
Job 31:33

"He who covers his sins shall not prosper;
but whoever confesses and forsakes sin shall have mercy."
Solomon, in Proverbs 28:13

From a conversation with Brother Paul Curtsinger

The Apostle Paul said that "some men’s sins go before them to the judgment, but other men’s sins come behind." In other words, some men are wise enough to confess their sins to God and let those sins be washed away by the blood of Christ now, before the Day of Judgment, while other men foolishly attempt to hide their sins, supposing that they will somehow get by, without coming clean. It is far better to confess sins now than to hide them, because confessed sins are forgiven, but hidden sins will be held against the sinner in the Day of Judgment. Job said that Adam attempted to hide his sins, but Adam found out that hiding in shame behind bushes in the garden did not help him at all.

In my conversation with Brother Paul, he said to me, "My shame drove me to God, but Adam’s shame made him hide from God." That testimony made me realize that what we do with our shame will determine our eternal destiny.

We all have felt shame, for "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So, knowing what it is to feel shame is a common experience for the inhabitants of earth. The only difference there will have been, then, between those saved in the end and those who will be damned is that some people’s shame drove them to God, while others hid their shame in their breast and put on a happy face.

Where is your shame? In your breast or under the blood of Christ Jesus?