Comments on: No Middle Ground http://thebahamabob.com/no-middle-ground/ Dreams, Visions & Reflections about God Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:34:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Bahama Bob http://thebahamabob.com/no-middle-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-132 Bahama Bob Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:54:23 +0000 http://thebahamabob.com/?p=286#comment-132 Kirsten, Your gratitude is evident. You have made my day! What you said happened to you is the primary reason for my blog. Go back and read "Neglected People Called Directly by the Spirit." We have become friends in a wonderful way through a blog of all things. Thank you, and bless your times with God. I should blog someday on it, but I will mention this in passing. The parable of the virgins is key to this concept. They were to wait for the bridegroom. Nightfall came and some did not have enough oil. However, the ones who did have enough oil stored up could not loan any, as they would then not be able to wait. So, the others left to buy more oil but the bridegroom came and they missed the wedding feast. This is a parable, a metaphor, too, of Jesus coming and our not being prepared. The oil we cannot borrow from anyone is the nurture we get from years of spending time with God. Our personal prayer journal reflects the oil, but what is stored up in our hearts is the "oil" of the Holy Spirit. God asked me to make this blog to be His voice to call His sheep to himself (Ezek. 34.) So, you have given me great encouragement. Thanks, friend, for coming and especially for sharing. Bob Kirsten, Your gratitude is evident. You have made my day! What you said happened to you is the primary reason for my blog. Go back and read “Neglected People Called Directly by the Spirit.” We have become friends in a wonderful way through a blog of all things. Thank you, and bless your times with God. I should blog someday on it, but I will mention this in passing. The parable of the virgins is key to this concept. They were to wait for the bridegroom. Nightfall came and some did not have enough oil. However, the ones who did have enough oil stored up could not loan any, as they would then not be able to wait. So, the others left to buy more oil but the bridegroom came and they missed the wedding feast. This is a parable, a metaphor, too, of Jesus coming and our not being prepared. The oil we cannot borrow from anyone is the nurture we get from years of spending time with God. Our personal prayer journal reflects the oil, but what is stored up in our hearts is the “oil” of the Holy Spirit. God asked me to make this blog to be His voice to call His sheep to himself (Ezek. 34.) So, you have given me great encouragement.

Thanks, friend, for coming and especially for sharing. Bob

]]> By: Kirsten http://thebahamabob.com/no-middle-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Kirsten Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:15:07 +0000 http://thebahamabob.com/?p=286#comment-131 Bob: Thank you for this teaching! I now see that some of us have missed the lessons. God speaks clearly and we hear him! I am grateful for your blog. You are a talented and gifted teacher. Your words flow from a sincere heart. They give guidance and comfort. I had always wondered what the spiritual lesson was that I was missing and continued to make refinements in personality and conduct, in the belief that this is what God wanted. I now realize the answer was both much more simple and much more difficult. He is saying that time spent in prayer and meditating on his word DAILY is not mere religious ritual, but the only way we have of maintaining our connection to His light. It the means by which He speaks and guides! Once we repent (change our mind about what is true and false in the world), it is not enough to believe and to seek to serve him. NOT ENOUGH! Why? Because the separation that led one to repent (to once believe in what is false) has been effected once more. Absent, daily devotion, contemplation and a reading of his word where his teachings and his promises lie, we are disconnected from the very force that seeks nothing more than to re-establish order in our lives. He wants to place us on the path of no resistance as we move about the world reaching souls he would have us reach-out to in the manner he instructs. He wants to show that we are divinely made for His Glory! We must all return to what is effectively a part of our PRACTICE of faith. One cannot operate without the other. Bob, today, I can say you are His angel sent here to guide us out of confusion and misunderstanding. Speaking for myself, this teaching has eluded me for many years now. I have prayed about it, but I guess I was not sitting quietly long enough to hear his answers. You remain my brother in Christ! May his peace and his blessing and his light be with you always! May you know miracles in all that you are and all that you do all day, everyday! (I hope my gratitude is beginning to show here ... it flows from a heart that has been so touched that words have failed me today.) Bob:
Thank you for this teaching! I now see that some of us have missed the lessons. God speaks clearly and we hear him!

I am grateful for your blog. You are a talented and gifted teacher. Your words flow from a sincere heart. They give guidance and comfort. I had always wondered what the spiritual lesson was that I was missing and continued to make refinements in personality and conduct, in the belief that this is what God wanted. I now realize the answer was both much more simple and much more difficult. He is saying that time spent in prayer and meditating on his word DAILY is not mere religious ritual, but the only way we have of maintaining our connection to His light. It the means by which He speaks and guides!

Once we repent (change our mind about what is true and false in the world), it is not enough to believe and to seek to serve him. NOT ENOUGH! Why? Because the separation that led one to repent (to once believe in what is false) has been effected once more. Absent, daily devotion, contemplation and a reading of his word where his teachings and his promises lie, we are disconnected from the very force that seeks nothing more than to re-establish order in our lives. He wants to place us on the path of no resistance as we move about the world reaching souls he would have us reach-out to in the manner he instructs. He wants to show that we are divinely made for His Glory!

We must all return to what is effectively a part of our PRACTICE of faith. One cannot operate without the other.

Bob, today, I can say you are His angel sent here to guide us out of confusion and misunderstanding. Speaking for myself, this teaching has eluded me for many years now. I have prayed about it, but I guess I was not sitting quietly long enough to hear his answers.

You remain my brother in Christ!
May his peace and his blessing and his light be with you always! May you know miracles in all that you are and all that you do all day, everyday! (I hope my gratitude is beginning to show here … it flows from a heart that has been so touched that words have failed me today.)

]]> By: Carolyn Pate http://thebahamabob.com/no-middle-ground/comment-page-1/#comment-130 Carolyn Pate Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:16:07 +0000 http://thebahamabob.com/?p=286#comment-130 You are so right on about this. God is a good, benevolent Father who wishes to bless us abundantly, but He first has to test our hearts to see whether we love Him, or money, the most. We absolutely cannot outgive God, but if we are hoarding or waiting to get rich to tithe or give to His causes, we will miss out. We have to be faithful with the little in order to be faithful with the abundance...and He is waiting to pour out the abundance in His time. Our job is to be "thankful in all things" and to let Him know it. And to give to those in need whenever He nudges us to do so. You are so right on about this. God is a good, benevolent Father who wishes to bless us abundantly, but He first has to test our hearts to see whether we love Him, or money, the most. We absolutely cannot outgive God, but if we are hoarding or waiting to get rich to tithe or give to His causes, we will miss out. We have to be faithful with the little in order to be faithful with the abundance…and He is waiting to pour out the abundance in His time. Our job is to be “thankful in all things” and to let Him know it. And to give to those in need whenever He nudges us to do so.

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