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.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
John:
Sure is hard to sleep when God is so good! I can hardly believe sometimes what God does for us! How really good He is to us! He is teaching me just to REST and enjoy Him! While I was praying tonight, the Spirit spoke something that contains such rest. God did this very thing for me in the meeting while you were preaching:
“If you put your faith and trust in Me, I will answer ALL your questions.”
The Spirit woke me last Saturday morning with this question: “On what did God base John 3:16?”
It really puzzled me, and I knew that I could not answer it. I wasn’t looking for anything “deep” in it, and I knew that it was from the Lord. It felt good just to tell God that if He wanted me to know the answer, He would have to send it. I wasn’t even sure why He was asking me, but I did know that very Scripture (Jn. 3:16) was one that was a stumblingblock for me when God began drawing me to the Truth. It was a stumblingblock because I had always believed in the way Xty had taught me to understand that verse and, just as many who are in Xty today, I was looking at it very backwards from God’s meaning.
I know, now that I have received the baptism of the holy Ghost and the Truth is teaching me, that “everlasting life” is only IN the holy Ghost. Tonight, when you brought up John 3:16 in the meeting, I knew God was getting ready to answer that Saturday morning question through you. I can’t remember exactly the words that you were saying, but as you were speaking on John 3:16, God gave the answer: God based John 3:16 on everlasting life (the holy Ghost) before death, not as a “reward” of everlasting life after death!
Before the holy Ghost, I had been looking at that Scripture as “everlasting life” meaning the “reward” after death, as Xty had taught it. That is what made it a stumblingblock for me (in addition to believing the “saved” doctrine), but I know now that if someone asked me about that Scripture, I could give them the testimony of God! It is just as your father said as he looked at that dead man in his casket, “Has he received his Resurrection?” Well, Praise God!
The very fact that God sent that question to me AND then sent the answer to HIS own question makes it even better - -and it takes us completely out of the picture! It’s just God from start to finish. It let me know that if I just take what God gives me when He gives it, and wait, He will do the rest. He just has what we need all the time. No need to get in a hurry. All we have to do is be willing to wait on God and not try to figure and analyze and speculate and twist and turn and . . . . whatever. I’m learning that. Awww, God is so good. He is making me less and less afraid of just being a “little people.” Praise God!
Sandy
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have [the holy Ghost].” :)
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Hi Sandy:
Paul said that “the Spirit is life” (Rom. 8), and Jesus said he came to earth so that those who believe in him might have life (Jn. 10). Both of those servants of God were speaking of the holy Ghost. That is what those who believe in Christ are to receive (Jn. 7:37-39). John 3:16 is one of the most abused verses in history because Christians don’t know that we receive eternal life when we receive the holy Ghost. Of course, any verse that is popular in Christian culture is going to be an abused verse, whether it is Rom:10:9-10 or Acts 16:30-31. But then, Christians cannot help but abuse the Scriptures because they themselves are being abused by Satan. That is why we want them to know the truth and be made free as Jesus said in John 8:30-31.
Keep listening to Jesus, and keep telling us about it.
jdc