Bondman

Today a totally unexpected and quite "impossible" answer presented itself that should (stressed) be able to solve this terrible problem. Our day became SO hectic with it all that we really could not cope and are utterly zonked tonight - but it's a 'good' zonked!!!

GOD IS GOOD! GOD ANSWERS PRAYER!! YOU PEOPLE HERE SURE CAN PRAY UP A STORM!!!

THANKYOU from the bottom of our hearts and minds and spirits!!!! I'll continue to keep you posted - stress will be ongoing next week, and maybe past that, before this can all be over. Much love from us both!!

- BM

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Bondman

THE MESSAGE BELOW...

... does not signal that I'm going back to writing constant messages as before! To my deep sorrow I simply cannot manage that.

I have realised (for those who were wondering! hee!) that some recent posts have basically been messages anyway (I probably will try to 'upgrade' them when I'm able).

REASON: The reason I'm writing this Message and the 'continued' is that I have tried on at least 3 occasions to write what I intend to in the 'continued' part or parts - but each time the Lord stopped me! I even wrote them, and then He said No! (He's my boss!!)

This time I don't believe He will - and so this time I believe that my HEART'S DESIRE TO TELL YOU WHAT'S IN AND ON MY HEART WILL be written! Some will read and act on it. Others will not. Those WHO WILL ACT - and profit MIGHTILY thereby - are who this topic is for!

- BM

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Bondman

Message #128

THE QUESTION OF OUR PURITY BEFORE OUR GOD - Part 1

A. Faithwoman's testimony is so POWERFUL because she made the choice and followed through. We all know that physical intimacy in the wrong context is WRONG. The New Testament speaks against this in many places. It can be EXTRA HARD for us today because of our appallingly permissive society and the electronic media that portrays sexual sin as normal, to be desired, and a-okay to take part in. Sometimes I FEAR GREATLY for our KIDS brought up in this dreadful environment.

B. If we've come to grips with physical purity, the next major step to take is our SPIRITUAL PURITY. If this doesn't seem a very clear-cut issue then please carefully consider below, where God's Word makes absolutely no bones about this whatsoever:

James 4:2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “ God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts [of your spiritual adultery], you double-minded.

Our lust for worldly things and positions and standards in the West is legion. It pervades the church almost throughout. You are probably part of this - and that makes you GOD'S ENEMY! Is that what you REALLY want? HEAR WHAT GOD SAYS about this: friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. In doing this He calls you a Spiritual adulterer with NO purity!!!

Clear enough? So how's your SPIRITUAL PURITY? Wondering why your Christian walk is not what it should be? This is a likely reason. I've said that our worldliness - our love of ease and comfort and of materialism and 'things', our awful conformism to the world around us, and much more - IS AN ATTITUDE. A very, very, VERY BAD ATTITUDE that takes a strong and determined heart (with His help!) to break! But continuing with this ATTITUDE makes you an ENEMY OF GOD!!! Now there's a MAJOR motivation to bring much-needed change into your life, if ever I've heard one!!

Worldliness KILLS. It kills your spirit, it kills your Spirituality, it stunts your growth in Christ. It is WHOLLY DESTRUCTIVE!!! It constantly amazes me how we use our money on OURSELVES. We are so incredibly self-centered!! It seems like: I know Jesus, I'm a Christian Believer headed for heaven, so I'm a-okay - who cares a fig about others - like a few BILLION people in the world WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL?? QUESTION: Are YOU one of those who desperately want Jesus to return? - well ALL OF THESE have to be evangelised FIRST!!! Click the reference and read: Matthew 24:14.

... continued in Part 2 "Our Worldiness Simply Has To Go!!"

- BM, with his Lady

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Bondman

Welcome to the IR, CShultz! (I don't remember seeing you here before, but may have missed you). Your Profile says Date accepted Christ 00-00-33. I'm intrigued as to what that means...

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CSchultz

Thank you for the kind welcome!

What I am referring to there is the day of Christ's crucifixion. Very often people will equate the day they accepted Christ with the day that they were "saved."

And so I used a little play on terms there. (I hope it is not offensive to anyone.)

I see that as the day I was saved.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know the day I "accepted" Christ. Although I have at times stumbled in my walk with Him. I have always had faith that my redeemer lives and has counted even the very hairs on my head.

Faithwoman

Welcome CS!

Awesomme message Bondman on Sexual purity!

Hugs
Robin

Bondman

Haa, very 'tricky' CS! I guess the 33 should have given me a clue. It's a very interesting thought you've come up with: anyone who receives the Lord into their life is born into God's family at that moment in time. Yet they were actually saved way back there at Calvary. ALREADY DONE, HEY!! Maybe we could describe it as something like "every person was potentially saved then", all the work done - all we then gotta do is accept and embrace it as we accept and embrace Jesus!!

Thanks for the concept!

- BM

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SweetSurrender

Oh, after reading Schutz's and BM's last post, maybe I finally "get" the timeline mystery of the dates. I found a timeline on the Old and New Testaments and never understood the dates the way they were. So, when Christ was born, that would be AD and the numbering started over? I may still be confused. Bonnie

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Bondman

I don't think you are. Basically it was BC (Before Christ) up to his birth (always counting DOWNWARDS - for example, 1,000 BC, then 500 BC, and down to his birth). Then it changed to AD (Anno Domini = The Year of Our Lord) and counted normally: for example 500 AD, then 1,000 AD, to 2008 AD today.

As a postscript, there's been a major move on for some time to change the historic AD and replace it with CE (common era) by those who hate Christ and Christianity and so hate what AD means. Sad, hey!

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Bondman

Message #129

OUR WORLDLINESS SIMPLY HAS TO GO!! - Part 2

... continued from Part 1 "The Question of our Purity Before Our God"

With the help of God within us we can take the decision to CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE of our current love of the world and all the things it gives us. Brothers and Sisters of mine, IT'S TIME!!! Time for this change. No longer to just HEAR about it. We're to be DOERS of the Word, not just HEARERS – and it's easy to deceive ourselves about this: James Ch 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

CHANGING OUR ATTITUDE

So if we're to cease being God's enemy, let's explore what this change of ATTITUDE involves? It will most likely lead you to a change of life-style - UNLESS you're actually called by God to be a money-maker for His work. But in either case ULTIMATELY YOU WILL HAVE 'SPARE' MONEY TO GIVE TO HIS WORK!

In the case of a life-style change TOWARDS SIMPLER LIVING, by giving up and/or changing our ATTITUDE to all the stuff we LOVE, you WILL ultimately have MONEY TO GIVE towards reaching and evangelising THOSE WHO ARE LOST BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEVER HEARD! If you're unusual and called to be a money-maker, then you will have MUCH money for this task. However, the AMOUNT is NOT the focus here at all: it's our changed ATTITUDE and our MOTIVATION that we must FOCUS on!

EASE AND COMFORT HAVE TO GO

Consider the Western world's LOVE AFFAIR with THE GOOD LIFE and AN EASY LIFE. We want the BEST, right, and WON'T put up with 2nd (or 5th!) best. We want a good home with as much room as we can afford. Our bed MUST be totally comfortable. No old lounge chairs are tolerated. In fact very little that's old will be tolerated. We spend the money and get good stuff. EASE and COMFORT, EASE and COMFORT - how much do you you reckon you spend on this? AND entertainment and recrecreation? Money is getting a little tighter in Australia, as in the U.S., and I read an article in the paper showing a family who reported that they would have to cut their holiday spending from $3,000 this year to $1,000. That's how THE WORLD sees life. THIS IS NOT FOR THOSE OF US who are COMMITTED to JESUS forever!!

THESE MESSAGES ARE ONLY FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO CHANGE

Look, I am NOT going to be carrying on and on about this. Either YOU'LL HAVE 'GOT' WHAT I'M ON ABOUT, or not. It's either go to the Lord to ask Him to help you understand your worldliness and how to change it, or not. Just please, PLEASE, PLEASE don't stay an ENEMY OF GOD by CONFORMING TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU!!

WANT vs NEED

Before leaving this, a final thought as a great GUIDE to this: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'NEED AND 'WANT'. What does our flesh WANT? – it wants exactly those things we already own – the ones we've ALREADY spent our money on!! That's EXACTLY why we are all living in the richest possible affluence (by world standards - even those of us at the botton of the chain), and SO ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD AROUND US! Which is uttterly TRAGIC!!

OUR CHOICE

So here's what we did: over a period of time, by specific decisions in the Presence of our great and mighty God to Whom we owe EVERYTHING, and BEFORE WHOM we'll soon stand to give ACCOUNT for the whole of our life, our life-style these days is now based firmly on NEED alone.

If it's a life-need we spend the money, ensuring best value for the money too - we're always buying at the bottom of the price chain. If it's NOT an ESSENTIAL it is deleted from thought and discussion. (We've not had a holiday for 19 years and so far we haven't 'died' from this.) I'm sure we all know that what's TOTALLY EASY is SPENDING MONEY on OURSELVES! Which is almost all PURE worldliness! What we're CALLED to do INSTEAD is to be INCREDIBLY WISE with our money and ensure EVERY DOLLAR POSSIBLE remains to go to Him!! (Haven't we 'got' YET that both WE and OUR MONEY are all His anyway?)

FEELING TERRIFIC!

Because our pension income is one-quarter of the average Aussie wage we don't have a lot of extra as you can well imagine. Nonetheless every month some of our money goes to Asia to bring the Gospel to those WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD! I can't possibly describe how fabulous that feels!!

Coming: how to set yourself up to make your life-style change really COUNT FOR GOD!

continued in Part 3 "Introducing the Need" ...

- BM, with his Lady

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