FIVE SMOOTH STONES - The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherds Bag

FIVE SMOOTH STONES — The Five Ascension Gifts in the Heavenly Shepherd’s Bag

Throughout scripture we see the bond servant as one who has the trust of the master, who can be trusted with the household or business of the master. While it is not always clear in the English translation from Hebrew or Greek, the bond-servant or bond-slave is not just an ordinary slave, but one who had faithfully served his or her time commitment under the master and was free to go (fulfilled all obligation). But, when the servant pledges to stay and serve the master willingly not through constraint but out of love and faithfulness, then that servant will be bonded or marked as a bond-servant. Deuteronomy 15:12 “ If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; 14 you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord has blessed you with, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. 16 And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, 17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. ” A Christian who has received salvation freely, but then made the choice to lay down their life and serve Christ has made the decision to be a bondservant (Greek doulos). Having been set free, makes a conscious decision to live for the master and not for themselves any longer as a true disciple. Every disciple is a Christian, but not every Christian is a disciple. Likewise, not everyone who serves Christ is a bondservant.

Matthew 10:24 “ A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a [bond] servant [doulos] above his master .”

Galatians 1:10: “ For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ .”

In fact all of the apostles were bondservants of Christ (Romans 1:1, James 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Jude 1). When Jesus said to Peter “ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. ” (Matthew 16:19) he was making

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