Letter to our Friends - August 6, 2021

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST ONLINE MINISTRIES

P.O. BOX 6458

SPRING HILL, FLORIDA 34606

Leonard V. Johnson

Founder/Pastor

Dearest Friends:

Greetings from Spring Hill, Florida.

The Rest of the Story…

In this Sabbath’s suggested sermon, “A Woman’s Faith,” I go over a small portion of an email which I received awhile back from a young lady in Chicago that was in dire straits requesting our prayers and asking if God would somehow overlook her prostituting herself to help pay bills. Here is a transcript of those emails –

Thank you very much sir,I really appreciate. ..Please put me in your prayers I need a miracle .I don't want to sin against God I have been faithful all these years .

Am in a difficult situation my dad is sick and I need some money to suit his bills my anty is encouraging me to go into prostitution to raise the money I know that's bad in the site of God but am left with no other option no one to help me.,,, if I go ahead to do it will God understand please I need your reply as soon as possible.

My response:

Dearest friend:

You stated in your letter that you have no other options but prostitution to raise the money needed. There are at least 169 verses in our living GOD'S WORD—the Holy BIBLE— that refer to the Way's that God provides for us. Philippians 4:19 states, “My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Our great God desires to provide for those who obey Him.

Like any good parent, God the Father would never give us what He knows would harm us. His desire is to help us develop GODLY character so that we are “the salt of the earth,” the “light of the world”—Matthew 5:13-14. However, God does not want to see that He is just a mere heavenly source for mere physical possessions. Acquiring “things” is not the fundamental goal of this life—Luke 12:15.

Our Lord Jesus said –

“’ Seek FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things [including your financial needs] will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself’”—Matthew 6:33-34; NIV.

Our great God understands the difference between our wants and our needs. He knows that where our treasure is, there our heart is also (Matthew 6:21). He wants us to understand that this world is not His, it belongs to Satan the devil, the god of this world—2 Corinthians 4:4. Our home is in His Kingdom, His government, His world to come, and that we need to focus on the goal at the end of the race—eternal life.

In our Master's prayer, Jesus teaches His disciples to ask for provision, and to depend on God always, each time we pray, “’ Give us today our daily bread’”—Matthew 6:11; NIV. Father knows our needs. He desires a covenant relationship with us, and that involves trusting in Him to meet our daily requirements and to seek first HIS KINGDOM and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS—Matthew 6:33.

Psalm 84:11 states –

“For the LORD GOD is a Sun and a Shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold FROM THOSE WHOSE WALK IS BLAMELESS.”

We must walk uprightly.

Go to God dear friend, in full submission, in prayer and fasting and seek God, ask Him to help you in this dire-strait. He will answer you!!!

Now, prostitution is against GOD'S Law – summed up in the TEN COMMANDMENTS. Prostitution not only destroys marriages, families, and lives, but it will ultimately destroy the spirit and soul that leads to physical and spiritual death—Revelation 21:8; the sexually immoral). God says, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, ...”—Romans 6:13-14; NIV.

My dear friend, the Church of Jesus Christ Online Ministries has helped many, for God’s religion that He accepts as pure and faultless is: to look after orphans and widows in their distress. I will seek God’s Wisdom on this matter. For we are to be good stewards and do our very best to ensure that the money that He has blessed us with will be used to give charity to those who truly need it. Brother Paul gave Timothy detailed instructions for caring for widows in the Church and WARNINGS about what could happen if charity was given improperly (1 Timothy 5:3-16).

In the meantime, may I suggest you continue in fervent prayer and fasting (if possible), asking Father for His help in this matter.

May God’s blessings and grace be with you, In Jesus' name,

Pastor Leonard Johnson

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST ONLINE MINISTRIES

P.O. Box 6458

Spring Hill, Florida 34606

pastorleonard1@yahoo.com

Friends, our great and awesome God wants you and me – including our young lady from Chicago – to be happy, to have a zest for life, to have a full life, and to be able to share our life with others – that’s love!

“’ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’” – John 10:10, NKJV, and throughout the remainder.

His glorious light shall direct us toward the Way that leads to true happiness, true peace, and true security.

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments [the TEN COMMANDMENTS] are not burdensome” – 1 John 5:3.

This is a glorious truth that so few understands!

Our Lord Jesus Christ was asked once what the great commandment was in the law. Now, understand, the Pharisees – one of whom was a lawyer here – who had asked Him this question was not asking in regards to God’s Law – but rather to test Him. The Pharisees had developed a system of some 613 laws, some 365 commands, with some 248 additional sets of laws. They had replaced accountability to God with accountability to men. They had made these man-made laws with a spirit of judgment against their fellow man. These hypocrites gravely confused personal preferences with divine Law, and they made their man-made laws a burden unto the Jews – as well as to mankind in general. And our Lord Jesus Christ flat out rejected them!

Here our Lord Jesus Christ simplified God’s holy, eternal, and relevant Law – summed up with the TEN COMMANDMENTS – by saying –

“ ...’ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the FIRST and great commandment. And the SECOND is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” – Matthew 22:37-39.

And truly to call out their man-made laws, He added –

“’ On THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS hang all the Law and the Prophets.’”

The FIRST FOUR Commandments - Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5 – show us how to love God. The last SIX Commandments reveal to us the Way we are to love our neighbor – our fellow man.

But, how does the natural unconverted mind view this!?

“For those who live according to the flesh [ in other words – seeking only material and physical “things”] set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded [again, seeking only after material wealth and physical “things’] is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity [meaning, hostile] against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God [the Ten Commandments], nor indeed can be” – Romans 8:5-7.

And, NOTICE THIS –

“So then, those who are in the flesh CANNOT please God” – vs. 8.

Mankind – without the Spirit of God – wants little to do with God. God is love, yet, mankind as a whole blindly rejects the love of God that would bring true happiness, true peace, and true security.

Now, in this Sabbath’s sermon, along with within this email, I had mentioned that within God’s living word there are some 169 verses that teach us God’s Way in which He provides for us. Also, there are 10 direct points – called the TEN COMMANDMENTS! These points are as much an eternal law as gravity is to us! When you break but one point – there is a penalty. Physically, spiritually, emotionally, and possibly even mentally you will suffer.

Let’s cover physical here (and let’s use “sexually immoral” because of the subject of the email) – What if everyone suddenly stopped committing adultery, homosexuality, and prostitution!? Well, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) would soon disappear. Sex outside of marriage (marriage defined by God as between a man and a woman) would disappear, as would prostitution.

God’s living word certainly tells us that prostitution is immoral. The wisdom blessed by God to King Solomon tells us –

“For a [prostitute] is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men” – Proverbs 23:27-28.

“For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of [the grave]. Lest you ponder her path of life – Her ways are unstable; You do not know them” – Proverbs 5:3-6.

Friends, like all humanity, prostitutes have the opportunity to repent, to be baptized and have hands laid upon them, to receive the glorious gift of God’s Spirit, and to have their name written into the Book of Life! To be cleansed of all their unrighteousness and be blessed with a new creation! They must turn away from their sinful lifestyle and turn to the living God the Father and Jesus Christ – whose grace is sufficient – cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17; 12:9.

Mankind’s two choices are described in Deuteronomy –

“’ I call heaven and earth as witnesses TODAY against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, FOR HE IS YOUR LIFE AND LENGTH OF YOUR DAYS; …’” – Deuteronomy 30:19, 20.

However, God’s living words – recall the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “’ Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” – truly reveals something far greater than just mere physical curses for breaking God’s Law. When one chooses to break one of His Ten Commandments that define love – His living word says that you sin.

“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness” – 1 John 3:4.

God’s holy, relevant, and eternal Law – summed up with the Ten Commandments – are a blessing – they reveal to you just what sin is – cf. Romans 3:20; 4:15; 5:13-14. The apostle James terms the Ten commandments “the perfect law of liberty” – James 1:25.

When God’s immutable Law is broken and not repented of – well, every cause has an effect.

“For the wages of sin is death, …” – Romans 6:23.

Prayer Requests

We ask for your prayers for Minister Michael C. Garrett. He has a grave infection on one of his toes. Please ask our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ to completely heal him of this terrible thing – and that the antibiotics of which he is taking will indeed do what it is supposed to do.

Also, I ask for your prayers for me – next week I go and have an outpatient procedure done called a colonoscopy. I’m not having any problems, I’m getting it done simply because of my age. I would greatly appreciate your prayers on my behalf that nothing will go wrong and that everything will turn out fine. Thank you so very much.

New Office Equipment

Thank you for your continued support. Your tithes and offerings helped the Church of Jesus Christ Online Ministries to purchase a new, badly needed, printer.

Soundcloud Radio

As many of you are aware, we have several sermons on our Soundcloud Radio Channel online.

SoundCloud is a Swedish-founded online audio distribution platform and music sharing website based in Berlin, Germany, that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio, as well as a digital signal processor enabling listeners to stream audio.

If you like what you hear, be sure to like, follow, and repost your favorite sermons! And, THANK YOU for subscribing and listening, for your interest, your support, and your love!

Suggested Sabbath Day Services

Here is our suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and friends around the world:

● 2 hymns. (a free printable “Old Time Gospel” hymn site is “The Old Time Gospel”).

● Opening prayer.

● Announcements (if any – a great video for announcements is Deacon Robbie Lamb’s Watchman brief insights of world news in relation to biblical prophecies!).

● Suggested Sermon: “A Woman’s Faith” by Leonard V. Johnson. Additional sermons are available HERE.

● Final hymn.

● Closing prayer.

IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED A ‘LETTER TO OUR FRIENDS’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER WE HAVE OUR CHURCH LETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE.

World News Items

• First Amendment — Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Now, certainly, those of us in the United States of America since the Depression Era, to those of us from the Post-War Era, and even a great many of us from Generations X, Y, Z have long been taught that our Constitution guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. And, to a large degree, this is supposed to be based on the FIRST AMENDMENT of the US Constitution!

Yet, the USA has had a grave problem with the federal courts as they basically “make it up as they go along” and rule against freedom of speech as well as our religious freedom – many judges do not even accept that such freedoms were ever intended to be guaranteed by our Founding Fathers! And, internet censorship is but another way in which our government is opposed to freedom of the press.

And it’s not just our judicial branch of the US government with this attitude. The executive branch and legislative branches, too, are calling for greater censorship and loss of freedom of speech – at least a greater loss of the freedom of the internet press (see: ‘LifeSite - Biden admin admits it tells Facebook what to censor: ‘They’re killing people’’ also ‘NewYorkPost - White House ‘flagging’ posts for Facebook to censor over COVID ‘misinformation’’). As we have been saying – both Google and YouTube have been tightening their grip on conservative Christians in the US. Here is what Minister Guy LaMar has discovered in his research –

YES!

They do go after us - CHRISTIANS - They do go after Conservatives. They look for keywords to attack.

Recently I saw a video of a reporter going to a local college and interviewing the youthful students. Now, keep in mind the media is run by liberals. Reporters, newspaper people are 95% all liberal. College teachers are 95% all liberals.

Well, the students were all for the LGBTQ+ agendas and very anti-American, very against our history, they think our history is criminal, they think God is a joke.

They believe in the Democrat party as the only party. …

YouTube does look for certain words found in videos and they do flag them to downsize the recognition. Because the larger the view count the more recognition they will get.

A famine of hearing the word of God is prophesied (Amos 8:11-12) and we are getting ever-closer to that time. Those who believed that “it would never happen here” are wrong.

Apparently, and I’m just spitballing, the multiple thousands upon thousands of sermons from this world’s churches on YouTube, with their thousands of views, must all be liberals – or they have a great marketing team!

In the Middle East of the world, there was an incident last week involving a drone attack on an Israeli-bound tanker. Israel, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States of America have all blamed a State Sponsor of Terrorism – Iran. Of course, Iran has denied it – but the accusers have vowed to take action (see: ‘Israel365News - ISRAEL’S DEFENSE MINISTER CALLS FOR RETALIATION AGAINST IRAN: WASHINGTON CALLS FOR ‘JOINT RESPONSE’). Yet, do not think that Iran would not react (to note: A nuclear-armed Iran poses a direct threat to America's closest allies in the Middle East. Israel is most at risk as Iran's leaders have repeatedly declared that Israel should “be wiped from the map”). The time will come when a people that appears to be in Iran and Syria will cause grave damage to Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:6-8) – be sure to also read “’ Blow the Trumpet’!”

Concluding Comments

Let us be comforted by the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ –

“’ And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into [Gehenna; the lake of fire]; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows’” – Luke 12:4-7.

Let us friends stay the course! Let us not fear! Let us not fall away – from God’s living truth!

In deep gratitude and love, in Jesus' name,

Leonard V. Johnson