Above is a pic of my youngest daughter and me.
My Husband, My brother in Christ
Phriday Philippians: Get Over Yourself
Okay, so I want to go back and focus on bond-servant. According to Galatians 1:10, a bond-servant of Christ is one that is not focused on trying to seek the favor of men or to please men. I Thessalonians 2:4 includes, "not in pleasing men, but God who examines the heart." But then, “How many souls have been led to vain confidence by a man-made, evangelistic formula? How many are sent home from evangelistic services with calm, who should have gone away grieved and disturbed as the ruler? How many unsaved children have been given assurance by the teachers of Bible classes, so that they have ceased to seek God for salvation?”– Chantry Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?, 76.
Every genuine believer, a.k.a. bond-servant of Christ Jesus, has been entrusted with the Gospel. This entrusting entails knowing what the Gospel is not as well as what it is. It is NOT that self-esteem mentality that says we are okay with God because God is love and Jesus just wants to be our buddy... where we simply change our outward behaviour while our hearts are still rotten and putrid to the core. The Gospel involves God's holiness, our sin, the payment of a ransom, the conferring of an acquittal, the winning of a war, and ultimately the glory of God and the spread of His fame. --9Marks Ministries
As a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, we should never be ashamed of the uncompromised Gospel, nor should we be ashamed of being a Christian... period My pastor told my husband and I last night in our home after Bible Fellowship with some of our neighbors and church family, that his family prays before their meals. Sometimes giving thanks for the meal afterwards.... even in public at a restaurant, as does our family. However, one such public outing after their family prayed, a women approached them and asked, "How do you do that without being embarrassed?" He said, "I would be far more embarrassed if I did not do it." Her response... "Oh. Good for you."
Our family was invited to a little boy's birthday party the other day. We went to this place called "Pump-it-Up" and enjoyed ourselves. When everyone sat down for pizza, the full room of children began to eat their pizza. My 4 youngest children ages 3, 4, 4, and 5, stared at me with the pizza before them. One of my 4 year old twin boys spoke up and said, "We can't eat until we pray." So I knelt beside their table, they all folded their hands without prompting and we prayed. It was a bit convicting. Not that I was embarrassed to pray... but that my 4 year old had to remind me that they would not eat until they prayed.
Why do we not think as our children think? Why do we shrink back in proclaiming the Gospel in its entirety... thinking more upon offending man, than offending our Maker? Let us be sold out for the Gospel of Christ. Unashamed bond-servants to the core. What an honor to no longer be a slave to sin, but a willing slave to God!
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