THE INNER ROOM - "Learn and Grow - to Maturity". Please read the 1st Post.
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Wow, JW, 15+15+15+15=1 hour! I'd have to wonder what percentage of the Western Christian population would spent THAT amount of time? Mostly we're just TOO BUSY, hey! In contrast, pathetically poor but very serious Believers in India who we help support through our Missionary organisation, yep, they would spend an hour a day in prayer. Hmm... maybe we need to shift to India... *smile*
Which reminds me of reading about many of the Christian greats in England a few hundred years ago where they spent time every morning of their lives in their 'prayer closet' - like 1 hour, 2 hours, whatever! - and one of them was quoted as saying something like this: "I've got so much to do today, that I better spend more time in prayer this morning!" Exactly the opposite to what we'd do, I reckon!
Poor Fluffy! I'd give ya some hugs too if I could find those cute little people you and Bondman have. I'll pray for you though.
Here's a little something I found during my Bible studies today. I was reading about Peter and his walking on the water. This very setting of raging wind and sea is the classroom in which the Son of God seeks to perfect his desciples' faith. Jesus did not come to console us but to perfect us! That's a hard thing to learn, but if we could just look at it that way - when hard times come, it might make it easier. He's wanting to refine us. OUCH!
He also knows that the more we are transformed into His image, the less vulnerable we are to the evils of this world. So, what does He do? He compels us toward difficulties, because they compel us toward God and God compels us toward change. It is my tranformed heart that finds the stronghold of God.
Heavenly Father, forgive me for fearing during my storms. For a long time, I did not understand Your commitment to my perfection. I have wanted to be saved without being transformed. I have feared the fullness of becoming Christlike, and some other things you have for me. Bring forth in me Your faith, help me to not misinterpret Your encouragement toward excellence when I fall short. With all of my heart, I want to glorify You with my life. Grant me the grace that, when others see what You have accomplished in me, they too shall glorify You! Amen
Thank you, thank you, thank you! For the hugs and affirmations! I feel much better today!
Rested and refreshed and ready to go!
SweetSurrender, that was a beautiful prayer. I used to be afraid
of the "rooting out" of the chaff that was in my heart, but these days, I welcome it,
because I know its for my good and growth. It may be painful and uncomfortable, but its so much better in the end! Kind of like having a bad tooth pulled! hee!
I read a book one time that was titled "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat!" and isnt that so true? If we want to see great things in our lives, we have to get past our fears and get out there!
What is encouraging to me, is even Jesus rested. He had to take time out and relax and get in the presence of the Father. Which is what I have done and feel so much better!
God is the great Physician! Hallelujah!
SweetSurrender, that was a beautiful prayer. I used to be afraid
I read a book one time that was titled "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat!" and isnt that so true? If we want to see great things in our lives, we have to get past our fears and get out there!
What is encouraging to me, is even Jesus rested. He had to take time out and relax and get in the presence of the Father. Which is what I have done and feel so much better!
What better to hug than something Fluffy. Here try this on for size
Aw, aint you sweet? Thank you!
And this is my bad side!
Man, that is all so GOOD!
I suspect that a lot of Believers don't realise that God wants us to be becoming more righteous! He is total righteousness, where we started out total sinfulness. But when we seek to be obedient and to walk in His way, and aim to please Him with all our might - then a wondrous thing starts to happen: some of Jesus' righteousness that is COUNTED as ours cos we're born again starts to become RIGHTEOUSNESS IN US THAT IS OURS!!! Which plumb excites me out of my brain!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! For the hugs and affirmations! I feel much better today!Rested and refreshed and ready to go!
SweetSurrender, that was a beautiful prayer. I used to be afraidof the "rooting out" of the chaff that was in my heart, but these days, I welcome it,because I know its for my good and growth. It may be painful and uncomfortable, but its so much better in the end! Kind of like having a bad tooth pulled! hee!
I read a book one time that was titled "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat!" and isnt that so true? If we want to see great things in our lives, we have to get past our fears and get out there!
What is encouraging to me, is even Jesus rested. He had to take time out and relax and get in the presence of the Father. Which is what I have done and feel so much better!God is the great Physician! Hallelujah!
Wow, it's great that you seem to be refreshed again, dear one! Yup, He's the great everything...!!!
I've hurt my knee. I was cleaning in my office and had squatted down to pick something up and I felt this pressure building in my knee and when I stood up I heard this really loud crack and I started to walk to the kitchen to put the dry erase board back on the fridge and my knee gave out. I talked to my friend Staci who is a nursing major (already doing her clinicals and stuff) and she told me to ice and see if it swelled or turned purple/red and if it did to call her and she would take me to the ER. Well I iced my knee and it was fine but it started hurting again and when I was looking at in the bathroom a few minutes ago I have a tiny bruise forming on the left side of my knee (on my right leg) and it hurts to walk and it actually hurt driving home from Staci's. I'm gonna see what it is like in the morning cause I really don't want to have to deal with the ER on post
(as a side note Staci and Holly are a few of my fellow Buccaneer wives - our companies mascot if you will is the buccanneer)
(as a side note Staci and Holly are a few of my fellow Buccaneer wives - our companies mascot if you will is the buccanneer)
Just love Buccaneer wives!! Hope your knee ends up being okay, hon!
Bless ya heaps!
- BM
PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY
MESSAGE #24
HOW TO WALK, LIVE & PRAY IN THE SPIRIT (very important!) - Part 1
Having been asked by someone earnestly wishing to understand this and to be able to pray in the Spirit, obviously one could write a whole book on this major topic. But relax... I won't! *hee!* Instead I'll aim to set down just the nitty-gritty of this so important part of our Christian life - over a number of parts, until either the topic or I am exhausted, whichever comes first! *grins broadly* Let's start at the beginning, shall we - always a good place to start I reckon!
BEING BORN A SECOND TIME
Jesus told Nicodemus that to enter the Kingdom of God he had to be born again. Poor Nic was flabbergasted at this and stammered, "W-w-what are You talking about, Lord!" (read this at the beginning of John 3 - it's kinda funny in a way). I was 18 when I finally found the Lord, after many years of searching. Or I guess it was He who found me! What I did was very, very thankfully accept that Jesus died on the Cross for me personally, so all my sins could be forgiven forever. Wow!!
JESUS AS SAVIOUR
Basically all I knew to do at that time was accept Jesus as my Saviour. I did give my life to Him in the sense that I've been with Him from then and every since - by His inestimable grace alone never falling away at any point. Even when I fell into major sin much later on I didn't leave Him. I was sinning and disobedient for a time, but not wanting to be, and soon enough was out of this and back on track.
THE HOLY SPIRIT??
But there's a whole pile more to it all than this, which I was blissfully unaware of at the time. You see this was what we were taught back then. Accept Jesus as Saviour! But this is simply not good enough, and had sad ramifications for me and my life for quite a period. I started to study the Bible immediately I was born again and began learning some wonderful things, but I never saw the "more" that's clearly there! Ask me why! Okay, I'll tell you: you can learn/understand NOTHING from the Scriptures - UNLESS the Holy Spirit of the Living God reveals it to you. No ifs no buts!! So what I was not looking for - didn't KNOW what to look for - I simply didn't see! Very sad.
Looking back I'm astonished at this, and amazed I could be so blind. But you see all I knew was Jesus as Saviour, God as Father, and that's about it. My knowledge of the Holy Spirit was almost zilch. I was even preaching fairly regularly by age 19, but man, I seriously needed a lot more than I had at that time. And I had to wait till I wad 31 to get it! I was in far North Queensland by then and it came from way over a thousand miles down South in the form of a cassette tape by an Anglican Minister. How I love that man for opening my eyes to such a VITAL NEW TRUTH as he did!
JESUS IS LORD!
That Minister said so! Spelt it out in clear language that not even a child could miss. And I was utterly blown away! Fact: I'd never heard that Jesus should be Lord over my life! Oh I'd heard the words: 'I give my life to You', even said them myself, but truly this was relatively meaningless - if not totally meaningless - to most of us... quite simply cos it was never EXPLAINED!! How appalling.
Okay, I immediately saw that action was required here, and so to prayer within a matter of hours, and to an astonishingly clear vision the Lord put to me. I found myself on an old sailing ship riding a sea what was not calm. And I was on the plank. Walking the plank, I mean, quite literally! Right out on the end of it I stood as the ship swayed with the ocean swell. Nothing underneath but waves and very deep water. I knew perfectly clearly that I was there to decide if I would take the Lord Jesus Christ to be LORD over all of my life. I stood there for some time and remember having somewhat mixed feelings about what was going on. But two things I knew with absolute certainty:
1. That I had to step off down,down into the waves and water below, and
2. That once I DID there was absolutely no going back ever: that I would be taking Him as Lord of my life FOREVER!
Continued in Part 2...
(well, I did say this couldn't be done in one message, right. And that seemed like a good place to stop! *ambles off chuckling to himself even though this is a dearly serious matter...*)
- BM and his Beloved
QUESTIONS WELCOME!
PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY
MESSAGE #25
HOW TO WALK, LIVE & PRAY IN THE SPIRIT (very important!) - Part 2
... Continued from Part 1
AN ETERNAL DECISION!
I STEPPED OFF!!!
By naked FAITH I took this step that was, and felt, so incredibly momentous for me! And it was! At that moment I knew for CERTAIN that Jesus would be my Lord forever! But I must explain briefly how acknowledging Jesus as your LORD works. Take this decision and it IS forever, the reason being that it's such a mammoth one! Your life will never be yours again. Now it belongs to the Lord - TOTALLY!! AND there's no going back. However, while this IS a ONCE FOR ALL thing - at the same time it isn't! I think this is the first time I've mentioned the fact that in the Scriptures you will come across numbers of apparent contradictions, where either two opposites, amazingly, can operate at the exact same time, OR two things that are very different can still BOTH be true at the same time! Make quite certain that you realise this, or some time you are going to get quite confused as to what God is on about!
YOU ARE COMPLETELY HIS!
This is one of them. I knew my decision was forever, but at the same time it has to be 'renewed' constantly (thus making it "not" forever, okay - an apparent contradiction!), i.e., take Him as Lord, and start living obediently - but you gotta make sure that He STAYS as your Lord! You can easily enough 'un-Lord' Him, if you see what I mean! And this is definitely NOT the way to go. Maybe from this you can see that the Lord Jesus as LORD over your life is an incredibly major decision, not to be lightly taken, but when you do - then you're COMMITTED!!! Surrender your life to Him and it's for ever and ever - Amen!
This is what Lordship is all about. Giving up yourself and what YOU want, and instead living for what HE wants! You'll hardly be surprised when I say that this is not a very popular concept for many folks! Our comfort and ease, and life-style, and job, and all our materialism, and enjoyment, well, they all call to us pretty darn loud! And it's VERY easy to listen to them - rather than to our LORD's call to us!
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT
The very moment we become a Christian we are changed. Do you agree? And this is a work of the Holy Spirit! It's HE Who calls you to come to the Cross for Salvation in the first place! I hope you didn't think YOU did this... well okay, it was you who came. But you could NEVER EVER EVER have done this without the Spirit working in you, DRAWING you to Jesus - usually quite without you knowing or noticing! Then at the instant of conversion the Holy Spirit transformed you from DEATH to LIFE, from DARKNESS to LIGHT!!! Yup, HE did that!! Else this would - could - never have happened. And finally, also at that moment He came to live IN YOU!
Consider: could you be saved by Him, and SOMEHOW STAY SAVED - without He remaining right there in your life? No way! He came with His power for you to have REAL LIFE, the very life of God, by taking up residence in you!! WOW!!!! And that's in you, at all times, and for always. He gives you power to live the life that we simply CANNOT live using our own abilities. He also REVEALS Jesus, to us, and in us, and through us! HE really is the great REVELATOR!!! That's a major part of why Jesus promised in John 14 that He would send the Paraclete (Comforter), the Holy Spirit to us. He'll lead you into all truth, Jesus said! John 16:13.
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
So please understand that at the moment you became a Christian the Holy Spirit started living in you. Please don't go ASKING Him to come - He's already THERE! BUT... it certainly doesn't stop there. Not only are we assured that He's IN us, but the Word of God also says that we are to be FILLED with (or Baptised with) the Spirit! And when your life gets to THAT point, that is when you are really starting to hit pay dirt, as the saying goes! The filling of the Spirit is wonderful almost beyond description - but please don't think it's an easy thing to get to, as many seem to say. Like ALL of the Christian life - that's A-L-L, ALL - depending on a number of things, this is likely to be quite difficult and take time!
The New Testament does speak of some folk being filled/baptised with the Spirit at their conversion. Wow, I sure wish I'd been! If a person TODAY gets 'properly' converted by taking Jesus as their Saviour AND making Him Lord over all of their life there and then, I have no problem accepting that some get filled at that moment!
Continued in Part 3... (I promised 'nitty-gritty', and in Part 3 we really get into it!)
- BM and his Lady
QUESTIONS WELCOME!
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