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Thought for Today 2004. 02-16 Growing In Knowledge Jesus knows you. He knew the people who were around him when he walked the earth as one of us. Among the many good people that he met, he discerned the sincerity and integrity of Nathaniel, the fiery zeal of the two sons of Zebedee, the potential in Peter to be steadfast for the truth, and the honesty and compassion of Zacchaeus. In other cases, he discerned hypocrisy, insincerity, craftiness, and covetousness. Sometimes, he would not even wait until people voiced their thoughts; he answered what they were thinking. He did this to both his friends and his enemies. He knew then, and he still knows, the thoughts of every heart. His discernment is perfect and complete. There is not one thought in your heart or mine that he does not know. Others may misunderstand you; you may even misunderstand yourself, but you are not a mystery to Jesus. This kind of discernment is one of the qualities of the Spirit that comes into the heart of a born again person. Some may be given more discernment, and others less, but all of God’s children are given a measure of discernment of unseen things. This is a fascinating power, a surprising power, and one that can be frightening until we understand it. I have had to encourage many young saints who were struggling with feelings of guilt because they were discerning something uncomplimentary about an elder in the Lord, but didn’t realize it. They were worried that they had somehow backslidden and had begun to have ungodly thoughts about their brothers. Some even worried that they were being attacked by demons. As I said, discernment of spirits can be a frightening and perplexing experience if you don’t understand it. Child of God, remember this. The holy Ghost that you have received from God knows everything about everybody. One of the most difficult experiences in this life for a child of God is when he begins to outgrow those who led him to Christ. It shouldn’t ever happen, but it often does. And when it does, that growing-up saint suffers very deeply with the knowledge that the Spirit gives to him. The question I want to pose to you today is this: How much discernment can you bear? Or to state it differently, how much truth about people can Jesus trust you with? Jesus knew everything about everybody, and loves us all. How much can we know about each other before the love we feel begins to dwindle? This is one of the challenges that confronts all who grow in Christ. Many of us say that we want to be like Jesus. But are we willing to see what Jesus sees, and to know as Jesus knows? Growth in the Spirit is not a shopping trip. We cannot pick and choose which qualities of the Spirit we want, and which we do not want. More perfect discernment is a part of growing in the Lord. It is a part of becoming more like Jesus. Unbelievable as it is, some choose to stop growing rather than to receive the knowledge that comes to those who continue to grow in spirit. They cannot love as they think they should love unless they remain ignorant. Knowledge frightens them because they are lacking in the love of God. Knowledge challenges them because they feel that they are unable to love and know at the same time. These are among those in the body of Christ whom Paul calls "feebleminded", and he exhorts the rest in the congregation to "comfort" them. When I was a very young man, Uncle Joe testified in a prayer meeting in Louisville, Ky., that he didn’t want God to let him know, more than he could love. This is a good prayer for us all to pray. Knowledge without the love of God can be destructive and cruel. We needn’t fear knowledge, however, if we trust God to fill us with His kind of holy love, the kind that "covers a multitude of sin". Who the Saints Really Are I should add that discerning people’s thoughts and hearts does not mean at all that nothing but bad information will be discerned. Remember all the wonderful things that Jesus discerned about certain people? There were many good qualities he discerned, qualities that sometimes the people themselves didn’t even know about themselves. When God gives His holy Spirit to a person, He is testifying to the fact that that person’s heart is after what is right. After the first Gentiles received the holy Ghost, Peter stood up for them and said to the ruling council of the congregation, "God, who knows the hearts, bore them witness" (Acts 15:8). This is the principal reason we should zealously desire to grow up in Christ and see what he sees and know as he knows. If God has declared someone’s heart to be pure, then regardless of what we might fear that we might discern about them, what we will really find is that they are sweet and that they want to do what is right. By giving them the holy Ghost, God has said so!
Thought for Today 2004. 02-15 The Nature of the Flesh The flesh will go to its grave without ever submitting to God. Your flesh is absolutely and permanently opposed to every good thing that you have from God. Your flesh wars against the holy Spirit that you have received from your heavenly Father, and that holy Spirit of God wars against the will of your flesh. "These are contrary one to the other", Paul told us (Gal. 5:17), and there will never be a reconciliation between them. It is a fight to the death. It is a fight for your soul. Your heart is the battleground. Your flesh is pulling you one way to eternal damnation, and God’s Spirit is leading you another, into everlasting life. Jesus called God’s Spirit, "the Spirit of Truth" (Jn. 14:17). John said that "the Spirit is truth" (1Jn. 5:6). Because it is God’s Spirit, it communicates God’s nature, which is to bring truth and light into our lives. The nature of your flesh is to bring darkness and confusion into our lives. "For if you live after the flesh", Paul warned the saints in Rome, "ye shall die. But if you through the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh, you shall live" (Rom. 8:13). Even after a person dies, the nature of the flesh continues to lie. When we see the corpse of a person, the flesh makes it appear that the deceased person is still and quiet. That is a lie. Whether a person is consigned to Hell by God’s righteous judgment when he dies or is taken by the angels into the Paradise of God, he is neither quiet nor still. If he is in Hell, he is screaming for Jesus to send someone to warn his family members and friends not to come to that awful place, as did the wicked rich man in Jesus’ famous parable (Luke 15). If he is in Paradise, he is shouting praises to the Most High with great joy. The nature of the flesh is to deny or to conceal this truth, and all other truth that God has graciously given to us. Every time you see a dead body lying quiet and still in a coffin, think about it. It is a lie that you are seeing instead of hearing, for it is the nature of the flesh to be a lie as well as to speak one. To deceive is its nature; it is not something it has to plan to do. Spiritual darkness and death just happen where the flesh is trusted and followed. But God is faithful and good. It is His nature to be the truth for you as well as to speak it. He loves you, and everything He says and everything He does is for your blessing. To nurture and to heal is His nature; it is not something that He has to plan to do. Spiritual light and life just happen where Jesus is trusted and followed.
Thought for Today 2004. 02-02 A Matter of the Heart From Uncle Joe’s testimony in a 1968 Sunday afternoon prayer meeting at Grandma’s house. This New Testament is a covenant of the heart. Ceremonial form is not relevant to spiritual life. Jesus tried hard to make that point to his contemporaries (e.g. Mt. 5:21-48), but the resistance was strong, and professional ministers of his day frustrated his efforts to teach God’s people constantly. Uncle Joe had a way with getting to the point very quickly. His comment concerning the spiritual nature of the New Testament is a case in point. Responding to my father’s sermon on the subject, he said with typical wit, "If you want to go back to Egypt, you are already there." Uncle Joe knew that a person is where his heart is. God judges the heart, and that is why Solomon taught his son, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." And again, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." You are judged by what your heart desires to be. Until we understand that, we don’t understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross and beyond. In response to this TFT... Pastor John: Concerning your 2-02 Thought for Today, you said, "Uncle Joe had a way with getting to the point very quickly. His comment concerning the spiritual nature of the New Testament is a case in point. Responding to my father’s sermon on the subject, he said with typical wit, 'If you want to go back to Egypt, you are already there.'" I heard Uncle Joe make that comment while I was listening to an old 1972 home prayer meeting that is in your Old Meeting Archive. It really blessed me. And what a wise observation that is! I wonder if you could pull an "Uncle Joe" on that one, and say, "if you really DON'T want to go back to Egypt, you won't." Gary Yes, Gary! That is a good "Uncle Joe-ism" if I ever heard one. You're catching on, by George! Pastor John
Thought for Today 2004. 02-01 The First Thing To Seek From a sermon by Preacher Clark, May 27, 1973 in Louisville, KY. The baptism of the holy Ghost should be the first thing that a sinner seeks. Pentecostal sects historically have taught people to seek the baptism of the holy Ghost second or third. The Assembly of God sect tells sinners to seek "getting saved " first, and then they are qualified to seek the holy Ghost baptism. The Church of God sect tells sinners to seek "getting saved " first, and then "getting sanctified" second, and only then are they qualified to seek the holy Ghost baptism. The Apostolic sect tells sinners to seek their form of water baptism first, and then they are qualified to seek the baptism of the holy Ghost. When the "Charismatic" revival of the 1960's and 70's blossomed, the Charismatics were so confused in their doctrines, they didn’t have any idea what sinners were supposed to seek first. The only thing they all agreed upon was that it was not the holy Ghost. All of them are wrong. And every other Christian sect that is called Pentecostal or Charismatic is wrong. The entire Spirit-baptized community on earth is wrong in its doctrine concerning the baptism of the holy Ghost. And they are all wrong for one principal reason: they are trying to make room for Christianity. If they would come out of that abomination and serve God in spirit, they would all agree that the holy Ghost is the first thing that men should seek if they want to be right with God. Jesus commanded his followers thus: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." What is the kingdom of God, Paul? "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink [natural things], but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). Because God’s people in Jesus’ time were looking for an earthly kingdom, Jesus taught them, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, ‘Lo, here!’ or ‘Lo, there!’. For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Lk. 17:20-21). Sinners don’t need the Apostolics’ ceremonial dip in the water; they don’t need to repeat Romans 10:9-10 and then be told by a Charismatic minister that they are "saved"; they don’t need the traditional Pentecostal claim of sanctification so that they can qualify for the baptism of the Spirit. Sinners qualify for the holy Ghost by repenting. Sinners who repent are the only candidates for the holy Ghost who exist on earth. When Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God", he was saying, "Seek you first the holy Ghost of God." The way of salvation is that simple. It is, as Isaiah long ago prophesied, so simple that "fools shall not err therein" (Isa. 35:8).
Thought for Today 2004. 01-25 In response to a question asked by Sister Maleah Davis. Seeing God God told Moses that no man could see His face and live (Ex. 33:20-23). When Moses saw God, he saw God's "back parts" after God placed Moses in "the cleft of the rock" and passed by him. Moses did not see God’s face. What struck me this morning about Moses seeing God is the deep love of God for Moses in that scene on Mount Sinai. God must have wanted to be with Moses as much as Moses wanted to be with God and to see Him. That is a part of the story that I don't think I have ever mentioned in any OT class. Oh, how encompassing is God’s love! and so great that we cannot even realize it is there unless He helps us to see it. Near the end of Israel’s long and sad story, God sent the prophet Malachi to say to Israel, "I have loved you!" Try to imagine how far from God Israel must have wandered by that time, for her to demand of Him after He said that, "In what way have you loved us?" After all that God had done for His beloved people, He found that they did not realize that He had ever even loved them at all. That must have broken His tender heart. We don’t want to hurt God any more. Let’s live right. God wants us to know that He is always near, and is "a very present help in time of trouble." If we really recognize God working for our good in the circumstances of our lives, as He always is, then we feel His love, "for God is love". If God is with us, His love surrounds us. If God is in us, "the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost which He hath given unto us." Because His love is so great for us, He constantly tries to show us it is there, but how difficult a task it has always seemed to be, for us to see it! May God help us live in His Spirit so that we don’t miss what He is doing for us constantly, and then become unthankful. Here is Maleah's question and Pastor John's answer: Pastor John: Did Moses only see an image or did he see God's back? Didn't it say that he saw God's hind parts? Maleah Hi Maleah: Thanks for asking so that I can clear up this point. God told Moses that no man could see His face and live" (Ex. 33:20-23). Moses saw God Himself, not an image of God, but he saw God's "back parts" after God placed Moses in "the cleft of the rock" and passed by him. What struck me this morning about this as I began answering this letter is the deep love of God for Moses in this scene. God must have wanted to be with Moses as much as Moses wanted to be with and to see Him. That is a part of the story that I don't think I have ever mentioned in any OT class. Oh, Maleah, God's love is so encompassing and so great that we cannot even realize it is there unless He helps us to see it. Near the end of Israel's story, God sent Malachi to say to Israel, "I have loved you!" Try to imagine how far from God Israel must have wandered by that time, for her to demand of Him after He said that, "In what way have you loved us?" After all that God had done for His beloved people, He found that they did not realize that He had ever even loved them. That must have broken His tender heart. We don't want to hurt God any more. Because His love is so great for us, He constantly tries to show us it is there, but how difficult a task it has always seemed to be for us to see it! May God help us live in His Spirit so that we don't miss what He is doing for us constantly, and then become unthankful Pastor John
Thought for Today 2004. 01-21 The Salvation of God From a sermon on June 1, 1997 Sister Sheila Puckett listened to this old sermon of mine from June 1, 1997, was blessed by it, and typed it out. I was reminded by reading the following excerpts of that sermon that no man can even desire the salvation that God has in store for His people without being helped by God to do so. There is nothing in man that desires the kind of salvation that is in Jesus. There is nothing in man that can even believe it exists, much less strive to attain to it. God has a peace to give us that the world knows nothing about. You hear about the American army in different parts of the world "keeping the peace". That’s mere propaganda. If there was peace in those places, those people wouldn’t need an army to help "keep it". Armies don’t keep peace; rather, with the threat of violence, they make people behave as though there was peace. I was sitting in my house this past week, and the Lord showed me a picture of Jesus and me. In the vision, Jesus was taller than I, like a father and a son. I saw Jesus gently put his arm around me, and we were turning to walk away, together. The feeling of the scene I was watching was what impressed me. It was a revelation to me of what real salvation is. It is a forgetting, an eternal leaving behind. It is the permanent absence of all care. I felt something in that vision I have never felt before. What I felt was a willingness, a heart-felt willingness never to think about this world again. Never. Not my past, not my successes, not my dear wife, not my beloved children, not anything. And the distinct feeling was, as Paul said in one place, "This is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." That is what salvation is. When Jesus puts his arm around you and takes you where he’s going to take you, there is no irritation and no care that will ever be permitted into your life ever again. It will be so far removed from your life that you won’t even know that it is not there. You won’t even be aware of its absence! If you were aware of it, you would have to think about it. The Bible says that God’s going to "wipe all tears from your eyes". That doesn’t mean He’s going to stand there with a handkerchief, and when a tear runs out of your eye, He’ll wipe it from your eye. What it means is that you will be in a place where you will never have a reason to weep. You won’t even remember the evils that you left behind. Look at Isaiah 65: 17. The prophet told us, "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind." That doesn’t mean that God will forget; He will remember, but you will not. You will not remember the United States of America; you will not remember relatives who perished in their sins. You will not remember the ancient Greeks and Romans; you won’t remember sickness; you won’t remember heat or cold, or anything else of this world. God won’t allow it because it would disturb your rest. Jesus said (Jn. 14: 27), "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This is the peace Jesus gives now, but it is only a foretaste of the peace to come in that new world God has promised. "I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind." You won’t remember the stars, you won’t remember the sun, you won’t remember the oceans or the mountains of earth, you won’t remember storms or sunny weather. None of these things will be allowed to remind you of this world. When I saw Jesus put his arms around my shoulder to take me to that land, I felt a willingness to leave this world that I’d never felt before. I felt willing to completely forget the ones I know and love, if they go the other way. When you get to this place spiritually, men cannot turn you away from the right path. How can they have that power over your heart, when you are willing to forget them forever? Until this week, I never understood what the "cares of this life" were, but now I do. The "cares of this life" are caring for this life, caring about this life beyond what’s holy and temperate. No More Wicked Psalm 37 tells us something about salvation’s peace I want you to notice. Verse 10: "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be." There’s not a single person on that New Earth who will remember the names of Cleopatra, Muhammad, Julius Caesar, or Adolph Hitler. No one there will even know that such men and women existed, nor will they remember any of the infamous villains of history, or the dictators who were cruel to their own people, such as Joseph Stalin or Saddam Hussein. Nobody on that New Earth will even remember that famous men and women of earth existed; if you did, it might disturb your peace. It will not be allowed into that world! Never! But let’s continue reading this Psalm: "Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace . . . . Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." You’ll know when God’s salvation is come when there are no wicked anywhere; wicked people disturb the peace. None of us has ever yet been to a place where nothing bad could happen. Everywhere you’ve been in your life, you’ve found wickedness or danger. Everywhere on earth you have been, disappointment was a possibility. Somebody’s stolen from you in this life, somebody’s misled you, somebody’s let you down. The mind of man cannot imagine what life is like in a place where those evils never happen. But within you, the holy Ghost is excited about taking you to that country, a place Jesus has prepared for you. "They that are led by the Spirit" are on their way there. That is where the Spirit is leading you. When you look around, and the wicked are nowhere to be found, you will be there. You will then be what so many are unwisely claiming to be already: a saved person. As long as you are in a world where the wicked also live, you are not yet saved. If you are really willing to forget wickedness in the future, you’ll live without it now. We prove our hatred of this vain life by our zeal for the things of God, by our zeal for the word of God, by our zeal to do the will of God. You demonstrate hatred of sin by keeping the commandments of God. If in your heart, you are really willing to forget gluttony forever, you’ll never overeat another time. If you’re really willing to forget about liars forever, you’ll never tell another lie. Sin has no dominion over you when you’re really willing to forget sin forever. You won’t be influenced by unclean spirits when your spirit desires to forget them. Sin does not have dominion over you anymore, nor does anything else in this world, when your heart is willing to forget about everything here. Are you willing to let go of your desire for the praise of men? When you really are willing to forget it, you’ll lose a whole lot of it. You’ll lose a whole lot of it. When the dark spirit that is in this world senses that you desire to live in a world where it cannot live, it will hate you. And the people who are provoked by that carnal spirit instead of by the Spirit of God may at times behave toward you in cruel ways. Forgive them; "they know not what they do." They do not know that their actions are inspired by an evil being. Be thankful that you are being persecuted instead of persecuting others. Do You Really Want God’s Salvation? In Amos, chapter five, we find one of the strangest warnings in the Bible. In verse 18, the prophet said to God’s people, "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD!" There were thousands upon thousands in Israel in Amos’ time claiming to desire the Day of the Lord, just as there are millions upon millions now saying, "Oh, I wish Jesus would come back! I wish Jesus would come back!" I have never felt what I felt when I saw Jesus in that little vision turning me away from all that is in this creation, forever. Looking at us both walking away he taught me something about myself, and I’ll tell you about yourself in a few minutes. But the vision reminded me of a truth that I had known but didn’t altogether understand; to wit, there is and always has been much vain talk about wanting Jesus to come back. "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! To what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light, as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?" One cannot desire the return of Jesus until he desires the end of this kind of life on earth because that’s what salvation is for: to take us forever away from it, to destroy it eternally. As long as there is an attraction in your heart to this life, you cannot really want the day of Jesus to come because he is going to bring this kind of life to an utter end, with not even a memory of it remaining. No memory! Is that what you really desire? Are you really willing to forget, forever, your favorite person who does not believe? Are you really willing to forget, forever, your favorite past time? Are you really willing to forget these sunsets, your childhood home, all the pleasant memories of earth, forever? That’s what "desiring the Day of the Lord" really comes to. It is an eternal forgetfulness. Are you willing to leave all this life behind and never look back, to be thoroughly satisfied with nothing but God? This is what salvation is! If you are unwilling to forget everybody and everything that you know in this world, pleasant and unpleasant, you don’t really want to be saved because that’s what God’s salvation is. You’re not really longing for the real Jesus to come unless in your heart you’re willing to forget. It hurts to remember. Think about it, right now. Some of your mothers and fathers went to their graves with no hope in Christ. There’s a day coming in which you will forget them, forever. Their memory will not torment you anymore. It is the promise of God. While you live on this earth, you will never experience the salvation I saw in that vision from God because everywhere you go, you’re going to be reminded of wickedness. But you can have a foretaste of God’s salvation in your spirit. You can be without sin on the inside. Sinlessness is the foretaste of salvation that the apostles preached. Without that foretaste, a person cannot even imagine what I am talking about. Not In The Flesh Different religions have different definitions of what eternal salvation will include. Muslims teach that men who enter into paradise will be serviced by beautiful female servants as they recline on luxurious couches. Buddhists imagine an eternity of nothingness, no feeling, no thought, no desire, etc. Their salvation is no more than becoming a worthless stone. The carnal mind of man invents its own definition of salvation according to its own ignorance and lust. But do you want what the real God has in store for those whom He will save? This is what the Lord said to me this morning: God’s salvation cannot be desired in the flesh any more than God’s holiness can be desired in the flesh. Desire for God’s salvation must be inspired by the holy Ghost just as a desire for God’s righteousness must be inspired by the holy Ghost. As long as your fleshly desires are in control of you, you cannot desire what God’s salvation really is. It is not a part of your world. I don’t want to be one of those people in the Lake of Fire screaming out names of people who no longer even remember me. I don’t want to be in that place of eternal damnation, forgotten by all of you saints here today. Do you want to be in the number of the forgotten damned, to suffer anonymously in burning torment forever? I’d rather be among the ones who will have all of this world erased from my mind. I don’t want to be forgotten. I am willing to be among those forget! "Look to the rock out of which you are hewn, look to Abraham, your father. I called him alone and blessed him alone." Abraham forsook the comforts and security of his home, leaving his father, his mother and his kindred, and he didn’t even know where he was going. He only knew that he was following God. Understand that, apart from Jesus, your "heart is deceitful above all things". It does not want the salvation of God. The heart of man loves the things of this world and does not want this world to end. You must forsake your "comfort zone", your way of doing things, in order to obtain the salvation of Christ. God wants you to realize what is in your heart. The ungodly ways you once depended on in the flesh to "get you by" in this world must be forsaken, so that you will be allowed to forget about it later. The salvation of God, the real thing, not the salvation that ignorant men claim to have already, is the hope of every person who has received the holy Ghost baptism. No one else on earth has hope of God’s salvation. If you have this golden gift, value it! It is a gift that the world despises, Satan envies, and the Father loves to give. If you do not yet have the holy Ghost, the wisest thing you can do right now is to seek it with all your heart. Jesus is coming, and "his salvation is with him." A response to this TFT... This Thought for Today reminded me of an experience I had in a dream one night about 4 are 5 years ago. I had just finished reading about how Elijah had been taken up by a whirlwind into heaven, and I was lying on my bed thinking about how that must of felt to be carried away into heaven like that. As I was thinking about Elijah, I fell a sleep and started to dream. I dreamed that I was on a country road walking with Jesus, it was a real hilly road, a lot of going up and down all the way down the road. As we came to the top of a a big hill, we started down. I could feel my feet gliding along the road! Then, we were skimming along the top of the road, and as we neared the top of a hill, we left the ground and started flying up in the sky!! "WOW” what a feeling! It is not of this world! There are no words to tell how that felt. I was as light as a feather. How I was feeling! I just wanted more of it. I did not want to leave there. There was nothing but peace, no thought of myself or what Anna would be doing, or anybody else. It did not matter if I was dead or not. All I wanted was to stay right there where I was, forever. No thought of this world was there until I started waking up, and I was begging God, “No! Please let me stay here”. As I woke up, I was disappointed that I was still on earth. John, I am longing for that place. It is home; it is our salvation not to feel pain or sorrow any more, no hurt, no thought of this world, or what has been done here. “Amen! “ Thank you for stirring those thoughts up in me again. We have a great hope, our hope is that we will be saved in the end to enjoy the place that God has prepared for those who love him. “Praise God” Bro. Stuart Dear Brother Stuart: One of the greatest blessings I will have on that New Earth, if Jesus judges me worthy to be there, is to watch you enjoy it! I am very much looking forward to that. jdc
Thought for Today 2004. 01-18 A Message From The Spirit As We Prayed. "For My People" As we prayed for the family of God here in my office one evening, the Spirit spoke through me in tongues, the Lord interpreted it in English, commanding these four things to me, or through me to all of us here. And now, to you: Cry for my people! Hurt for my people! Weep for my people! Die for my people! I hope that Jesus will enable us to accomplish all those things. Paul said that he was filling up the sufferings of Christ for the family of God in his body. Jesus did all the suffering and dying that he was required to do and that he could do in a human body for the children of God. But there is more suffering and dying to be done for God's family, to perfect it and to wash it in the healing blood that Christ is still shedding upon those who believe. Those who would minister the grace and knowledge of God to His people must pay a price. May God use some of us to be able to do that! Concerning this, one brother wrote the following: Pastor John: I have some questions. There must be a difference between crying and weeping? Can you tell us what it is? I suspect that weeping is a deeper feeling than crying, sort of like dying is a deeper state of being than hurting? I take it that by "dying for God’s people", it is not a physical death, but rather the putting to death of our "old man"? Brother Mark Hi Brother Mark: Good questions. My feeling, when the holy Ghost was speaking these things through me, was that the Lord meant "cry" in the sense of "crying out". In Isaiah's prophecy of John the baptizer, we have an example of this. It is a prophecy of God's commandment to John, and John's earnest request that the Lord would clarify His commandment, much the same way that you are asking me to clarify what I mean by the word "cry". Here is my rendition of Isaiah 40:6: "The Voice commanded, 'Cry!'" "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, and all the loveliness of it is as the flower of the field. The grass withers; the flower fades, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. This is true! The people are grass." By saying, "Cry for my people" as we were praying the other night, I felt that the Lord was pleading with us to make a new and greater effort to cry out against the things that have ruined the fellowship of the saints. The love of God compels us to get this message out to his precious, divided people. As for "Die for my people", I can only say that my impression was that the Lord was calling us to die physically for His people, or at least be willing to. But even if that did happen, that sacrifice would be worthless unless we die to ourselves and to sin first; so, I suppose you could say that the Lord was calling us both. Pastor John
Thought for Today 2004. 01-17 From a testimony by Brother Tim Sellers. The Express Image "And being the express image of His person . . . [he] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." - Hebrews 1:3 God uses different means to reach different people with His liberating truth. One bit of truth, the bait, that fisherman Jesus used to catch Brother Gary Savelli was the message that would have frightened most people away: the message of coming out of Christianity. And the last heresy of Christianity that Gary was willing to renounce was the doctrine of the Trinity. He would not even discuss the subject with me for a long time in the beginning. Having taught various church groups for years that a sure sign of a cult was the denial of the doctrine of the Trinity, it frightened him in the beginning even to think the thought that the doctrine of the Trinity might be false. "I’m not ready to talk about that," he told me in one of our early conversations. Jesus loved him and was very patient. Eventually, Gary humbled himself to consider, with the help of the Lord, the truth about Christianity’s teaching concerning the Father and the Son. His eyes were quickly opened, and he was made free. Jesus teaches us all compassion by reminding us of how slow and afraid we were in the beginning to believe his truth. Like the priests whom God chose to serve him, we can "have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way" when we are reminded that we ourselves are "compassed with infirmity" (Heb. 5:2). Brother Tim was different. The doctrine of the Trinity was not the last thing he was willing to surrender; on the contrary, the truth about that heresy was the bait that Jesus used to hook him and reel him into the light. Still inside the walls of Christianity, Tim’s spirit was driven with a burning desire to understand the Trinity, which of course cannot be done, and when none of his teachers could answer his sincere inquiries, questions arose in his spirit about the veracity of that strange doctrine. Then one day, as Brother Tim stood before a mirror in his home, the Lord gently asked Tim a question, "What do you see?" Tim shrugged and responded to the Lord’s simple question with what he thought was the obvious answer. "I see me." To which the Lord replied, "No. You don’t see you." Tim was puzzled for a moment. Then the Lord continued. "You are out here, in front of the mirror. What you are seeing in the mirror is your image." Tim immediately understood what the Lord was teaching him. He knew that in Hebrews 1:3, Jesus is described as "the express image of [the Father’s] person." The word "express", as used in this verse, means "truly depicted" or "exact". That was the Lord’s lesson for Tim. Jesus is the perfect reflection of all the Father is, an exact reflection, but he is not the Father Himself. Jesus told his disciples, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn.14:9). By saying that, however, he was not claiming to be the Father Himself; he was merely telling them that in him they had seen the holy character and wisdom and power of the Father, that in him, they were beholding the perfect image of the Father. In reference to the Father, John wrote in another place (Jn. 1:18), "No man hath seen God at any time . . .", and that is true even of the ones who saw Jesus here, face to face, and who touched his human body. Jesus is not God the Father. In that same verse, John added this conclusion: ". . . the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him." And so perfectly did Jesus declare, or reveal, the Father that some people still think that in Jesus, they see the Father Himself. They do not. They see in Jesus only the image of the Father. Standing before the mirror that day, Brother Tim was made to understand that. It was a gift from Jesus to Tim, a gift of knowledge of eternal truth. Tim swallowed the bait that Jesus had skillfully dangled before him, and now he was on his way out of Christianity into a new world of light and joy.
Thought for Today 2004. 01-21 Who Is Backslidden? If there is a time in the past when you were closer to God than you are now, you are backslidden and need to repent. This is not to say that you are backslidden if there is a time when you were happier or healthier than you are today. Life has a way of making us sad at times, and in this world, we all suffer at times with the frailties to which this mortal body is subject. But sadness and illness cannot to any extent move us away from God. Only sin does that. So, whatever our physical or mental state now, if at any point in the past, we were closer to God in our spirits than we are now, we are backslidden and need to repent. There is no other definition of "backslidden" than this.
Thought for Today 2004. 01-11 Why Not Daniel Nine? When the wise men came to King Herod to ask where the new-born king of the Jews was, the wily old king sent for the chief priests and scribes of Israel to find out. "And when he had gathered all, the chief priest and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judah, for this it is written in the prophets, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel" (Mt. 2:4-6). It is remarkable that Israel’s scholars and religious leaders knew the scriptures well enough to tell Herod where the Messiah would be born, but what is more amazing is that they did not seem to know when he would be born. The scriptures are, if anything, clearer concerning the time the Messiah would come than they are concerning the place of his coming. The prophecy from Micah 5:2, referred to in Matthew (above), tells that the Governor of Israel would come from Bethlehem. Now, the Messiah would be Israel’s Governor, but throughout Israel’s history, there were many other "governors" over the nation, some of them foreigners. But Daniel foretold specifically of the time when "the Messiah" would come to Israel. And concerning who was intended by Daniel’s prophecy, there could not possibly be any confusion; there was never but one Messiah. In chapter nine of his book, Daniel was told by God’s angel that 483 years (69 "weeks" of years) after Cyrus commanded the Jews to return from captivity to their homeland, the Messiah would come (Dan. 9:25). This is sure knowledge, easy to understand. It can hardly be missed. The leaders of Israel should have been expecting the Messiah at the precise time that Jesus came, preaching the gospel of God. Daniel’s prophecy is so definite and clear that it should not have surprised anyone who studied the scriptures. That is what is amazing about the elders of Jesus’ time: not that they knew the name of the city from which the Messiah would come, but that they seemed not to know when he would show up. They knew Micah, chapter five, well. Why not Daniel nine? A response to this TFT... Pastor John: Concerning your TFT for 1-11, I can't answer for people of Jesus' era but perhaps an observation can be made on the general subject of the "70 weeks" of Daniel Nine. If one considers the prophecy of 483 years together with the standard "historical" dates given for Nebuchednezzar's taking of Jerusalem and the return from the exile the following can be seen. First, historians (and bible scholars) assume for the most part the 70 years was at best an approximation, whereas I am sure that it was quite exact. Secondly, the date usually given for Cyrus' order (around 530 BC) is in hopeless disagreement with the truth. This would give a date for Jesus' baptism (unto the Messiah) of around 47BC and a birth year of 77BC. As it is a pretty sure thing that Jesus was born close to 3 BC and thus baptised close to 27AD this would give a date for Cyrus' command of 457 BC with the exile in 527 BC. Damien Dear Damien: Re-reading Daniel, Chapter Nine, I noticed something I overlooked before. In verse 25, the "70 weeks" does not begin with Cyrus' command for Jews to be allowed to return to their homeland to Jerusalem to build a temple for their God. Rather, it begins with an unnamed king's commandment to rebuild Jerusalem itself. That would make it more likely that the "70 weeks" began with Nehemiah's coming to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls than with Cyrus' earlier command for Jewish captives to return from exile in Babylonia. Either way, it still seems strange to me that the Jews of Jesus' time seemed to be ignorant of the fact that Daniel had clearly foretold that their time was the general time frame set by God for His Messiah to come. Pastor John
Thought for Today 2004. 01-01 Seeking First the Kingdom, Part One From a sermon by Preacher Clark at Grandma’s house, late 1970. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33 Jesus told us to seek the kingdom of God first. But what is the kingdom of God that we should seek, before seeking anything else? Paul told us. He said (Rom. 14:17), "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Ghost." Life in the Spirit is the kingdom of God, and if we listen to Jesus, we will seek the holy Ghost before we pursue anything else. "Fear not, little flock," Jesus said to his disciples, "it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." If the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the holy Ghost, then this statement from Jesus means that it is the joy of God’s heart to give people His holy Spirit. This is not a game with God; He does not play with people’s hearts. "Every one who seeks finds", Jesus said, and it is God’s pleasure to be sought by men and to be found by them. For those who do not understand how to seek the kingdom of God, the Bible gives a clear answer: repent of all sin and obey the gospel of Jesus. It is so good to know that, as Peter said, God gives the holy Ghost to every person who obeys Him (Acts 5:32). After God has kept his promise to give someone the Spirit and make them a member of His eternal kingdom, we should seek God’s righteousness. Many a soul has repented and received the holy Ghost but then failed to pursue the righteousness of God. They neglected the gift of God and lost their zeal for holiness. These children of God will not be saved in the end; they will be disinherited by their heavenly Father and given their portion with unbelievers (Lk. 12:46). According to Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins, only half the people who receive the holy Ghost will afterwards seek the righteousness of God so that they can meet their Master in peace (Mt. 25:1-13). Just think of it! Only half of the body of Christ is going to be saved from the Lake of Fire because they sought the kingdom of God, and found it, but then did not seek His righteousness. Worldliness is deadly, my dear fellow believer. Don’t play around with it. You have sought the kingdom of God and have been baptized with the holy Ghost into God’s family. Now, seek God’s righteousness so that you will be prepared for the return of Jesus for the faithful among his children. For a copy of the sermon by Preacher Clark from 1970 that inspired this TFT, send $3.00 to the address below and ask for "1970 Late - CD #1" Pastor John’s House
Thought for Today 2003. 12-31 "What Must I Do To Be Saved?" Thought from a sermon by Preacher Clark at Grandma's house, late 1970. "Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The answer that Paul gave to that trembling Philippian jailor that night is one of the most misinterpreted verses of Scripture found in the holy Bible. Paul simply said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). Reading this response, multitudes of Christian ministers have assumed that simply believing in Jesus makes the believer a "saved" person, as if all there is to the way that leads to eternal life is contained in those few words from the apostle. Paul gave the terrified man a short, simple answer because the circumstances required a short, simple answer. It was in the dead of night. God had sent a great earthquake. The jailor was shaking with fear. He knew that God was furious with him for his maltreatment of Paul and Silas. He also knew he would be executed by his Roman superiors if the prisoners escaped. Feeling hopeless, he had at first drawn out his sword to kill himself. Paul's response was intended to let the man know that he had hope, that there was something that he could do that would cause the wrath of God to pass from him. His answer was not intended as a complete explanation of the way of salvation. When Paul and Silas had calmed the man down so that his nerves would allow him to comprehend what they wanted to say to him, they "spoke the word of the Lord" to the jailor and to all who were in his house. Apparently, they had run to the prison with the jailor when the earthquake had struck. They told those amazed Gentiles about the ancient prophecies of the promised Messiah, and of Jesus' miraculous birth, his wonder-filled life, his unjust crucifixion, his glorious resurrection, and his ascension into heaven to the Father, there to present himself to the Father and to offer himself as a propitiation for the sins of the world. The jailor and those with him heard and believed the gospel Paul preached. They hurriedly took the two prisoners, bloody from the whipping that the jailor had given them the previous day, to his home. There, the jailor washed and treated their gruesome wounds. After that act of repentance, the holy Ghost fell upon them all, and they were baptized into the body of Christ by the mercy of God. The answer Paul gave to the jailor when he asked, "What Must I Do To Be Saved?", was appropriate for that man at that moment, but it was not the complete answer for every person in every situation. What a sinner must do to be saved is to repent and believe the gospel. But the answer is actually more specific than that. This sinner must repent of the specific sins that he has committed, while that sinner must repent of the specific sins he has committed. In order to repent, one sinner may have to return stolen property, while another may have to go confess a hatred toward someone and ask that person's forgiveness. John the Baptist gave different instructions to people of different occupations (Lk. 3:7-14). One size does not fit all in the kingdom of God. What a saint must do to be saved is to be faithful to Christ until death. But "faithfulness to Christ" will mean something different for me from what it will mean for you because God's will for me will differ at times from His will to you. The will of God for a husband is different from His will for a wife; they have different duties and, so, different things are expected of each one in order to receive salvation. Paul said that he must preach the gospel, and woe be to him if he did not (1Cor. 9:16). That was God's will for him, and that was what Paul had to do in order to be saved in the end. In other words, preaching is how Paul "endured to the end". But most of the saints are never sent to preach. Part of their faithfulness to God, then, is not to preach but to do whatever God's will is for them. The happiest people on earth are those who find their place in the body of Christ and stay there. That is, after all, what they must do to be saved. We All Must Believe We all must "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ", as Paul told the Philippian jailor. Paul told the jailor the truth, but the details of what "believing in Jesus" means will vary somewhat for each individual. The saints, for example, are often instructed to wait patiently for the Lord to come, bringing their salvation with him. Sinners are never told to wait for anything. They are only told to repent and believe the gospel, and to do it as soon as possible. Many Christian ministers use Paul's answer to the Philippian jailor like a magic formula. Because Paul only used the word "believe" in that particular sentence, they teach and have misled millions into thinking that all anyone has to do in order to be saved is to believe. What foolishness! Paul could not say everything there was to say about salvation in the simple phrase, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved". Yes, we must all believe. But we all must also obey. And we all must also be baptized (with the holy Ghost). And we all must also be faithful unto death. Salvation is at the end of the line, not the beginning, and only those in the body of Christ who do the will of God while they are living here on earth will receive it. The rest of the body will be disinherited and "given their portion with unbelievers" in the Lake of Fire. For a copy of this sermon by Preacher Clark from 1970, send $3.00 to the address below and ask for "1970 Late - CD #1" Pastor John's House
Thought for Today 2003. 12-30 "Should Be Saved" or "Already Are"? Thought from a sermon by Preacher Clark at Grandma's house, late 1970. God adds to the body of Christ "such as should be saved". The Bible says (Acts 2:47): "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, the Lord adding daily to the body of Christ such as should be saved." This is the way of Christ. He adds to the body of Christ those who repent, and they are the ones chosen by God to be saved in the end from the damnation of eternal fire. Strangely, many Christians in this generation add to their churches such as claim they already are saved. God said "should be saved"; many Christians say they "already are saved". What is going on here? How did these Christian teachers manage to twist the truth, that believers are saved at the end of their lives if they are faithful to Christ, to such an extent that they teach men to claim that they already are saved just because they believe in Jesus? What about obeying the commandments of God? God has promised to save everyone who trusts in Christ if they obey Christ until the end (Mt. 24:12-13). Where then does this boldness come from that inspires so many Christians now to claim that they already have received the salvation that God has promised? If you are added to the family of God by receiving the holy Ghost baptism, you should be saved, and you will be saved if you are faithful to Jesus. But many whom Jesus has added to his family will not be saved because they turn from God's commandments to serve again the lusts from which Christ had delivered them. Peter describes these fallen believers thus: "If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment given unto them. But it is happened to them according to the proverbs, ‘The dog is turned to his own vomit again'" (2Pet. 2:20-22). These poor, backslidden believers were truly added by God to His family, and because of that, they should be among those who will be saved from the coming wrath of God, but they will not be saved from that damnation unless they repent of their unfaithfulness and return to the right ways of God. They have become unfruitful branches in God's vineyard and, without a change in their lives, will be cut off and burned up with the wicked. Jesus said, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (Jn. 15:6). "Added to the body of Christ and should be saved" as opposed to "joining a church and already saved". Those two phrases represent two completely different minds and come from two completely different spirits, one holy and one evil. Which mind do you have, and which spirit have you taken into your heart? For a copy of the sermon by Preacher Clark from 1970 that inspired this TFT, send $3.00 to the address below and ask for "1970 Late - CD #1" Pastor John’s House
Thought for Today 2003. 12-22 "Their heart is divided . . ." Hosea 10:2 In the Old Testament, the faith that resided in the hearts of many of God's people was divided among many gods: Jehovah, Baal, Ashtoreth, Tammuz, etc. The overwhelming majority of those in covenant with God trusted and worshiped a multitude of gods; they believed in the power of those gods to control various aspects of their lives. This was the kind of thinking that ruined the ancient nation of Israel, and it grieved the heart of God. That kind of thinking exists today in the family of God. The only difference is that now, instead of Jehovah being thought of as one God among many gods, most of the congregation believes that God is one of only two. The Creator God of the Bible is trusted as the God of all the good things that happen to us, and Satan is trusted as god over all the bad things that happen to us. Thus, the hearts of many believers today is still divided. They trust God to do good to them and trust the devil to do bad to them. Do not think that you are innocent of idolatry just because you have not been carving on tree trunks lately. Idolatry is a disease, an invisible, spiritual disease. It divides the heart and infects the soul with fear of another, in addition to God. The devil couldn't care less whether or not you like him; it is your faith in God that he covets. And so that he might steal a portion of that faith for himself, as he stole it from Eve in the Garden of Eden, he inspires Christian ministers to warn us that we should fear Satan's wicked power. Righteous men teach us to fear God, not the devil, for to fear God is to honor Him. And that sacred honor is what Satan has always envied. Do you honor Satan with faith to work his will in your life? Does he share in God's honor in your divided heart? Guard your heart; beware of ministers of Satan who speak often of his power to afflict you and bring trouble into your life. Such authority over you does not exist, except in God. The fear of the Lord (alone) is "the beginning of wisdom". Your entire life is in His mighty hands. Knowing this, David pleaded with God to unite his heart so that he might fear none but Jehovah. He cried, "Unite my heart, O God, to fear thy name" (Ps. 86:11). For that precious blessing of a united heart, all wise men still pray.
Thought for Today 2003. 12-21 Doctrine, Prophecy, and Preaching In the kingdom of God, doctrine is the explanation of what God has done in the past. Prophecy, on the other hand, is telling what God will do in the future. It is the same holy Spirit that reveals both doctrine and prophecy. The only difference is that doctrine looks to the past and prophecy looks to the future. Both are works of the Spirit, and no man can teach God's doctrine without a revelation from God, just as he cannot prophesy of the future without a revelation from God. Man knows neither what God will do nor what He has done unless God reveals it. It is amazing to hear a servant of God foretell of future events. It is equally amazing to hear a servant of God teach sound doctrine. Both prophecy and doctrine in God's kingdom are miracles of revelation wrought by the Spirit of God through holy men and women. May God bless His people with both! Preaching the gospel is altogether different. It neither foretells of future events nor explains what God has already done. Preaching the gospel is demonstrating with power what God is doing right now. Preaching is inspired by the holy Ghost, and it is always with power. Healing the sick is part of preaching; casting out demons is part of preaching; taking up deadly serpents is part of preaching; speaking words of God to sinners or to saints can be a part of preaching. Preaching comes with "demonstration of the Spirit and of power". Words can be used in preaching, but preaching is never "in word only". Paul told the Thessalonians, "We came not unto you in word only", and neither does any other man whom God sends to preach. Doctrine and prophecy cannot exist without revelation, and preaching cannot happen unless God anoints a man with power and sends him to do it. What many Christians call "preaching" is actually "teaching", and almost all of it in Christianity is false. Have you ever noticed that the Bible never mentions "false preachers"? There are "false prophets" mentioned in the Bible because men can be deceived by demons to speak of things to come. There are also "false teachers" mentioned in the Bible because men are able to devise doctrines out of their own will and imaginations. But preaching is different. Nowhere in the Bible do we read of "false preaching" because "preaching" does not exist at all without the power of God's holy Ghost moving through a man. "How shall they preach," Paul asked, "unless they be sent?" The only way there could be a "false preacher" is if there is a false power of God. Doctrine, prophecy, and preaching. They are among God's greatest gifts to the body of Christ. Each is beneficial in its time and place. Each is miraculous. But, according to the holy Scriptures, only two of them can be false.
Thought for Today 2003. 12-15 The Most Important People On Earth Below, is a list of the most important people on earth, more important than I, more important than you, more important than the President of the United States or anyone else, whether in the body of Christ or out of it Rob and Donna Nelson.....Jason Embry..... Cliff Ayscue..... Amy Pittman Julie Prater..... Heidi Cope ..... Marian Rowe Sink ..... Tracey Varner Rebekah Joy Clark ..... Drew Davis ..... Margaret Gouveia ..... Ruth & Paul Curtsinger Randell and Doris Williams ..... Taylor and Carrie Caldwell ..... Jim and Diane Kirk Tony and Margo Ellis ..... Keith and Tracey Hinnant ..... Haskell Mills, Jr. . . . and a number of others, including children. This is no clever gimmick, no "attention-getter" contrived to make you want to read the rest of this Thought For Today. These are, in reality, the most important people on earth at this time in human history, and this is why: In Acts 10, God did something that no one expected Him to do. Peter did not expect it; John did not expect it; James did not expect it; no one on earth expected it, and I suspect that no one in heaven knew it was coming except the Father and Jesus. In Acts 10, God baptized Gentiles with the holy Ghost, the Roman centurion named Cornelius and his household, and they began to speak in tongues and magnify God. Before that day, no one had ever received the holy Ghost unless he was circumcised in the flesh and baptized with John’s water baptism. Now, however, God had decided not to require submission to Moses’ Law and John’s baptism in order to have a part in His eternal kingdom. When Cornelius and those in his house received the holy Ghost baptism, they became living testimonies of something that no one ever expected would happen; to wit, that God would require nothing except repentance in the name of Jesus in order to be forgiven of all sins. Cornelius and those with him became shining lights because of what God did to them. In spite of how most of God’s people at that time thought it was, and despite of how most of God’s people might have wanted it to be, Cornelius was irrefutable proof that God did not require the whole world to be circumcised in the flesh and water-baptized in order to be receive the holy Spirit. The Gentiles were free from the works of the Law! God said so when He gave His Spirit to them even though they had not performed any of the Law’s works! What God did to Cornelius confirmed "the gospel of the Gentiles" that Paul said was revealed to him by Jesus. For Paul, people like Cornelius were the most important people on earth. Their baptism with the holy Ghost was absolute proof that God had spoken to him. Their baptism was proof that God required nothing of Gentiles but faith toward God through Christ His Son. This is the kind of thing that makes the people whose names I listed above the most important people on earth. Jesus revealed to me in 1993 that the religion of Christianity was never of him, that Christianity claims to be but is not the family of God, and that the call from God to "come out of her, my people" is a call to come out of Christianity. Did I really hear from God? Is it really true that the whole religion of Christianity is of the devil and not of God? Is it really true that Christianity is irrelevant to salvation? The answer lies in what God did to those people whose names appear in this TFT. God’s acceptance of their repentance is the greatest of all proofs that Christianity is not of God. Why? Because God forgave every one of them of all sins and baptized each one with the holy Ghost outside the religion of Christianity. This is what makes those people the most important people on earth. They are among the very few of God’s children who have received the baptism of the holy Ghost after rejecting the religion of Christianity. They are living proof that I heard from God and that Christianity is indeed irrelevant to salvation. What does it mean? What does it mean, if God did not require those people to be part of Christianity in order to be cleansed from sin? When God baptized with His Spirit the Gentiles at Cornelius’ house who had no part of the works of the Law, He was telling the world that He did not require men to keep the works of the Law in order to be washed from sin. What then is He telling the world now by baptizing with His Spirit people in my house who have no part with Christianity? What does it mean? God did it. What does it mean? What does it say about the necessity of being a member of Christianity that God welcomes men and women and children into His kingdom without it? Think about it, and answer this important question: What does it mean? I am sure that there were some children of God in the congregation in Paul’s day who were so opposed to the truth revealed to him that they even dared to condemn the holy Spirit that God gave the Gentiles as being a false spirit. That is how attached to their own ways and ideas men can become. They choose to curse the holy Spirit rather than change their ways to accommodate the work of God. It makes me tremble sometimes when I think of how attached to Christianity some of God’s children are today. They, just like me a few years ago, would die for that religion, "thinking to do God a service." Some of God’s people are so attached in their hearts to the religion of Christianity that when they hear that God baptized with His Spirit souls outside of Christianity, they might also condemn the holy Spirit that comes into people outside that religion. It is a frightening thing to consider, for to do such a thing is to wander toward the dark way of blasphemy, and Jesus warned us that all sins would be forgiven except blasphemy against the holy Ghost. May God help us who have forsaken the religion of Christianity to walk uprightly, to be generous and kind, patient and merciful toward those who hear the Voice (all God’s children do) but who do not yet understand what the Spirit is saying when it cries in their hearts, "Come out of her my people, that ye partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues." Hear and understand what God is saying when He baptizes into His family a soul that has rejected Christianity. That baptism of the holy Ghost is a holy work of God; and that person who is baptized with God’s holy Ghost outside of Christianity is immediately enrolled among the most important people on earth. They are living testimonies from God that Christianity is a lie. They are God’s conclusive proof that I and others like me really have heard from God, and that it is the Father’s will that all His children abandon the despised religion, Christianity, that Satan invented as an alternative to the congregation into which Christ baptizes those who obey him.
Thought for Today 2003. 12-14 Promises Many years ago, one of my students told me of this wise adage that she had heard: "A promise made is a debt unpaid." This is a true saying. If a righteous person has told someone he will do anything, he will not neglect nor forget to do it. He will keep his word, unless of course, God prevents it. People learn to trust God by learning to trust His saints. If they can trust us, they can believe that they can trust our God. This is why it is true that "A promise made is a debt unpaid." We owe it to Jesus to keep our word to others, the way Jesus always keeps his word to us. To that wise adage, I added this: "A promise kept is a paid-up debt." If you have done what you told someone you would do, you have been like Jesus to that person, and you have made it a little more likely that he will believe in Christ. You have paid part of your debt that you owe Jesus when you fulfill a promise to someone on earth. For Jesus' sake, and for the sake of others, do what you say you will do. If you say, but do not, then you are not only a debtor to Christ but you have also made yourself a debtor to the person that you have disappointed, and God will not be pleased with you until you repent and pay what you owe.
Thought for Today 2003. 12-08 Appearances and Baptism From a conversation with the telephone man. I had another one of those experiences today that only those who know the truth can have–and know that they have had it. It was the telephone man again. In late 2000, he was the one that the phone company sent out here to install the phone lines in our home, then under construction. He was then, as now, extremely zealous for his "apostolic" religion. These people seem always to be looking for some way to insert the word "baptism" into every conversation, hoping for the opportunity to explain to their unsuspecting victim that without their brand of water baptism "in Jesus name", all men are damned. I have been through it with them a number of times. In 2000, I understood immediately what this seemingly friendly brother (?) wanted when, as he went about doing his job in the house, he managed to insert the world "baptism" into an unrelated conversation. What a sick feeling it always is, when it hits me that what had appeared to be friendliness on someone one’s part was just a ploy to get me to listen to a doctrine! And such a doctrine! It holds that Jesus’s holy Ghost baptism does not wash sins away, but their water baptism does. So, even if Jesus forgives you and fills you with the holy Spirit of God, you will die and go to hell unless one of their ministers baptizes you in water, repeating a certain phrase as he does so. That is why they feel so compelled to bring up the word "baptism"; to them. Their baptism (not Jesus’s baptism!) is a matter of life and death to them. On that day in 2000, I listened to him talk a few minutes. He had his few little scriptures lined up in a row, and fired them all in perfect order, as he had been taught to do. And then I asked him, "What do you think Paul meant when he said, ‘Christ sent me not to baptize’?" He had made himself appear to be so knowledgeable of the Bible that I was actually surprised by his answer, which was: "That’s not in the Bible." "Oh, yes, it’s in there. If there was a Bible out here on this construction site, I would show it to you." He didn’t believe me. If his doctrine was of God, Paul could never have said such a thing, and he knew that. Such a statement was contrary to everything he had ever been taught by his pastor. Knowing that Paul did say that, in Corinthians 1, I asked, "If I could show it to you, that it really is in the Bible, would you believe it?" "Yeah, if it was in the Bible." That wasn’t enough for me. "Will you really? I somehow think that if I showed it to you, you still wouldn’t believe it." He insisted that he would believe it if I showed him that such a statement was actually in the Bible. The strength of his insistence even moved me a little, and I began to think that he might actually be willing to consider that he had been taught wrongly, if only I could show him that verse in the Bible. Fortunately, through the little woods beside our new home lived Brother Bob and Sister Ellen, and having walked over there, I soon returned with a Bible that their daughter Abigail let me use. I read the Scripture to him, 1Corinthains 1:17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel." He was stunned. He took the Bible from me just to make clear that I wasn’t pretending to read from it. Then he saw it for himself. But he didn’t believe it, and unbelievably, within just a few minutes, he was explaining that Scripture to me as if he had always known it was there and it was an important part of his doctrine. His explanation was so confused that I was embarrassed for him; even he could not understand what he said, and I don’t think he could have said it twice. The long and short of his explanation was that Christ did send Paul to baptize, but that Paul said Christ didn’t send him to baptize because . . . actually, I can’t even remember how he managed to twist that Scripture that far around. But that’s not my point now anyway. That was then. Yesterday, about three years later, he was the one sent by the phone company again to add a line to our house. He must have remembered me because he had a very impressive little speech ready. And when he found an opening and managed to bring the word "baptism" into the conversation, the dam broke. He quoted about three or four verses, word-for-word, in perfect order, as he went along in his sermonette. It was somewhat impressive. His presentation would have given an ordinary person the impression that he knew the Bible nearly perfectly. His appearance of absolute command of the Scriptures would without question have intimidated a lot of people. His message was unchanged. It was as I had heard it three years before: the gospel is three things: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. "Death" represents repentance; "burial" represents water baptism; and "resurrection" represents the holy Ghost. (Don’t bother telling such men that the word "represent" is not even in the New Testament.) After a minute or two of enduring his explanation of what the gospel is, I decided I would make a comment. I said, "You know, the gospel is not in word, but in power." "It IS in word!" He demanded. "Where did you ever get that?" "Well, it’s in the book." "That’s not in there." "Well, Paul said that the kingdom of God is not in word but in power." He didn’t believe me. "Where did he ever say that?" I told him where it was, and our conversation continued for a while until I broke it off and went inside the house. But I had to marvel a little at what I had just seen again. Appearance What struck me was the gigantic difference between the knowledge of the Bible that this poor man knew how to appear to have and the ignorance of the Bible that was really in him. I am still marveling at it today, twenty-four hours later. He had obviously worked hard to please his elders in his religious sect and had learned how to put certain scriptures together, quoting each one with precision. He had spent his time, not learning the Bible with a sincere and honest heart, but learning how to make people think he really knew the Bible. Would to God that Jesus had truly made him the authority that he tried to appear to be. The body of Christ needs the help. In the end, I was left with a deep sadness, not just for this young man but also for the ignorant people that he can impress. How many of God’s own children, I wondered, know the Spirit well enough to be able to discern that this young man knows nothing, despite his boldness and confidence, and despite his appearance of great knowledge? How many are in a spiritual condition to help him instead of either fighting or following him? How many would know God well enough to know, after listening to him give his little well-rehearsed sermon, that His message is not of God, that his spirit has been poisoned by professional liars, and that he is a lost little child in God’s kingdom? Paul taught the saints that in order to maintain good health in body and in spirit, we absolutely must be able to discern the body (1Cor. 11:29-30). It starts with discerning who is born again and who is not, but there is much more to discerning the body than that. A major part of discerning the body is to discern such people as this young telephone company employee, who thinks he is something he is not and is to be pitied, not followed. Since the rise of Christianity, the family of God has been following men that it should have pitied, and the divided, confused condition of the congregation now is the foretold results. Seek God, my friends, and read your Bible. Get to know it well. Let’s prepare ourselves to discern who is in the body of Christ, and who is who in the body of Christ, so that we can "discern the Lord’s body". Otherwise, foolish young men such as the one with whom I spoke yesterday might impress us as being other than what they really are.
Thought for Today 2003. 12-07 The New Past From a conversation with Sister Sandy, July 18, 2001. The "New Past" that Jesus offers everyone who trusts in him is what Paul referred to in 2 Cor. 5: "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold ALL THINGS are become new." If we have the faith to believe it, one of the "all things" that become new in Christ is our past, that is, our history before Jesus took us in. The New Past is also what Paul referred to in Romans 11, where he told the Gentile believers that they had been "grafted" into the olive tree of Israel by the power of God. Now, when we are grafted into the olive tree of faith, the history of that olive tree becomes ours. That olive tree’s sap is our sap; its root is our root, and its future is our future. This New Past which becomes ours in Christ includes the testimony of Abel, Job, and Noah, of Abraham and David, of Daniel, Jeremiah, and the prophets, and the righteous, wise men and women of all time. Our past includes the testimonies of Paul and of John and of Peter. It includes (praise God!) the testimony of the Lord Jesus, "who witnessed a good profession before Pilate". The men and women of faith throughout history are our ancestors now if we are in Christ. The phrase New Past confuses the unbelieving because the New Past is in faith, and faith is foreign to them. It confuses the rebellious because the New Past is in obedience, and they do not obey the will of God. The message of a New Past troubles the trouble-makers in the family of God because the New Past is in peace, and peace irritates those who irritate God. What does it mean that "old things are passed away", if our old habits, our old complaints, and our old sins still cling to us, confusing and discouraging us? Are they passed away or are they not? Some years ago, as Sister Sandy was in the midst of a sad visit with her elderly, unbelieving mother, the Lord spoke to her and said, "You are not a product of that union any more". We who are in Christ "are not debtors to the flesh". That is, we do not owe our existence to the human beings who produced our physical bodies. God had our names written in His Book of Life before the world was created; He had claims on us before our natural parents were even born. In Christ, we are no longer a product of that physical union of two human bodies; we are the product of the will and Word of God. It was His choice alone, not theirs, that we are here. If our natural parents had tried to prevent our birth, the stones themselves would have brought us forth! We are the offspring of a race of men created by the power and love of God, beginning with "the new man Adam" who was nailed to a tree in ancient Judah. There is no unbelief in our New Past because the New Past includes only men and women of faith. There is no confusion in our New Past because the New Past includes only men and women with the knowledge of God. There is no grumbling and ill will in our New Past because that past includes men and women who trusted God and loved people. The testimonies of the upright become our history when our history itself becomes new. When our father becomes Abraham, then our history includes leaving Babylonia behind! When our high priest becomes Christ, then our new history includes the Levitical priesthood that foreshadowed his work. In Christ, it was our forefathers who built an ark out of gopher wood and waited for the rain, our forefathers who crossed the Red Sea in faith, looking toward the Land of Promise, our forefathers who trembled before God at the base of Mount Sinai, our forefathers who willingly brought gold and silver to David for the building of God’s temple, our forefathers who waited for the Promise of God in an upper room in Jerusalem, and our forefathers who proclaimed the truth of Jesus to the ancient Roman world. In Christ, they were also our forefathers who were despised by men, who wandered about with no shelter, who were stoned, who were imprisoned and persecuted. And for those in Christ, it was our "everlasting father" who was crucified for the sins of the world. This is what the New Past means. In Christ, there is nothing that we fear because our forefathers were fearless; holy courage is all that runs in our veins. There is nothing that can discourage us because in the blood of our new family runs nothing but faith that we "can do all things through Christ who strengthens us." There is no sin of the old past that can drag us back into darkness because in our veins runs a holiness that terrifies Satan himself. We cannot be overcome with confusion because the knowledge of God infuses our spirits. No weapon formed against us can prosper. All things are ours, and we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. There is nothing that can separate us from the Love of God because the love of God created and fills both our history and us. God created our New Past for us, had that New Past written down, and encourages us to read it every now and then. Do you doubt God? You’re living in the old past. Do you hold a grudge against a brother or a sister? You’re trying to resurrect the old man. Do you fear the future? You are believing a lie, as if the old past still has any power over you. Are you not free to praise the God of the whole earth? You are digging into God’s garbage can to eat the rotten food of your old carnal nature. Our forefathers "danced with all their might" before the Lord. Our forefathers drove away the armies of the enemies of the Lord who exalted themselves against the saints of God. It is beneath the dignity of our New Past to remain in the quiet, smelly death chamber of Christianity. That abomination is NOT a part of our New Past in Christ. And for that reason, the holy Ghost is pleading with the children of God to "come our of her my people!" Our old past is in bondage. Our New Past is "free indeed" because the Son has made us that way!
Thought for Today 2003. 11-31 Affairs of This Life, Part Four "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he might please him who hath called him to be a soldier." Paul, 2Tim. 2:4 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3 Do not trouble your spirits by becoming embroiled in vain controversies. The only real issue of life is this: "Are you doing the will of God right now?" This whole world is geared toward distracting you from that one purpose, and to overcome that distraction is the warfare of this life. There really is nothing else to life on earth but this. We pray for the peace of this country, but we are not anxious about whether it will survive or not. To worry about that is a distraction from the real warfare of this life. We are thankful for the blessings with which God has blessed this great land, but we are not concerned about the disasters that may befall it, whether natural disasters or those that come from evil men. Those are just distractions from our purpose. Fretting about the economy or debating about the political policies of those who run this country are just more distractions offered by the world, and our challenge, our warfare, is to maintain our focus on the only worthwhile goal in life: to do the will of God. Do not surrender your attention to the things that trouble people of the earth. God will take care of you. In the midst of the terrors that surround us, and in the face of the dreadful diseases that are confounding the world’s scientists and frustrating the world’s medical community, God will keep you in perfect peace if you keep your mind on him. Jesus told us to rejoice when the final, horrific troubles of earth began to appear (Lk. 21:28). Why? "Because your redemption draweth near." In other words, keep your minds on what God is doing, not on what is happening among men or in nature. The Lord was warning us not to be overcome by the fears that will plague the earth, but to overcome the world by continuing to trust in God. Jesus was saying, "When the world is fearful, then use your weapon of faith!" The warfare is for your trust and your attention. That is what Satan desires from you, and the world covets the attention we give to Christ. Trust God; keep your mind on Him, and He will keep you in perfect peace. Then, you will be the light for others that you are intended to be.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-30 Affairs of This Life, Part Three "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he might please him who hath called him to be a soldier." Paul, 2Tim. 2:4 "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Matthew 26:52 There was a titanic battle waged in the Garden of Gethsemene the evening when Jesus was arrested, but it was a battle of spirits, and Jesus was the only winner. Jesus was "in the Spirit"; everyone else, including Peter, was "in the flesh". Jesus was fighting the battle with humility and faith; Peter was trying to fight it with hatred and violence. And in trying to fight God’s battle with an earthly weapon, Peter made himself an enemy of the righteousness he sought to defend. He became just another person whose spirit Jesus had to conquer in order to do the will of God. Peter tried to protect Jesus by attacking with his sword Malchus, a servant of the chief priest who was with the mob that came to arrest Jesus. But Peter was wrong to think that he could serve God by physical violence; the time for physical warfare in the service of God was now past, for Jesus had come to bring the light of life to men on earth. Jesus’ rebuke of Peter’s unwise action contains in it a warning to which the wise will take heed. If Jesus had come to live among us in more recent times, Peter would probably not have attacked Malchus with a sword. It is much more likely that Peter would have used a handgun to try to rescue Jesus. Having said that, my question is this: Did Jesus’ rebuke of Peter apply only to swords? In other words, would Jesus have allowed Peter to use a gun, but not a sword? Clearly not. Jesus’ rebuke was not simply a rebuke of what Peter was doing; it was a rebuke of Peter’s understanding of what it means to fight God’s warfare. It was a rebuke of Peter’s carnal mind. In essence, Jesus was rebuking Peter for trusting in the kind of weapon he was using. Peter’s weapon was an earthly weapon. Jesus would have rebuked Peter for trusting in a gun if Peter had used one because no earthly weapon, and nothing else of this earth, forwards the cause of Christ. Oh, how important it is for the family of God to understand this! Jesus’ rebuke of Peter was a rebuke of his trust in and use of an earthly weapon. Consider what that means. Jesus said that if we take up the sword, then we will perish with the sword. That means that if we trust in and take up one of the world’s weapons, then we are destined to die by that weapon. And that means that if a saint begins to trust in and use any earthly weapon, including the political systems of this world, then he is destined to perish with those weapons. Leave earthly weapons alone! There is a death sentence from heaven on any child of God who depends upon them. Jesus taught us this, and only fools don’t believe what Jesus said.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-29 Affairs of This Life, Part Two "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he might please him who hath called him to be a soldier." Paul, 2Tim. 2:4 "Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth into life, and few there be that find it." Jesus, Matthew 7:13-14 In the Scripture quoted above, Jesus was telling us that among people on earth, those who do the will of God are always in the minority. At any given time in history, there are many more people living in sin than there are people living according to the will of God. If you are doing the will of God, then you are on the seldom-found narrow path that leads to eternal life. This is one reason that saints of God who are wise do not put their trust in majority rule. Democracy, to the saints, is just one more of the earth’s vain systems of government. Nevertheless, to participate in a system of elections is what some men try to persuade the saints to do. The saints are being encouraged, often by leaders of the saints themselves, to engage in the American system of democratic elections. But is majority rule really what Jesus wants the saints of God to trust in? In a world populated by a majority of wicked people, does our Lord want us to commit ourselves and to trust our future to the will of the majority? In many countries, leadership is decided upon by bloodshed. The men at the top are the men who have been successful at killing their rivals or driving them into hiding. In some other countries, leaders are chosen by elections. In these places, there may be no street battles for political power and no bloody conflicts between military generals, but the hateful attitudes are the same. Even when leadership in an earthly government is determined by ballots instead of bullets, there remains the hatred, the strife, and the spirit of contention that impels other men in other places to war. The kingdom of God is not a democracy; it is a kingdom. We are governed by an irreplaceable King, and His will is the only law. There has never been an election in God’s kingdom because God will not allow it. The only way to attain to an office in His kingdom is be appointed to it by the King. Authority over the saints of God is of such importance to our heavenly Father that "no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God". Many have claimed to represent Christ to the body of Christ, but only Christ himself can enable anyone to really do that. Paul told Timothy that if a child of God would please his heavenly Father, then he must not become entangled in the "affairs of this life". Ask yourself, "Is military battle an affair of this life"? Of course, it is. Then do not participate in any of the wars that men fight against other men. God’s children are not to carry earthly weapons and use them for one earthly government against another. Ask yourself, "Is politics an affair of this life"? Obviously, the answer is yes. Then stay out of all politics, even the nicer kind of politics where men don’t shoot each other with guns. Let men of the world fight for high positions in the world. Let them fight with knives and guns or with sharp, cutting words. But on our part, we trust in the living God to determine for us who will rule anywhere, whether on earth or in heaven.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-28 Affairs of This Life, Part One "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he might please him who hath called him to be a soldier." Paul, 2Tim. 2:4 Jesus has called you to be a soldier of a different sort, to overcome enemies that this world does not even recognize as dangerous: immorality, greed, envy, malice, deceit, dishonesty, and such things. To equip us to conduct this warfare, Jesus has provided powerful weapons that the world cannot manufacture and does not trust: love, faith, kindness, godliness, hope, joy, and other fruit of the Spirit of God. If we are to please God, who has called us to be soldiers of the spirit, then we must learn to trust in the weapons Jesus has given us and not to resort to the kinds of weapons this world trusts. Those who do evil are not our enemies; our enemies are the unclean spirits that lead others to do evil. In man’s religious history, many a would-be servant of God has attempted to overcome an evildoer by attacking the person rather than by attacking the spirit that drove the person. That kind of thinking has led to some of the most bitter, bloodiest wars in history, when one leader would be persuaded that another leader was wicked. When men think God wants them to destroy others, mercy itself becomes sin to them. But earthly weapons do not overcome or destroy evil. Sin is a condition of the heart, and nothing but the spiritual weapons of Christ can reverse and heal that condition. Paul wrote: "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)." Peace is a weapon; love is a weapon. Against such mighty weapons, there is no defense. The whole world is overcome by the simple love of God. Helping others to overcome the world’s pull toward sin is accomplished only by what Paul called "walking in the Spirit", a phrase that simply means to follow the feelings of the good Spirit of God. No one is won to the real Jesus when the body of Christ uses a worldly weapon. Showing others the way into eternal life cannot be accomplished by manipulating anybody, or by clever advertising, or use of money, or by threatening anyone with harm, or by claiming things you really have not received from God. That is the way the world tries to attract customers, to be the biggest and richest, and to influence people. The warfare for souls is a battle won quietly, with love, with righteousness, and through simple obedience to Christ. The enemies of Christ are not socialism, communism, capitalism, terrorism or any other such thing. Those things can’t touch him. His enemies are those things that invade his house, confuse his children and divide his family: envy and strife, ill-will, self-will, ignorance of the truth, false doctrines and false teachers, fear and unbelief. And the only weapons that can avail against those evils are the invisible ones of the Spirit.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-23 Using the Spirit! From a conversation with Sister Willie, November 21, 2003. Sister Willie told me that the Spirit spoke to her on one occasion, saying, "When the mouth knows not what to say, the Spirit knows what to pray." Sounds like Paul. He wrote, "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26). God purposely puts us all through times when we do not know what to do, or even what to think. But in those times of uncertainty, He has not left us hopelessly stumbling in the dark. He has given us His Spirit, and the Spirit always knows exactly what to pray for, and will direct our steps. In his letter to the Corinthian saints, Paul said, "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also" (1Cor. 14:15a). Jude exhorted the saints to pray in the Spirit because by doing so the saints can build themselves up in the faith of Christ (Jude 20). It is okay if we don’t know all the answers, as long as the Spirit of Him who knows all things dwells within us. It is okay for us to be confused at times, as long as our confidence is not in ourselves. Jesus is our Savior; we cannot save ourselves. It is okay to depend upon him. Through the Spirit, the Father has given His children "a sound mind", so that when our minds cannot help us any more, we can be still and "rejoice in hope" that the mind of Christ will guide us. If the holy Spirit is within you, then you have all the wisdom and strength you need. You can rest in hope of God’s salvation, regardless of the situation. But there are many saints who "have forgotten their restingplace" and who no longer rely on the Spirit to help them to pray. They are dying–and that, with the Spirit of life within them just waiting to be used! To fail to use the holy Ghost that you have from God is like having money in your pocket and starving to death in a grocery store. Take advantage of the gift of God! Use it! Pray in the Spirit sometimes. The Spirit knows things that you do not know. It sees what is coming as well as what is now, and it will make intercession for you according to the will of your loving heavenly Father.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-17 Making Deals With God "Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples." Hosea 8:14 Late in Israel’s history God’s people, the Israelites, attempted to appease God with religious works instead of pleasing God with obedience. Instead of turning from immorality, they built more temples. But God has never wanted ceremonial works instead of obedience. The prophet Samuel rebuked King Saul for attempting to trade sacrifices for keeping God’s commandment with these words, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1Sam. 15:22). I have seen rebellious children of God become very religious in an attempt to make a deal with God and avoid doing His will. I have seen them spend hours and hours in prayer rather do a simple thing that God told them to do. They were trying to cut a deal with God; they wanted to trade religious works for doing His will. But nothing takes the place of doing God’s will. When the disobedient pray instead of repenting, their prayer becomes an abomination (Prov. 28:9). These people think that by many words they can impress God, but Jesus said it doesn’t work that way. He said, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking" (Matt. 6:7). When God says to do a thing, just do it and don’t waste your time trying to offer Him a substitute for obedience. Don’t try to make a deal with Jesus; just obey him.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-16 The Safest Place to Hide "Woe unto them! For they have fled from me. Destruction unto them! Because they have transgressed against me. Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me." Hos. 7:13 When a person finds that he has done wrong and has displeased God, he has two choices: to try to hide his sin and run from God or to confess his sin and come to Him. When God is angry, the wise run to Him. Foolish people run away. Solomon said, "the wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it" (Proverbs 16:14). But how does he pacify the wrath of the king? Solomon answers that question by saying, "If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for yielding pacifieth great offences," (Ecclesiastes 10:4). We pacify God’s wrath when we come to Him and yield to His correction. One ancient wise man wrote, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, for I have sinned against Him." To come to God when you have done wrong is to "repent". And when God’s servants call men to repentance, they are only exhorting the guilty to run toward God instead of trying to run from Him. If you have done wrong, take the shortcut to happiness and come to Jesus.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-11 Salt "Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?" The cure for the inability to endure challenging or painful circumstances is what Jesus called "salt". He told his disciples that they needed salt in themselves, so that they could experience genuine peace (Mk. 9:50). He also suggested that no prayer or praise to God was acceptable unless it arose from a salted heart (Mk. 9:49). Salt is a preservative, and the salt that comes from God preserves our hearts from bitterness and unbelief, regardless of circumstances. It is the power of God that keeps, or preserves us from discouragement and fear. Disappointment does not destroy our faith when we have the salt of heaven keeping our souls. Fear does not direct our path when we are kept on the right path by God’s power. Truth is not an offence to us when the power of God opens our ears and enables us to hear sound doctrine and to rejoice in it! We can endure the unsavory things of this life, including some of the "hard sayings" of Jesus, only as we are kept by the power of the holy Ghost from our own thoughts and ways. The salt of God saves us from ourselves first, and then from the world. And we must be kept from evil now by the salt of heaven if we hope to be saved in the end, for the reward of eternal life is laid up in heaven only for those who "are kept by the power of God" (1Pet. 1:4-5).
Thought for Today 2003. 11-10 Enduring Sound Doctrine God has some unsavory things to say to you. We know that we must "endure unto the end" in order to receive our promised salvation (Mt. 10:22), but what is it that we must endure? Things that are mentioned in the Bible that we must endure are "hardships", "chastisement", "grief", "tribulations", and "afflictions". But did you know that you must also endure "sound doctrine" unto the end in order to be saved? Paul wrote to Timothy that the time would come when, instead of enduring sound doctrine delivered by true men of God, God’s people would begin to hire men to teach them only what their flesh wanted to hear about Jesus. And of course, if you hire a man to teach you, and if that man is smart, he is going to teach you what he thinks you want to hear so that he can keep his job. Paul said it this way (2Tim. 4:3-4) "The time will come when they [the body of Christ] will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves [hire] teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables." Many Christian churches, when they want to hire, or "heap to themselves" a minister, extend invitations to various ministers from other churches to come and deliver to them "trial sermons". These "trial sermons" are, as is Christianity as a whole, a mockery of the right ways of God; they are no more than carnal contests between carnally-minded contestants struggling against each other for a carnal prize. The speakers know they are being judged by their performances and are trying to perform so that the judges, the congregation, are pleased. They would not dare to speak "sound doctrine" to such an audience. It would not be endured, and they know it. These "trial sermons" are sin; they are nothing but auditions for a part in a play, and it is the part of a lackey and a fool. These auditions are no more of God than are auditions by singers and actors for parts in a Broadway musical. Child of God, come out of that false religion and live! God has servants who will freely tell you the truth! Why pay for lies? And that, my dear readers, is sound doctrine that many of God’s own beloved people, because of the ungodly influence of the religion of Christianity, find it difficult to endure.
Thought for Today 2003. 11-03 God and Change From a comment by Uncle Joe in a home prayer meeting in about 1974. All wise men change because all wise men understand that they must change if they are to grow spiritually to become like God. Uncle Joe said once that God is unchangeable, and that means that we must always be ready to be changed. Not many understand that truth. After teaching the Bible to adults in community colleges for several years, I began to realize that my students almost never expected to be changed by what they would learn from the Book. If, for instance, my student was a Baptist, he expected to remain a Baptist after studying the Bible. If he was a Catholic, or a Muslim, or a Pentecostal, he expected to be a Catholic or Muslim or Pentecostal after learning the Bible. Students, I noticed, didn’t enroll in my Bible course with hearts expecting anything real from God. No matter what they would learn, it seemed to me, they did not expect the Bible to materially change their thinking. Some students were surprised to find that the Bible demands to be believed. Those who read it are not judging it; rather, it is judging them. Some students humbled themselves to the Book of God, and their lives were reshaped into a more perfect image of Christ. Other students quit the course when they learned that God’s doctrine was different from their own. Every response was God’s judgment on the hearts of the students, and all I had to do was teach and watch. The experiences through the years taught me much. In one federal penitentiary where I taught, a big "black Muslim" named David rejected Islam and turned to Jesus half-way through the Old Testament, and I had never even brought the subject of Jesus up to the students. God taught me through such events that the Old Testament leads nowhere but to His Son Jesus, and that if I would just stay out of the way and let the student learn what was in the Book, the trail would lead to the cross . . . and then to the Spirit. It was God’s work I was doing, not mine, and if I would stay out of His way, He would accomplish it. The only right way to approach the study of God’s holy Book is to come to the Bible as nothing before God, as being ignorant and needing knowledge, as being a fool needing to be made wise, as being condemned and needing to be saved from the coming wrath. In God’s kingdom, only those who confess their need will have that need supplied. Only those willing to be changed will ever be made like Jesus. There is no need for a Christian to read the Bible unless he is willing to be made something else by the knowledge of God. It is a mistake to approach God’s Book, expecting Him to be unable to add to you faith and make you more like Jesus, no matter who you are. A question that should be asked of us all is this one: Unless you are willing to be influenced by God to become something other than what you already are, why would you even want to read God’s Book?
Thought for Today 2003. 11-02 From an email sent to me by Amy P. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Hebrew 11:13) Amy wrote me a note, saying, "On the way home I was thinking about some of my thoughts we discussed today, and the Spirit spoke and said, ‘Doing the will of God makes you a servant.’ We don't even have to try to be a servant, doing the will of God makes us one." Lately, I have been emphasizing to the congregation the need of possessing the attitude of a servant, and Amy’s email was in response to that truth. But her comment also sparked in me the memory of the word of the Lord that came to me a few years ago concerning our being "strangers and pilgrims" on this earth. The Lord told me that simply obeying Him makes us "strangers and pilgrims" on this earth. We do not have to try to be what God makes us when we obey Him. In fact, people who try to make themselves "strangers and pilgrims" succeed only in making themselves weird. And "weird" is not godly; it is worldly. God does not make us weird; He just makes us strangers and pilgrims in the earth. By His word, God made me to understand that it is not possible for any of us humans to become strangers and pilgrims by our own efforts and understanding, and that whenever we try to do so, we become more worldly, not less. By making ourselves odd-balls, we participate in and promote the vanity of earth; we do not escape it. The religious sects that distinguish themselves with unusual manners of dress are weird, not godly. Clerical robes, for example, are worldly; they have nothing whatsoever to do with the kingdom of God and of Christ. Jesus never ordained such a thing, and the only reason for such peculiar clothing is to impresses the flesh of the simple minded. The more that men strive to distance themselves from ordinary people in the world by their clothing, the weirder they become. Some other religious sects try to make themselves strangers and pilgrims by moving away from other humans and becoming hermits. That is also ungodly. The more that people try to make themselves strangers to the world, the more worldly they become. Only God knows how to truly make us different from the world, and He does that as we obey Him, not as we do anything to ourselves. Obedience to God is the answer to every problem of mankind. We cannot make ourselves either holy or wise; nor is it possible for us to make ourselves different from the world. The world is full of weirdos, and when men try to make themselves strangers and pilgrims, they only become another example of how ungodly and weird this sinful world is. An old hymn says, "Trust and obey; there is no other way to be happy in Jesus." Nor is there any other way to become a stranger and pilgrim with Christ.
Thought for Today 2003. 10-27 Who is Lost? The first instance of "lost" in reference to people is in Jeremiah 50:6. "My people hath been lost sheep". The theme of God's people being lost sheep is continued in Ezekiel 34:4, 16. Of the seventeen uses of "lost" in the Old Testament, these three are the only ones used in reference to people. It is important to note that the people who were lost were God's people, Israel, not the heathen nations. In the New Testament, "lost" is used sixteen times. Nine times, it refers to people. But which people? (1 & 2) The lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mt. 10:6; 15:24). (3 & 4) Jesus has come to seek and to save that which is lost (Mt. 18:11; Lk. 19:10). (5 & 6) The father's wayward son is lost, and then found (Lk. 15:24, 32). (7 & 8) Judas became lost (Jn. 17:12; 18:9) (9) The gospel is hidden from those who are lost (2Cor. 4:3). Only the last verse could possibly refer to anyone other than God’s people. And with the issue of converted Jewish teachers perverting the faith and pressuring Gentile believers to submit to the Law, this verse could have been intended by Paul as a reference to them. One fact is undeniable in these verses. The prevalent Christian idea that the sinners of the world are "lost" and that the calling of the congregation is to find and save them is non-biblical. Generally, the Bible’s position can be said to be this: Goats are not lost. Only the sheep are lost. By being in sin and spiritual darkness, goats are where they belong. They are in their own "pasture", following their own shepherds and feeding on the things they love. Jesus did not come to seek for goats, but for sheep, even for those sheep which were not of the Jewish fold (Jn. 10:16). An old preacher who helped my father as a young minister once said that sinners cannot be tempted; only believers can be tempted. By committing sin, sinners are behaving according to their nature; they do not need to be tempted in order for them to commit those sins. Sheep, on the other hand, are never happy in sin, even before coming home to Christ. They must be lured into it. There is no scriptural support for the notion that before a person is converted he is a goat and that when he is converted he becomes a sheep. The sheep are sheep from the beginning, and they are never anything else. Likewise, the goats. So, I ask again. Who is lost? If your name is in God’s Book of Life in heaven, yet you have not yet received the baptism of the holy Ghost, you are among the "lost" sheep, and these messages are sent from God for you, to give you direction to the fold. If your name is not in the Lamb’s Book of Life, these messages are not for you, and you cannot possibly believe them. There is a fairly popular gospel hymn that tells us, "There's a new name written down in glory". That hymn is indoctrinating people to believe that when one is converted, God at that moment writes that person’s name in His Book of Life. This is completely false. It is typical Christian nonsense. No one can have his name added to the Book of Life. The sheep’s names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; 17:8). There has not been a single name added to the Book of Life since God wrote the names in there. Sadly, though, many sheep have lived disobedient, ungodly lives and have had their names erased from the Book of Life (Ex. 32:32-33; Ps. 69:28; Rev. 3:5). There is only one way that anyone knows for certain that his name is written in God's Book of Life, and that is the baptism of the holy Ghost. The one who receives the holy Ghost baptism (with the evidence of speaking in tongues) is confessing his faith in God as true (Jn. 3:33), thus proving that he was a lost sheep who has at last come home. Every one who rejects the baptism of the holy Ghost is, in fact, calling God a liar (1Jn. 5:10) and is demonstrating that he is a goat who will never find a place in the kingdom of God–even though many goats profess to belong to Christ, and some even have a degree in theology to prove it! Who is lost? God's sheep are lost. If you are one of them, you will be happy to learn that the way home does not lead through Christianity, but through the Spirit of Christ. It is only by the saving work of Jesus in your life that you will ever see your Father and the rest of the heavenly family to which you have always belonged. Forget your past, whether it be a disgraceful past filled with godless immorality or a highly esteemed past, filled with participation in Christianity’s religious rebellion against the holy Spirit of God (cp. Lk. 16:15). Repent of all of it, and come home.
Thought for Today 2003. 10-26 Because You Belong From the Song, "I Didn’t Know", given to me in a dream early on the morning of October 24, 2003. We do not turn from sin and come to Christ so that we may obtain a home in heaven. Rather, we repent and come to Christ because we already have a home waiting for us there. We repent because we were ordained from the foundation of the world to hear the call of Jesus and repent. It takes some of us longer than others to surrender to that call, but if you are God’s, you will be called and you will come. And when you come, you will be coming home. You will not be leaving your home to come to God. We come to Jesus because we belong to God, not because we want to belong to Him.
Thought for Today 2003. 10-20 At Ease In Zion "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. . . . They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph!" Amos 6:1a, 6b It can be debated as to who is "at ease in Zion" and who is not---debated until God speaks and gives us some understanding. In the book of Job, God reveals the attitude of one who is "at ease" in spirit. Through his great distress, Job came to understand that those who are "at ease" in spirit feel superior to those whom they believe have erred. Poor Job was suffering much abuse at the hands of three theologians, who were not hurting as Job was hurting and, therefore, they considered Job to be their moral inferior. Job lamented (12:4-5), "I am as one mocked of his neighbor . . . the just man is laughed to scorn. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease." It is not our attitude toward those whom we consider to be upright that demonstrates our love of God. Anyone can love those who live as he thinks they should. Jesus said that even the wicked love those who are like them (Mt. 5:46-47). "The love of God", my father taught us, "is shown in our differences." It is our feeling toward those children of God who are weak and in trouble that shows whether or not we truly love God. Those who are "at ease in Zion" are those children of God who despise other children of God whom they believe have gone the wrong way. Paul warned the saints not to be so foolish as to think God feels that way. "Brethren," he said, "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Gal. 6:1). The very reason that God selects men to minister to men is because the men he chooses know what it feels like to be sinful and in need of mercy. God chooses frail men to anoint to be His servants for the family of God because He knows that they will understand others’ need for prayers on their behalf. Men who themselves have been rescued will deal with weak and backslidden children of God more humbly than angels are capable of doing. None of God’s heavenly beings understand what it means to be humiliated by sin and in need of forgiveness. They would not know how to offer from the heart sacrifices of intercession to God for the wayward of the congregation. God’s children who love God’s children cannot be "at ease" when their brothers and sisters are being led astray; they do not look upon them with disdain; they are grieved for the affliction of those who have wandered from the right path. Their hearts are like God’s heart, who is never at ease when the safety and well-being of His family is concerned.
Thought for Today 2003. 10-19 "Let us fear" There must be a balance in everything that pertains to this life. Including the doctrine concerning fear. Much has been made of the verse John wrote: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1Jn. ). But little has been made of such verses as this one, found in Hebrews 4:1: "Let us therefore fear. . . ." Jesus feared God (Heb. 5:7), and he taught his followers to do the same (Lk.12:4-5). The fear of God is clean and good. The fear of everything else but God is what is cast out by God’s perfect love. The fear of God and the love of God are two sides of the same coin; we fear God for the same reasons that we love Him. There is coming a day when God shall judge our deeds "without respect of persons", and in consideration of that inescapable event, the Apostle Peter exhorted the saints to "pass the time of your sojourning here in fear" (1Pet. 1:17). "We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ", wrote Paul, "that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2Cor. 5:10). The very thought of that coming day of judgment causes wise men to tremble before our Maker. They understand that God is God and we are but men, and in their hearts they hear the Spirit speaking the words it inspired that long-ago servant of Jesus to write: "Let us therefore fear."
Thought for Today 2003. 10-12 Inheriting the Kingdom From conversations with Preacher Clark, late 1970s. When we are delivered by Jesus "from the power of darkness" and receive God’s Spirit, we are at that moment "translated into the kingdom of [God’s] dear Son" (Col.1:13). Every child of God is an honored citizen of heaven’s kingdom (Eph. 2:19). The children of God are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ", heirs of the Father’s kingdom (Rom. 8:17), even though they have not yet received our promised inheritance. An important truth of Christ is the sad fact that at the final Judgment, some of God’s children will be judged unworthy of their inheritance and will be disinherited by the Father and cast out of His kingdom. We will partake of the future glory of Christ in God’s eternal kingdom only if we are faithful to Christ while we live in this world. "We are made partakers of Christ", wrote the author of Hebrews, "if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast until the end" (Heb. 3:14). This is why Jesus repeatedly warned his followers that "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Many Christian ministers, falsely claiming to speak for Jesus, teach that once a person is born into the family of God and becomes a joint-heir with Christ, he will never be disinherited, regardless of how lawless a life he lives. They are blind leaders, and only blind people follow them. The holy Ghost teaches every child of God on earth that they must continually confess Jesus Christ before men if they hope to receive their promised salvation, "for with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10). This is the Word of God that is living in the heart of every person with God’s Spirit within him. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is the truth, and all other doctrines concerning salvation are, as Peter described them, "damnable heresies" (2Pet. 2:1). "Buy the truth and sell it not", counseled Solomon (Prov. 23:23). We purchase the truth from Christ with humility and sincerity, not with money (Isa. 55:1), and I am convinced that every truly humble and sincere soul can understand and rejoice in the truth. Do you have the price to pay for the simple truth? An inheritance in God’s kingdom, what the Bible calls "salvation", is promised to every one of God’s children, on the condition that they obey the commandments of God. No one has difficulty understanding that or believing that who hears and recognizes the voice of the Spirit, for that is what the Spirit teaches us. I close with this encouraging exhortation from Peter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that is not fading away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept [from sin] by the power of God" (1Pet. 3-5a). When you stand before Jesus, dear fellow believer, may you be among those who are counted worthy to receive their inheritance with Christ and who rejoice forever in the light of God’s countenance.
Thought for Today 2003. 10-08 "Two Secrets" From a testimony by Uncle Joe, in a prayer meeting at Grandma’s house during the summer of 1968. Uncle Joe testified in the prayer meeting that Sunday afternoon that he and God were holding a conversation as he drove from his home in Durham, NC to visit Preacher Clark, who lived in Henderson, about forty-five minutes to the northeast. "God was talking to me" he said, "and I was talking to him." He went on to tell the small group of saints gathered in the old farmhouse that God had shown him two secrets to being happy. "If you’re going to be happy with the Lord," declared Uncle Joe with great confidence and zeal, "there are two secrets you must know." These are the two secrets to being happy in Jesus that Uncle Joe said he received from God while on his way to Henderson: (1) If you have done anything wrong, repent. (2) If anybody has wronged you, forgive.
Thought for Today 2003. 10-07 "Willing To Receive Rebuke" From a testimony by Uncle Joe, in a prayer meeting at Grandma’s house, April 15, 1973 Everything you have ever learned, you have learned through humility. As a child, you humbled yourself to listen to your mother’s instruction, and so, learned to tie your shoes. As a young student in school, you humbled yourself to your teachers, and you learned to add and subtract. All learning is the result of humbling ourselves to someone who knows more than do we. For this reason, Solomon counseled his young children to stay humble and to love instruction, for the way to eternal life has to be learned. God sends us instructions through many different avenues. He will use sinners to rebuke saints, just to see if the saints have become proud of their status in God’s kingdom. He will use children to instruct their elders, to see if their elders hearts are still willing to listen and to learn. He has, at different times, used a donkey to rebuke a prophet and a rooster to condemn a disciple of Christ. Both Jesus and Solomon (and many other wise men) were made wiser by humbly observing nature, from watching the birds, the ants, the flowers God created, or by considering the clouds, the sun, or the rain. But pride inhibits learning. A proud man is a dead man. To the humble man, "the heavens declare the glory of God", but to the proud man, the heavens say nothing. It was this wisdom that moved Uncle Joe to say during his testimony that "we had better be willing to receive rebuke from anybody at any time." This wise elder of the congregation had been corrected for during that previous week by a fellow worker on the job for what amounted to a minor fault; still, he was grateful for it. If any correction comes, it is sent from God. The instrument He chooses to use is irrelevant. What matters is this: Are we humble enough to receive the correction that God sends? We will be, if we remember these wise words that Uncle Joe also spoke during his testimony that long-ago Sunday afternoon: "The man who tells you the truth is your friend."
Thought for Today 2003. 09-29 Your Price for Jesus Every one of God’s children has a price for which we would betray Jesus. Until we have matured in spirit and are established in God’s grace, each of us has a price for which we would sell out our Lord. Every one of us. It is only the mercy of our heavenly Father that protects us from being offered our price before we become established in the faith. In His love for us, our Father is saving every one of us who is not yet |