REPENTANCE
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark
1:14-15)
Repentance is one of the most positive of all words.
John the Baptist centered his preaching on repentance (Matt. 3:2, Mark
1:4, Luke 3:3). Jesus also preached repentance, commanding His disciples
to do likewise (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 24:47). The angel predicted that the
Messiah would save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). The
requirement for this salvation would be repentance.
To repent means to stop going one direction, to turn around completely,
and to go the opposite way. Repentance involves a dramatic and decisive
change of course. God urges us to repent when the path we are taking
leads to destruction. Repentance will save us from disastrous
consequences! What a wonderful word! How comforting that the Creator
loves us enough to warn us of impending danger!
Our problem is
that we think of repentance as something negative. When we recognize our
sin, we prefer to “rededicate” our lives to God. We may even tell
others we have resolved to be more faithful to God than we were before
we failed Him. Yet the Bible does not speak of rededicating oneself. It
speaks of repentance! Repentance indicates a decisive change, not merely
a wishful resolution. We have not repented if we continue in our sin!
Repentance involves a radical change of heart and mind in which we
agree with God’s evaluation of our sin and then take specific action to
align ourselves with His will. A desire to change is not repentance.
Repentance is always an "active" response to God’s word. The evidence of
repentance is not words of resolve, but a changed life.
~Blackaby Ministries
Source: Facebook
________________________________________________
In talking to people over the years there seems to be much confusion over two words, "confess" and "repent". Many think they mean the same thing. When a preacher or other Christian says, "You must repent", there are those who believe he is talking about getting all choked up and emotional over our sins and then confessing those sins before God. BUT, confession and repentance are NOT the same thing.
In our "steps" to salvation, confession has played a big part in leading others to Christ (which is often used in The Sinner's Pray), but the need for repentance, in some cases, has been left out. Now, this may be a key explanation as to why we, too often, witness the following. People go to the altar, confess all kinds of sin, claim to "get saved" and then......
- Never return to church.
- Return to church, but still live like the devil...thinking, okay, I confessed and believed...I'm saved..."once saved, always saved", right? Even if I continue on in my sin, God will one day welcome me into His heaven. Most often, their fate is now sealed because other "believers" have assured them they are saved because they have "believed". These people are now dangerous to the cause of Christ because others will look at their lives and say to themselves, "What hypocrites! They are no different from me. Why do I need Jesus?"
- Continue on in the church for a time, but then fall away. Many will never return. The ones that do, are most likely those who didn't "get it" the first time, but think they are "rededicating" their lives to the Lord, when in truth, re-dedication is never mentioned in scripture. What they may actually be doing is getting saved for the very first time. But, if there is no repentance this time either, re-dedication will have no lasting effect. This can cause a vicious, deadly cycle of coming in and out of the church...each time vowing to start living for God. These people are also hurtful to the cause of Christ. Each time they will tell their friends that they are now "gonna live for God", yet then they fail...again and again. Their friends will then think to themselves, "God cannot even keep a person saved. What hope is there for a sinner like me?"
- Continue on in church, maybe even getting involved in ministry, but the person doesn't seem to possess the fruit of the Spirit. There is no love for ALL the brethren (only their group), no burden for the lost, no compassion for those who are not like them, etc. Many become legalistic in their views and try to live a good life in order to maintain their right standing with God. Many people will even look up to these individuals as being God's "cream of the crop". Remember the Pharisees and Scribes. They were well respected in their day for their, continual, striving to keep the law. They seemed to be above reproach. But, one thing was lacking...humility and a broken spirit over their own sin. They loved to look down their noses at others in order to make themselves look good. This group is VERY dangerous. They have caused many people to turn from Christ. Those who have been hurt by these people will either turn away from church, never to return...turn to false gospels (looking for love in all the wrong places)...or become Atheists and Agnostics (because they were turned off by what they thought were the best of Christ's followers).
What damage can be done when confession is made without repentance. Repentance means "turning away from". It can be put this way...you were walking in one direction...then you made a 180 degree turn and started walking in the complete opposite direction.
In a true salvation experience, here is basically what happens: When we first came to Christ we loved our sin and that was what enticed us. Every day of our lives we walked in it and toward it. BUT, one day we met the Savior. He was made known to us by the preaching (proclaiming) of the gospel and someone showing us from God's Word that we were a sinner. Our hearts were broken, knowing that all along we had been sinning against our Creator and by faith we accepted the sacrifice of His beloved Son. This saving faith We are now repulsed by it and set out to live a life that is holy and dedicated to the Lord...not to earn our salvation, but because the Holy Spirit has now entered in and turned us into a new person...a different person than we were before. A person, set apart, for good works.
Confession is also a part of this saving faith. It will cause us to cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness for all that we have done and then it will cause us to confess to others that we now know the Lord. There are no silent disciples. We will be bursting to tell someone...anyone...about what we have experienced.
We don't walk away from a saving faith with the same burdens we had before and we don't walk away with the old desires of the flesh. ALL things are new! From that day forward we WILL grow, no matter how small the growth. We were dead, but have been made alive. The fruit of the Spirit will only grow from a vine that has life.
Now, don't get me wrong...after our salvation, satan will start to work as soon as possible on stirring up the "old man" that is still inside us. He may even convince us to sin, but this time, there will be no pleasure in that sin and we will be miserable in it until it is confessed. We no longer look for sin, sin looks for us. Sometimes, we may stumble, but God is now our Father and He will do whatever is necessary to bring us, quickly, back into fellowship with Him. He will chastise us if we are disobedient, He lift us back up when we become discouraged, He will gently nudge us back in the right direction when our spirit is wounded. We also have the Holy Spirit to comfort us in sorrow and convict us every time we are tempted to do evil. And we have Jesus Christ who is ALWAYS interceding on our behalf and ready to offer up forgiveness for any sin that we have allowed to creep in.
Saving faith is an active faith and it is a producing faith!! It starts working the day we are saved and remains in us until the day we die. It keeps us with the Father. It helps us to know His voice. We can never disown Him, no more than He can disown us, because He is now a part of us. And even when we sin against Him and we fight the desires of the flesh, we will also have His desires...and that is to love the brethren, to love souls, to love His Word (for it is no longer grievous to us), to talk to Him through prayer, to worship Him, to live separated from the world, and to do and accomplish His will.
My friends, "REPENTANCE" is necessary. Unless ye repent, ye shall ALL, likewise perish! You cannot accept Christ in the free pardon of sin with the thought in mind that there are sins you can still commit. Either we are willing to give them up or we have not fully grasped that is our sin that has separated us from God in the first place. Saving faith will compel us to repent...to turn from all known sin in our lives. It will compel us to dig into to God's Word and see what else we are doing that does not please God. Again, not to earn our salvation, nor to maintain it, but because an all-seeing God has shown us our heart and we are no longer the same!
Dear Friends, apparently satan doesn't want this message to go out. I've had problems with getting it written, formatted, and published due to problems with Blogger. I'm going to go ahead and publish it now and then come back and add in the verses that came to mind as I was writing this. I just want to get it out to you while the system seems to have stabilized. Thanks for your patience! God bless!
~The Princess Warrior ♔
REPENTANCE
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark
1:14-15)
Repentance is one of the most positive of all words. John the Baptist centered his preaching on repentance (Matt. 3:2, Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3). Jesus also preached repentance, commanding His disciples to do likewise (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 24:47). The angel predicted that the Messiah would save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). The requirement for this salvation would be repentance.
To repent means to stop going one direction, to turn around completely, and to go the opposite way. Repentance involves a dramatic and decisive change of course. God urges us to repent when the path we are taking leads to destruction. Repentance will save us from disastrous consequences! What a wonderful word! How comforting that the Creator loves us enough to warn us of impending danger!
Our problem is that we think of repentance as something negative. When we recognize our sin, we prefer to “rededicate” our lives to God. We may even tell others we have resolved to be more faithful to God than we were before we failed Him. Yet the Bible does not speak of rededicating oneself. It speaks of repentance! Repentance indicates a decisive change, not merely a wishful resolution. We have not repented if we continue in our sin!
Repentance involves a radical change of heart and mind in which we agree with God’s evaluation of our sin and then take specific action to align ourselves with His will. A desire to change is not repentance. Repentance is always an "active" response to God’s word. The evidence of repentance is not words of resolve, but a changed life.
~Blackaby Ministries
Source: Facebook
Repentance is one of the most positive of all words. John the Baptist centered his preaching on repentance (Matt. 3:2, Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3). Jesus also preached repentance, commanding His disciples to do likewise (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 24:47). The angel predicted that the Messiah would save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). The requirement for this salvation would be repentance.
To repent means to stop going one direction, to turn around completely, and to go the opposite way. Repentance involves a dramatic and decisive change of course. God urges us to repent when the path we are taking leads to destruction. Repentance will save us from disastrous consequences! What a wonderful word! How comforting that the Creator loves us enough to warn us of impending danger!
Our problem is that we think of repentance as something negative. When we recognize our sin, we prefer to “rededicate” our lives to God. We may even tell others we have resolved to be more faithful to God than we were before we failed Him. Yet the Bible does not speak of rededicating oneself. It speaks of repentance! Repentance indicates a decisive change, not merely a wishful resolution. We have not repented if we continue in our sin!
Repentance involves a radical change of heart and mind in which we agree with God’s evaluation of our sin and then take specific action to align ourselves with His will. A desire to change is not repentance. Repentance is always an "active" response to God’s word. The evidence of repentance is not words of resolve, but a changed life.
~Blackaby Ministries
Source: Facebook
________________________________________________
In talking to people over the years there seems to be much confusion over two words, "confess" and "repent". Many think they mean the same thing. When a preacher or other Christian says, "You must repent", there are those who believe he is talking about getting all choked up and emotional over our sins and then confessing those sins before God. BUT, confession and repentance are NOT the same thing.
In our "steps" to salvation, confession has played a big part in leading others to Christ (which is often used in The Sinner's Pray), but the need for repentance, in some cases, has been left out. Now, this may be a key explanation as to why we, too often, witness the following. People go to the altar, confess all kinds of sin, claim to "get saved" and then......
- Never return to church.
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