Fluffy

Oh, look! I passed 300 posts without realizing it!

__________________
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.

hisdreamer

thats kinda scary looking but congrats

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Bondman

Rebekah, yes!! The more you STRESS about what you have to do (witness for Him), the more you will CLAM UP and get little or nothing said! Am I right?

So what's the secret? First, to RELAX and not stress. You are trying too hard, sweetie. I was the same. And it took me years and years to get over this. But you can do it in far less time than me, cos we are here to help and support you, okay!

Second is to TRUST. It's GOD Who gets people converted to Jesus, isn't it? I mean, what can I do? Well, not much actually! When you learn to trust the Lord for this (which also took me years and years to learn!), then things can start to happen. But without faith and trustfulness, what WILL happen? Well, round about NOTHING!!

And here's the other secret. When I learn to RELAX and TRUST, this takes the focus off ME and puts it onto the LORD. ALL of us are focussed on ourselves. God has this truly MAMMOTH task to get the focus of our heart and life onto Him. But we can HELP Him with this, and the way to do this is to learn to: TRUST, RELAX, and don't try so hard!

Finally, you have nothing to prove to:

.. God
.. to yourself
.. to us
.. or to others!

We do NOT have to DO stuff in order to please God! For most of it it's WHO WE ARE that counts, rather than WHAT WE DO. That is, the person I AM is exactly what makes what I DO pleasing to Him (seldom works the other way round). In fact the Bible says that OUT OF A GOOD HEART GOOD THINGS FLOW! So it's our HEART and WHO WE ARE that we gotta work on first - NOT what we think we gotta DO!!! Start doing the first of those ... and in time the second will start to flow out of it!

Whoa, that's a big one! Start to learn that, and your life is gonna begin to change - for the better!!

Bless you heaps, hon! (and relax!!)

- BM and his Mrs

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Bondman

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Fluffy

Its National Friendship Week here in the states, Ya'll give your friend a hug!
Blankgirl, I found this for you!

__________________
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.

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

PRACTICAL NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY

MESSAGE #5


BEING A SAINT!

When was the last time you felt discouraged? Maybe you're feeling discouraged right now (cos life on this planet ain't easy). Let's try and change your discouragement for encouragement? - here's some amazing news that few seem to realise: YOU ARE A SAINT OF GOD!

Saint Alison. Saint Laurie. Saint Karen. Saint Noel. Hey, we're all saints!!! Before you think I've totally lost my marbles, let me explain, so that we can grab this wonderful fact - true for each one of us.


IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

First, there were saints in OT times! When Jesus died on the cross a number of amazing things happened, e.g.

Matthew 27
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of saints who slept were raised...

Old Testament men and women, long since dead, were raised up - and the Bible calls them SAINTS!!!


IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Secondly, we - that is, every person who has ever trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ - have been called SAINTS! And that's starting in Acts and in almost every book of the New Testament through to Revelation! Does that surprise you?

You see we need to FULLY follow the Bible as God's true and perfect Word!! NOT to be conformed to what the world says or thinks, NOR to any other teaching that is not in full accord with this Word of our God.


THROUGHOUT THE NEW TESTAMENT:

There are dozens of verses that call us Believers SAINTS of God, e.g., Paul greeting the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 1
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be SAINTS, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

So all who call upon the name of Jesus are SAINTS!!! You are a SAINT! I am a SAINT!


BUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Also in the verse above is the word sanctified, which simply means "to be set apart for some special purpose". What purpose?? - A SAINT is simply someone God has called and appointed to be HIS man, his woman!!! Can you handle that? I sure can!! You are a saint of the living God right now. Wow, what an amazing HONOUR!

I just love all of this. *excited* And to make absolutely CERTAIN that we "get this" there's an unbreakable connection between these three Scriptural words:

.. saint
.. sanctify/sanctified, and
.. HOLY!!!


YES, 'HOLY' TOO!

We've previously talked about being righteous and holy. That's His will for us. Well, this is amazing. The New Testament is written in Greek, and the root word that ALL the above words come from IS THE SAME ONE: hagos!!!! Thus we can be certain of the unbreakable connection between being a SAINT, being SANCTIFIED, and being HOLY. Man, that all totally blows my brain!!







SUMMARY:

1. The New Testament says that we are all SAINTS, called by our God to be His chosen set apart ones. (HE chose me; HE chose you! WOW!!)

2. We're also called to be SANCTIFIED, i.e., to be living more and more as His people, living HIS way, living as HE wants.

3. We are to be HOLY (and righteous: living the RIGHT way) - once again set apart for our Lord and God.


Bless as all, together, as we live as SAINTS of The King of Kings and Lord of Lords to Whom we belong!!!

- BM and his Lady

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.

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.

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.