Repentance

Without repentance

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The other day I watched a video of a 15 your old Jewish boy who experienced a near-death experience. He encountered events that can be said to be prophetic, but at this same time there is room for doubt since some things do not fit with the books Daniel or Revelation. However it must be stated that his insight was of a Jewish nature and not a Christian one.
One thing that stuck out was a point that the Orthodox Rabbi interviewing the boy keyed in on was repentance.
Repentance is to turn away from sin and toward God.
Without true repentance there is no salvation. Now I want this to sink in, so I will repeat it.
Without true repentance there is no salvation.
This means we must act with our minds, our hearts and our souls to reject sin. (Matthew 22:37, Luke 10:27, Deuteronomy 6:5)
Will we be able to stop it all? No, but we must strive daily to end sin.
What is of more import is that the Bible lists sins that will guarantee that those committing these sin will not be allowed into the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9 – Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Revelation 21:8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
If you say that you accept God yet live daily living these sins you have not repented.
Acts 3:19 – Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.
Acts 17:30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.”
People may have taught you that once you are saved you are always saved. This is a lie.
People may have taught you that God loves all. This is true, but God Himself places a condition upon those seeking to be embraced by Him. That stipulation is repentance, true and complete no matter the emotional pain you must endure at this time. For the physical pain you are assured that will last billions upon billions of years is far greater than what you will experience now.

What is repentance?

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To repent means to turn from your sin. Basically to do a one-eighty. It means you stop doing that sin. This is not what is being taught if taught at all though. Many going about living their life’s 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. We are taught within the Bible to place God first and foremost and to do so every single day, not just Sunday. We are told to be humble and not to try and show ourselves as better than anyone else. Yet millions do just that and thousands 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.
True repentance is painful, hard and something you beg and plead God to take from you. Gee, where did I see 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. Reading 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.

To live in sin is not to know God

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This is basically what it says in 1 John 3:6.
Let me get you to understand how repentance works and yes I must use an extreme example to get my point across.
In Leviticus 20:13 we see one of the laws that Moses brought down for Mt. Sinai. (Once again people need to understand that it didn’t take forty days to bring down Ten Commandments but all the laws that are in Exodus through Leviticus.)
It clearly states that homosexuality is a sin so the other day when I saw a sign in front of the Supreme Court which said “I am gay and I am a Christian.” 1 John 3:6 shows that one of these statements is not true. Since the men live in sin they do not know God and so are not “Christian”
It is that simply. It is black and white. It is hot and cold. (Revelation 3:15-16)
You cannot live in a sin like this and say you know God. It is an impossibility.
Do I hate these men? By all means no I do not.
I actually pity them.
This believe they have that they can be both and thus “lukewarm” is leading them down a false and dangerous path to a fate I wish upon no one.
This message needs to get out there they need to see it more often. Then need to have this burden of this weigh upon them till they walk away from it if they truly do wish to know God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are told to turn from our sins not continue to live in them. Yet this is what these men are doing. Living in their sin thinking they know God when God at this time does not know them. If they leave their sin then yes He will know them and Jesus will acknowledge them, but as along as they chose the sin over God the latter will not know them at all.

The curse of the “Megachruch”

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There have been many of these churches that have sprung up and then fallen away since the 1970s. Many have make it all the way to television while others were situated to the city they were founded in.
One of the main flaws within them was a lack of personal relationships. People could become lost in the crowd and in many cases think they were saved or on the right path to God when in fact they were not. In time either through scandal or simply a parting of the ways in philosophies would result in the church either downsizing or ceasing to exist all together.
In most cases the leader of the megachurch led a wealthy lifestyle like those of the Pharisees in the time of Christ. If you looked closely you would see that they suffered from the same sin. Placing the rituals of man over the teaches of God. They would have seminars about the “self” this or the “self” that. Leaving the word of God behind but instead turning to that which they truly sought after.
Now they are going with what is politically correct, but not Biblically correct and yet many still believe they are pursuing God when in reality they are pursuing the world. We are called to be separate from the world. A living example of what is good and righteous unto God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
If it is called a sin in the Bible then it is a sin. If we are called to repent and turn from this sin then that is what we must do. Yet the megachruches now say “come to us has you are. You can keep you sin, because we will love you exactly as you are.”
It is true that Jesus will take you at this moment as you are, BUT you must come to Him with a repentant heart feeling shame and sorrow over where you now at this moment standing in the sin of the moment. This repentance never ends until the day we leave this temporal life. If you were repentant once and then never again, they I say you were never truly repentant that one time, for you have returned to your sin or new ones turning your back upon God. Through this ongoing repentance you chip away at this big sin and then this little sin and the process repeats itself on and on, for that is how TRUE repentance works. It is a never ending task that wears upon each and every person that truly goes through it. How do I know this? Because I go through it every single day.
We are told to place God first and then to be humble and place all others before ourselves. When doing this you place yourself last. Caring for all about you, wanting them to seek out and be with God. Can a megachruch provide this? No it can’t because those that go to these huge buildings are all strangers to one another in most cases. If you cannot even seek out a personal relationship with a person in one of these places then how are you expected to have a personal relationship with God? You can’t. You may think you do, but when you get right down to it are you still living in a sinful life? Are you heartbroken over it? If you say yes to the first and no to the second then you are a “lukewarm” and Jesus has said you will be cast away from Him. (Revelation 3: 14-22)
This is the curse of the megachruches, look closely and you will come to realize it.

True confessions of a screwed up middle-aged man: True repentance

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Recently I had a discussion with someone. I have known them for years and felt I could be honest with them and help them to understand that their path they are walking is one that may not necessarily be the correct path.
Now I wish to make this perfectly clear at the outset: I AM IN NO WAY PERFECT! I SIN! Try as I might I still stumble and fall.
They have taken the manmade doctrine of “once saved always saved” completely literally. Even though John 15 and Revelations 3 state that you can me cast away from God even after you have been joined to Him.
This person commits crimes and yet believes that they are still welcome into God’s house. I tried to get them to understand that per the above verses God will tolerate so much before He will say enough then cut your branch away and give you unto men and then be cast into the fire.
Is it because I have known this person for so long? Could it be because they hold a grudge against me that they do not wish to listen? I do not know, but most likely that is the case. What I can say is that I sincerely was trying to help this person, but I have reached the point that I will no longer try and have decided it is best I say no more.
All that is left is for me to pray upon this person from afar and hope that in time they come to realize that yes God does love them and yes He will take you as you are, but that you MUST strive to better yourself through God’s word and to try your best not to sin. Will you mess up? YES, but as long as you try not to commit the same exact sin again and again then He will allow you to stand before Him on that great day we are all called to stand before God.