Bonded with Jesus: The Relationship That Matters Most of All

By Robert White

After reading Bonded with Jesus, readers will feel and understand that being a Christian means being attached to Jesus Christ - the Son of God, our great High Priest, King of kings, Lord of lords, the great Creator of heaven and earth - for themselves - an attachment that yields eternal life with Him, enabling us to love God with our whole heart and being, and to love our fellow human beings as we love ourselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jan 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781698705279

Book preview

Copyright 2021 R. G. White.

Manuscript Development Coach: Michael Bart Mathews

Cover Design: David Martin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-6987-0526-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6987-0528-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6987-0527-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021900397

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Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version

(Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic

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Trafford rev. 01/07/2021

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DEDICATION

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It is to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Whom I am bonded with, and for His glory, that I dedicate this book.

I also acknowledge and thank God for Sheila, my wonderful wife and life companion, and for the members of our household: Our sons Michael and David and daughter Gabrielle, who are brilliantly gifted in visual and audio media, writing, and music, and niece Christina, whom the Lord led to our home to guide and care for.

May this book bless and lead all those who read to a deeper knowledge of God through His word, the Bible, and to a personal, everlasting bond with Him and Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior.

Robert White

Joliet, Illinois

December, 2020

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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A special thank you to our team at Skyward Books, and to David Martin, for your creativity in bringing the cover design from concept to reality.

I also want to thank Michael and Robbie Mathews of The Mathews Entrepreneur Group – USA. Your support, instruction, and counsel helped make this book the best it can be.

CONTENTS

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Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1     In The Beginning

Chapter 2     Estranged

Chapter 3     Hope

Chapter 4     Men Of God

Chapter 5     Human Hearts

Chapter 6     Love And Sacrifice

Chapter 7     Bonded With Jesus

Chapter 8     The True Vine

Chapter 9     Flesh Blood Spirit

Chapter 10   Unity Of The Faith

Chapter 11   The Flesh Versus The Spirit

Chapter 12   The Privilege Of Union With Jesus

Chapter 13   Living In Jesus Day By Day

Chapter 14   What Is Eternal Life?

Chapter 15   The Father’s House

Epilogue

About The Author

PREFACE

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I wrote this book because I aspire to the things that I’ve written. In this book are things that I believe the Lord laid on my heart, as well as truths I’ve learned throughout the years.

Like many believers, I was born and raised in the church. I learned about Jesus and how to tell right from wrong. But I drifted away from God and the church as I approached young adulthood. I got my college degree and landed a good-paying job in engineering, my chosen field of study. I thought I had it made! I was a young professional and had money. I was independent and on my own. I could do whatever and go wherever I wanted. Soon I got married, and my wife and I started our new life together.

It wasn’t long before I began to feel dissatisfied and eventually unhappy with my life. Years ago, I had put God at ‘arm’s length.’ I didn’t quit the church, but I wasn’t fully committed to Him, either. And I had made up my mind not to fully commit to God until I felt I was ready and wanted to.

One night, as I was taking out the garbage, I was very frustrated and unhappy, thinking about my lack of commitment to God, and I was at the breaking point. I was ready to forever turn my back on God. Then I looked up and uttered a silent prayer: God, I’m going to give You one more chance. I’m coming back to You, and I’m coming back to church.

That was nearly thirty years ago. I began going back to church, alone at first, as my wife and I had opposing schedules on weekends. My wife eventually joined me, and we were baptized together. Like many married couples, we had our ups and downs. Three children were born to our home – Michael, David, and Gabrielle.

I used to get up every day, get dressed, eat breakfast, and rush off to work, like many working professional people. Even while I was going to church and being active, I failed to behave like a Christian. The work stresses would get to me, and I would get angry and verbalize, blowing off steam just like many people would.

I wasn’t happy with my behavior at work. I went from job to job for years, never holding down a job for more than two years. I learned the hard way I needed to do more than go to church once a week. I realized that I needed God to be with me and in me. Every morning I would get up and spend time praying to God and reading the Bible before going to work. That time spent with God in the mornings paid off. I was more at peace, and my knowledge of God and His word grew.

After some years, I was asked by my pastor to serve as an elder in my church. Like many Christians, when asked a similar question, I said I would pray about it. After I hung up the phone, and before I could bow my head, I felt convicted that I should accept the call to become an elder. I obeyed and became an ordained elder.

One of the duties of the elders was to preach from time to time. I wrote and delivered several sermons during my time as an elder. One day I felt a need to write and deliver a sermon that brought Jesus Christ front and center. I had learned so much about Jesus, and I packed everything I could into that sermon. I entitled that sermon Bonded with Jesus. To make a long story short, I found out the hard way that I just couldn’t preach a short sermon about Jesus! At the same time, as the scripture said, that message was like a fire shut up in my bones, and I just had to get it out somehow.

That led me to write this book. People can’t possibly get to know about Jesus in one day. People can read at their own pace. God gives life, grace, and time. Being a Christian is not about keeping the rules and getting the prize. The purpose of this book is to show that it’s about getting to know Jesus, and in the knowing, becoming more like Him. The purpose of this book is to show that we can receive immortality, not just by knowing about Jesus, but by knowing Him, because this is the relationship that matters most of all.

INTRODUCTION

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When a baby comes into the world, it is a bundle of joy. After the doctors and nurses complete the delivery, they usually give the baby to his/her father and mother to hold. This is when the parents fall in love with their new baby. They begin to bond with their child. That bond is crucial to the child’s development and well-being. The closer the bond between parent and child, the better it will be for that child’s growth and development. What is true in the case of parents and babies is also true for Christian believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ -

The bond between the believer and God is so important. The Lord expressed it in the form of a commandment, when Moses, speaking under God’s inspiration, commanded the Israelites in Deut. 6:4, 5, NKJV: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength…

Salvation (eternal life) is the result of a close relationship – a bond between the believer and the Lord Jesus Christ, and with God through Jesus Christ. Ellen G. White once wrote in the book The Great Controversy, Our precious Savior invites us to join ourselves to Him, to unite our weakness to His strength, our ignorance to His wisdom, our unworthiness to His merits. Through this bond, our iniquities are washed away by His blood, our sinfulness covered by the white robe of His spotless righteousness, and a new life begins. Heaven and eternal life thus begin today for the new believer in Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER 1

IN THE BEGINNING

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1, NKJV. With these words, the story of our world began. In six days, the Bible says, God created the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is. Each successive day of creation, the Lord brought forth a new aspect of creation with the words, Let there be… At the end of the sixth day, when the time came for the crowning act of creation, the Holy Trinity spoke these words: Let Us make man in Our image…

The creation of mankind is described more clearly in Genesis, chapter two. As each aspect of the new world was brought forth, the Lord used His word: For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33:9, NKJV. But when the Lord created man, He bent down over a patch of bare ground, and with His own hands, molded him from the dust, and then, with His own breath, brought that still form to life, and named him Adam.

Later, that same day, declaring that it was not good for the man to be alone, He caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and then, taking a rib from his side, transformed it into a woman, to be Adam’s companion and the mother of all humanity. A new race of beings was brought into the universe of God.

On the seventh day of the creation week, the Lord rested, according to the Bible in Genesis 2:1-3, NKJV. As the sun sank toward the horizon in the west after that sixth day of creation, Adam and Eve spent the very first day of their lives in close communion with their Creator. In our imagination, one can almost see the Lord showing Adam and Eve around. First, it was the garden home that He specifically made for them. Then, God led them around the new-birthed world that He gave them dominion over. That was a perfect, happy day! The