We're all sooooo proud of you, Faithwoman, for giving in and letting God work His will in you. I keep thinking of a song that matches what you did. I hope it comes through. Blessings, Bonnie
THE INNER ROOM - "Learn and Grow - to Maturity". Please read the 1st Post.
- Thread starter Bondman
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Yes, indeed, what Sweets said!!!
Well done, dear heart!!! That's quite a story, and it was so good of you to share. You've certainly shed many tears this past little while!
Because He knows all about the heart and motivations of every one of us, God has been SO very gracious to you, whose heart is clearly FOR Him!! Do you find it AMAZING that despite our sin, and despite our messes, He holds nothing against us, but rather makes us the focus of all of His agape love, and of his grace and tender mercy!!! HOW UTTERLY ASTONISHING HE IS!!!
Reminds me of the atheists I've talked with on MySpace who have it ALL worked out that there's no God. They can prove it. He doesn't exist. We have been fooled, and the Bible is just, well, completely irrelevant. How unbelievably sad...
Because you and I and others have the WONDROUS experience of interacting with the one true God, of having an actual RELATIONSHIP with Him - and that's DESPITE how much it may seem EXACTLY like Paul described it: 1 Corinthians Ch 13:12 For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma]...
That's NOW! But he goes on to say how it WILL soon be!! ...but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! CAN'T WAIT for that!! Want to see Him face to face, and all of eternity won't be enough to enjoy Him!!!
Man alive, sweetie, YOU'VE DONE IT, YOU'VE FINALLY DONE IT!!! May the angels sing loudest possible hallelujahs to the Lord God, singing His praises to the highest part of heaven, adoring Him, blessing Him, for ever and ever and ever. Amen!!
- BM
Well done, dear heart!!! That's quite a story, and it was so good of you to share. You've certainly shed many tears this past little while!
Because He knows all about the heart and motivations of every one of us, God has been SO very gracious to you, whose heart is clearly FOR Him!! Do you find it AMAZING that despite our sin, and despite our messes, He holds nothing against us, but rather makes us the focus of all of His agape love, and of his grace and tender mercy!!! HOW UTTERLY ASTONISHING HE IS!!!
Reminds me of the atheists I've talked with on MySpace who have it ALL worked out that there's no God. They can prove it. He doesn't exist. We have been fooled, and the Bible is just, well, completely irrelevant. How unbelievably sad...
Because you and I and others have the WONDROUS experience of interacting with the one true God, of having an actual RELATIONSHIP with Him - and that's DESPITE how much it may seem EXACTLY like Paul described it: 1 Corinthians Ch 13:12 For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma]...
That's NOW! But he goes on to say how it WILL soon be!! ...but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! CAN'T WAIT for that!! Want to see Him face to face, and all of eternity won't be enough to enjoy Him!!!
Man alive, sweetie, YOU'VE DONE IT, YOU'VE FINALLY DONE IT!!! May the angels sing loudest possible hallelujahs to the Lord God, singing His praises to the highest part of heaven, adoring Him, blessing Him, for ever and ever and ever. Amen!!
- BM
Hi, Fluff! I've really missed ya! You do have a lot of catching up to do. Have you been spending some time on the women writer's forum? not me. Hugz to ya! Bonnie
Sweets ,
Thanks so much! I loved it and guess what! When I went to bed last night, I put the Christian station on and as I layed my head on the pillow, this song came on! talk about how things happen! amazing!
Here is one for you all:
this is amazing! if you ever feel like giving up , watch this one!
hugs
Faithwoman
Thanks so much! I loved it and guess what! When I went to bed last night, I put the Christian station on and as I layed my head on the pillow, this song came on! talk about how things happen! amazing!
Here is one for you all:
this is amazing! if you ever feel like giving up , watch this one!
hugs
Faithwoman
WOW! What a magic message and testimony to God's goodness!! (this guy does better'n I can do; how incredibly wonderful!)
Message #160
ATHEISM AND CHRISTIANITY
I surely have noticed, Fluf! All those I've talked with on MySpace were so PASSIONATE about their "religion", KNEW every possible facet of it, were out to CONVINCE EVERYONE THEY WERE RIGHT, and in the process made mincemeat of any Christian "foolish enough" to cross their path! I found hardly one Christian on MySpace able to handle the strength and agression of the atheists there. (Whereas I just used LOVE, care, and understanding, and got on fine with almost all of them!)
Atheists simply (and blindly) sop-up and believe all that satan has set up for them to believe. Why do this? Because it suits them! They are highly educated wholly materialistic Westerners who CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH GOD!! So the pseudo-scientific anti-God stuff that's taught in our Colleges and Universities suits them all down to the ground!
One of the shocks I had was that all of the things we Christians used to use to refute their stuff and show God as true, you cannot now use!! Why? - because there are enough highly intelligent atheists out there, that what they did was get a hold of all our arguments... then set out to find ways to PROVE/SHOW THEM AS WRONG!! And I can tell you they are VERY GOOD at this!! All of their arguments are supposed to be scientific, and can certainly look to be so - but most really is NOT science at all.
The greatest lie of all is the EVOLUTION myth!! There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE that ANYTHING on the planet ever evolved into SOMETHING else. Just never happened!
With Evolution as maybe THE BIGGEST CON ever perpetrated on mankind, science then has the "The Big Bang" to show how the Universe supposedly formed. But what is the SOURCE of the teensy dense matter it all started from, according to this theory? It can be seriously funny hearing the things they come up with to try and work their way round THAT - so as not to need a Creator-God! But they do, and it keeps them happy - AND makes it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to evangelise them!!
To answer your question: it's to convince THEMSELVES that they're right - and as a consequence they simply MUST shut us down, in case we may show them the truth!!! How sad for them at the Jugdment - but then they are willingly and most determinedly following satan's lies BECAUSE THEY WANT TO! (having NO knowledge whatsoever that they all come from the Father of Lies, of course.)
- BM, with his Beloved
EDIT! All over the Net you can find teens as young as 13, 14, 15 who will argue strongly with you against Christianity and the Bible, and who are totally convinced that Science shows that there is no need for God, and IS no God.
So RIGHT THERE there is the coming generation in America and the West!! And it's a powerful reason to me that our personal efforts go to evangelising 3rd World Countries, and Emerging Nations, like a billion Indians who've NEVER YET HEARD THE GOOD NEWS!!!
ATHEISM AND CHRISTIANITY
I surely have noticed, Fluf! All those I've talked with on MySpace were so PASSIONATE about their "religion", KNEW every possible facet of it, were out to CONVINCE EVERYONE THEY WERE RIGHT, and in the process made mincemeat of any Christian "foolish enough" to cross their path! I found hardly one Christian on MySpace able to handle the strength and agression of the atheists there. (Whereas I just used LOVE, care, and understanding, and got on fine with almost all of them!)
Atheists simply (and blindly) sop-up and believe all that satan has set up for them to believe. Why do this? Because it suits them! They are highly educated wholly materialistic Westerners who CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH GOD!! So the pseudo-scientific anti-God stuff that's taught in our Colleges and Universities suits them all down to the ground!
One of the shocks I had was that all of the things we Christians used to use to refute their stuff and show God as true, you cannot now use!! Why? - because there are enough highly intelligent atheists out there, that what they did was get a hold of all our arguments... then set out to find ways to PROVE/SHOW THEM AS WRONG!! And I can tell you they are VERY GOOD at this!! All of their arguments are supposed to be scientific, and can certainly look to be so - but most really is NOT science at all.
The greatest lie of all is the EVOLUTION myth!! There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE that ANYTHING on the planet ever evolved into SOMETHING else. Just never happened!
With Evolution as maybe THE BIGGEST CON ever perpetrated on mankind, science then has the "The Big Bang" to show how the Universe supposedly formed. But what is the SOURCE of the teensy dense matter it all started from, according to this theory? It can be seriously funny hearing the things they come up with to try and work their way round THAT - so as not to need a Creator-God! But they do, and it keeps them happy - AND makes it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to evangelise them!!
To answer your question: it's to convince THEMSELVES that they're right - and as a consequence they simply MUST shut us down, in case we may show them the truth!!! How sad for them at the Jugdment - but then they are willingly and most determinedly following satan's lies BECAUSE THEY WANT TO! (having NO knowledge whatsoever that they all come from the Father of Lies, of course.)
- BM, with his Beloved
MAY HE GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH
AND GROW YOU TO MATURITY!
AND GROW YOU TO MATURITY!
EDIT! All over the Net you can find teens as young as 13, 14, 15 who will argue strongly with you against Christianity and the Bible, and who are totally convinced that Science shows that there is no need for God, and IS no God.
So RIGHT THERE there is the coming generation in America and the West!! And it's a powerful reason to me that our personal efforts go to evangelising 3rd World Countries, and Emerging Nations, like a billion Indians who've NEVER YET HEARD THE GOOD NEWS!!!
The Truth
I shared your fleece story here with you all. Through my journey I have been emailing Bondman privately as well. I want to share his latest email with you all.
Here it is:
The fleece you used and Bernie's that didn't quite work out were SO wonderful of the Lord (more down further on this). But THE thing that utterly ENTRANCED me, and got my attention the most of all was that the lady rang him during the dinner!! If ever we needed to see where he still is in his life, that was it. As you said, "I knew it was God calling me!" Sort of, "Robin, hey Robin, are you there, My daughter? Well then here's the word from Me to you!!" LOVE IT!!!
You are now free!! Without encumbrance you can now move forward with the Lord. Whoo-hooo!!! Wow, you did it so well!
Okay, I now need to tell you about fleeces. And every word here is positive from me to you (NOT negative), okay? It seems like God does allow young Christians to use fleeces because they're still learning to hear from God by faith. We can say that Gideon did not do well with his fleeces at all, because he'd already been given many assurances by God - including even being clothed with the Spirit of God (unlike now, in the OT the Spirit was given for specific tasks, then removed. No one had the Spirit of God all the time).
Matthew Henry observes that Gideon's desire for a sign was very much, "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief," and he really should have done MUCH better than that. But it's certainly better to say that - and honest to do so - than to be beaten and give up! But we must grow in our faith to not be like that, and so Christians who've been longer with the Lord may not get an answer from Him via a fleece.
Furthermore, there's no Scriptural evidence whatsoever to show that Gideon's fleece was intended by God to EVER be a pattern for anyone else to use - despite the fact that new Christians do often get fleece answers from a gracious God! With fleeces we can see an aspect of 'us telling God what He must do' and that's not the way to go. Rather we must build our faith, then BY AND IN FAITH ask Him to show us the way, WAIT to receive His answer IN HIS WAY, IN HIS TIME, then act upon it.
I've told the story of a lady where I grew up, who was dressed to go to church, but while going down the front steps her hat blew off. She said, "Oh, God doesn't want me to go to church," and so she didn't!! We're not to be foolish as that, but to grow in faith, to increasingly connect with Him.
Here are a couple of things I found to finish this:
discuss / consider
1. God had told Gideon that victory over the Midianites was already assured. Gideon asking for signs at this point was evidence of a weak rather than a strong faith. Have you asked for signs from God? Perhaps they were honored, or perhaps not. In any case, a mature Christian who is secure with God's promises, need not ask for signs. Rather, he will simply trust God and take Him at His word.
challenge
1. Setting out fleeces by definition is asking God to do something miraculous on your terms. This is not the same as asking God to confirm your step of faith on His terms and in His time.
memorize
- BM
What came to my mind is that really a fleece is not needed. If we all stop and think about it, the truth is shown to us. For example the truth was I had found where he was looking at Porn, I did not need God to show me the truth was there, he had continued to have a friendship with another woman that I had asked him to discontinue, the truth was there, he struggled with finances (as we all do at times), I saw the shut off notices, the truth was there, he did not respect my sexual purity- as his hands would at times still grope me.. the truth was there and the list goes on.
You will know someone by their actions and their Christian walk. I saw actions and behaviors that were not walking the walk of Christ.
This is not one sided people. I am not blaming all on him. The truth of me was I was not a woman of Christ. I was still snooping. My own finances were not in order. I was still not treating my own body as a temple given to me by the Lord with continue to smoke and overeat and so much more.
But hey the good part, I was forgiven and God loves him and me so much that he will keep us going.. only if we are open to him. In God's word it states he will turn us to over to our own minds and let us go in those foolish ways. But remember this, those that do these things, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Yikes!
As we grow in our faith and understand what God wants from us, God will show us through his spirit. As Christ settles in our hearts, we will feel the "pricking " when we are not living as Christ wants us to.
For my friend, I am sure in his heart he had known as well as I did that this relationship was not from God. He did not want to accept it as I had not wanted to accept the truth of so many things that were right before us. This was not the first time the phone rang, but I knew in my heart, I had to answer, or just maybe , just maybe the call for truth would not come again. Why? Because I would be dead!
Praises to our Lord for saving me!
Hugs
Faithwoman
I shared your fleece story here with you all. Through my journey I have been emailing Bondman privately as well. I want to share his latest email with you all.
Here it is:
The fleece you used and Bernie's that didn't quite work out were SO wonderful of the Lord (more down further on this). But THE thing that utterly ENTRANCED me, and got my attention the most of all was that the lady rang him during the dinner!! If ever we needed to see where he still is in his life, that was it. As you said, "I knew it was God calling me!" Sort of, "Robin, hey Robin, are you there, My daughter? Well then here's the word from Me to you!!" LOVE IT!!!
You are now free!! Without encumbrance you can now move forward with the Lord. Whoo-hooo!!! Wow, you did it so well!
Okay, I now need to tell you about fleeces. And every word here is positive from me to you (NOT negative), okay? It seems like God does allow young Christians to use fleeces because they're still learning to hear from God by faith. We can say that Gideon did not do well with his fleeces at all, because he'd already been given many assurances by God - including even being clothed with the Spirit of God (unlike now, in the OT the Spirit was given for specific tasks, then removed. No one had the Spirit of God all the time).
Matthew Henry observes that Gideon's desire for a sign was very much, "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief," and he really should have done MUCH better than that. But it's certainly better to say that - and honest to do so - than to be beaten and give up! But we must grow in our faith to not be like that, and so Christians who've been longer with the Lord may not get an answer from Him via a fleece.
Furthermore, there's no Scriptural evidence whatsoever to show that Gideon's fleece was intended by God to EVER be a pattern for anyone else to use - despite the fact that new Christians do often get fleece answers from a gracious God! With fleeces we can see an aspect of 'us telling God what He must do' and that's not the way to go. Rather we must build our faith, then BY AND IN FAITH ask Him to show us the way, WAIT to receive His answer IN HIS WAY, IN HIS TIME, then act upon it.
__________________________________________________
Here's one for you to remember FOREVER: God constantly changes how He relates to us, and responds to us. He is NOT one to do things the same way twice. He hates ruts, as I did a Message about earlier on.
As Nettie says, "Forget FORMULAS in living the Christian life."
__________________________________________________
Here's one for you to remember FOREVER: God constantly changes how He relates to us, and responds to us. He is NOT one to do things the same way twice. He hates ruts, as I did a Message about earlier on.
As Nettie says, "Forget FORMULAS in living the Christian life."
__________________________________________________
I've told the story of a lady where I grew up, who was dressed to go to church, but while going down the front steps her hat blew off. She said, "Oh, God doesn't want me to go to church," and so she didn't!! We're not to be foolish as that, but to grow in faith, to increasingly connect with Him.
Here are a couple of things I found to finish this:
discuss / consider
1. God had told Gideon that victory over the Midianites was already assured. Gideon asking for signs at this point was evidence of a weak rather than a strong faith. Have you asked for signs from God? Perhaps they were honored, or perhaps not. In any case, a mature Christian who is secure with God's promises, need not ask for signs. Rather, he will simply trust God and take Him at His word.
challenge
1. Setting out fleeces by definition is asking God to do something miraculous on your terms. This is not the same as asking God to confirm your step of faith on His terms and in His time.
memorize
- "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." Judges 6:34
- "Gideon said to God, 'If it is as You have said, then...I shall know." Judges 6:36-37
- "We walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
- BM
What came to my mind is that really a fleece is not needed. If we all stop and think about it, the truth is shown to us. For example the truth was I had found where he was looking at Porn, I did not need God to show me the truth was there, he had continued to have a friendship with another woman that I had asked him to discontinue, the truth was there, he struggled with finances (as we all do at times), I saw the shut off notices, the truth was there, he did not respect my sexual purity- as his hands would at times still grope me.. the truth was there and the list goes on.
You will know someone by their actions and their Christian walk. I saw actions and behaviors that were not walking the walk of Christ.
This is not one sided people. I am not blaming all on him. The truth of me was I was not a woman of Christ. I was still snooping. My own finances were not in order. I was still not treating my own body as a temple given to me by the Lord with continue to smoke and overeat and so much more.
But hey the good part, I was forgiven and God loves him and me so much that he will keep us going.. only if we are open to him. In God's word it states he will turn us to over to our own minds and let us go in those foolish ways. But remember this, those that do these things, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Yikes!
As we grow in our faith and understand what God wants from us, God will show us through his spirit. As Christ settles in our hearts, we will feel the "pricking " when we are not living as Christ wants us to.
For my friend, I am sure in his heart he had known as well as I did that this relationship was not from God. He did not want to accept it as I had not wanted to accept the truth of so many things that were right before us. This was not the first time the phone rang, but I knew in my heart, I had to answer, or just maybe , just maybe the call for truth would not come again. Why? Because I would be dead!
Praises to our Lord for saving me!
Hugs
Faithwoman
PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY
MESSAGE #160
TOWARDS REALLY STARTING TO SUCCEED IN OUR CHRISTIAN LIVES - Part 1
Faithwoman said:
What is it we actually do in situations like this? It seems like we do something like straight out kidding ourselves, would you agree? But WHY kid ourselves? FACT 1: there is ALWAYS a REASON we do this, and we must KEEP asking God to help us to FIND the reason.
Almost invariably the reason will be SELF-INTEREST of one kind or another. For example, we may have needs that will KEEP US in a bad situation. Or we may have our OWN agenda where it simply suits us to continue on a path that deep down in our heart we KNOW is the wrong way. And of course there are more ways, but you get the idea.
I don't believe I really need to say that self-interest - selfishness and self-centeredness - ARE SIN!! Are at the very HEART of sin in fact! And what I see are those who have NOT yet "got" that this is the ROOT of sin in their lives - much less have begin to deal with it!!
PLEASE STAY WITH ME HERE because we're getting to something that's EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
FACT 2. It's also a clear FACT that ALL of our selfishness and being self-centered is the EXACT OPPOSITE to BEING GOD-CENTERED!! Okay, you say, I can see that - but so what?? Well, let me put it another way, by first asking you a very blunt question: DOES YOUR SIN AND SINFULNESS BOTHER YOU? If the answer is Yes, then we're very close to seeing the ONLY ANSWER I'VE EVER FOUND ON THIS EARTH TO THIS MAJOR PROBLEM!!!
Our sin is ALWAYS inward-looking. It's ALWAYS about ME. It certainly isn't about GOD is it?!!
And the ONLY ANSWER to this is to REVERSE THE DIRECTION OF WHERE WE'RE LOOKING - away from OURSELF, and towards GOD HIMSELF!
Okay, what does this mean in practice? It simply means:
Getting to CARE MORE ABOUT WHAT GOD WANTS OF YOU
than you CARE ABOUT YOURSELF and ALL THAT YOU WANT!!
THAT is THE ONLY solution to your SIN and your SINFULNESS!!! You can try being good, you can read the Bible, work in your church, even pray more and get involved in helping others... doesn't matter what you try, UNLESS and UNTIL you CHOOSE and DECIDE that you will TURN AWAY FROM YOURSELF AND ALL THAT YOU WANT, then TURN TOWARDS GOD and WHAT HE WANTS, so that HE gets to be THE CENTER OF YOUR LIFE - until that moment comes, then you will never succeed in your Christian life!!! Until then you will remain on the 'outside' wondering what real Christianity is all about!!
May God give you eyes to see the truths above!
Many blessings from BM, with his Love
MAY HE GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH
AND GROW YOU TO MATURITY!
All of what you said above is so true, BM. But, where I am right now, I mean in my home situation, I have to go along with dh's plans, even though I would rather do something else. He just doesn't understand, nor desire yet to go on mission trips, or stuff that I desire to do so bad. I have to wait for the fullness to hit him first. He wants to plan this trip to Australia in two yrs., when I retire. I'm excited about that, sure, but I wish it could involve some kind of mission work while I'm there. You know, like helping remodle a church building, or working in a small church with a Bible school, or an orphanage. I don't know if Australia has all that stuff, but I wish we could make this free trip count for something more than selfish reasons. I love to snorkle, and deep sea dive, etc, but that only lasts so far. My real joy would be to be of some use to God while I can.
We might not even be on earth anymore in two years. Just pray that dh will come to get a desire to be of some service to God, please. Love, Sweets.
We might not even be on earth anymore in two years. Just pray that dh will come to get a desire to be of some service to God, please. Love, Sweets.
I
Sweets,
I agree with Smelly Cat. Let me add, that you do not need to wait for the fullness to hit him first. In my whole situation with my gentleman friend, I had been waiting for so much for God to hit him full. Heck, I tried to beat him with a 2x4 (not literally but verbally).
As I sat down one day at church and listened to the mission trips oversees, I thought wow that would be neat to go to Africa and such and my friend said there is an Africa right in your own back yard. God has led me to the Africa in my backyard with street ministry.
I understand your desire to go abroad . You can have that real joy now allowing God to continue to use you as he does here. Allow your heart to be open 100% to where God wants to use the gifts he has blessed you with. One day it just may be to go oversees for a mission (and this may not suprise me, since your husband is now coming to see the Lord and how he gets the free flights and such.. God may just open something up there. Continue in your own strong walk now, as you do, your husband will see how God is guiding you and showing you.
Your an awesome woman uniquely designed by our Lord, he has great things in store for you. Just keep the faith and allow him to Guide you one day at a time.
Hugs
Faithwoman
Sweets,
I agree with Smelly Cat. Let me add, that you do not need to wait for the fullness to hit him first. In my whole situation with my gentleman friend, I had been waiting for so much for God to hit him full. Heck, I tried to beat him with a 2x4 (not literally but verbally).
As I sat down one day at church and listened to the mission trips oversees, I thought wow that would be neat to go to Africa and such and my friend said there is an Africa right in your own back yard. God has led me to the Africa in my backyard with street ministry.
I understand your desire to go abroad . You can have that real joy now allowing God to continue to use you as he does here. Allow your heart to be open 100% to where God wants to use the gifts he has blessed you with. One day it just may be to go oversees for a mission (and this may not suprise me, since your husband is now coming to see the Lord and how he gets the free flights and such.. God may just open something up there. Continue in your own strong walk now, as you do, your husband will see how God is guiding you and showing you.
Your an awesome woman uniquely designed by our Lord, he has great things in store for you. Just keep the faith and allow him to Guide you one day at a time.
Hugs
Faithwoman
Thank you, I had a great teacher
Well two really, first of all the Lord (sorry he comes first
)secondly you!
Hugs
Faithwoman
I continue to learn to speak from my heart.
PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY
MESSAGE #161
TOWARDS REALLY STARTING TO SUCCEED IN OUR CHRISTIAN LIVES - Part 2
... Continued from Part 1
SOME PRACTICAL THINGS TO HELP YOU WITH THIS!
I totally agree with SC and Faithwoman that we must live for the Lord where we are.
1. We have to learn to serve Him in the LITTLE things as well as the BIG ones. It's easy enough for any of us to really be quite LAZY about getting to actually SEE what we may do! Aim to be CREATIVE, while praying and considering how we may serve Him.
2. Next we need to recognise that our whole life should be God-focussed:
Colossians Ch 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. 23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
Do read those verses a few times. Try to ABSORB how it all interacts and works. Notice how v. 17 is whole-of-life GOD-FOCUS!! THEN set about learning how to live this way.
We can (and should) wash the dishes with and in conjunction with the Lord!! This is REAL GOD-FOCUSSING!! NOTHING in our lives throughout every day should be OUTSIDE OF our RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. Take the Lord with you wherever you go, and in whatever you do. NOTE: you will need to LEARN to do this (i.e., don't expect it to come naturally to you by this time tomorrow!)
3. Doing it for me is SIN. Living for me is SIN. This has to be a CHANGE OF ATTITUDE as well as FOCUS: we get our FOCUS RIGHT by changing our ATTITUDE. We then need to be constantly checking this. You see, it's so easy to THINK we're GOD-CENTERED when we're really still SELF-CENTERED. Trust me it is NOT one BIT easy to get away from SELF and SIN!!! You will be working on this for all of your days!!
Thus we'll discover that either "I want to do this for God" (self still ruling in our lives) or "I want to do this for God" (God ruling over our lives, because we've capitulated to Him!)
4. Beware of others telling you what you should be doing to serve the Lord, e.g., if a church leader approaches you to become a Sunday-school Teacher, this is NOT necessarily a call from GOD to that work. HE must call you, as you are seeking to ALWAYS be living within His will.
That is, in order for your life to become GOD-CENTERED - so as to take you away from the SELFISHNESS OF BEING ME-CENTERED - this is going to have to happen BETWEEN YOU AND GOD!! Sure, sometimes man may help you with this, but all too often they will hinder instead.
5. THE most important part of your Christian life needs to become RELATIONSHIP - A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR GOD. Work on this. Make this your GOAL and your LIFE-FOCUS. Succeed in this and it will help you ENORMOUSLY to GROW your own PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS and REDUCE YOUR SINFULNESS!
Go forth and live this!! *smiling!* Love to you all!
- BM, with his Beloved
MAY HE GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH
AND GROW YOU TO MATURITY!
The Sink and Intervention
As I stood by my kitchen sink tonight, I had many thoughts. As I stared at at the dirty dishes, I thought of how we have looked to Jesus. We have layed there dirty, unclean and yes somtimes broken. Just as we put the dishes under the water to wash them clean, Jesus takes us and washes us clean.
Last night the young gal that came to visit sat with me and watched TV.
We watched the show Intervention. This is where when someone has an addiction such as drugs, alcohol etc, a specialist is brought in to help the family do an intervention on the person that is afflicted. They offer the person to go to a special place to get treatment. The show is very graphic. I shuddered as the young men shot themselves up with drugs, snorted the coccaine and such. It was sad to watch the story of a man who became an alchoholic and his life went to the pit.
What layed heavy in my heart is that I have come to and am still learning of the true one who intervenes for us all. Is it not true when we open our hearts to Jesus, how he intervenes for us all? He can set any of us free, no matter what our bondages are:
John 8:30-37 (New International Version)
30 Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. The Children of Abraham
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
37 I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.
As I sat there and thought of how Jesus can set anyone free, me, you, your family member, your next door neighbor, all of us, I thought Oh Lord keep cleaning me up and let me go forth and tell of you. I honestly just wanted to call and quit my job and run all over telling how great he is.
Just the most recent and washing and cleansing of me has even given me more hope. But as Bondman stated, it is our own selfishness that holds us captive to our sins.
I thank God for what he is doing in me. Can you just imagine with all the miracles and blessings he does for others and us, that there is still so many that have no room for his word. This is twofold, there are ones that know him but still have no room for his word, and then there are those that give no room because they have not heard of him at all!
I pray to all of you, that may we all become stronger and go forth and spread the good news. I pray in my heart if you know him but are lurking back and not giving his word room in you, that he may strengthen you right this minute that you may bow all to him and allow in him. Believe you me, you shall not regret it! He just wants the best for you! Why settle for good when you can have the best?
Hugs
Faithwoman
As I stood by my kitchen sink tonight, I had many thoughts. As I stared at at the dirty dishes, I thought of how we have looked to Jesus. We have layed there dirty, unclean and yes somtimes broken. Just as we put the dishes under the water to wash them clean, Jesus takes us and washes us clean.
Last night the young gal that came to visit sat with me and watched TV.
We watched the show Intervention. This is where when someone has an addiction such as drugs, alcohol etc, a specialist is brought in to help the family do an intervention on the person that is afflicted. They offer the person to go to a special place to get treatment. The show is very graphic. I shuddered as the young men shot themselves up with drugs, snorted the coccaine and such. It was sad to watch the story of a man who became an alchoholic and his life went to the pit.
What layed heavy in my heart is that I have come to and am still learning of the true one who intervenes for us all. Is it not true when we open our hearts to Jesus, how he intervenes for us all? He can set any of us free, no matter what our bondages are:
John 8:30-37 (New International Version)
30 Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. The Children of Abraham
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
37 I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.
As I sat there and thought of how Jesus can set anyone free, me, you, your family member, your next door neighbor, all of us, I thought Oh Lord keep cleaning me up and let me go forth and tell of you. I honestly just wanted to call and quit my job and run all over telling how great he is.
Just the most recent and washing and cleansing of me has even given me more hope. But as Bondman stated, it is our own selfishness that holds us captive to our sins.
I thank God for what he is doing in me. Can you just imagine with all the miracles and blessings he does for others and us, that there is still so many that have no room for his word. This is twofold, there are ones that know him but still have no room for his word, and then there are those that give no room because they have not heard of him at all!
I pray to all of you, that may we all become stronger and go forth and spread the good news. I pray in my heart if you know him but are lurking back and not giving his word room in you, that he may strengthen you right this minute that you may bow all to him and allow in him. Believe you me, you shall not regret it! He just wants the best for you! Why settle for good when you can have the best?
Hugs
Faithwoman
Thanx for the good advice BM and FaithWoman gave. An eye-opener.
I posted this on a site on the main thread, so I thought it would fit here too.
If My Words Abide in You
1. Memorizing Scripture makes meditation possible at times when I can't be reading the Bible and meditation is the pathway of deeper understanding.
2. Memorizing Scripture strengthens my faith because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, and that happens when I am hearing the word in my head.
3. Memorizing Scripture shapes the way I view the world by conforming my mind to God's viewpoint.
4. Memorizing Scripture makes God's word more readily accessible for overcoming temptation to sin, because God's warnings and promises are the way we conquer the deceitful promises of sin.
5. Memorizing Scripture guards my mind by making it easier to detect error . . . and the world is filled with error, since the god of this world is a liar. (like Bo said, if you admit you already have detected error in their beliefs, then why stick around learning more, Amandez?
6. Memorizing Scripture enables me to hit the devil in the face with a force he cannot resist, and so protect myself and my family from his assault.
7. Memorizing Scripture provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others in need.
8. Memorizing Scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus because he talks to me through His word, and I talk to him in prayer.
9. Memorizing Scripture renews my mind.
That's my testimony. Bonnie
I posted this on a site on the main thread, so I thought it would fit here too.
If My Words Abide in You
1. Memorizing Scripture makes meditation possible at times when I can't be reading the Bible and meditation is the pathway of deeper understanding.
2. Memorizing Scripture strengthens my faith because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, and that happens when I am hearing the word in my head.
3. Memorizing Scripture shapes the way I view the world by conforming my mind to God's viewpoint.
4. Memorizing Scripture makes God's word more readily accessible for overcoming temptation to sin, because God's warnings and promises are the way we conquer the deceitful promises of sin.
5. Memorizing Scripture guards my mind by making it easier to detect error . . . and the world is filled with error, since the god of this world is a liar. (like Bo said, if you admit you already have detected error in their beliefs, then why stick around learning more, Amandez?
6. Memorizing Scripture enables me to hit the devil in the face with a force he cannot resist, and so protect myself and my family from his assault.
7. Memorizing Scripture provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others in need.
8. Memorizing Scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus because he talks to me through His word, and I talk to him in prayer.
9. Memorizing Scripture renews my mind.
That's my testimony. Bonnie
Thank you, I had a great teacher
Well two really, first of all the Lord (sorry he comes first
secondly you!
Hugs
Faithwoman
I continue to learn to speak from my heart.
Hehe! I know the very BEST teacher, and so do you!!! Praise You, Jesus!!!
- Status