Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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A letter from Sister Betty
Bro. John, this is Betty.
I just cannot get the meeting off my mind about the attitude of a servant. That’s one of the greatest messages that you have preached. I rate it up there with the “All Things” message because it holds a key to open God’s heart toward us and us to Him. It’s everything. It’s a key to see and understand the “All Things” message.
Without the right attitude, we shut off the communication between us and God, making it impossible to hear His voice, thus making us not understand the circumstance we are in and why we are in it. It’s like a dog chasing his tail, we just go round and round. I have learned through the years that no matter how right you are in a situation, if you drive home your point with a wrong attitude, then, it makes you wrong, because your spirit and motive are wrong. It becomes about you then, and not God.
I can see now, and this message has brought so many feelings and thoughts to me, how over the years I had been in situations that what I was saying was right and made perfectly good sense, but my attitude was so wrong. I would get angry and frustrated with whoever, and that always made me feel bad for acting that way, but at the same time, gung-ho because I knew I was right. As the saying goes, I was “dead-right”, because that kind of spirit will lead to sickness and death. What it did was make me not see God in it and make me feel like I had to be the avenger and try to solve that situation and if I couldn’t solve it, then it just kept me more frustrated and so on and so on. And if I could have just gotten still and waited on God and controlled my attitude, then God would have come in and fixed everything, but because I didn’t do that, I have had to suffer for it. But thank God for His mercy and for having patience with me. But John, how much time do we waste trying to be right, when all we have to do is say, “God, you are right, and I am wrong.” Sometimes you have to be willing to be wrong to be right.
I feel it is better to say a wrong thing with a right attitude than to say a right thing in a wrong attitude; the outcome will not be as painful because if we say something that is not right, but our attitude is good, then we are open to be corrected, but if our attitude is wrong, then we can’t receive correction. So, to me, a right attitude will unlock the door of our heart to God’s heart, and that’s where we want to be -- close to God’s heart.
I don’t know if I’m writing it in a way that you can understand, but it sure is good to me. Also, John, it was so sweet, the feelings God was letting me have toward you while you were preaching that message. It goes down very deep in my heart. The tenderness and sincerity I felt from you because it was a prayer from your heart for you and for us to have that attitude, so we can be blessed by God. I can’t tell it with justice but it was like I was seeing you climbing that ladder and your daddy was at the top and when you stepped up on the step close to him, the feeling was like, “Hey, daddy, this is your son,” and with the excitement, “I made it! I made it!” Boy, it was good, and his feelings toward you were the same. What a place to be in, John! I am thankful that God has had mercy on me to let me live to see this day and hopefully many, many more. Thank you for all you do to help us on our journey to Canaan’s Land.
Sis Betty