Bondman

Time's running out, so I'm posting a couple of Messages close together. Hope that's okay! Making an announcement tomorrow I expect.

- BM

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Bondman

Message #119

THREE 'SECRETS' TO SERIOUS AND PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN LIVING

These 3 "SECRETS" took me so long to discover: I tried for so many years to get a handle on what exactly is the ESSENCE of the Christian life. I needed to be able to have that clearly in my mind. Every time I found something, and tried to live it, eventually it would fail. I just couldn't seem to get the BASICS so I could live them! - which was incredibly frustrating!! In the end I decided there was no such "secrets"... But here they are in their incredible simplicity – and I most solumnly assure you THAT THEY WORK!

Remember the chorus of the old hymn that says: Trust and obey, For there's no other way, To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey! (You may be able to hear it here). THAT'S THE FIRST TWO: you MUST have FAITH and you MUST OBEY God!!! Without both of these you are going NOWHERE!

1. OBEYING THE LORD

To me being OBEDIENT to my Lord is perfectly easy to understand: it simply means DOING WHAT HE SAYS!!! Now you cannot start doing that the very moment you're saved – but YOU CAN START WANTING TO DO IT the very moment you're saved!! And you should have!! So are you there? I sure DO hope so!!

2. FAITH – TRUSTING AND BELIEVING IN THE LORD

The word BELIEVING in the Greek, as the Amplified Bible spells out in Romans 10 below, means believing in your heart in Jesus - which means joining yourself to Jesus, relying on Him, being in HIS party. Believing is VERY SERIOUS!!! Believing is not passive, BELIEVING in Jesus means ACTION!! You and He are joined. You belong to Him. You speak up for Him. You want to totally OBEY Him!! Let's now look at the power and truth of these two verses God wrote through Paul:

Romans Ch 10:9 Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.

3. TAKING JESUS AS YOUR LORD

That's the THIRD of these 3 "secrets", and I've spoken about it many, many times: you must let Jesus be LORD in ALL of your life, giving ALL of you to HIM, living TOTALLY for Him!! Anything less than that is NOT true New Testament Christianity!! That's what it's all about!! Verse 9 above says that you must ACKNOWLEDGE WITH YOUR LIPS plus CONFESS WITH YOUR LIPS THAT JESUS IS LORD!! So LORDSHIP IS VERY SERIOUS TOO!!! It's living a new kind of life where Jesus is King. It's not just going to church, reading the Bible, praying, or any of these things, it's NOTHING LESS THAN GIVING CONTROL OF THE WHOLE OF YOUR LIFE OVER TO JESUS!!!

With all my love and earnest wish that this will be your life forever and ever! Amen.

- BM, with his Lady

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forgivenWretch

Amen Faithwoman!!

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I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. ~Galileo

forgivenWretch

Time's running out?????What have I missed???

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I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. ~Galileo

Faithwoman

Quote:

time's running out, so i'm posting a couple of messages close together. Hope that's okay! Making an announcement tomorrow i expect. - bm __________________

oh man oh man.. Lord prepare us all......hmmmm well he has been preparing us through you bondman..
I am going away tomorrow so i may not get the news until monday.. Iiyyyiyyyiyyy...hmmm

cool powerchair! That is just awesome! Praise the lord for his continued blessings.

Faithwoman

Bondman

Message #120

BONDMAN'S SUMMARY OF 120 MESSAGES

In the previous Message I spelt out three BASICS if you are ever to hope to live a true Christian life.

Then The Inner Room in it's TOTALITY here has been a place where I've sought to write Messages that set forth to the best of my ability WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES, in order for you to be able to live and walk in the Lord as fully Christian men and women. My whole belief system is wholly New Testament as to how we must live and what we must believe, along with the Old Testament making up the WHOLE of God's astonishing revelation of Himself to us here on earth.

It's all been written from the perspective of practical Christianity that I'm living, not a theoretical account of the Bible. That is, I've written what I've tested out over 50 years as a Believer, and therefore what I've found that WORKS! A few Messages have been of further practical matters that I've learnt in my 70 years.

HOW MUCH DID YOU ACTUALLY LEARN?

Most folks here will have read some or even many of the Messages. You took from each one maybe ONE thing to remember - and even to start to live! As a trained teacher I'm totally aware that we really can't take in much at a first reading! Yet here's what's rather TRAGIC: what we seem to all do is that once we've read something, and gleaned what we 'want' from it, we find it too boring to ever read it again! And that's a shame. After we're read something 3 or 4 times we may have 'got' what it's about. Certainly not just ONCE!

In the 120 Messages I've written:

1. BASICS of the Christian life – what the NT calls MILK
2. Many Messages to challenge you to move onto more MEATY matters.
3. What the NT calls straight out MEAT, that the full-grown Christian needs to know and to live.

This has been for you to do what The Inner Room was also about: TO LEARN AND TO GROW TO MATURITY! Do you have any idea how FEW Believers ever become Mature in Christ? Many Pastors aren't full-grown in Christ, so how can they help you to get there? I've learnt all I have direct from the New Testament because I never in 50+ years had a Mature Pastor or Teacher to learn from!!

YOU CAN BECOME A MATURE AND FULL-GROWN CHRISTIAN!

I am pretty confident
that in the WHOLE of my Messages here
there's ENOUGH for you to ultimately
GROW TO MATURITY in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, Dear Ones,
YOUR AIM SHOULD BE NOTHING LESS!!!
– else most of my work here has been in vain!!!

God bless you all, both now and always, with every Spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour!!!
- BM and his Lady

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Bondman

NOTICE!



A VERY hard decision we've had to make after much consideration and prayer. With my current health level, coping with the IR as it's set up is now impossible. A great sadness for me...


GUIDELINES:

1. It's NOT CLOSED - only a Mod can close a thread.

2. TEMPORARY CLOSURE allows me to do an individual post at any time, and to return if things change. One never knows what God is likely to do!!

3. I do hope - and expect - to complete my PROMISE of putting all 120 Messages on our website - one after another for ease of reading, and best of all WITH A SEARCH ENGINE!! It's also likely I will ADD NEW MESSAGES THERE. I will NOTIFY you here when this task is completed - so please watch out for this!

4. If you currently receive emails every time someone has put up a post here, then should I do a special post, or return, YOU'LL GET AN EMAIL NOTIFYING YOU OF THIS! (If you're NOT getting emails in this way, please ask Fluffy or a Mod for how to get them).

5. It would be unfair (and unkind) of me to block off all further posts as of now. So... it's okay to post for a day or two if you want. HOWEVER, AFTER THAT TIME NO POSTING PLEASE, BECAUSE THE THREAD DOES NEED TO GO INACTIVE. Thankyou!!

6. I must give sincere thanks to a few members of the IR. Without their amazingly FAITHFUL POSTING these many months The Inner Room quite LITERALLY could NEVER have been USED OF GOD into people's lives like it has been (it's my belief that those names I write below have no idea that the above is true!)

And yes, I do know that it's dangerous to mention names - but I trust I'll be forgiven if I miss someone.

A very personal and sincere THANKYOU to Faithwoman, SweetSurrender, Fluffy, Mark, forgivenWretch, and others for all of your posts, support, love and encouragement. Also to God's_Child for her encouragement, and Boanerges. I'm sure there are others. I love you all and appreciate all your prayers - please don't stop!

7. Finally, thankyou all, for being SO understanding of my and our serious health situations. You've truly been quite amazing!!

• If you wish to continue to PRAY to God for a speedy MIRACLE HEALING OF US BOTH, as I believe He promised me some years ago (I still have MAJOR visions I want to pursue), then of course I shall tell you of such HEALING here (you'll hear the loud HALLELUJAH from Aussie-land first tho!!!) - and you'll be able to share in the blessings and glorying we give to the Lord!
  
  
• If you'd like to be part of our PRAYER TEAM and receive updates about our health from time to time, just PM me.

Joy and peace and love from us both, to each and every one of you!!

- Bondman with Bondman's Lady

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forgivenWretch

Wow, where to start. I truly understand, Bondman, the necessity for this having to be put on hold. So many of us suffer with chronic pain and other sickness, which can be debilitating, and it is quite understood the reasoning behind your decisions.

Bondman, you have been a great blessing for me and I feel I can speak for the rest also. You sir are one very special gentleman, and we all care for you deeply.

I love you brother and I pray that God will intervene and allow for the healing. May He take both of you in His arms, hold you tightly and give you the healing for all of your physical problems.

YBIC,

Wayne (forgivenWretch)

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I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. ~Galileo

Faithwoman

Oh Bondman, I sit here with tears streaming down my face. I am so thankful for all you have done, for your hard work of giving of God's work and being a teacher to those who seek him and their life.

You have no idea of how your teaching has affected my life. I had Jesus in me when I came to the IR, but I did not know Jesus until after taking your messages and starting to apply them to my life.

These past few days, I have walked around in a stoop, could not concentrate, just wondering where the Lord is taking me. I know by continuing to believe in him and trust him that he will show me.

I remember all the PM's and emails,, ones that you so graciously took of your time to answer. I remember how you never judged me. I remember how when God nudged you to be firm with me . you were. and I thank you for that.

As I go through the pain of grief and healing of my most recent relationship of 2 years ending, I remember your words of how the Lord will be my comforter. I remember how you have taught me that we even as Christians will have suffering and persecution.

As I read your post, I first panicked. Every day I came here seeking to find my way and you and God's words were here to guide me. I thank you for that. As you closed your post with a beautiful pic of you and the Mrs. I prayed for that miraculous healing he can bring. He has given you so much. Just as he gave us his son Jesus, he gave us his son Bondman to teach and guide us. Praises to you Lord!

Please know in your heart as you sit on his lap one day, he truly will be saying. Well done my faithful servant. I do not know what God's plan is for me or you or anyone else, but I do know this.. one day we will all be together and will be able to share in such a glorious place where this no pain, no confusion.

I love you from the bottom of my heart! I have printed out some of the messages along the way, but I truly want to be able to do that with all of them. As you continue your journey, I wish you and the Mrs. the very best!

God Bless!
Faithwoman

Fluffy

Some people may say its denial, but I dont think so. As I was reading Bondman's post, I got the feeling that this was only temporary.
Bondman, your healing IS coming! I know it, I know it, I know it!
One way or another, you and the missus are going to be restored to better than new!
In the meantime, know that we will continue to pray for you, and miss you like crazy! You have been a good friend to all of us here, and look forward to see your smiling face doing the jitterbug!



PS - How about calling your power chair "The Cadillac"?

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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.