Home » Posts tagged 'REPENT'
Tag Archives: REPENT
THE QUESTION
“Do you need to pee?”
“No.”
“Pee anyway.”
This is how our family trips would start when I was a kid. It was like a ritual. Before we piled into the back seat of the car with Dad patiently waiting behind the wheel, my mother would stand at the front door and ask us The Question. We’d always say “no”, she’d always tell us to pee anyway, and then we’d race to the bathroom. One by one we’d take our turn, and we’d always manage to squeeze out at least a trickle. It never ceased to amaze us how our mother knew our urinary tract better than we did.
Now let’s put this in a spiritual context:
“Do you need to repent?”
“No.”
“Repent anyway.”
I’m wondering how many of you reading this will deny your need to repent. I’m wondering how many will deny that you might have even a trickle of a sin to squeeze out of you.
Repenting is not something you do just on special occasions. It’s not even something you do only when you feel the need to. Repenting is something you should be doing every day as a matter of course, the way you wash your face every day. You wash your face because it makes you feel clean and refreshed. You repent for the same reason.
Sin can creep into us unawares and hide in places we don’t think of looking. It can hide in unforgiveness and grudges, it can hide in coveting (that slightly strange old-fashioned word that just means wanting what we don’t need), it can hide in pride. Sin, like dust, can cling to anything. Did you know that dust even settles on walls and ceilings? I mean, who dusts their walls and ceilings? I actually know a man who vacuums his walls and ceilings because he well knows that dust can settle on them as easily as it can settle on furniture.
Sin can settle anywhere on a soul, and just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. My mother well knew that we always had at least a trickle of pee in us, just as God well knows that we always have at least a trickle of sin. You can deny it, but go ahead and repent and see for yourself.
You might be surprised at what comes out.
REPENTANCE AND BELIEF
CHARLO, New Brunswick, September 27, 2023 – Repentance is critically important for us Christians. The sincerity of our repentance determines the strength of our belief, which then impacts everything we do. Without sincere and full repentance, there can be no or only superficial “learned” belief and therefore no genuine witness to others and no one-on-one personal relationship with God and Jesus.
And without a one-on-one personal relationship with God and Jesus, there’s no chance at Heaven.
During the time of Jesus’ ministry, the people of Nazareth, including Jesus’ own blood relatives, did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Scripture tells us that Jesus, when he visited Nazareth during his ministry rounds, was unable to perform any miracles there because of the people’s “unbelief”. But what was the cause of their unbelief? What stopped them from seeing Jesus for who and what he was?
Belief is an inner knowing that cannot be easily explained beyond saying that it just is. Belief cannot be easily explained because it’s seated in the soul, which itself can’t be measured, at least not with the crude instruments we have on Earth. Belief is not something we’re born with; it comes to us courtesy of God’s Holy Spirit. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our soul, we can have knowledge of things, but we can’t truly believe. And without truly believing God’s Word, we’re constantly in danger of falling away.
Repentance is the key to believing in the Gospel. I know an angry young atheist who’s all but memorized the book of Revelation. He can quote circles around me when it comes to scripture, but he questions everything he quotes and he believes none of it. That’s not to denigrate knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but knowledge is not something most people would stake their lives on. Knowledge tends to change and be replaced with something else as new facts emerge, whereas belief remains constant, unchanging, and unshakeable in those whose belief comes not by their own power but by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Both Jesus and John the Baptist preached the essentiality of repentance, and both of their ministries were grounded in repentance. So what is repentance and why is it so important for belief?
WHAT IS REPENTANCE?
When we repent, we not only acknowledge our sins and failures, we also acknowledge our weaknesses and our need for help. At the same time, we pledge both within ourselves and to God not to do the sinful behavior ever again and we ask God to forgive and absolve us of our sins. That is generally what is understood by most Christians as being repentance.
So far, so good, but that’s only half of the repentance equation. The other half is equally as important but rarely gets much coverage.
Here is the other half of the repentance equation: Along with acknowledging our sins and weaknesses and asking God for help and forgiveness, we just as importantly need to forgive those who’ve sinned against us, which means we not only need to forgive them, but we also need to forgive them whatever sins they’ve sinned against us. This is the half of the repentance equation that most Christians miss and so remain for all intents and purposes unrepentant, even after they think they’ve repented. Being unrepentant, these Christians still have a hard heart (an unforgiving heart is a hard heart), and God’s Spirit cannot and will not work through a hard heart.
Without full and sincere “both sides of the equation” repentance, there can be only superficial belief that is based on knowledge, not on God’s revelation through his Spirit. There can be knowledge but not belief. You cannot learn belief; like grace, belief is a gift that comes from God. You cannot on your own steam increase your belief just by trying to believe harder. Many have attempted this impossible task and all have failed. Your belief can only be established by the power of God, not by your own efforts. But the one thing that you can do on our own steam is to repent sincerely and fully.
When Jesus told us to “REPENT, AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL!”, he was advising us to repent, while letting us know that belief would come as a natural outcome of the repentance. Repenting was something that we needed to choose to do, but belief would follow as a consequence. In other words, belief requires no effort on our part. Jesus wasn’t urging us to believe, he was urging us to repent. Belief would then follow as surely as day follows night.
This is the main reason why so many Christians don’t really believe the Gospel. They have knowledge of God’s Word, but they don’t really believe God’s Word because they haven’t sincerely and fully repented. Not having sincerely and fully repented, their heart is still hard and God’s Spirit cannot come into them. They remain supernaturally spiritually deaf and blind, as foretold by Isaiah.
Again, repentance is not only acknowledging your own sin and weakness and asking for God’s help and forgiveness, it’s choosing to forgive those who’ve sinned against you as well as choosing to forgive the sins they’ve sinned against you. If you only acknowledge your own sin and weakness and ask for God’s help and forgiveness but refuse to forgive those who have sinned against you, you haven’t repented. You’ve only done half of what you need to do to repent. And if you only do half of what you need to do to repent, your heart will remain hard and your belief in the Gospel will remain superficial and perilous.
So I guess the reason why the Nazarenes, including Jesus’ blood relatives, didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah was because they had hard hearts, which made them supernaturally spiritually deaf and blind. They all needed to repent, and to do so fully and sincerely.
How about you? Is your repentance full and sincere, or are you missing out on the second half of the repentance equation? If you haven’t yet repented in the way that you need to repent in order to truly believe the Gospel, maybe you should take Jesus’ advice and do so now. You shouldn’t have to work at believing – you might have to occasionally work at repenting, as it sometimes takes us some degree of discipline to drag ourselves before God and admit we were wrong, but no effort should be required to believe. If we fully and sincerely repent, belief in the Gospel just happens, thanks to God.
“The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel!“
Mark 1:15
NEFARIOUS: PREACHING DOCTRINES OF DEVILS
CHARLO, New Brunswick, August 6, 2023 – Full disclosure here: I did not see the movie. I didn’t even make it all the way through the trailer. But I did skip through a few interviews given by the directors and read enough comments and reviews to get a good whiff of what the film was about. Let me put it another way – if I’m walking down the road and see a steaming pile of brown goop a few yards ahead, I don’t need to march right up to it and stick my face into it to know it’s poop. I can tell from a safe distance that it is what it is and detour around it. In the same way, I don’t need to watch even one minute of a movie headlined by a demon, starring a demon, to know it’s the spiritual equivalent of a steaming pile and therefore needs to be avoided. To do otherwise – to purposely kneel down and study it – would be the same as putting Jesus back up on the cross.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
The last time I checked, Christians are to be taught by God and his Word, not by demons (even fictional ones). We betray God and Jesus when we turn our back to them and go to the devil for knowledge.
I am appalled by the sheer volume of Christians who are not only cheering this film on, but are urging their family, friends, and strangers to go see it. Some even claim it should be mandatory viewing in seminaries and Bible schools.
I can only think that these people have been bewitched, somewhat along the lines of the “O foolish Galatians” that Paul chewed out for falling such easy prey to liars.
Because have no doubt – the devil and his demons (even and especially the fictional ones) are liars. That’s all they are. They mix in enough facts to gain your trust, but their arguments are based on lies and delivered through seduction and deception.
Seduction and deception.
Sound familiar?
O foolish Christians! You are Eve all over again. You have a Bible to learn God’s Truth from – you have a direct line to God in prayer, courtesy of Jesus – but you look instead to a fictional “dark gospel” dictated by a fictional emissary of hell. And it’s not enough that you yourself fall under the spell – you have to drag others down with you. You gush over the demon. You are in awe of the demon. You secretly admire the demon’s intellect. “Such a wise demon!”, you say to yourself. “If only everyone could learn from this demon!” And then you go and do the devil’s bidding and promote the film – even to children – as a Christian film, and you do it for free.
Hear that noise? That horrible sound? It’s the devil and his demons laughing at you.
Abominations come in all shapes and sizes. This film is an abomination. And like all abominations, it has no place in the heart, mind, home, or playlist of a follower of Jesus.
We are not to talk to demons. We are not to be curious about demons. We are not to “study” demons or take a course on them. We are to do as Jesus did when it comes to demons, which means we are to have no conversation with them at all other than to ask their name and then to state their name when we cast them out. That is the only interaction we’re to have with demons.
If you’ve been bewitched and beguiled by the movie, get down on your face and repent. Get down on your face right now and repent. You are loved by God and hated by the devil, and yet you’ve become a cheerleader for Satan. Give your head a shake, O foolish Christian! Open your eyes, O foolish Christian!
Get down on your face and repent, O foolish Christian, before it’s too late!
A CALL TO REPENTANCE: THE SERMON THAT SHOULD BE HEARD IN THE CHURCHES OF EVERY FORMER CHRISTIAN NATION
“I have set before you life and death… choose life.”
MEADOWVILLE, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, February 13, 2022 – When a nation turns from God, and instead of repenting, rebels; when a nation chooses death instead of life, and yet still demands the reward of freedom that comes with choosing life; when a nation cries in its anthem for God to keep its land “glorious and free”, and yet opposes God by supporting laws that kill the unborn, the sick, and the aged: then God has no choice but to give that nation its reward not according to its cries and demands, but its due.
God is giving that rebellious nation not what it wants, but what it has earned.
All formerly Christian nations are now reaping the rewards of choosing death, even while the people of those nations take to the streets and demand the rewards of choosing life.
Instead of repentance, there’s rebellion. Instead of understanding, there’s confusion. Instead of turning back to God and choosing to live in accordance with the Gospel, there’s a doubling down of sin and pride and the tabling of further demands.
But these rebellions now taking place across former Christendom are nothing new. They’ve been seen before, in heavenly places, when a third of God’s angels refused to accept God’s rule and rebelled. I don’t think I need to remind you that their reward for rebellion was a fall from grace followed by eternal damnation.
We who call ourselves Christians are supposed to be children of God. We who call ourselves Christians are supposed to be followers of Jesus. Children of God and followers of Jesus need to set the good example and show guidance to others, not fall in lockstep with the rebellious, many of whom don’t even believe that God exists.
As Christians, we need to lead the call for repentance in former Christian nations, not in an effort to bring those nations back to what they were previously (that will never happen), but to call forth any among them who still love God and still choose life. We need to remind those few, through the call to repentance, that rebellion against the way things are in the world – including restrictions on freedoms – is rebellion against God’s justice as it plays out in the world. We need to remind those few that God’s justice is perfect, and that to rebel against it is to rebel against God. We also need to remind those few what the rewards are for rebelling against God.
And we need to remind them what the rewards are for doing God’s will.
I hope I am preaching to the choir here, but I know there are some hearing this sermon who will reject its message and will continue to embrace rebellion. Those same people will also continue to call themselves Christians, even as they trail behind Satan, waving banners cursing their neighbour and doing the will of the Father of Lies. Some will do these things conscious that they’re rebelling against God, while others will do it blindly, lost in confusion.
But for those very few of you who understand that the way forward is through repentance, not rebellion – your job is to lead the way. Even if you’re the only one – lead the way. Stand separate from those who rebel. Repent and pray for those who have been blinded and have gone astray. It is the job of the Church to pray for those who are in the Church as well as for those who have gone astray. I see in the protests in former Christian nations only rebellion against God’s justice and curses against those who are administering it. These things should not be done by Christians.
This is a call to repentance to all those who choose life. The fall from grace of former Christian nations is nothing new, and neither is their rebellion against the rewards for choosing death. Scripture tells us that such falls from grace have happened before, but scripture also teaches us that the way forward is always to stand separate from the rebellious and to repent.
Stand separate, repent, and preach repentance, and you will receive the reward of repentance, which is freedom.
Run with the mob, rebel, and preach rebellion, and you will receive the reward of rebellion, which is slavery.
The choice, as always, is yours, but the right choice – the one that leads to life – is to stand separate, repent, and preach repentance.
May you always choose life.
Amen.
THE NORMALIZATION OF SIN
MEADOWVILLE, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, November 10, 2021 – One of the best ways to get an eye-roll out of an unbeliever these days is to mention the word “sin”.
The devil and his hordes have been working overtime to make the concept of sin seem old-fashioned and laughable.
They’ve almost succeeded.
I don’t need to list all the ways they’ve done it. You already know. Popular culture has been the main vehicle, along with the infiltration of mainstream churches not only to pervert the Gospel message, but to corrupt the existing ministers and/or install their own corrupt ministers.
The fall of Christendom through sin didn’t happen overnight; it happened over the course of centuries. The Middle East fell hundreds of years ago, but in Western culture, the fall has been more recent.
How does sin become normalized? Spiritual sickness is presented as a good thing, as something that should be accepted, even admired. It’s presented as courageous, as a core truth that Christianity has cruelly suppressed. Spiritual sickness is rebranded as freedom.
As born-again believers, we know that true freedom can only be found in whole-hearted submission to God. But in the new normal of sin, submission to God is equated to slavery. You can’t be free and a slave at the same time, so obviously you need to free yourself from God. The fastest way to do that is to throw off everything that is condoned by him.
Where once there was marriage, there are now multiple “partners”. Where once there were children born of marriage, there are now children born of single mothers or aborted by them. Where once elders were honored and cared for, the elderly are now warehoused in state institutions to be drugged and chemically slaughtered.
Meanwhile, those who should be institutionalized are not only let roam free, they are given the reins of power.
Sin didn’t go away because we stopped believing in it. It grew and spread and deepened and solidified and gained a stronghold over us until everywhere we looked there was only sin (only we couldn’t even legally call it sin anymore… we had to whisper the word and slink off to the darkest corners of the web to search for those few souls who still knew that sin not only existed but had become Lord over former Christendom…).
The normalization of sin wasn’t imposed on Christendom. It was presented as a temptation. No-one can be forced to sin or to accept sin as normal. It’s a decision of the will.
Sin is always a choice that is made knowing it’s wrong but choosing it anyway, trying to justify it with what appear to be reasoned excuses. These usually come dressed up in terms like “social justice” and “equity” and “modern” and “progressive” and “victim”. Eve had no grounds for blaming the serpent for deceiving her, other than that she permitted herself to be deceived.
She permitted herself to be deceived.
When you accept sin as the norm, you are permitting yourself to be deceived, just as Eve permitted herself to be deceived. And like Eve, you will suffer exile from all that is good and holy while you wallow in that which is rancid and evil until it coats you and penetrates you and is absorbed so deeply into your being that you can no longer tell the difference between you and sin because there is no difference.
When it gets to that point on the societal level, sin has been normalized.
We are at that point.
We can’t come back from this, as a society. There is no coming back from sickness that has progressed this far. Not from this sickness. The only cure is that which was applied to Sodom and Gomorrah, or to Noah’s age.
But, you say, God can heal every sickness, no matter how seemingly hopeless.
Yes, he can, but only when the sick cry out for help.
I hear no such collective cry from former Christendom. Curses I hear, but cries for help are few and far between and growing fewer by the day. Individuals can come back from end-stage spiritual sickness – I am living proof – but not whole cultures, unless, like Nineveh, they all repent in sackcloth and ashes.
Repent is another one of those words that, like sin, brings on the eye-rolls.
The genius of the sin temptation is to rebrand sin as a virtue, so that anyone who tries to help the sinner find his way back to God is labeled as evil.
It’s all upside-down and backwards, former Christendom today, though this should not be surprising to us, considering that the world’s chief aim and accomplishment is the normalization of sin.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 