Favourite Comments // Volume I

This is the first time I have done a 'Favourite Comments' post. I guess I like the idea of it because it gives me an opportunity to recognise you, my wonderful readers, by publishing a few of my favourite words of love, edification and encouragement that you bless me with at the bottom of my posts! :)

I appreciate every single comment you post! :) I don't get a lot of comments compared to some bloggers so I try to respond to all of them. Thank you for reading my blog and thank you for leaving your thoughts. You are a blessing.

Currently (feat. videos)

Great post!!! I love that song from Lauren daigle :D

- Kiley B

The U Poem
Thank YoU for sharing the awesome poem.
- Susanna Sampson

That's a really cool poem, Bonnie. I like it. :) Thank you for sharing it. :D
-Ashley

Sharing your Faith // Part 2: Strangers (Guest Post by Sophie)

Sophie, thank you so much for sharing!!! Ray Comfort is an incredible evangelist. I love watching how he shares the Gospel without fear of what the listener will think. I have never shared my faith face-to-face with someone...I don't know if I haven't had the opportunity or if I've been too scared. My family has handed out Gospel tracks and left them sitting in obvious places for finders though. =) That is a fun (and easy) way to share Jesus' love! Another blessing of the 21st century is social media! I have been able to encourage, witness, and lift up people around me - people I might otherwise never meet in person. =)
Thank you for sharing your testimony of what God has done in your life. =) I appreciate knowing that you too experience fear, but God helps you overcome it!

- Hosanna Emily

What a wonderful post! I appreciate this so much, as I have been trying to work on sharing the gospel more, and it's even harder with strangers!
- Emily

I really appreciated this post! It had a lot of valuable information for me. :)
You're learning Hebrew? My family and I are, too, only we're doing modern Hebrew. Is there a specific reason you are learning it? A while back my Dad, sister, and I started learning Biblical Greek, but that sort of died out because we didn't have much time and also we weren't using it as much as conversational Hebrew, which we're starting to speak around the house.

- Rachel M

Sharing Your Faith // Part 1: Friends

Hi Bonnie,
Great post. Like you, I don't have many non-Christian friends, but I've tried a couple of times to share my faith with them. I agree that it is vitally important to do.
I propose one more principle to your already comprehensive list: as well as praying for your friend, pray for wisdom for yourself as to what opportunities you should take, what to say, how to say it, etcetera, and an able mind to quickly think up the correct answers to their questions in the heat of the moment.

- Philip

 
Off My Phone
Ha that leaf pile looks fun I have never actually seen a pile like it, all the trees around here are gum trees so very boring when it comes to autumn. 

- Clare

These are lovely, Bonnie! So beautiful and fun - thanks for sharing. :D
- Mary

My Prayer

Happy birthday Bonnie!! This is an amazing prayer...one that I can mirror in my own life. I want everything to be His...but sometime I am the one standing in His way. =( Thank you for being such a good example to us Bonnie, and showing your devotion to God freely!! <3 

- Hosanna Emily

Happy birthday, it is just like that isn't it when I was younger I felt like I got older on my birthday but not it is different and I think about the age I am almost with disbelief.
- Clare

Wonderfully written Bonnie, Happy Birthday!

- Susanna Sampson

Hello, My Name is Regret

Bonnie, this was lovely! Thank you for speaking such truth. You ministered to my heart. 

- Old Fashion Girl

Thank you for this post which reminds me of how forgiving our great God is!
- Sarah Dufries

Infinity Dream Award

Hullo you had such delightful questions I couldn't help it.
1. Would you rather have legs as long as your fingers or fingers as long as your legs?
Errr as a Violist this would be very difficult.. errrr...errr the first one?
2. What is your biggest fear?

My loved ones dying..
3. Have you kept a New Year's resolution? If so, what was it?
Yes, to increase my faith :-)
4. What is a random memory from your childhood?

Tripping over the crash cymbals as I sneaked into band late..
5. Have you ever pranked someone or had someone prank you? What happened?
I tired pranking my brother but laughed so hard he knew something was up
6. What was your first thought when you woke up this morning?
It's a beautiful day thank you Lord.
7. If you had two hours left on earth what would you do?
Gather all my family and friends around and have a good time and pray.

8. What's something you never leave home without?
My book
9. What was your first job?
Teaching Viola
10. What superpower would you most like to have?
FLY!
11. What are you terrible at but love to do anyway?
Scrapbooking 

- Miss Evie

About Me

I think I just found a kindred spirit! I'm an Aussie and I play the Viola! Nice to meet you! :-) 

- Miss Evie

Hello Bonnie!!
I just wanted to let you know that I am unfollowing a lot of blogs and trying to keep life super simple because I've been getting a bit stressed and just feeling the pressure of having so many things to do. So I decided to only follow a few blogs and do a bunch of other things to keep life super simple. So I'm sorry I unfollowed your blog, but I wanted to let you know that it's just because I'm trying to keep life super simple and NOT because I don't like your blog!!
I'm sure I'll still read some of your posts in the future and if you'd ever like to tag me for anything I'd be honored! <3
I feel super bad about doing this, but I'm pretty sure this is something God wants me to do so I hope I don't hurt anyone. /:
Have a beautiful day!!! 

- Hannah E

New Zealand, My Home

What a neat "guide to New Zealand", Bonnie! It sounds like a neat place to visit. :)
Haha, the biscuit/scone/muffin thing is something that I always confused! Your scones look more like American biscuits than what Americans call scones. Your biscuits are what we would call cookies, and blueberry muffins should be the same everywhere. ;)

- Emily

Yay for the biscuits scones and muffins! That is exactly what they are. I once looked up a few youtube videos on the Australian accent and none of them sounded remotely correct.... I am like dude what part of Australia did you go to! No one I have ever met talks like that!

- Clare

Say, do I have a noticeable accent?

- Michael R


You guys are awesome! ;) Stay that way.

Bonnie's Opinion // Predestination

This morning I would like to chat a bit about my opinion on the popular topic of 'predestination'. I'm sure you've heard of it. It originates from Scriptures such as the following:

Matthew 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

That section at the end there (among a few other Bible verses), "but few chosen" is what people who believe in predestination base their theology on. In it's essence, predestination means that God picked some people that He would save, and others he did not pick.

Since this is an opinion post, I am going to state my opinion here. If you don't like the idea of hearing my opinion, perhaps don't read this post. :P I'm all for sharing opinions in a loving way. If you agree with me, that's cool. If you don't agree with me, that's also cool. I'm quite happy for people to disagree with me. The fact is, there is a bit of a grey area around a lot of these theology disagreements. If there wasn't a grey area there wouldn't be any need to discuss it! :) So I'm going to share my opinion - and please feel free to share yours in the comments section. :) 

You ready? *here we go*

I believe with all my heart, as it says in Psalm 7:11 (and in many other places throughout Scripture), that God is a righteous judge. He is a perfect and just judge. He will judge each human being according to his or her sin. 

Romans 2:6 God will repay each person according to what they have done.

For those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ who died on the cross as payment for the sins of anyone who would believe in him, however, it's different. God looks at us in the light of his Son. Jesus's blood has washed away our sin and we are therefore perfect. God sees our perfection and that makes us 'eligible' if you like for Heaven. Jesus's death and resurrection on the cross has made a way for us to go to Heaven to be with him.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not die but have everlasting life.

That says clearly that God loved the world. Now, I don't know about you, but when I see that, I think of 'the world'. The world includes everyone in it. All of it's inhabitants.

You see, many of those who believe in predestination believe that Jesus only died for those whom God pre-picked. Well, John 3:16 seems to say pretty clearly that Jesus died for the entire world. Not only John 3:16 either, but many others, including these three:

1 Tim 4:10 (emphasis mine) For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

1 John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

1 John 4:14 And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

I believe that Jesus died for all men, as the Scriptures state clearly.
Have a look at this verse:

Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

God is no respecter of persons. People who believe in predestination believe that God has pre-picked some people for eternity with him. However, God is no respecter of individual people and he loves all of us the same. His love and grace is available to anyone!

We now come to my main point.

In order for God to be a righteous and absolutely just judge, predestination cannot possibly happen.

You see, I believe as I said above that God is an absolutely just judge. However, how is it just and fair to pick some people to save and to pick some others to cast into damnation? Because by not choosing the rest, in a roundabout way he would be effectively choosing them for damnation.

We are judged on our own merits. I believe that each individual has the right to choose whether to accept Jesus's payment for our sins and the free gift of eternal life... or whether to reject that gift.

Bear in mind that there is a difference between foreknowledge and predestination.

I believe that God knows everything. He is in charge of everything. He knows what's happened, what's happening and what's going to happen.

However, knowing something is different to predestining something.

I believe that God knows what's going to happen in the future and knows who will accept him and who will reject him. However, that does not stop him offering his grace, mercy and forgiveness freely to all. In order for him to judge everyone fairly, everyone must have the option of accepting or rejecting him. So each human must choose between death and life. There is no middle ground.

God loves everyone equally and wants all of mankind to be restored to him.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

He wants everyone to come to repentance. Just because he knows someone will never come to repentance does not mean he loves them any less! He still offers them the free gift of eternal life.

He respects our decision. And the decision is ours to make.

So anyway, there's my opinion on predestination! Do feel free to state your opinion in the comments... this should be an interesting comments section!

The other opinion post I'm thinking about at the moment is 'Once Saved, Always Saved'. Keep a look out for that one to pop up sometime.

Have a lovely day!

PS. My family is moving house this weekend! We would appreciate your prayers that everything goes smoothly. :) Thank you and bless you guys!

Changes Competition

You may or may not have noticed some of the changes that have been going on here recently. I have changed some major stuff and some minor stuff.


Your task:

Figure out what I changed!


There are two easy ways to enter this competition.

1. Comment

2. Contact Me Directly

(You may want to contact me directly if you think you know the answers and you don't want anyone else to steal them. If you comment then anyone else is freely allowed to steal your ideas.)


There is a prize for the winner...


The Rules.
There are (to give you an idea) at least 7 separate things I am looking for. The person with the most right will win.
There is no official deadline. I reserve the right to change, modify and close the competition when I see fit. It's likely to be ended in a few days time. If I were you I'd get in quick.
The winner's prize instructions will be emailed to them.
If you need help (or don't think I changed anything) then email me and I just might give you a hint. Or two. ;)
Cheat at your own risk.
Each of the changes were made on Sunday the 30th of March 2014. Any changes made before that date will not be counted.



Have fun!