{"id":294,"date":"2014-04-14T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T17:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=294"},"modified":"2015-02-21T17:26:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T22:26:29","slug":"if-we-were-a-bible-character-onesimus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2014\/04\/14\/if-we-were-a-bible-character-onesimus\/","title":{"rendered":"If We Were a Bible Character – Onesimus"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we were a Bible character; our life, men had read.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the pages of Scripture, just what would be said?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If God were writing our profile today,<\/strong><\/p>\n

To record in His Word; just what would it say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:\u201d Philemon 1:10<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Onesimus, a \u201cson in the faith\u201d to the apostle Paul, was converted while in prison. I love how Paul immediately gives evidence, in verse 11, of this believer\u2019s salvation by comparing his past with his present:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me<\/span><\/span>:\u201d Philemon 1:11<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

From unprofitable to profitable, the testimony of Onesimus is a clear example of II Corinthians 5:17 <\/strong>\u2013 \u201cTherefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Before salvation, Onesimus\u2019 life was unprofitable concerning the work of the Lord, but now, Paul himself is benefiting from this profitable<\/strong> servant of God!<\/p>\n

Reading the above passage this morning immediately reminded me of a conversation I\u00a0had last night after church. While talking with a dear lady, she began to express her strong desire to serve the Lord. Having been saved later in life, she felt such a heavy burden of wasted years. As I looked at her and noticed tears in her eyes, I knew that these were not just words she was speaking. Her new life in Christ had put such a fervent desire within her\u2026a desire to live the rest of her life in a profitable way\u2026a desire to live for her Saviour! Although I knew she was indeed serving the Lord in various ways, she wanted to do more! Yes, the love that Christ had shown in dying for her was now constraining her to live for HIM!\u00a0<\/i> <\/i>\u201cFor the love of Christ constraineth us \u2026\u201d II Corinthians 5:14<\/i> <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

As in the life of Onesimus, does our life portray a “past” and “present”?\u00a0There is\u00a0certainly the\u00a0need to allow time for growth in baby Christians, but,\u00a0at<\/strong> salvation, was there evidence that we passed from death to life?\u00a0And then, as Christians,\u00a0\u00a0is it our sincere desire to become more and more\u00a0\u201cprofitable\u201d…for the glory of GOD?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.\u201d\u00a0 Titus 3:8\u00a0 <\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

~ Rachel ~<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we were a Bible character; our life, men had read. From the pages of Scripture, just what would be said? If God were writing our profile today, To record in His Word; just what would it say?   \u201cI beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:\u201d Philemon 1:10 Onesimus, a \u201cson in the faith\u201d to the apostle Paul, was converted while in prison. I love how Paul immediately gives evidence, in verse 11, of this believer\u2019s salvation by comparing his past with his present: \u201cWhich in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:\u201d Philemon 1:11 From unprofitable to profitable, the testimony of Onesimus is a clear example of II Corinthians 5:17 \u2013 \u201cTherefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.\u201d Before salvation, Onesimus\u2019 life was unprofitable concerning the work of the Lord, but now, Paul himself is benefiting from this profitable servant of God! Reading the above passage this morning immediately reminded me of a conversation I\u00a0had last night after church. While talking with a dear lady, she began to express her strong desire to serve the Lord. Having been saved later in life, she felt such a heavy burden of wasted years. As I looked at her and noticed tears in her eyes, I knew that these were not just words she was speaking. Her new life in Christ had put such a fervent desire within her\u2026a desire to live the rest of her life in a profitable way\u2026a desire to live for her Saviour! Although I knew she was indeed serving the Lord in various ways, she wanted to do more! Yes, the love that Christ had shown in dying for her was now constraining her to live for HIM!\u00a0 \u201cFor the love of Christ constraineth us \u2026\u201d II Corinthians 5:14 As in the life of Onesimus, does our life portray a “past” and “present”?\u00a0There is\u00a0certainly the\u00a0need to allow time for growth in baby Christians, but,\u00a0at salvation, was there evidence that we passed from death to life?\u00a0And then, as Christians,\u00a0\u00a0is it our sincere desire to become more and more\u00a0\u201cprofitable\u201d…for the glory of GOD? \u201cThis is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.\u201d\u00a0 Titus 3:8\u00a0 ~ Rachel ~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,15,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growing","category-salvation","category-serving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-4K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2038,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/2038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}