Ask him to wipe your sins clean with the blood he shed, to forgive you.
You repent- meaning you don't just say sorry like my 9 year old Everytime she plays instead of cleaning but never changes and it always tasks three weeks to clean her room correctly...
Repentance doesn't mean just saying sorry when you're caught, it means you acknowledge you were wrong in whatever some you had but then you put action behind it- you put some verbs in it (as dr Phi says) and you actively change your life, behavior, heart and mind in your way of thinking to put your best effort into never doing that sin again.
That's repentance.
But all that is just the begining. There is so much more and in America's church so many don't even grasp the true meaning of repenting let alone moving on to LIVE as a Christian.
To live as a chrisrian means to die to yourself. That is one reason it is called born again. We die to ourselves and in making Jesus our Lord we mean Lord of our life - and that title means we give him control .
We live for him.
Our desires
our plans
our thoughts
They aren't our own.
His will comes first in our life.
Sadly, we don't do that in reality so often.
We can love God. We can worship God. We can even live BY Gods standards.
But are we really living FOR God?
I think the American church falls so far short of truly living for God. We go to some church services on Sunday and want to pat ourselves on the back and think we did God some huge favor by going and sitting on comfortable seats, in comfortable temperatures getting blessed by a sermon and prayer.
And those who make it to sit through Sunday night service and midweek- well they REALLY think they've got it all together.
Spiritual super stars, those ones.
That's not what it's all about.
Yes you are supposed to go to church. I'm not saying not to.
You're supposed to go to church to be with other believers to be filled back up because you are so SPENT after a week of going out and being jesus to the world that you NEED to be In church to be refreshed and recharged.
But we don't do that .
So that's not why we go.
We go to church to get filled and filled and filled and that is all.
We don't give it back out we keep it in and then we go back and get filled again like big fat ticks.
And we want praised for doing so. We want God to bless us for doing so.
Meanwhile we are neglecting all Jesus told us to do.
Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
I don't see sit in that do you? I see a whole lot of GO.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another
as I have loved you." (John 15:12 RSV)
More passive of a verb. Until you consider HOW Jesus loved us and what all that love entailed.
1 Corinthians 15:58
New International Version (NIV)
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Idk that sounds pretty active to me. Labor and all. Sitting in a church - not so much labor.
John 3:171
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.
That's a lot in that verse alone.
210 million orphans worldwide.
1.2 million are victims of human trafficking each year.
Clearly we are not doing enough.
These are just a few of the many ACTIVE things we are told to do in the bible.
I just read there are 1,050 commands in the New Testament alone.
Some may overlap but the fact that there are 1,050 mentions of actions we as Christians are to take, is staggering.
One is to not forsake the gathering together of believers.
We have that one down.
What about the rest?
Can we say we are truly LIVING for Christ ?
Are we seeking out his will daily?
This isn't just for pastors.
Do you know we are all called to be pastors and preachers?
We are not all given a church to be a pastor in the sense that the organized church refers to the term pastor, but we are all called to care for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for the down trodden, the orphan, the widow, our community.
We may not all preach in front of millions like Billy Graham but we are all called to proclaim Gods truths and share his plan for salvation.
What we are not called to do is just sit inside the four walls of a church week after week year after year .
If you've given your life to God -if you're living for Him - not just you- you need to be on the move.
You need to be out doing what others won't.
I'm not writing this in condemnation.
This is what Gods been driving through my head and heart the last 6 months.
I love to serve God.
Right now im blessed to help with a Sunday school class and even more so to help with youth group.
But God isn't satisfied with me serving in those ways. I'm not fulfilling all those verbs I posted above which are only a few he's asked of us.
God wants us working for him outside the church.
If we won't who will?
We can go on living our lives for ourselves, our family, our church. Loving God and trying not to sin.
But if we tell him "I've died to myself I live for you"
One day. One day he's going to call you up to active duty.
I've been called up.
He's wrecked me the last few months and rebuilt me.
He's been rending my heart to hear his voice more clearly.
To see the world through his eyes far beyond the perceived needs and wants of myself and my family.
He's broken me to the point where I can't think of anything less.
Nothing else satisfies.
I feel trapped and breathless from being in a box of what I think is serving God, only to be given the realized its not enough. I want out, I NEED to do more.
I understand what Jeremiah meant when said its Like a fire shut up in my bones.
He's transformed me so that I just want to walk away from it all take my family and go wherever he leads, just anything so that we make a difference and we live, truly live for Him.
My life is not my own.
Not any longer.
I'm not so spiritual.
I didn't ask for this .
I haven't prayed it into my life.
I wasn't looking for it.
It found me.
I was called up.
God decided it was time He take me up on my oath.
"My life is yours God. Not what I want but your will. I'm dead to myself, I'm living for you. Lead me , guide me, send me. "
He will.
He is.
You may live your life as a "good" Christian for years and be able to live life as you planned and still be in his will and go on about your way.
One day he will call you up and ask more of you. Hold you true to your word.
Shake you and break you and make you new, bring you further in your walk.
That time for me and my family is now.
Pray for us!
God is asking a lot.
I've already tried to run.
For all my wanting to walk away from it all talk and just serve no matter he asks- when it becomes reality it's overwhelming.
But it's worth it.
And I have no choice.
I live for Him.
I gave my word.
And my life ...
To him to use as he sees fit.
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