Intro
This is Dreamwalker1960. As a reminder you can read the transcripts of all my podcasts at dreamwalker1960.com. You can use most podcast platforms if you wish to listen. All you need to do is do a search for Dreamwalker1960.
Discussion
The misconception of what has been defined as salvation has brought us to a point in this temporal existence to a nearly complete lack of people actually achieving true salvation.
Most believe they can just say they have chosen to follow Christ, yet they show very little change in how they behave and live their daily lives.
When it comes to salvation, repentance is required of the person receiving said salvation.
Repentance. What does that truly mean?
To repent involves turning from your sin. Basically, to do a one-eighty degree turn. It means you stop doing that sin. This is not what is being taught if taught at all though. Many go about living their lives doing as they wish. Usually contrary to the Bible, otherwise known as living in sin. Yet many go to church on Sunday and feel that their mere effort to show up at church is enough to redeem them in the eyes of God.
Well…….
Ummm…..
That ain’t how it works.
That is no repentance. To be blunt that is not even salvation.
To live a selfish life is totally opposite the teaching of the Bible. In true fact it is an abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 16:13-15 NKJV – “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
We are taught within the Bible to place God first and foremost and to do so every single day, not just Sunday.
Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV – Jesus said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
We are told to be humble and not to try and show ourselves as better than anyone else.
Philippians 2:3 NKJV – Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
Yet Billions live lives of self-ambition and or conceit and millions of them call themselves “Christian,” again this is not repentance.
True repentance is a shattering of your very personality you have lived with before you asked Jesus into your life, yet many do exactly the same thing they did before they asked Him in. Some do change, but then something happens and they return to their old way of life. I know this for a fact because this happened to me, so don’t say that isn’t true when having lived it I know that it is true. On top of which the Bible says this:
2 Peter 2:20-22 NKJV – For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled inte them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A DOG RETURNS TO HIS OWN VOMIT,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
True repentance is painful, hard and something you beg and plead for God to take it from you. Gee, where have I seen that take place in the Bible? Oh, yea in an orchard just before the Pharisee’s men came to arrest Christ. Christ has been where you are, but He did not take the out He was given for His love of humankind and His selfless act was the greatest gift of all. What He accepted can easily be taken from you but can still be emotionally painful and agonizing. In some cases you will be asked to leave that which you love, a person, money, and a lifestyle. It will hurt and it will take time for this pain to pass but it is something that must be done. But remember you cannot do it alone nor can you. For Christ Himself will help you through it. Studying the Bible will help you through it. Talking with those that have been though it can help you through it and praying can help you through it.
True love hurts and only through a true love of God and Christ will you ever get to truly understand that pain and why it is needed.
It is due to this misunderstanding of salvation that many that profess with full believe that they are followers of Christ. Yet, they live and promote sin. They live as the world does and believe they are not required to change. Yet that is not what the Word of God teaches.
The Bible makes it clear we are to downsize. This is not a misconception this is a command from Jesus Christ:
Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV – “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 NKJV – Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 NKJV – Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Those that keep their earthly riches do not show repentance. They continue to live as in the world, which marks them as friends of the world.
James 4:4 NKJV – Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
If you truly seek salvation you MUST accept the discomfort that is required. This means downsizing and not seeking after earthly wealth and all that goes with that imagery.
1 John 2:15-17 NLT – Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
Time is quickly running out to show that you have truly accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. Stop being like the lukewarm. For their fate is sealed in damnation.
Revelation 3:15-17 NKJV – “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
Repent if you thought you had salvation. Then truly seek it by striving to live a sanctified life.
God Bless