Jump to content

Bondman

Members
  • Posts

    9
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

0 Neutral

About Bondman

  • Birthday 09/20/1938

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Brisbane, Australia
  • Interests
    STATEMENT: All I'm able to do these days is help others via the Net (because of severe ill-health). I am 70 yrs old and have walked with the Lord for 51 years now. I have to say that it's been an often difficult but quite fabulous journey!!<br /><br />I'm a sort of 'triple' teacher: born one (can't help myself - I just have to share with others what I've learnt); trained as a primary-age teacher; and also have a gift of teaching from the Lord. <br /><br />The Lord Jesus is my Lord, Saviour, friend, and more, and my whole life focus is of spreading the Good News to others. That's all I want to do! I am 'Bondman' because in 1999 I chose to make myself Jesus' Bondman (which means I'm now His bond-slave, forever).<br /><br />I've read and studied the Word of God

Recent Profile Visitors

873 profile views
  1. Great topic and great repiles! I've just hit the big 7-oh and been a Believer 51 years. I do have abundant life - of walking daily with the Lord and having a personal relationship with Him. This has come via learning it all from the New Testament of God's Holy Word, and often I did it the hard way and the long way round *some people are a bit dull-headed or something...!* I also have a hard life. Make that a very hard life - but I wouldn't change even one minute of any of it! Some here have spoken of this hard life, and I know it well. Via hardship we grow. One of my really difficult times was when I was put out of the workforce at age 40, and spent 3 years in bed. During that time the Lord showed me some amazing verses that not too many people ever quote (I wonder why!!) May I set them down here: Hebrews 12:5-11 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children - My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him: 6 For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. 7 If you endure chastening, God is dealing with you as sons; for what son is there whom the father chastens not? 8 But if you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then you are illigimate, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers in the flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not then be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Verse 6. If you're one who God loves and has received, then He will chasten and scourge you. ("Scourge" there is from the same Greek root as Jesus' scourging prior to Calvary, which most prisoners never even survived to make it to the cross!) Verse 7. If you endure God's chastening and hardships, then be assured that you are God's son Verse 8. If you're not being chastised and punished, God says, then you're illigimate and not my sons at all! *heavy!* Verse 11. THE GOOD NEWS: No hardships and hard times for now seem nice or good! *what a practical and honest God we have*; but go through the difficulties, God promises, and you will receive and gain a great wad of personal righteousness (living right) into your life!! After reading those verses, I can't see how any Believer can ever again say that life's too hard. If you will endure hardships, by which He teaches and trains you to be like Him - then you can and will experience abundant life. They rather go together!! Bask in His love today, - BM
  2. Great topic, Nebula! God's already challenged me on this very subject. Here's a short summary from my life: If you want a strong concept of God's goodness in the Scriptures then go look for these words: rigteousness and holiness. .:: God is totally righteous, i.e., He ALWAYS does right. .:: God is totally holy - similar. We then, seeing this astonishing holiness and righteousness of God begin to realise we are, well, exactly the opposite! Hence our desperate need of salvation via the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ! Having received that salvation, and with it the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, we can begin our life's journey TOWARDS BECOMING MORE AND MORE LIKE HIM!! That is to say: the Lord wants for us to GROW in righteousness (right living, according to His commands) and holiness (aspiring unto perfection like unto His) and godliness (being like God). This is a journey that takes much time, and requires total seriousness on our part, and full committment of our lives to Him - else it will never happen. It then remains to ask: "Can I actually become righteous in this life? Can I become holy?" The answer is YES! One of God's MANY commands to us in the New Testament is: 1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15 But as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of life; If His COMMAND to us is to be holy - and clearly it IS - then it's gotta be possible for us to make progress towards that: in fact this simply has to be our goal! And the joy of beginning to see that you actually have gained some personal righteousness in your life, I can say is worth all the tea in China, and then some!! Praise be to His HOLY Name! - BM
  3. Hi Aleksander, I would have thought that worse than words like 'unbelievable' are things like when we say, "Please be with me today, Lord," when the Scriptures clearly say that He WILL be, and IS at all times!! In fact for the Believer it's impossible to get away from Him! (not that I have the slightest desire to do so!!) Matthew 28:20b "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Seems like we don't really quite believe the Lord when He promises this amazing truth in so many Scriptures! - BM
  4. Very interesting topic. Legal or illegal doesn't stop Chinese Christians! See my post here. There is a legal Christian church (sort of 'under' Government 'supevision') as well as the Underground House Churches.
  5. There's another side to this. The further a country gets away from God and the worse it gets in morals, politics, whatever, the more those Christians who are serious for the Lord start to show out as being different: unworldly rather than worldly, utterly committed rather than not greatly committed, and so on. At that stage they will likely come under persecution, something Jesus promised us! John 15:20 et al. I remember when Communism took over in China and banned Christianity, and we all thought, "How terrible!" And it was. BUT... God is never mocked, and true Christians cannot ever be stopped. Today the strongest church in the world is the Underground House Churches in China. They are still being persecuted - hence 'Underground'. They have to mean business cos they can be arrested and worse at any time. And they DO mean business. One in every 10 Chinese is a serious Christian in this church - over one hundred million of them!!! Can any other country boast that many Christians willing to give their lives for Christ every day of their lives? I would love to live long enough and have the health to visit this church and see how it is they manage to live the utterly committed lives that they do! - BM
  6. FresnoJoe said it! Because the answer is in the verse you quoted, though it may not be totally obvious that it is. WE cannot renew our strength, or live with any sort of spiritual or human strength. Only GOD can do these things - AS WE ARE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. He is our strength. I have none, but what I receive from Him by His Spirit. The Amplified Bible translation may help a little here: 31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power. Expect, look for, and hope in Him. Also consider Matthew 7:7 where Jesus PROMISES: Ask and keep on asking and it will be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. God is looking for serious Christians who will do the above. He wants to be close to you and you to Him. When this happens your strength concerning both spiritual AND earthly things will increase. - BM
  7. You had two questions and the answers are quite simple: 1. Does anyone in the Church have love for me? YES, YES, YES!!! Plus understanding, and care, and empathy, and more. 2. Is God punishing you? NO, NO, NO!!! God does not do that. Just the opposite! He loves you with a love beyond what any of US can love you with. So much so that He sent His only Son to earth to ultimately allow Himself to hang on an horrendous cross, there to take the punishment for every sin of every one of us - so that we could be forgiven and go free. THAT'S HOW MUCH GOD LOVES YOU!!! And so do we, okay! - BM
  8. One commentary on this suggests that Jesus as man (still living His earthly life) did NOT know it, which seems quite reasonable, but that Jesus as God (i.e., back in eternity seated at His Father's right hand) certainly knows it. There are many things about the Triunity and about God that we just cannot understand and/or know. They remain a mystery: God is so much greater than us, Isa 55:8, that we are as dust in His sight. The wonder then is that even as 'dust' Jesus died to save me and us! Wow!! The Triune God is another mystery. You cannot understand the concept of God as One in Three yet at the same time as three in One - just needs to be accepted! Whenever I strike something about God that seems not able to be understood, I just say, "You are God! You are Almighty! You are way, way above me. I accept what Your Word says as truth, NOT necessarily seeking to understand what only You, as God, can understand." That's always helped me. - BM
×
×
  • Create New...