Bondman

PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY

MESSAGE #10


CHRISTIAN MATURITY

In the message DARE TO BELIEVE above (post #104) I put the challenge that you can become a Man or Woman of God. Some may possibly have thought, 'oh no, that is not me!' But that's wrong. It's wrong because the New Testament clearly speaks about us LEARNING and GROWING to... MATURITY! Maturity in Christ, where we are finally somewhere near to living the Christian life like God wants for us all!

Of course you can stay, as many (if not most) do, as a babe in Christ - living on MILK for the rest of your life and of no use to the Lord whatsoever. But it's truly NOT a good idea to enter heaven still as a baby!! What's needed is for us to make a DETERMINATION that we will work towards manhood or womanhood before we go to be with the Lord! Here's what Paul said about this:

1 Corinthians 3
1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

2. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;

Pretty strong words, huh! - you're still babies and carnal and un-spiritual, and feeding on milk. Yikes! I do NOT want to be like that, do you? God wants us to LEARN and to GROW to be:

.. no longer carnal, but spiritual people
.. no longer babes, but grown up adults.

In other words He wants for us to become nothing less than MATURE CHRISTIANS!! You may think that's easy enough to achieve. It's not. As I look around me here where we live, I could just about count on one hand the number of Christians I can see who have grown to true maturity in Christ. And that is nothing short of a TRAGEDY for the church of the Lord Jesus.

What's more, you don't need to take 41 years to reach maturity like I did. Fact is, I didn't even realise I needed to BECOME a mature Christian, let alone that I could actually grow to be a Man of God! The devil has got most Western Christians so tangled up living just like the society around us, focussed on MATERIAL THINGS and HUMAN HAPPINESS and much more, that we have NO VISION at all of becoming mature Spiritual Christians like the Lord God wants us to be.

I mean it sounds far too pretentious, doesn't it, to think that we can become men and women of God. BUT WHY NOT? What's to stop you? Only your own lack of vision, and lack of belief in yourself and in God's ability to do this in you. Please don't sell yourself short. Moreso, please don't sell GOD short! He's working IN YOU right now. Every day of your Christian walk! Aim for nothing - and you'll hit it for certain! Aim to become Spiritually mature, and you CAN be! And I reckon that's a definite WOW!!

Go for it!

- BM and his Lady


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Fluffy

__________________
Be transparent before God, He sees right thru you, anyway!
http://www.likepreciousfaith.org/testimony_val.htm
Please pray for your local emergency responders, daily.

Bondman

Oh, wow, hon that is sooo true. Are we gonna enter heaven as a baby, a kid, or a teen? Nope, not good enough!!!

So I'm sure with your preacher - and with you!

Bondman

PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY

MESSAGE #11


SCRIPTURE (3)

John 14
23 Jesus said, If a person loves Me, he will keep My word - obey My teaching; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home (special dwelling place) with Him.

Mmm... I rather like that! Jesus and the Father making their home with me. Wow!!


But here once AGAIN, as in so many parts of Scripture we have a conditional promise (you need to always be on the look out for them!) Mebbe we should call them:

IF x... THEN y

verses! *grin*

Thus... IF we aim to keep His word, and aim to obey His teachings, THEN 2 things WILL happen - as promised by Jesus Himself:

• God the Father will LOVE us, and
• BOTH will come and make their HOME with us!

I can handle THAT!! What do you reckon?


But I skipped past the the first part, didn't I. It's conditional too, but different from the above. "If you really DO love Me," Jesus says, "then you will OBEY Me by following my COMMANDS." Whoa, that's pretty heavy!!! But it's also straight down the line so that we can know EXACTLY where we stand - and to me that's great!

So the question for us all is: DO I KEEP HIS WORDS, OBEY HIM, and DO WHAT HE SAYS? Let's be honest here: most of us don't. Well, we do if it suits us. But if it is going to COST us, mostly we draw back. God does NOT like us drawing back - yet we do it all the time, and it really is time to STOP doing this!!

So DO YOU REALLY LOVE JESUS? Then you'll be more and more and more and more seeking to be obedient to Him and living the way He says! This is a CENTRAL part of all of my messages, as of the whole of my life. I am obedient to Jesus cos I love Him so much.

Hey, how can we do less???

Love and blessings to all!

- BM and his Lady

blankgirl

Hi everyone..

i need prayer... i think im feeling very guilty about my friend's death.. feel as if i should have showed her love and kept in touch with her that kinda thing... i mean we were only classmates for 3 years... anyways i noe im not supp to feel this way, an im supposed to move on.. i have started my devotions once again today.. last 2 days cudnt face God..
another thing is, i found another boil near the same area of my previous one.. i went thru another surgery but smaller scale than the first one.. super minor one, but still it hurts.. i guess im a bit wimpish..
i wish i cud be more tough u get wat i mean? not a wimp....

thankew for reading.

Boanerges

It is never wimpish when you are cut on. All your friends here are praying for you!

Bondman

I agree on both counts.

Please also recognise that we all have different responses to pain (different pain thresholds). Some people barely even notice pain! Truly! Others are highly responsive to it. It's simply how God made us. My joke I say from time to time - like at the dentists *haha* - is that I don't have a LOW pain threshold, I have a NO pain threshold! And like Boanerges said, you're not a wimp and neither am I. That's just what we're like!


And you're right, God does not want you to be feeling guilt about your friend - He specifically says not to: "There is therefore now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1a. Jesus died to save us from ALL of our sin - including sins of omission! - and forgiveness of all sin means there can be NO guilt remaining in our lives!

It is the evil one who puts GUILT onto you. Reject it every time it comes into your mind, using James 4:7. Reject it, and expecially DON'T let it take root (allowing you to feel sorry for yourself). Please DON'T let the devil do this destructiveness to you, hon!

And notice what allowing this guilt to take root in your mind did: took you away from God!! (I'm so glad you're back with Him!)

Bless you heaps. Praying!

- BM


EDIT! I'm doing a message, probably called "HOW'S YOUR LIFESTYLE?" or something along those lines, which is about how we CAN reach people for Christ! - which could greatly help the guilt of people who know they're not doing very well in this area. So do watch out for this! (may even be next, but this always has to be the Lord's call so I have to wait for Him to tell me).

Fluffy

__________________
Be transparent before God, He sees right thru you, anyway!
http://www.likepreciousfaith.org/testimony_val.htm
Please pray for your local emergency responders, daily.

blankgirl

heehee so cute.. reminds me of my dog Becky.. she always wags her tail like that...


thankew for listening to me and givin me ur wonderful counsel!!!

Bondman