Mr. M Posted March 18 Group: Royal Member Followers: 8 Topic Count: 743 Topics Per Day: 1.36 Content Count: 3,893 Content Per Day: 7.10 Reputation: 1,797 Days Won: 12 Joined: 10/28/2022 Status: Offline Birthday: 02/18/1956 Author Share Posted March 18 (edited) On 3/17/2024 at 3:52 PM, Mr. M said: As we meditate on these truths, I call to mind times in the past when I felt hopelessly locked away. Giving in to fretting, and asking, why aren’t you using me Lord? If you consider this with an honest and pure heart, you will quickly acknowledge that it is our carnal nature that craves attention and acknowledgment. Today there are many that cannot seem to get enough of the limelight and media attention (to their hurt), and wide public respect. Could this be why the saints of the Lord are called His hidden ones? Psalms 83:3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. One thing for certain @kwikphilly, @D. Adrien, @Ray12614, @Who me; there is always someone taking crafty counsel against us, especially the more committed we become to stewardship. In ministry, it is often one's closest to us who put us under the highest scrutiny, and are quick to find fault. This can be a good thing if handled properly, as we are to offer correction to one other discreetly, as we "speak the truth in love". I must confess that I was very secretive about my faith, primarily out of fear that I provided a poor witness for His Name. As Peter brings out, and Paul as well, we must endure shame for the sake of the Election. Often it is well deserved! 1 Peter 4: 19 For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Edited March 18 by Mr. M 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. M Posted March 18 Group: Royal Member Followers: 8 Topic Count: 743 Topics Per Day: 1.36 Content Count: 3,893 Content Per Day: 7.10 Reputation: 1,797 Days Won: 12 Joined: 10/28/2022 Status: Offline Birthday: 02/18/1956 Author Share Posted March 18 15 hours ago, Mr. M said: Today there are many that cannot seem to get enough of the limelight and media attention (to their hurt), and wide public respect. Could this be why the saints of the Lord are called His hidden ones? Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willa Posted March 24 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 68 Topic Count: 186 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 14,244 Content Per Day: 3.33 Reputation: 16,658 Days Won: 30 Joined: 08/14/2012 Status: Offline Share Posted March 24 Do to my spiritual immaturity I married a non believer in 1963. It was 11 years before he received Christ. During at least 6 of those years I compromised my values and beliefs and backslid. Then I realized that my kids would follow my example so I needed to come back to the Lord. So I adopted an attitude that even if I were the only one in the family to go to heaven, then I would do it alone. That is the attitude a secret disciple has. Early in my marriage I had suffered abuse for attending church and he had often taken my keys away from me so I couldn't drive the 7 miles to church. Now in 1969 his abuse was mostly verbal. He was saved in 1974. During that time God arranged circumstances and brought people into his life at work that he was forced to listen to. It wore down his resistance. However, the more I prayed that God change him, the more God changed me and enabled me to love and accept him just as he was. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sower Posted March 25 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 14 Topic Count: 32 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 5,252 Content Per Day: 0.97 Reputation: 5,860 Days Won: 1 Joined: 07/09/2009 Status: Offline Share Posted March 25 On 3/18/2024 at 4:13 AM, D. Adrien said: Hello Kwikphilly, I also give a great deal of thought as to how I would react under persecution. “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much" And vice versa... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Adrien Posted March 25 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 457 Content Per Day: 4.66 Reputation: 388 Days Won: 1 Joined: 01/22/2024 Status: Offline Share Posted March 25 3 minutes ago, Sower said: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much" And vice versa... I also like the last two lines of Isaiah 7:9 - If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sower Posted March 25 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 14 Topic Count: 32 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 5,252 Content Per Day: 0.97 Reputation: 5,860 Days Won: 1 Joined: 07/09/2009 Status: Offline Share Posted March 25 On 11/2/2023 at 5:25 PM, Mr. M said: When called upon, he served the Lord. Joseph, a silent unknown yet faithful, is now recorded in the Word of God. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farouk Posted March 25 Group: Royal Member Followers: 8 Topic Count: 26 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 6,400 Content Per Day: 12.14 Reputation: 3,269 Days Won: 31 Joined: 11/18/2022 Status: Offline Share Posted March 25 On 3/24/2024 at 4:04 AM, Willa said: Do to my spiritual immaturity I married a non believer in 1963. It was 11 years before he received Christ. During at least 6 of those years I compromised my values and beliefs and backslid. Then I realized that my kids would follow my example so I needed to come back to the Lord. So I adopted an attitude that even if I were the only one in the family to go to heaven, then I would do it alone. That is the attitude a secret disciple has. Early in my marriage I had suffered abuse for attending church and he had often taken my keys away from me so I couldn't drive the 7 miles to church. Now in 1969 his abuse was mostly verbal. He was saved in 1974. During that time God arranged circumstances and brought people into his life at work that he was forced to listen to. It wore down his resistance. However, the more I prayed that God change him, the more God changed me and enabled me to love and accept him just as he was. Hi @Willa Patience seems to be a key word in the NT, right? and you have proved it............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willa Posted March 25 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 68 Topic Count: 186 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 14,244 Content Per Day: 3.33 Reputation: 16,658 Days Won: 30 Joined: 08/14/2012 Status: Offline Share Posted March 25 6 hours ago, farouk said: Hi @Willa Patience seems to be a key word in the NT, right? and you have proved it............. In Greek patience means patient endurance. I am not sure I endured cheerfully without complaining and all that the word means. Probably not. God may have been trying to move me in that direction but I didn't get very far. Wasn't waiting cheerfully but I didn't fall away. I stubbornly trusted in God's promises and somehow endured due to God's grace. G5281 (Strong) ὑπομονή hupomonē hoop-om-on-ay' From G5278; cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: - enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting). G5281 (Word Study) ὑπομονή hupomonḗ; gen. hupomonḗs, fem. noun from hupoménō (G5278), to persevere, remain under. A bearing up under, patience, endurance as to things or circumstances. VINE Patience, Patient, Patiently A. Nouns. 1. hupomone (G5281), lit., "an abiding under" (hupo, "under," meno, "to abide"), is almost invariably rendered "patience." "Patience, which grows only in trial, Jas 1:3 may be passive, i.e., = "endurance," as, (a) in trials, generally, Luk 21:19 (which is to be understood by Mat 24:13), cf. Rom 12:12; Jas 1:12; (b) in trials incident to service in the gospel, 2Co 6:4; 2Co 12:12; 2Ti 3:10; (c) under chastisement, which is trial viewed as coming from the hand of God our Father, Heb 12:7; (d) under undeserved affliction, 1Pe 2:20; or active, i.e. = "persistence, perseverance," as (e) in well doing, Rom 2:7 (KJV, "patient continuance"); (f) in fruit bearing, Luk 8:15; (g) in running the appointed race, Heb 12:1. "Patience perfects Christian character, Jas 1:4, and fellowship in the patience of Christ is therefore the condition upon which believers are to be admitted to reign with Him, 2Ti 2:12; Rev 1:9. For this patience believers are 'strengthened with all power,' Col 1:11, 'through His Spirit in the inward man,' Eph 3:16. "In 2Th 3:5, the phrase 'the patience of Christ,' RV, is possible of three interpretations, (a) the patient waiting for Christ, so KJV paraphrases the words, (b) that they might be patient in their sufferings as Christ was in His, see Heb 12:2, (c) that since Christ is 'expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet,' Heb 10:13, so they might be patient also in their hopes of His triumph and their deliverance. While a too rigid exegesis is to be avoided it may, perhaps, be permissible to paraphrase: 'the Lord teach and enable you to love as God loves, and to be patient as Christ is patient.'"** From Notes on Thessalonians by Hogg and Vine pp. 222, 285. In Rev 3:10, "the word of My patience" is the word which tells of Christ's patience, and its effects in producing "patience" on the part of those who are His (see above on 2Th 3:5). B. Verbs. 1. hupomeno (G5278), akin to A, No. 1, (a) used intransitively, means "to tarry behind, still abide," Luk 2:43; Act 17:14; (b) transitively, "to wait for," Rom 8:24 (in some mss.), "to bear patiently, endure," translated "patient" (present participle) in Rom 12:12; "ye take it patiently," 1Pe 2:20 (twice). See also under A, No. 1. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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