Tag Archives: repentance

GOD’S GOODNESS LEADS TO REPENTANCE

Christian Life, ,

Romans 2:4 NLT
[4] “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”

Paul is in conversation with his fellow Jews. He’s on a mission to expose the guilt of the whole human race before God. There are two categories of people in Paul’s world – Gentiles and Jews, separated and at enmity because of their attitude towards God but equally guilty before Him for their disobedience to His Word.

The Gentile word is guilty and the object of God’s wrath because of what they have done with God’s truth… They have suppressed truth by their wickedness, denied and exchanged truth for lies, created their own objects of worship, thumbed their nose at and perverted God’s moral standards and, eventually turned right and wrong upside down. Scripture declares the Gentiles guilty as charged.

The Jews are smug. They are not like the Gentiles. They are privileged people. They have God’s law. They are in covenant with the God the Gentiles have rejected. They belong to God.

“Don’t you understand?” Paul declares. “This is exactly where you have gone horribly wrong!” The Jews believed that having these privileges safeguarded them from the Gentiles’ fate. “It’s not what you have that counts. It’s what you do with what you have that makes the difference.”

The sin of the Jews was, in the main, hypocrisy. They hid behind their possession of the law to cover their disobedience to God’s covenant. .

Romans 2:1, 3 NLT
[1] “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things…
[3] Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things?“

Then Paul makes this astonishing statement. “Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”

Psalm 73 is the musing of a man who was wrestling with an observation we also wrestle with at times. Why do the ungodly prosper? Why does it seem that nothing can go wrong for them? Even wayward believers seem to get away with their sin. It’s as though God turns a blind eye to what they do.

Trouble is, we don’t think the way God thinks. We think that the way to get the attention of the ungodly or the sinning believer is to turn up the heat on them. God does sometimes get people’s attention through some crisis or catastrophe. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment often helps to confirm their opinion of God. “He doesn’t love me!” or even “God hates me. Look what He has done to me,” when disaster is often a consequence of their own disobedience.

Paul’s reasoning with the Jews who were guilty of hypocrisy was to remind them of God’s goodness. What had He done for them? Exactly what they hid behind to excuse their disobedience! His Word! His covenant! His instructions for living!

Romans 2:17-20 NLT
[17] “You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. [18] You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. [19] You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. [20] You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth.”

Possessing God`s law was no protection from their sin. Only obedience to His law would guarantee His favour.

Romans 2:1-4 NLT
[1] “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. [2] And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. [3] Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? [4] Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”

God’s patience with sinners is enough to remind us how good He is. He has every right to take those out who persist in their sin, but he hasn’t. He lets them live to have an opportunity to repent and turn to Him.

The day will come when God confirms the choices people make in this life. Until then, He sustains life and gives breath to all so that they can come to their senses and call on His name.

2 Peter 3:8-10 NLT
[8] “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. [9] The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. [10] But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.”

God is patient because of His mercy. However, God will destroy sinners because He is holy. It is up to us to ensure that we live our lives in the fear of the Lord. If we do this, as Peter assures us….

2 Peter 1:10-11 NLT
[10]” So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. [11] Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

WHAT IS REPENTANCE?

Christian life, ,

I used to think that repentance was about those crisis moments when I came face-to-face with the bad things I had said and done. I was ever so sorry and cried and pleaded with God to forgive me. I felt much better after I had got my sin off my chest, and then carried on with my life until the next episode of “repentance”. Believe me, I had many of those crisis moments. However, that isn’t the Bible’s meaning of repentance.

Repentance may involve those times of tears and regret that but the Bible’s meaning of repentance is much more than periodically acknowledging and feeling sorry for our sin.

Repentance has has two parts to it. The Old Testament meaning comes from the Hebrew word “shuv” which means “return”. You were once walking on the path of God’s Word, i.e., living in obedience to God’s instructions, but you have wandered off the path into the wilderness of sin and unbelief. Return to the way of truth lest you be lost and die in the wilderness where there are no landmarks to show you the way to God, and no food and water to sustain you.

The second meaning of repentance in the New Testament is the Greek word “metanoia” which means “change your mind”. We sin because we are deceived. We believe the lies that the world, the flesh, and the devil sow into our minds, lies like… sin is pleasurable; God won’t notice; God understands; God won’t mind this time; I won’t do it again; it’s only a small thing… and, and, and.

However, sin comes from an attitude – rebellion. “I want to do it! I’m going to do it! I will do it!” and, worst of all, “I’ll do what I want to do, and then ask God for forgiveness!!”

Repentance starts with a different attitude towards sin…changing our mind, first of all about God and His attitude towards sin. God hates sin, everything we say, do, and think, that contradicts who He is – holy, righteous, pure, and utterly committed to be who He is, the I AM.

We can only change our minds about God and His attitude to our sin when we understand that, as His creation, we are accountable to Him for our thoughts, words and actions. We WILL give an account of our sin, unless we repent, which includes the awareness of God’s attitude to sin, and receive the forgiveness Jesus paid for with His blood. We can only overcome our desire to sin by trusting the Holy Spirit to provide the power to fulfil our resolve.

Secondly, because all our words and actions flow from the way we think, we need to understand ourselves. Even as new creatures, born from above by God’s Spirit, we still have a sin-nature that produces ungodly desires.

‭James‬ ‭1:14‭-‬15‬ ‭NLT‬
[14] “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. [15] These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

Through God’s Spirit in us, we are instructed to kill those ungodly desires by following the leading of the Spirit instead of giving in to the desires of the flesh.

Then, thirdly, we are to think differently about God’s Word. The Bible is far more than a book about God and people. Empowered by its author, the Holy Spirit, it transforms our minds if we believe what it teaches.

‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NLT‬
[16] “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”

So, repentance, changing our minds and returning to God’s way, is not only an event but also a lifestyle. You see, we developed some strange beliefs about God, ourselves, and how God and we relate, during our growing up years. We were influenced to think wrong thoughts from the ungodly nature we were born with…

‭Romans‬ ‭5:10‬ ‭NLT‬
[10] “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

… as well as from the people in the world around us.

As we journey with Jesus from the moment of our new birth, we need to change the way we think about Him and us, and the way we react in life.

Paul explains it like this…

‭Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭NLT‬
[2] “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

How can we change the way we think so that we avoid sinning against the Lord?

‭Psalms‬ ‭119:11‬ ‭NIV‬
[11] I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

If we continue to change our way of thinking by paying attention to God’s Word, putting Jesus in the centre of our lives and being accountable to Him all the time, the events that call for repentance will slowly decrease in our lives.

Now that’s a deal worth considering!

SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 5

Christian life, ,

LESSON 5

YOM TERUAH – THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS

The Feast of Trumpets

http://endtimepilgrim.org/trumpets.jpg

The very next feast due to be fulfilled.

The shofar is blown at the western wall on the new moon of Tishrei to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites: “On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the Lord by fire.” Leviticus 23:23-25.

“In the autumn of the year and on the first day of the Tishrei moon trumpets are blown to announce the Hebrew holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Biblical Christians refer to it as the Feast of Trumpets. It is the 5th of the Seven Feasts of Israel.

“This 5th feast was instituted by Moses at Sinai approximately 3,500 years ago. It marks the first day of the Hebrew (civil) New Year. ‘Rosh Hashanah’ means ‘head of the year’. The Feast of Trumpets is the first of the three, yet to be fulfilled, Fall Feasts of Israel. These Autumn Feasts relate to Kingdom/political issues rather than the High Priestly/religious matters that we saw Messiah address in the spring feasts during His first coming 2,000 years ago. Back then we saw Him ride into Jerusalem on a donkey as the ‘Suffering Servant’. But when Messiah returns this next time He will come as the Conquering King. After Trumpets on Tishrei 1 comes the “Ten days of awe” which lead on to Yom Kippur on Tishrei 10 which is the Day of Atonement.

“This is the most solemn day of the year. On this awesome Day of Reckoning all accounts between YHVH-God and all His covenant people are settled. The Jubilee Year is also announced on this same tenth day of Tishri.”

http://endtimepilgrim.org/trumpets.htm

FEAST OF TRUMPETS

The Feast of Trumpets, (Yom Teruah or Rosh Hashanah), took place on 1st/2nd Tishri, a 48 hour day marking the beginning of the new month. It was called “the day of which no man knows the day or the hour.”  Why? Because the day began when two priests agreed that they had sighted the new moon. The Hebrews operated on a lunar calendar; each month was thirty days long and began and ended with the new moon.

During this 48-hour day, when they agreed that they had sighted the new moon, they would shout to signal to the trumpet blower to announce the arrival of Yom Teruah which would announce that the Feast of Trumpets had begun.

The month before Tishri, called Elul, was the month of preparation for the Feast of Trumpets. Every morning and evening during the month, a trumpet was blown to remind the people that the Feast of Trumpets was coming. During the month of Elul, the people would do three things:

Tephilah – prayer

Teshuvah – repentance

Tsidakah – generosity.

Tephilah

Their concept of prayer came from the first time it is mentioned in the Scriptures – Genesis 4:26. “At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.” (The law of first mention).

The letters in the word “call” mean turning the head to face the one who can bear the burden, the idea being that I turn away from my concerns to become aware of the one who can carry my burden.  The first concept of prayer was about changing my awareness from myself to God and reattaching myself to God.

Teshuvah

The word means repentance and conveys the idea that I turn away from my thoughts and think the way God thinks. This implies changing from self-consciousness to God-consciousness and will give me a different perspective on the way God sees people.

Tsidaqah

Tephilah and teshuvah must be connected to tsidaqah – generosity. I recognise that God cares about people and desires to meet their needs. I need to view myself and people from a different perspective, that God wants me to use the resources He has given me to take care of needs where I can. Tishivah is my duty because God has been generous to me.

The Month of Elul

Put this into an agricultural setting; this is a season to evaluate the seeds I have been sowing in my life, to recognise that all my choices have consequences and to review my focus to change my mind about the way I do life. Before the Feast of Trumpets comes, I need to know what seeds I am going to sow in the field of my life in the next year. The seeds I sow now will produce the harvest I would like in the future.

Therefore, for a whole month before the Feast of Trumpets, the blowing of the trumpet morning and evening reminds me that I am in a period of grace when I am still able to turn away from myself, to change my mind so that I can line up my thoughts with the way God thinks and adopt His best way to do life so that the harvest I reap will be good.

This period of time represents the time between Messiah’s first and second coming, the period of grace that prepares me for His coming when the time to repent and realign my life with His way is over.

THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS

The feast of trumpets is a rehearsal feast for Messiah’s second coming when He will judge the nations according to Matthew 25 – the parable of the sheep and goats.

The blowing of the trumpet summoned the people to ten days of trial and preparation before Yom Kippur, the day when all sin was judged and atoned for. It was both a warning to repent and a reassurance of God’s mercy for those who repented.

FOUNDATION TRUTHS

Bible Study, ,

FOUNDATION TRUTHS

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so (Heb, 6: 1-3).

Is it possible that there are teachings about our faith from which we must move on? Apparently there are!

What are these teachings? This writers calls them “foundations” – the fundamentals of our faith. What are they and why must we move on beyond these things?

When someone lays a foundation for a new building, he doesn’t remove the foundation – he builds on it because it is there to secure the building. When this writer says, ‘Move on’, he is not saying, ‘Abandon the foundation,’ he is saying, ‘Build on it.’ It forms the basis of what you believe.

The foundation of what he writes here is made up of three pairs of complementary truths.

1. The first is repentance from acts that lead to death and faith in God.  

Of course, this is a part of our foundation. To “repent” means to return to the path. God has shown us the path that leads us to our desired destination in life. Our destination is to be like God Himself – mirrored for us in His Son, Jesus. He created us in Him image, but that image was shattered at the fall. God did everything to remove the barrier between us and Him so that we can return to the way that leads us into oneness with Him again, becoming like Jesus who is our older brother

11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:11

Faith in God, very simply means, according to Hebrew thought, anchoring ourselves to God so that we do not blow away in the wind. On their migration from Egypt to the Promised Land, God’s people had to face the howling winds in the wilderness. The only way to secure their tents was to drive pegs into the ground to which they tied their tents.

This vivid picture enables us to understand what it meant for them, and for us spiritually, to make it through the desert and arrive where they were supposed to go. This is foundational, as you can see. Our lives are a journey. We must keep on the path if we are to arrive at our destination, and we must ensure that we are anchored to God so that we are not blown away by ‘every wind of teaching’ (Eph. 4:13, 14).

This response of repentance and faith in Jesus is a once-off experience, returning us to God’s “way”, and does not have to be repeated – a part of our foundation.

2. The second pair is ‘instruction about cleansing rites’ and ‘the laying on of hands’. This has to do with initiation into, and identification with Jesus, the leader of “The Way”, (which is what His movement was originally called – Acts 9: 2).

This is the second step after returning to God’s way from the path of sin. Cleansing rituals or “baptisms” were a regular feature of Jewish life. Ritual purification by being immersed in running or “living” water was practised many times as a person came back to, or entered a new phase of life.

Baptism into Jesus is a sign of death to the old way, initiation into “the Way” and identification with Jesus as the rabbi we have chosen to follow. This also a once-off part of our foundation.

3. ‘Resurrection of the dead’ and ‘eternal judgment’ are the third part of our foundation. This is not talking about our physical resurrection but our spiritual resurrection – out of our death to sin and into our new life in Christ.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . . (Eph. 2: 4-5a).

God has forever judged sin at the cross. Our sins, past, present and future, and the sins of the whole world have been judged and punished once and for all. ‘It is finished.’ God has made us alive, raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, fully accepted once and for all.

These are foundation truths, always there and never to be repeated. It is now up to us to build upon what has been laid down, relying on the truth that Jesus completed everything on the cross. ‘It is finished,’ were some of His last words. Now we can rest on His finished work and live in the reality of what He has done for us, adding or subtracting nothing from its completeness.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

4 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THE POWER OF REPENTANCE

Christian Life, ,

4 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THE POWER OF REPENTANCE

We ARE God’s children but we live in a fallen world. Most of us, from birth, were influenced by family, friends and the wider environment of the world to think and react like the people of the world. (Some of us were fortunate enough to have had godly parents who taught us the truth).

However, we were all born with a nature corrupted by sin and responsive to the devil’s lie… You don’t need God. You can be God.

When we were born again by the Holy Spirit, we received a new nature responsive to God and sensitive to His realm but… the sin nature still remains with all its ungodly beliefs and ideas.

So, under the direction and teaching of the Holy Spirit, we began the journey of renewing our minds by exchanging the lies we believed from birth with the truth contained in God’s Word. This is a slow and tedious process because our old nature clings tenaciously to the deception deeply grooved into our thought processes, that has prompted our sinful responses.

We have discussed the place that the TRUTH and the PROMISES play in this process of engaging the powers of the kingdom, but what God has said will be of no value to us without REPENTANCE.

We need to get rid of the idea that repentance has to do with feeling sorry for our sins. Repentance is not about emotion. It’s about transformation. Repentance is our response to the CONVICTION of the Holy Spirit.

Conviction is not about feeling guilty. It’s about revelation – the Holy Spirit reveals truth to us through the Word and we respond by believing and receiving the truth in place of the lie we have believed.

For example, somewhere during our early years, someone of significance… parent, teacher, family member, friend or peer, said something derogatory that confirmed our feelings of helplessness, uselessness or worthlessness.

But the Word says we are holy and beloved of God. The Holy Spirit convinces (convicts) us that God’s Word is true. We respond by repenting, changing our thoughts to line up with God’s Word.

That is REPENTANCE. Repentance is always our response to CONVICTION which is a work of the Spirit.

So, repentance is the next and vital step in our learning to overcome the world. If we are to use the powers of the kingdom to overcome the powers of the world that have driven us in the wrong direction, we must continually repent of the lies we have believed (unlearn) and learn who God is and who we are so that our faith is firmly rooted in the truth.

New Living Translation Bible NLT Bible. Hebrews 8:10

But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts.I will be their God, and they will be my people.

CONFESSION is or should be our response to anything the Holy Spirit reveals that is out of line with God’s Word. Again, confession isn’t about emotion, it’s about speaking. The Greek word translated “confession” is homologia (from which we get English words beginning with “homo-” meaning “the same” e.g., homosexual), and  “logeo” – to speak. It means “to speak the same words” or “to agree” .

When we agree with the Holy Spirit, we confess that He is right. Remember David when Nathan came to him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. His immediate response was, “I have sinned…” No excuses, no blaming or passing the buck. Confession paves the way for repentance.

CONFESSION can apply in different contexts. We agree with the Holy Spirit when we have believed a lie or transgressed God’s Word. This kind of confession leads us to repent or change our mind about what we have done or believed.

We can also confess something that is true.

“If you declare with your mouth, (same word homologeo), “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 NIV

A positive confession is a powerful way to imprint the nature of God in our minds. God is love; God is good; Jesus is the way… etc. The ancient Hebrews used every opportunity to declare or confess, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His covenant love endures forever.”

Let’s put these three interactions between the Holy Spirit and us together; CONVICTION, REPENTANCE and CONFESSION, and we have a powerful way to redirect our minds away from our sinful nature towards what the Spirit wants to do in us to reshape us into the image of Jesus.

This is kingdom power at work in us. We work with the Spirit to bring about the changes in the way we think that translates into who we become…

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All Scripture quotations in this series

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.