Choose you this day whom you will serve

[Willa]

Luk 8:11  ESV Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luk 8:12  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Luk 8:13  And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

1Pe 1:6  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  1Pe 1:7  so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1Pe 1:8  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 1Pe 1:9  obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

God tests us to see if when we are tested we will fall away or cling to Him and His promises..  We have all seen believers who seemed genuine, even pastors, fall away during testing.  Perhaps they didn't get the thing they prayed for, or their loved one died tragically.  They had some if's in their commitment to God.   They were committed on their own terms not God's terms.  He wants an all out commitment to Him from our hearts, that we will follow Him, no turning back.    It is the familiar "for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health type of marriage to God.  Only death will not part us but will fully join us to Him.  

He want's us to choose to be His slave for the long haul.  

Rom 6:16  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?          Rom 6:17  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  Rom 6:18  and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  Rom 6:22  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Rom 1:1  LITV Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated to the gospel of God,

Jas 1:1  James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, greeting:

2Pe 1:1  Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those equally precious with us, having obtained faith in the righteousness of our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ:

It was a custom for slaves who had been freed, who were grateful for the treatment they had received for their  master, to give themselves back to Him to be His permanent slave.  Christ freed us from bondage to satan and sin and paid for our release with His own blood--we were bought with a price.  He made us His own and set us free.  We are free to choose Him or go back to serving sin and selfishness.  When we hate our former selves, where else can we go but to Jesus?  We give ourselves to Him as His slaves out of love to serve Him.

 

[frienduff thaylorde]

That's right sister .     Oh let all praise the LORD .    

[Jubilea]

On 6/15/2019 at 6:19 PM, Willa said:

They were committed on their own terms not God's terms.

Profound, and a good tool for examining oneself in the faith.

By the way, Willa, I like your straightforwardness- not just here, but throughout the forums. You seem to "call 'em as you see 'em," as the old saying goes, which makes it easy to understand the point of your messages.

[JustPassingThru]

Right on Willa! 

Actually, I chose 33 years ago Whom I would serve, ...after serving the cruel master of this world and his sinful lifestyle for 37 years I found the One who truly loves me, I never even consider falling away or turning away from Him, ...like Peter said, "To Whom would I go?" ...only my Jesus has the Words of eternal life, ...and not only the Words of eternal life, but the reality of His love for/towards me as I grow in the Grace and Knowledge of Him, as I understand more fully His love for me, my love for Him grows deeper, stronger and and more intense, ...the bond between us, that which binds us, glues us together, becomes more sure, more secure, ...I know, from my own experiences, what Peter felt when His Hand reached out to hold him when I too foolishly turned my eyes away from Jesus and regarded the storm. 

He made His trustworthy commitment towards me before the foundation of the world Eph 1:4, ...I made my commitment to Him 33 years ago! July 1986 

I am (always have been) my Beloved's, and my Beloved is (forever) mine!  Son of Solomon 6:3

Lord bless

[other one]

made that decision 35 years ago...

 

[DAVID5]

CHOOSING IS EASY...ARE YOU WILLING TO FIGHT,, FOR WHAT YOU HAVE CHOOSEN?

[David IoW]

As a newbie on a voyage of discovery within the scope of this koinonia (fellowship), I am perusing a number of threads and am surprised at the lack of responses to the opportunity to contribute to this forum.

I say this because I have enjoyed the observations made on other fora (plural of forum?)  concerning what is, in essence, concern at the exponential (as it appears to me) degeneration regarding the preaching of the whole gospel in favour of concentrating on the 'tasty'bits. I have abandoned churchianity in favour of koinonia with a few fruit bearing believers.  Jeshua told us thar we shall be known by our fruit. "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Mat 7;20/21).

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love;!  joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Eph 5;22/23). N.B. the fruit is singular  like an apple- it is an apple consisting of skin, core, pips, juice etc.etc. so is it with agapé (love)joy, peace etc.

It is my testimony that, following the precept penned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2;15 "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments". (Judgement might be better translated as 'assess and evaluate' or as in some translations 'appraise')

Applying this precept I have concluded that most professing Christianity are not fruit-bearers and it is our obligation as spiritual souls to acknowledge this and to intercede on their behalf. It is the second part of the quote from Matthew that causes me some distress in my Spirit, how often do we hear people calling Jeshua 'Lord' who have no idea what the will of the Father, on a personal level, is?

I pray that this might prove a stimulus for further discussion.

Shalom and agapé

David