from Magy

Dear Amy,

I started to read chapter 8 today from The father and the Son book. I have just read 5 pages so far, and I love that so much, specially “There is nothing dead in the kingdom of God. His Word is a who, His wisdom is a who, as well as His righteousness and his light. Even the gospel is a who!!” That’s is so true. I love to read that! Even I knew that truth but I felt that the first time to pay attention to “Who” like that! He is really an awesome God! I love to know about him Day after day! he is amazing and I love him a lot 🙂

love you!
Magy
(Egypt)

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Chapter 8 reading

It has taken me 2 hours to read 8 pages of your manuscript on the father and the Son. . .because it is so GOOD. . . stopping to re-read, reflect, praise God. . examine scripture. . . and digest the concepts.

My favorite line so far is: “Our eternal destiny does not depend so much on what we think is true, but on who we think is true.”

When i read that, I can’t help but smile and feel the love of Jesus proclaiming that invaluable truth.

A question popped into my head. . .

I have often heard unrepentant sinners make the statement that everyone is a child of God; everyone on earth.

Well, “yes and no” is my answer.

All people are created by Jesus, and are essentially/fundamentally “children” of God, . . . but God’s true children are they who receive His Spirit and walk in righteousness and obedience; correct?

To attempt to clarify the answer is to present myself and other “born-again” individuals as special, or chosen, and exclusive. And that angers sinners. It compels them to mock the truth of God and the people of God, with an indignant attitude: “Oh, so you think God thinks you’re better than me, huh?!”

Is there an easier, more courteous way to explain this concept of who is really a “child of God”? Or should I just brace myself for instant persecution in such cases? ;^)

Brad

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Just brace yourself, dear Brother Brad. You and all God’s true children are “special and chosen”, whether that sounds good to those around you or not, and God is extremely exclusive (without apology) when it comes to membership in the body of His Son. Nobody gets in without being called (read, “invited”) and then repenting of sin. I know that you try very hard to testify to these things without being offensive, and that is good on your part. But the gospel is what it is, and the world will never like it the way it is. The world would rather alter the message just enough to make it fashionable. Don’t fall for that. Jesus was born in a barn, and religious people have been trying to get him to check into the Ritz-Carlton ever since.

jdc

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Who can judge?

Good morning,

Can man forgive sin, or God alone? What I was wanting to know is about the scripture “what is bound on earth is bound in heaven”? From what I have heard, we the saints have that authority to bind someone. It is hard for me to imagine that being the case, due to the fact that some of the saints have wrong ideas about what is what with another person and wouldn’t be able to judge righteously. If that be so, makes it sound as if all this would have to be decided by Jesus alone.

Thanks Maria
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A body of believers, walking together in the Spirit, has great authority over any individual member of the body. It can forgive or not forgive sin. Individual men whom God has anointed and sent also have that authority. The fact that some children of God cannot make righteous judgments has nothing to do with the question you asked.

I am not certain what your last sentence means. But in general, we know that God has appointed Jesus as Judge of the whole earth, and we know that he has appointed certain men, under him, to exercise his judgments.

Pastor John

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Good morning John,

I’m not sure I know how to get my thought across on this. What I want to know is with the authority to forgive, then does it say you cannot make it with Jesus in the end. If a person decides not to forgive, does it send a person to the lake of fire.

Thanks again Maria
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You seem not to understand the authority that accompanies any judgment that true men of God make. If a man is truly a man of God, he does not represent his own thoughts and feelings any more than Jesus did. Such anointed men represent God’s judgments and feelings. If it were otherwise, no one would need fear or even pay attention to what they say. So, it is never the case that a real man of God merely “decides not to forgive” because he misunderstands something or has a bad attitude; rather, he reflects what God has decided.

Almost all the time, in this world, God’s messengers are condemned, if not ignored, because most of the time, in this world, God Himself is condemned, if not ignored. But their judgments will stand because God’s judgment stands. In the Final Judgment, everything will be revealed. In the meantime, God’s servants must continue their work to reflect the heart and mind of God, enduring the same contempt which Jesus suffered at the hands of carnally-minded men.

In short, if a messenger of God does not forgive, it is because God has not forgiven.

Pastor John

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PJH

Name: Jefferson

comments: Hello, Pastor John my question is after recieving the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues, do you need to keep speaking in tongues after ?

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Hi Jeff.

According to Paul in Romans 8, we very much need the Spirit to pray through us for things we do not know how to pray about. So, to answer your question, yes.

Under normal conditions, the Spirit continues to praise God and pray through the person it baptizes. However, I know of some people who have not had this happen, and the Spirit ceased to speak through them after they received it. In one case, the man is old now, and it has never spoken through him since that day, over forty years now. In another, the Spirit was silent for a couple of years afterward. In both those cases, the people involved began quarreling with others over doctrine as soon as they received the holy ghost, and I have always wondered if that was the reason the Spirit went silent. But I assume that the Spirit can be quenched by several things. Whatever causes there may be, they are all summed up by what Paul called “the flesh”. Stay in the Spirit, and it will continue to work through you.

Many times, the Spirit is quenched because the newly-converted person has joined himself to a church that quenches the Spirit. Steer clear of church religion, and you will avoid the most dangerous of all the things that quench the Spirit.

Pastor John

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Evolution

Pastor John,

We just had these thoughts after [my husband] got off the phone with his brother. They were talking about all kinds of scientific theory stuff about “how the universe came into being,” and [my husband’s] repeated comment was basically, “That’s a theory based on a theory based on a theory… Where’s the fact in that?” Funny, because earlier we had been talking about how “science” is just basically “the study of” — it isn’t “fact.” I studied cognitive science for linguistics in college. When people say, “Religion [meaning the Bible] is at odds with science,” they mean it’s at odds with man’s assessment of the things that we all see — it’s not at odds with the actual truth.

So when [my husband] was telling me about their conversation, I realized that the Bible says very plainly how God created everything: He just said, “Let it be.” God is so wise that when He said there would be man, Adam was made with all he would need to be the first of many when woman came along. God didn’t have to thiiinnnk abouuut iiiittt for humans to be as complex as we are. He said, “Let it be” and “it” was made already right!

“Evolution” is what happens when people think about how [nature] would have to go about making an earth… like how technology has progressed. “First, everything was very simple and ineffective. Then, as we learned, the old technology died. Technology will continue to get more advanced as it evolves.” Substitute creation instead and, like [my husband] said, it shows how people think of God as “a big one of us”!

That was just a light bulb moment to realize the answer to *how* God created everything isn’t just, “It doesn’t matter”; it is just that He did! Until recently, I didn’t understand your problem with the way people use the word “create” and its derivatives. I still think people’s use has morphed the popular meaning, as with many words, but now I do think it’s an incorrect use.

Bxxxx
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Very good, Bxxxx! I am glad you finally saw the light. No one can create anything except God.

Thanks for writing. Your email was very insightful and interesting. We look forward to seeing you both before too much longer.

Pastor John

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Wise as Serpents

Hey Pastor John.

What does it mean to be “wise as a serpent”?

Mxxxxxx
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Hi Mxxxxxx.

Serpents were known to be cunning because of their stealth. people didn’t know where serpents would show up. They could slide in and not without being noticed and could be in a place without anyone knowing. The serpent in the garden of Eden was very crafty. Eden didn’t know where the serpent was going with his words.

In telling his disciples to be wise as serpents, Jesus was counseling them to be discerning and not to talk a lot, and certainly not to throw their “pearls” before swine. Solomon said that fools utter everything that’s on their minds, and he also said that if you don’t talk much, people around you will automatically think you are wise. But more to the point, I think, is that if you are as quiet as a serpent, you learn to depend more on your other senses; in particular, you listen better and, consequently, you learn more.

Pastor John

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tithes on business

Bro. John,

I have a question about tithes. A couple places I sell my writing to are kind of marketplaces escrow services, which withhold a percentage of each of my sales for their administration, marketing, etc. Usually, we tithe on what I originally charged for the writing, instead of what I receive after the middleman fees. Are we doing that right or are the fees business expenses we shouldn’t tithe on?

Beverly
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Hi Beverly:

God commanded His people to bring to His servants a tithe of their “increase”. In modern terms, that would mean “profit”. You should tithe only on the amount you earn after business expenses are deducted.

Pastor John

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about a “Pearl of Wisdom”

Hey Pastor John,

I had a question about today’s “Pearl of Wisdom.” It was: ‘Every prayer you pray without seeing results, you get weaker in God.’ I didn’t really understand it. It seems it’s implying we should only pray for what God leads us to pray for, otherwise, they are our own prayers/desires, and might not be His, thus, He may not choose to answer them. I’ve had prayers not answered, but I assumed that either, a) God had a better plan, or b) He would answer them in His timing, and I needed to be patient. What do you think?

Thanks,

Anna
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Hi Anna.

We should be led by the Spirit in our praying as much as in everything else; otherwise, we run the risk of becoming disappointed and discouraged. This was Preacher Clark’s point. John wrote,

14. And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us;
15. and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have made of Him.”

And James said,

You ask, and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your own lusts” (Jas. 4:3).

Preacher Clark was approaching the subject from the angle of these two apostles. Of course, there may be cases when a prayer is denied only because of God’s vastly superior wisdom, such as when Paul prayed for his “thorn” to be removed. But even then, Paul was looking at his thorn from the vantage point of his own desires, not God’s. So, what John and James said would even apply to Paul’s prayer.

It is good to remember that God is always right. If we do so, we will not become bitter if God does not do some things we ask Him in prayer to do. But a life of continually offering up unanswered prayers is a self-willed life, and that kind of praying, being in the flesh, wears down our faith and robs us of our spiritual strength. Preacher Clark was right. It is best to be so led of the Spirit that we know what to ask for before we pray because, to turn his quote around, “Every prayer you pray that gets results makes you stronger in God.”

Pastor John

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Testator

Hi pastor John,

I have a question about Hebrews 9:16-17, where it says “For where a testament is, it is necessary to establish the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead; it has no force at all while the testator is alive”. But then in v. 18, “Hence, the first testament was not inaugurated without blood.” Who was the testator for the Old Testament? Was the blood of the animals that Moses sprinkled on the people just a figure of the testator that was to come? Moses wouldn’t be the testator would he, since he didn’t die (until later)?

Vince

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Hi Vince.

If Moses had been the testator, he would have had to die. No, under the law, animals were used for that purpose. Of course, those sacrificial animals represented Christ, but nobody understood that at the time.

Pastor John

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