Bondman

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Bondman

Message #101

BACK TO BASICS - Part 1

THE PROBLEM OF SIN!

What is mankind's prime problem? Answer: SIN! What is the Christian's prime problem? This could easily be argued as the being same thing! How so? Because the average Western Christian appears not to understand the SERIOUSNESS of sin, and moreso not to 'get' the widespread CONSEQUENCES of the sin in his life. Let's see if together we can remedy some of this.

This world is in the mess that it is BECAUSE OF SIN! Pure and simple! Once our forebears, Adam and Eve, chose to do what God said NOT TO (and we've ALL followed their example), the world got DRASTICALLY CHANGED!! It's not God's fault that a Hurricane destroys a town and kills hundreds of people: this is part of how the sin of ALL of us messed up the world. Similarly, it's not God's fault if a child is born without arms, or a mother dies of cancer leaving 4 children to be looked after by others.

1. SIN IS SELFISHNESS

Sin is the focus on ME instead of being focused on God.
Max Lucado, one of our favourite authors, wrote a book entitled It's Not About Me. Spot on! But maybe he should have called it It's Not Supposed to be About Me, because for most of us it still IS about me! We all suffer from selfishness, self-centeredness, self-absorption, self-concern, self-focus. WE are who we care most about! This shows in the way we think, in our attitudes, the way we talk, the way we act, the way we LIVE. Once you start to look for it, you'll find it's entwined right the way through your whole life and living.

2. SIN IS REBELLION

I've heard people say things like, "Why should we suffer because of what Adam and Eve did?" totally failing to see the clear FACT that we're all just the same. We are a most WILFUL race - Adam and Eve just happened to be the FIRST! What did they do? In the Garden, God gave them absolutely EVERYTHING their hearts could possibly desire. "You have ALL OF THIS," He told them, then added, "Except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." DO NOT EAT THE FRUIT OF THAT!!!

Notice how we're all the same as them: saying "don't do that" is like holding a red rag to a bull - that's then exactly what we WANT to do, and often go ahead AND do! Sin is rebellion. It's rebelling against what God says to DO or NOT do - wilfully, VERY wilfully!

3. SIN IS DISOBEDIENCE

Clearly the WILFUL REBELLION of Adam and Eve against what God specifically told them NOT to do, was DISOBEDIENCE of the highest order! We're just the same!! God clearly says to us, "DON'T LOVE THE WORLD," but how are we living? Pretty much the same as the unbelievers! We love ease just like they do. We love comfort. We love to have all the bits and pieces and chattels and things - same as them. We live self-centered lives like they do. HAVING THE TOTALLY WRONG ATTITUDE TO ALL OF THIS - folks, it's our attitude that MATTERS! - we're WORLDLY even while convincing ourselves we're not, DISOBEYING this command of almighty God, and a few hundred others at the same time.

4. SIN IS FALLING SHORT

No matter how hard we may try to be less self-focused and more God-focused, to be more and more obedient to all of His commands to us, to not rebel and to be less worldly - no matter HOW MUCH PROGRESS WE MAKE ON THESE THINGS (and it's excellent and crucial that we DO all of this!!) at the end of the day we still don't, and CANNOT, measure up to the PERFECTION of the sinless life Jesus lead. Never sinned even once! WOW!! The Bible is perfectly clear that just ONE sin makes you a complete sinner. So we constantly fall short of God's glory - which is the high standard He's set for us all.

continued next post...

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Bondman

...continued from previous post

THIS SIN that blights our lives and ruins the world is SO INCREDIBLY SERIOUS that the Father had just one remedy: which was that His only Son.... BUT WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS' DEATH FOR OUR SIN, DON'T WE? Maybe so, but we've still understood SO little about our sin that He HAD to die for!

Our SELF-CENTEREDNESS is a great place to start to see how sin is ruining our lives, keeping us from ALL God wants for us, and accounting for a lot of the confusion some have as to WHY our Christian life is NOT how we expected it to be.

Not only do we WANT all the things the world around us has, we DEMAND them! We're so determined to live worldly lives - in arrant disobedience to God's command that we are NOT to do this. I look at my own life to ask, "Am I yet anywhere near the person I should be in Christ?" Answer: NO! And I've been at this for OVER 50 YEARS! So please do NOT consider that I'm making too much of a song and dance about this!

Who's sposed to come FIRST in our life? Well, we all know THAT too, don't we! SO WHY DOESN'T HE? Is He REALLY top-dog in your life? Probably NOT - and that's not me judging you in any way. It's simply a generalised, but nonetheless honest and factual appraisal of how pathetic our Christian lives mostly are. So isn't it way past time for us to DO something about this? To change how we're living? TO CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE TO WHAT WE RECKON LIFE OWES US?

"It's not about me!" Absolutely correct. And for so long as THIS HAS NOT BECOME TRUE IN OUR LIVE, we will stay as little babies, still on MILK, quite unable to handle SOLID FOOD, understanding LITTLE of what actually living the Christian life is really about. And unless we start taking some serious action to change this situation we will enter HEAVEN still as BABIES as well!

Starting today we need to CHOOSE to make Jesus MORE IMPORTANT than we are, and to CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE TO THE WORLD. This truly IS a great place to START! Thus every time we have a CHOICE to make from now on, to do our best to start learning to make it in the light of putting Him AHEAD of what WE want.

That way we may actually begin to TRULY start to make some REAL progress on the serious matter of SIN in all of our lives!

With all our love!

- BM, with his Lady

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Faithwoman

Awesome, Awesome message!

Thank you thank you thank you!

Faithwoman

Sapphireangel7

MR. Bondman!! Long time no see!! How are you?? You have been on my heart and mind. May I join you here? I am so excited to see you again!

Bondman

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Bondman

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Sapphireangel7

OH Mr. Bondman, sorry!!! You know me as HadessahRose. I thought you would know me by my Mr. Bondman!! I am SO excited to see you! I have been worried about you!! How are you doing?

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One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. Psalm 27:4

revlynn

Here's how I understand "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

God created us in His image and likeness. Of the original two words used, one refers to a static image, as in a photo, while the other refers to a dynamic image, as in a shadow or reflection - something that moves as we move, stops as we stop etc. In other words, God created us to both "look" and act like Him. We were to be His vice-regents on earth. The only proviso was that He was still the King.

Instead of rejoicing that they were like God, our first parents chose to become "as gods" for themselves, rejecting God's rule and usurping His throne in their own lives.

Every time we fail to be the image of God in this world, every time we fail to rule on His behalf (and try instead to stand as rulers ourselves, and to make our own rules) we fall short of God's glory, and that is sin.

No wonder the Father had to send Jesus! Even those who kid themselves to believe that they are able to keep the commandments would have to admit that they don't meet that standard.

blessings,

Lynn

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