“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.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
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?
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?
Friday, January 4, 2008
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?
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?
Thursday, January 3, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
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.”
"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.”
Monday, December 17, 2007
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?
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?
Sunday, December 9, 2007
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)
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)
Saturday, December 8, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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).
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).
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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.
“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.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
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.”
“The nearer we get to God, the harder we seek Him
because in His presence, we feel our weakness.”
Sunday, October 21, 2007
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
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."
Saturday, October 13, 2007
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
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
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The God of Eternity
"I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever."
Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 3:14
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
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.
Monday, October 8, 2007
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?
Sunday, October 7, 2007
What Do You Do With Your Shame?
"If I covered my transgressions as Adam
by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom . . ."
Job 31:33
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?
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Cast Out With Love
From a conversation with Paul Curtsinger
God loved Adam. He created him, and then spent many days walking with him "in the cool of the evening", teaching him, showing him His creation, and just being his friend. He freely gave Adam dominion over the whole earth that He had created, keeping only one small thing on earth from the first man: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam followed his wife’s suggestion and ate of the forbidden fruit, he did more than disobey God. He betrayed his best friend, the One who had freely given him all things and trusted him with the care of the earth.
Until my conversation with Brother Paul, I had always read the story of God casting Adam out of the garden of Eden from Adam’s point of view. But Paul brought to my attention how God must have felt when He cast Adam out of the garden. God cast him out, and then God set cherubs at the gate, and a flaming sword that turned in every direction to keep Adam away from his former home, forever. It must have broken God’s heart to watch Adam and Eve sorrowfully walking away. God loved Adam.
When, after gaining the knowledge of good and evil, Adam realized that he was naked and hid from God, God’s love for Adam remained constant. He grieved over Adam’s sin; nevertheless, He made clothes for Adam to wear so that he would not feel ashamed. And when He cast him out of the garden, He said something that is often overlooked when the story is read. He said that He was casting Adam and Eve out of the garden because doing so was what was best for them (Gen. 3:22-23).
Once Adam was defiled with forbidden knowledge, God wanted to protect Adam from the tree of life, "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." Had Adam eaten of the tree of life after he ate the forbidden fruit, he might have remained forever in the fallen state he was in. God sent Adam away from the tree of life because he loved Adam, to prevent Adam from becoming irreversibly stained. God sent Adam away from the tree of life so that He could save him.
That The Spirit Might Be Saved
Shepherds of the "flock of God" on earth bear a degree of responsibility such as God bore concerning Adam. It isn’t safe for disobedient members of the body of Christ to be allowed at the fountain from which the body drinks when they gather. In extreme cases, it is best for disobedient believers to be put out of the Assembly, to be prevented – protected, really – from drinking of the water of life while condemnation is in their hearts. The Law of Moses showed that drinking holy water from God’s temple could kill if there was condemnation in the heart of the person who drank (Num. 5:11-31). When Paul heard that an immoral young man was being allowed to continue to worship with the saints in Corinth, Paul wrote the Assembly and demanded that they repent and cast out the transgressor, and that he be handed over to Satan "that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1Cor. 5:5). Paul knew that it was extremely dangerous for that sinner to eat the manna of heaven and drink the waters of life with the saints, and that he would have a better chance of pleasing God if he were removed from the presence of God’s people. Did Paul hate the young man? Of course not. He was giving him his best chance to meet God in peace.
There was no government in Corinth, and so, there was no standard of holiness enforced. Consequently, there were many guilty spirits in the congregation who drank regularly of the water of life. The results were just as anyone would have predicted who knew the Law of God. "Because of this," Paul wrote, "many are feeble and sick among you, and quite a few have fallen asleep." And he added this admonition: "Let a man examine himself; only then is he to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, not discerning the body, eats and drinks damnation to himself."
God loves us, even when He has to be severe in His dealings with us. He will go with us until the end, doing whatever gives us our best hope of eternal life. The ungodly cannot see the burning love that was there when Adam was cast out of the garden, and they may not see the love that will cast them out, either, when there is God’s brand of government among His people.
"I Still Love You the Same"
Elijah J. Clark
- April 19, 2007 -
Verse I
Years unremembered before I knew you –
Oh! The times we shared,
As if all I did was create you anew.
But here we are; did you ever care?
Since you left Me, time has rolled by...
Or, my friend, has it at all?
Come to me, lest you die.
Will you hear My gentle call?
Chorus
I still love you the same,
As the day we first met.
I never did anything to turn you away,
But forgave you of your debt.
And then you owed Me your life, your feelings,
Yet I’m still calling your name.
To tell you from the depths of My heart,
That I still love you the same.
Verse II
You thought you had moved on, to bigger, better things.
You thought you had played the highest card-
You thought My pain couldn’t change.
But the moment I knew what you had done,
The moment you laughed at me,
I saw the end of your sin, your shame,
A light recreating my victory,
Because I still loved you.
Verse III
So this light is burning in My soul
It protects Me from the hatred you chose,
That sin and the cold.
The holiness – the fire – it burns;
Into the sky it reaches. It keeps My feelings warm,
So that when you come back to me,
Like wax I’ll cover, reshape you;
I’ll command you – breathe!
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