The Bondservant

[Sharpened]

From David Wilkerson Today Devotional Blog

Thursday, March 17, 2011
THE BONDSERVANT

God's ways seem like paradoxes to the human mind. He says, “To live, you must die. To find your life, you must lose it. To become strong, you must first become weak.”

One of the greatest paradoxes of all is this: To be truly free, you must become bound. To gain the greatest liberty in God, one must give up all rights and become a lifelong bondservant to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a glorious love-slavery that leads to the highest form of freedom and liberty. It is a voluntary surrender born out of love and affection, causing one to consider servitude even greater than sonship.

In a time when God's people are obsessed with claiming their rights, taken with the Lord's blessings and benefits, it would profit us all to allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to a place in God beyond anything we've yet discovered. It is in perfect divine order to receive all the good things from the hand of God, and no child of the Lord should feel guilty about the blessings and benefits poured upon him.

Yet we need to see there is something better than blessings and prosperity, something far more rewarding than all the other manifold benefits he daily gives us.

A bondservant is one who has entered a sacrament of service with his master. It is beautifully described in the following Scripture:

"If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
"And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever" (Exodus 21:2-6).

This is much more than a picture of God's concern for slaves and servants. In type and shadow, it clearly portrays the bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is the Master in this account, and we are the servants whose freedom has been purchased. The cross is God's Sabbath, the year of release for all prisoners, captives, slaves, and servants, and we who were sold under the Law have been set free by grace!

We are freed from sin, yet bondservants to Christ, all our days, by choice.

Amen.

 

[Shimmie]

Awesome Message... Thank you for sharing this, Nymphe. :Rose:

 

[Sharpened]

Oh, he has more today. Do not thank me, but Him for the meat.

Friday, March 18, 2011
A BONDSERVANT BY CHOICE

"And…the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free" (Exodus 21:5). To this servant there is no dilemma, no choice. His decision was never in doubt. His master was his whole world and he was bound to him with an eternal bond of love. He could not possibly leave his master or his house.

This servant’s life revolved around his love for his lord, and, like Paul, he considered all else as “dung,” that he might win the master. He was the kind who would be willing to be accursed if others could come to know the love of his lord.

This servant valued intimacy with his master above any earthly blessing. Who cared for flocks, for corn, or for wine and oil, when you could have endless communion and fellowship with the master? His heart overflowed with affection for him and he made it very plain: "I love my master and I will not go free."

What this servant is saying to us is simply this: Christ is enough! Nothing in this world is worth losing the sense of his presence. All the wealth and prosperity of the entire earth is not to be compared to a single day spent with him. The pleasures at his right hand far exceed any ecstasy known to man. To know him, to be where he is, seated together in heavenly places, is more than life itself. To serve him, to be led by him, to come and go as he alone commands is life on the highest plane.

Would you remind me that you are a son, and not a servant? Then I would kindly remind you that Jesus was a Son who "thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7). He could have come as a powerful Prince of the Almighty, trampling every foe, yet Christ chose to come as a bondservant, fully committed to his Father's interests.

This dedicated bondservant we read about in Exodus believed he had one mission in life, and that was to serve his master. He was not in it for an inheritance, even though it is written, "A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren" (Proverbs 17:2). Love made it easy to obey and from morning to night, every waking hour, he lived in willing servitude to his master. He was driven only by love—no guilt, no sense of obligation. No wonder Jesus could say, "If you love me, you will obey me."

 

[Shimmie]

Do not thank me, but Him for the meat.

Understood...

Thanking God for His powerful word; thanking Him also for sending you as His messenger. :Rose:

 

[lovely008]

I will say thank you for being obedient to God and sharing this. And thank you so much Lord, thank you!!!!

 

[Laela]

Unfathomable Truth, and Amein

 

[Sharpened]

The last part, I think.

Monday, March 21, 2011
THE MARK OF THE BONDSERVANT

David, the psalmist, said, "Mine ear hast thou digged [pierced]" (see Psalm 40:6). This may well be interpreted as meaning, “Thou hast accepted me as thy slave," an allusion to the custom of masters boring the ear of a slave who refused his offered freedom (see Exodus 21:6). In other words, "There is a hole in my ear that marks me for the Lord, for life and eternity." Have you allowed the Holy Spirit to dig in your ear?

What marked the bondservant is that he pledged himself to give wholly of his time in service to his master. There is nothing mystical about this way of living. It begins with a commitment to give the Lord the best of our time and is worked out practically in everyday life!

This is not to suggest we should all quit our jobs and careers to enter full-time ministry. Too many nowadays are getting out of God's will by going out presumptuously, leaving the responsibilities of raising a family and pulling up roots to “go out by faith.” The greater thing is to stay put and give the Lord more quality time where you are. It is a matter of putting Christ at the center of everything, so that family, job, and all things revolve around him. Christ becomes the focus of our thoughts and we spend time in his presence, hearing his voice, obeying his commands.

The bondservant is more a giving rather than a taking soul. With Paul, he can say, "I have determined to know nothing among us save Christ and him crucified." This servant is not interested in serving for reward or personal gain. His wages are the glory and honor he bestows on his Master. The true bondservant who is committed to lifelong service is marked by the Lord in some special way. You can't miss this servant because he bears in his body the marks of his Master.

What marks the bondservant in this day and age? It is clearly revealed in the Word as the mark of a broken, contrite spirit that weeps over the abominations done against his Lord. Our Master does not drill the ear with an awl, but breaks the heart with his hammer.

"And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9:3-4).

Another mark on this bondservant is a circumcision made without hands. This speaks of total separation from the world and unto Christ. It means that all self-made plans, schemes, and dreams are abandoned, and the concerns and burdens of the Lord become supreme.

 

[Laela]

These statements underscore the importance of Prov 3:6 to me.

I see it as a practical way to live for God... in ALL our ways, we will learn to acknowledge God because we walk in Fear (reverence) of God, not the kind of fear as the world knows it. To not ask God for help when we know we need guidance is to walk in worldly fear. The best biblical example of fearing God that comes to mind is when Joseph was tempted by Potipher's wife and he asked how could he do this thing against his God. Potipher wasn't on his mind, God was! He wasn't walking in worldly fear, afraid of what man would do to him. His love/reverence for God wouldn't allow him to disobey God.
Just the same, I believe making my own plans, etc without even asking God for guidance is walking in worldly fear: By being afraid that His plans for us won't be what we expect/desire or want. Like a loving Father, God always knows best.

Another mark on this bondservant is a circumcision made without hands. This speaks of total separation from the world and unto Christ. It means that all self-made plans, schemes, and dreams are abandoned, and the concerns and burdens of the Lord become supreme.