Repentance is not about perfection …
But dealing with our imperfections.
Category: Simple Faith
Decades of ministry to people in emotional bondage from past wrongs (both to them and by them) have taught me a valuable lesson:
Experiencing God’s full and complete forgiveness and freedom typically requires open and complete confession.
Consider this:
Often – because of shame, pride or emotional pain – we won’t openly and verbally confess what we’ve been internally hiding or avoiding.
However, we can’t release to Him what we won’t acknowledge.
This is critical, because God is not a thief. He won’t take what we don’t give Him.
When we finally decide to give our wrongs to Him (including not only any wrongs we suffered but any wrongs we committed in response) by transparently confessing them out loud, asking Him to forgive us, and then releasing them to Him …
He always takes them from us and gives us wholeness in return.
Many, unfortunately, want the freedom of forgiveness …
Without the vulnerability and transparency of confession.
But God, in his infinite wisdom, wants both.
May we live our lives as sacraments of God’s presence before a lost and hurting world.
Many want revival …
But God wants repentance.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam chose autonomy over the Father’s will.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus chose the Father’s will over autonomy.
Biblical discipleship is about folks submitting to Christ’s authority …
Not your’s.
The older I get, the more I understand that God-centered gratitude, awe and stewardship …
Are essential antidotes to the self-consumed despair, hopelessness and meaninglessness that grip many today.
Effective prayer is more about us hearing and doing what God wants …
Than Him hearing and doing what we want.
We can’t surrender to God …
What we refuse to acknowledge.
That includes the fears, hurts, wrongs and regrets we’ve been carrying …
And the bondage of our own – often subtle – sins committed in response to them.
Holding on to them prevents us from finding spiritual maturity, emotional wholeness …
And even healthy community with other believers.
Faith presumes obedience …
Because without obedience, there is no faith.
Pseudo “worship” today …
Exploits a broken generation by stirring up manipulated feelings of fleeting intensity, and calling it “God.”
It has become the new addiction.
The sole remedy is true worship, which is a faithful life of humble submission to God’s sovereignty, on His terms.
Only there can we find true significance and authentic wholeness.
Congregational singing is important for our gatherings, but the New Testament doesn’t call that “worship.”
Nope, not, nada …
Just ain’t there.
Rather, the New Testament says that living lives of reverent obedience and sacrificial service to God …
Is true worship.
When we say that singing and music are “worship,” however, rather than teach what worship truly is under the New Covenant …
We often end up with carnal churches and carnal people seeking a Sunday morning “worship experience” rather than living holy lives in humble obedience and service to God.
So let’s encourage one another by joyfully singing God’s praises congregationally together when we gather, as the New Testament commands …
While also learning to walk in true worship the rest of the week.
Because when all is said and done, the terminology of the New Testament never tells us to gather for a “worship service” …
But to gather for mutually building up each other so we can live lives of true worship, 24/7.
Many know God as only a feeling …
And love the feeling more than God.
Which is unfortunate.
Although the authentic knowledge and love of God often invoke feelings …
They don’t depend on how we feel.
The clamorous “declare” and “proclaim” crowd seems more driven by the anxiety of their own fears and insecurities …
Than by authentic faith.
Authentic faith, in contrast, quietly goes forth in the power of Godly confidence and assurance …
To actually redeem lives and the world around them.
It’s gotta be said:
If you got caught up in all the “prophetic words” about Trump being re-elected in 2020 from the Elijah List of for-profit non-prophets and other self-appointed, unaccountable and attention grabbing “prophetic” crazies …
Or you got caught up in the bizarre world of Q-Anon delusions …
You need to humbly examine yourself, return to the Sovereign God of Scripture, embrace the simple – yet comprehensive – power and authority of His Word, and commit to healthy Christian community where you can begin to find balance in your life.
When you do, there will be no need or desire to pursue counterfeit realities or distracting, drama laden “solutions”.
Yes, there are real issues, and yes there are those who are authentically prophetic …
But God is not a freak show and what you gave yourselves over to was not of Him.
True disciples, who put their trust wholly in Him and His Word and are committed to healthy Christian community, will learn to discern the difference.
Those who don’t, won’t.
Repent, and get about the hard work of rebuilding the foundations in your own life and in our nation …
Before it’s too late.
Those who give the most of themselves, often lost the most of themselves …
But found faith instead.
Freedom is not the right to do evil …
But the right to resist it.
Many desire the forgiveness of the Cross …
Without the transformation of the Resurrection.
It will not go well for them, either in the here and now …
Or on that fateful, final day.
Do you want Jesus for what you want …
Or what He wants?
What’s the ultimate standard for truth, reality and morality?
Our perceptions and sensibilities …
Or God’s written revelation and sovereign will?
Herein lies the difference between popular existential ideologies that have deceived many “Christians” …
And authentic Biblical Christianity as God Himself defines it.
As goes the Church,
So goes the Nation.
Repent,
While there’s still time.
Your worse failings are redemptive if you let God use them to get your attention and bring you to repentance.
Alternatively, you can let them destroy you.
That’s why I seldom freak out when someone in our churches stumbles – many times I’ve seen it become a turning point for amazing redemptive transformation.
But whether for destruction or redemption, it’s always your choice.
That’s because spiritual health and maturity are not about perfection …
But how we deal with our imperfections.
Maybe that’s why true church as commanded in the New Testament is about participating one with another to mutually build up each other …
Rather than putting on performances.
Few are willing to do the hard work of actually being the church.
You know, an active community of believers who encourage and minister to one another …
When they gather together and throughout their daily lives.
Many, instead, are content to let others do “church” for them …
From an elevated stage each Sunday morning.
Be exceptional!
Dare to be the church as the New Testament actually commands it …
And leave that other stuff behind.
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” ~ Jesus
Loving God is not enough,
Because without repentance,
It’s not God you love …
But your own concept of Him.
A Christian can’t truly love the LGBTQ community …
Without opposing the deceptions that trap them in sin and bondage.
Plumbline Faith 