Dear Partner,

I wonder how people survive mentally and emotionally in this fallen world if they do not know Jesus, and the Father who sent Him. To genuinely walk with Christ though life is to walk in a peace that passes all understanding. Jesus gives us "His" peace, not as the world gives.

John 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 life-changing peace is not a matter of joining a church. It doesn't come by enrolling as a member of any denomination. I have known scholars who memorized whole sections of the bible, yet they still did not possess this peace that is so different from the world. This supernatural peace is the fruit of having eternal life. Jesus gave us the true definition of eternal life in His high, priestly prayer:

John 17:1-3   These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: (2) As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. (3) And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Eternal life is …. To know the only true God … and Jesus Christ, whom God has sent. I have known lots of "religious" people who do not know God very well at all. How can I tell? Because when they talk about God they say He does all kinds of things that Jesus would never do. When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus responded by saying,

John 14:8-9   Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. (9) Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

What is God like? Look at Jesus. Jesus is the express image of God. [Heb 1:3] E. Stanley Jones (1884 - 1973) was a Methodist Christian missionary to India. Dr. Jones had become close friends with Mahatma Gandhi, and after Gandhi's assassination wrote a biography on his life. It is noted that later in time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told Jones' daughter, Eunice Jones Mathews, that it was this biography that inspired him to "non-violence" in the Civil Rights Movement. Here is a quote from one of Mr. Jones' writings about the nature of our Father God:

"We know now that God is like this that we have seen in Jesus. He is Christlike. And if He is, He is a good God and trustable. If the Heart that is back of the universe is like this gentle Heart that broke upon the cross, He can have my heart without qualification and without reservation. I know nothing higher to say of God than that He should live like Christ. 'The question to my mind,' said a Yale professor, 'is not as to the divinity of Jesus but as to whether God will act like Jesus.' Strange, a Man living among us, and when we think of God we must think of Him in terms of this Man, or he is not good. We may transfer every single Moral quality in Jesus to God without loss or degredation to our thought of God. On the contrary, by thinking of Him in terms of Jesus we heighten our view of God. All those who have tried to think of Him in other terms have lowered and impoverished our idea of Him." - E. Stanley Jones

What is God like? What is Jesus like? How will God deal with you, His child? Look at how Jesus dealt with the children of Israel.

God Forgives Sins - The religious people brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and expected him to condemn her to death. Jesus did not condemn her. He sent her on her way and told her to sin no more. That is how God deals with you. The blood of Christ is available to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God Heals Your Diseases - There is not one single case in the New Testament where anybody came to Jesus for healing that they did not receive what they came for. Even more amazing, He never put any requirements on them other than faith for them to receive their healing. He would heal them first and then say … "Go and sin no more less a worst thing come upon you." Never once did He say, "It is not the Father's will to heal you."

God Meets Your Needs - Jesus could have sent the multitudes away to fend for themselves after they had been following him for days in the wilderness. But rather, He took two small fishes and five loaves of bread and blessed them so that when the disciples distributed them they multiplied to feed more than five thousand men … and there were twelve baskets of fragments left over.

God Is Your Friend - Even after Peter denied Him three times, Jesus loved Peter and made sure that he was restored back to fellowship. God is like Jesus. God is not touchy or easily offended. He thinks the best of you and will never leave you nor forsake you. God is the friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Be encouraged today. Truly, "The Best Is Yet To Come!"

Sue and I love you and appreciate you.   We thank God for your generous and giving heart.   God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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