Repentance

P 2183 His word has power in it.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5. “Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you; for our good news [regarding salvation] came to you not only in word, but also in [its inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction [on our part].” V6-9 “You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 

For the word of the Lord has resounded from you and has echoed [like thunder], not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place [the news of] your [great] faith in God has spread, so that we never need to say anything about it. For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,..” 

V13 “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].”

God’s word has power in it. I’m talking about His power ACTIVE in our lives to genuinely change each one of US from the inside out. Paul talks about that kind of transformation, here in Thessalonians.

The biggest transformation in my life came from doing what the bible says – even when I didn’t want to. I simply asked Him to help me obey – and then I did what He said, anyway, in faith. He began to change the things that looked impossible in me – things like changing life-long attitudes etc. I needed His Word to change my mind, and I went on to think about spiritual things His way. That’s what renewing our minds means – we start to think about this life the way Jesus did. He totally relied upon His heavenly Father to keep His Word. Disobedience to God’s ways distances us from the Holy Spirit’s loving ministry in our lives. Repentance puts us into a position to receive again. Repentance means changing our ways, not just agreeing that we are wrong.

When I first met Jesus, in order to fit in, I modified my outer behaviour. The church frustrated me because I strongly felt unaccepted, I was not able to be myself. The reality was, I did not know my true self, I only knew the person this life had bashed about – and I thought my responses to those hard things was who I was. But now I had been born again. I was no longer the same person I was before, I was now brand new! I couldn’t just put on a religious jacket – I needed to start to live out that new life inside me by using my faith.

The Holy Spirit taught me to obey Him by obeying the bible, and He helped me to co-operate with Him. I no longer felt controlled, I felt grateful, helped and free instead: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, labour in vain.” I had to let the Holy Spirit rebuild my ‘house.’ I knew I could not change myself, because some bad attitudes were entrenched in my old self. It was all I could do some days to simply be ‘nice’ to others!  We can’t do His work in us for Him – we must learn to accept our circumstances and yield to Him.

The book of Romans points out that Paul had this struggle too, but he had a revelation about what happened at the cross. He knew he was delivered from this struggle from his former ways, by what Jesus did. He was now a new person. You and I weren’t just saved on the cross, the potential to be totally transformed happened there too. The power to change who we were happened back there at Calvary. We really are brand new, but it’s like click and collect – you just gotta go and get your parcel! Bit by precious bit.

We are not acquainted with this new person until Christ starts to be revealed in us. And, eventually, through us. We are no longer the sum total of our sinful reactions to other people, now we have been taken out of that world and brought into the world of the Spirit that Jesus Christ lived in. Cherish His company. It is a world of loving service to others and the Holy Spirit will help us live there.

It is as if God put our new life into a bank account and gave us His faith to access it – now we rely upon His reliability – His word  – not our own efforts. When we give away the Grace we have already been given to other people who don’t deserve it – we begin to live in the same spiritual place Christ did. Now we regard other people’s needs as more important than our own.

Paul preached this good news to the church at Thessaloniki and the result was other people far away, heard about the change in the Thessalonians’ behaviour and actions. And Paul said that change happened because of the power in God’s word. Test it out for yourself. Believe you’ve already been changed and start to live that way. Start building your new life on the foundation of salvation not on who you were before. We haven’t just been remodelled, we’ve been reborn!  👋🏻

P 2179 No more weight-lifting…

/ DVH

…unless it is part of our fitness regime!  “…let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2 says that sin, and the things we try to ignore, plus the semi-forgotten stuff – weighs us down spiritually. We need to decide to deal with it with the Lord. It can get tangled up around our feet if we do not deal with it. It will cause us to spend our time in the land of condemnation and regret. Spend time in His Presence being grateful, instead! “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus …”  SomeBody else paid – Jesus carried that weight. 

Things like idolatry, murder, lying, etc. are really obvious sins, however, I think Paul makes a fantastic point: “… but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead …”  Philippians 3:13. Our point of faith looks like this: we pray over whatever we’ve done that is weighing us down and ask Him to show us if there is anything we need to act on to repair things. First, we ask for His forgiveness, then we thank the Holy Spirit, and ask Him for His insight and wisdom. Now if I’ve hurt someone I need to go and ask their forgiveness. I don’t make excuses, I just confess my fault. If something needs to be done about my sin then I go and do whatever is necessary. Why? Because I value His Presence more than my pride or embarrassment. 

After that, I give every single bit of it back to Him a-n-d … I leave it there. If I get emotional, worried or distraught about that subject, it is important to go back the Lord and ask and thank Him for His comfort, a-n-d then … put it down AGAIN. Don’t skip repentance and confession. Sin is a barrier to freedom in the spirit – it renders us deaf and more easily deceived. The critical thing is to deal with things but leave the weight of them on Jesus, instead of lumping it about weighing down our hearts. I’ve learnt, from experience, that heavy hearts can’t pray easily.

Laying aside weights is an ordinary part of Christian living, but that does not mean that we have a free pass to walk away from our responsibility to fix things. There are too many scriptures that make it clear we need to fix whatever we have broken. Meanwhile after we’ve done all He tells us to do, it can be incredibly valuable, to take our hands off things. ”Having done ALL, STAND!” Ephesians 6:13. Having repented etc. standing is essential. The enemy is not about to let go of areas in our minds and emotions easily – we will probably need to insist. Guilt over something we’ve confessed, repented about, and changed our ways with His help – is false guilt – it is a shadow cast by the enemy into our heart to weigh us down.

We all know that sin is the poison that pollutes our faith. And I am not talking about tolerating sin – when we do that, we can easily start explaining what God said in the book away – by making excuses for ourselves etc. The aim is to do everything we can, then roll the care over onto Him. With any stubborn sin I’ve also learnt that it is valuable to confess my fault to someone else, and ask them to pray with me, and for me. Humility releases more Grace to overcome. It goes without saying that I avoid any situations that might lead me back into sin again …  It goes without saying that we need to take our sin seriously. Our sin killed Christ. We cannot be blase about something so serious. 

It is also good to remember that sin is also not just what we do, it is also what we don’t do. It is unfortunately much too easy to ignore the poor, or even the needs of our own immediate families because our lives are busy. In Isaiah 58:7 it says: “…is it not to divide your bread with the hungry. And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh.” Jesus Himself told us to remember the poor, and so did the Apostle Paul. It’s in the book. And the Lord Jesus was extremely respectful to His mother and brothers even when they did not understand what He was doing.

The minute we decide to change our sinful ways, the weight of sin becomes easy because Jesus already carried it. We don’t have to be ashamed, because SomeBody else already bore that shame.The past is now the past  – we need to put it down.  And because Jesus has taken our sin for us, we must resist going back to pick it up again. This area is the battlefield … but this battle belongs to the Lord so we can always ask for His help. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Father God wants to give all of us the total freedom to be with Him and not be ashamed. Jesus paid the cost – He took the weight, the shame, the regret, the damage of sin, and He redeemed it. 

That very act shows us the lengths that our God will go to, to have His kids walking with Him. What is of primary importance is our response. Is it gratitude, honouring Him, and a life of service with the Holy Spirit guiding us? The consequences of our sin fell on Christ, but we need to remember to ask for His help to let go of the weight of it. 👋🏻

P 2178 This life has snares.

/ DVH

You may have noticed, when you have come through a period of brokenness, that compassion for other people will begin to rise up in you without any effort at all. Unfortunately, for some people, those moments of brokenness become a snare. They get stuck in the eddy of ‘looking after poor me.’  When we live in self pity, we are leaving a pathway open for the enemy to continually harass us. He lays down snares that take us out of the flow of the Holy Spirit’s compassion. Self-pity, blame, and distraction are satan’s tools.“Poor you” is a snare. “It is someone else’s fault not yours” is a snare. “Ignore it and it will just go away” is another one!

When we allow those things room in our hearts, we are postponing the opportunity to gather in more of His Grace. Personally, I need all the Grace I can get .. all the time. I run out of it a lot, particularly when I am stressed, over-stretched by circumstances, sick, or tired. But there is a real transaction that happens in the spirit when we acknowledge our spiritual poverty and we ask the Holy Spirit for His input. His Grace starts to flow in us again and then through us. I’ve noticed it is very important to learn how to reverse quickly. What I mean by that is that its good to quickly back up, and back down when you are going the wrong way. The Holy Spirit loves to transform situations and He is incredibly good at it. He once took dirt and made a human being, remember? 

In combat warfare, soldiers are constantly on the alert for any sign of danger. The Holy Spirit can see any snares or danger better than we can. We need to listen to Him and stay alert. The bible says this: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:12. It is critical to understand that the presence of this kind of sneaky warfare in our lives doesn’t mean we are doing something wrong. It is often enemy attack. satan hands us thoughts and then blames us for thinking them! However, the ONLY place to find real justification is in Jesus Christ. 

There are some people who try hard to distract themselves from pain and difficulties by ignoring them. Pain is common to mankind. Since the fall, we all experience pain and suffering, and a passive response is an easy one. But those people who have transformation in their hearts take an active stand, pick up their sword (verse/s of scripture) and fight! They live alert to the real enemy around them. That doesn’t mean we fight others! We need to fight that kind of thinking – bad thinking feeds itself – and our enemy often stands by handing us reasons to stay there.

There are plenty of pitfalls and snares that pop up when we purpose to take our thoughts captive to Christ. EG: We can end up blaming someone else. This is another pointless pathway. We have no control over another person’s behaviour, the only thing we can change is our response to their actions. Blame is a distraction. It takes our focus away from the real battle – which is our transformation – and creates a smoke screen. Taking ownership of our own faults, and inviting other people’s help to overcome them, is a pathway to humility. But blame leads to bad outcomes. We need to identify all that for what it is, and stand squarely against the thoughts that hand us illustrations about other people and how they have treated us badly. 

Distraction is another snare. Distraction clouds our ability to identify what is really going on by telling us to go somewhere else, watch TV, or not to think about it so we won’t feel bad anymore. In my experience distraction nails one of my feet to the ground and I go round and round and round feeling bad, and not knowing why. I try to pray and the words fall right on the ground in front of me. I need to seek God as a priority instead because at this point there is a possibility that I have shut off God’s bowels of compassion for others. 1 John 3:17. Our position in this life is to forgive others and we are to reach into their lives with His love.

To avoid snares we need to stay alert spiritually. Our primary focus is always what Jesus wants. It can help to realise that repentance is a normal part of the Christian life, it is not something to be avoided or used only in emergencies. Repentance shows that we have spiritual strength – we know we don’t have to be ashamed to be wrong. And we know that we can ask for more of His love and grace after we have done what we need to do. The Holy Spirit will sift our hearts for us if we ask Him to. He can see all those snares ahead and warn us and help us avoid them. Bye 👋🏻

P 2159 Water from the Life-Giver.

/ DVH

Because God Himself is our only source of living water – nothing else will do. Fresh water needs to move, it needs a conduit, not just a container. This means that the Holy Spirit flows through us. Into us, and out through us – like breathing. Living water needs to be able to flow, in order to keep it clean, so the Holy Spirit must be allowed to do what HE wants – we cannot organise or control Him. We need to learn to yield. Let’s not waste this precious water by allowing ourselves to have leaky pipes!

Look at Jesus. As He walked with the Spirit sometimes He stopped doing one thing to do another. He was led by the Spirit, and we need to live our lives being led too. We need that flow – a constant supply of fresh living spiritual water, in and out,  in order to sustain the life of God within us. Our active belief in Jesus creates a spring, which springs up inside us, refreshing us, and everyone around us. We need to monitor that internal spring, and check what kind of water is coming OUT of it. (James 3:11)

The way to keep this living water flowing is to let it flow in and out.  As soon as you dam water by taking it in, and not letting it flow out – you run the risk of water contamination. It is the movement of the Holy Spirit through our lives that keeps the life of God active in us, and through us, to others. We need to act on what He tells us, to keep this water of the Spirit flowing. We drink, and then we act. This process is not programmed or static.

Here’s what Jesus said: John 7: 37-39 “Jesus once again speaks of living water, saying, “’Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. ‘ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.”

We get His living water — the life that sustained Jesus — by obeying the Holy Spirit, as He leads us. And by ridding ourselves of our own human contamination – attitudes, thought patterns, anything that exults itself against the knowledge of God. This means that we can’t carry around our human agendas, foibles and sins and stay full!  Our job is to remain empty of self, by putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Telling lies, or shouting at people, or provoking them, being critical and mean, these kind of things are the deeds of the flesh. My advice is to stop looking at what other people are doing, and start looking at what is coming out of you. The secret to staying full of the Holy Spirit is to remain continually thirsty. It means living this life acknowledging our desperate need for God Himself and His input. 

We don’t have to be ashamed of being inadequate, we just need to acknowledge that we are, and keep the channels of our hearts clean and clear and FULL of His Love with open repentance. Because repentance has fruit and that means CHANGE. Then we put aside our own ingenuity and ability, and come humbly to the Lord for fresh water. Christ’s death made this work possible, and so we must always go to the source, which is the Cross. His life’s blood and water … flowed from His side. Ya might want to think on that. 

We cannot afford to bottle or even try to channel the Holy Spirit. He must be allowed to flow as He wishes. We dare not try to control His flow either. Instead we are totally dependent upon Him. Our belief is that Jesus Himself will always give us this living water so we use our faith to be constantly filled. However, we, ourselves, must actively look after our containers, our inner selves – by keeping short accounts with others and walking with the Lord in obedience. The bible is not full of His suggestions – He is leading us into His new life.

At the same time, we get fresh spiritual bread from the living word – the bible. We need to let the Holy Spirit daily break us, our habits, our ideas – looking deeply into the bread of the Word and then eating it –  by doing whatever He tells us to do. The only effort we make to have fresh water and bread every single day, is the effort to sustain and develop our relationship with Him. I say effort, because most of the time we won’t feel like doing it – other things will intrude upon this relationship, to dissuade us from spending time walking with Him. BTW we walk with Him, we don’t just meet Him for 15 minutes in the morning. That can quickly become a religious ritual.

Jeremiah 2:11-19 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Our mistake is to expect the Holy Spirit, Who is a torrent! – to flow through our teensy weensy man-made systems.  👋🏻

P 2155 Some interesting stuff I’ve noticed.

/ DVH

The Holy Spirit loves to point out our errors in thinking. He does it to expose, reveal and explain our own hearts to us – because God’s book says that ‘our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all else.’ In other words we are probably so afraid of what we will hear that we don’t speak the truth to ourselves – even when no-one else is around! One of the problems I’ve noticed that I have, is that my still-being-renewed-mind sometimes lies to me. Seriously. It tells me stuff to keep ME feeling comfortable. It reassures me that everything I did was OK – and the bad thing that happened was all that other person’s fault not mine! 

My mind does not easily want to change. It wants to feel loved, petted, and reassured – it wants to live in a false sense of security. I have to exercise my will over it, even to entertain the possibility of looking at my own mistakes. Otherwise I will continue to read the bible putting mental ticks on what it says, and nothing will change in my heart or actions. I might even try hard to come up with the right behaviour, but without any acknowledgement of sin that is pointless.The blood of Jesus is the only remedy for sin! In the end the result is that I stay the same. My ego hides my faults from me. 

My mind also says that doing something dumb won’t matter, just this once. 😳 As a matter of fact, when it is left unchanged, my mind continues to excuse my own behaviour and points out and accuses yours instead. It keeps me so busy concentrating on what you said and how you hurt me, I CAN’T SEE MY OWN FAULTS.  So my un-renewed mind allows me to protect myself – at your cost. I need an outside guideline that is fixed, so when I am inwardly defending my own actions, I have something concrete in front of me to correct me. Tada! Enter the bible. 🥳 That book has the power in it to change ME – inside and out.

However, when I read His book like I already know and agree with what it says in there – I missed the point. The bible is a mirror for my mind, will and emotions and actions. Instead of looking at it and thinking: “Boy that’s interesting…” or …“Wow look at that!” I need to read it like it is a searchlight revealing who I am, PLUS who I AM NOT! I need to read it through the eyes of repentance, that’s when the power in His book becomes apparent. It is not a historical book – or even a reference book. It was given to us, to do what it says, and it diagnoses our need for transformation.He uses His book to correct us with His eye upon us. DAILY.

Every single one of us deserves hell without the blood of Jesus, so let’s settle the argument of what is right and what is wrong right here and now. The bible immediately shows me where my thinking and actions are awry – I simply need to sit down with the Author and put my fear of being wrong or exposed down – because this Author wants what is best for me! When I hear from the Lord from His book, I can take what He says in there, to the bank – it’s an anchor for my soul. 

I can believe what it says, above what I think or feel. The bible does not excuse my behaviour. It exposes it in reality. Then it makes it clear, that AS I obey Him – now I have the capacity to be bigger than I was before, because of what Christ already did for me. I am not supposed to ignore or hide my sin anymore, I just need to confess, acknowledge it and co-operate with Him, for change. I don’t have to be afraid to be honest about my faults, I don’t even have to be afraid if you see them. I simply repent and start using the faith He already gave me to ACT differently.

Meanwhile, I have never ever heard the Lord say to me: ‘Just let it rip, tear that person apart. They deserve it.’ 😶 When I hear stuff like that junk inside my head I know it’s not coming from Him. Duh!🙄 I’ve also learnt that I do not have to be afraid to confess my faults to you, or even someone who hates me … because they have faults too! Remember, confession is the beginning – change happens when you start to act in faith. Do what He says. 

We all have a responsibility to this world we are living in to put others before ourselves. An un-renewed mind will not like living that way, instead it wants to know … when is it my turn? We are currently living in an age of self-preservation, the truth is not popular. Dying to self, rather than hurting others, is not popular. I’ve learnt that following Jesus all the way to the cross has power in it. It is called the power to overcome. That kind of faith transforms a life. There is always a resurrection after we die to self – we rise again changed. 👋🏻

P 2148 The Body of Christ must learn to deal with itself.

/ DVH

There have been some articles in the press lately, about this sin in this church and another sin in that one. I believe that our churches need to be a well-cleaned window into the ways of our God. Nothing inside our lives together should be offensive to God or man. However, that does not mean we won’t make mistakes but it does mean keeping our lives clean, honest and open, is essential.

1 Corinthians 5: 1-3 “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this…” 

Please note Paul is not just saying: “Give this man a smack on the wrist and tell him to stop.” He is telling the church to deal with these things, swiftly and decisively. This guy’s sin has affected their church. Our God has tied His reputation to ours, and that should mean something to us. Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation – He had to – to identify with us! Sadly, we ferret about trying to hide this thing and that circumstance, and hope it will all just disappear into the ether. It won’t. The church at large has a terrible reputation because we keep sweeping stuff under a rug. That pile under the rug has started to smell and, guess what? Other people have noticed that we are drowning in our own hypocrisy.

However, let us not just dismiss stuff as being some other denomination’s problem … because … whisper whisper … we always knew they were a bit off. The bible says we are members of each other. In other words my sin is your sin and your sin is mine! I get spasms in my hands sometimes, but that does not mean that my hands don’t belong to me, just because they keep doing stuff without my permission. Some denominations have been highlighted in terrible ways … but we can’t just write that stuff off as not being our particular church’s problem! Or say things like: “Our denomination is not like them.” That’s pride, judgment, and a huge lack of love. And if we don’t have love we are bonging away like Big Ben. The Lord is telling us to deal with our own garbage out of respect for Himself and the Body of Christ … not to mention caring for the souls of the people committing these sins. 

Just because some stuff is tolerated in our societies, that does not mean we should live in hope that it will fade away. Or maybe stay hidden. We need His heart, He loves the sinner, and hates the sin. Our problem seems to be the way we deal with things, not just the stuff going on. What’s wrong with repentance, whether we belong to that denomination or not? Plus supporting our brothers and sisters in prayer until they have His plan for dealing with things. Paul reacts here with swift discipline, and then compassion.

I admire Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz from Argentina – his books are terrific. In one of them he tells the story of someone at his church who was caught cooking the books  – this person stole a heap of money. Pastor Ortiz’ immediate reaction was to put him out of the church, sending the man and his innocent family into jail and abject poverty … a-n-d … serve him right! However, Juan is a man who listens to God, and so the Lord began to deal with him about what he had done with the thief. 

To make a long precious story very short – in the end after much prayer, he went to the thief and said: “I will not put you out of my church, your disgrace will be my disgrace I will stand right beside you and bear your shame with you.” The thief was immediately deeply convicted of his sin, and suddenly he understood that what he had done had affected everyone else. That story sounds just like Jesus to me. The Lord came and owned us before we even knew we were sinners. He stood beside us and said to the world: “They are with Me!”

I am not talking about dismissing sin, or disregarding its consequences, or even feeling sorry for the sinner. I am talking about being His love in action. I think the reason we often take the supposed high moral ground is because we have absolutely no idea what love looks like and we are not living close enough to the Lord’s heartbeat to hear what He thinks. Sadly, we care more for appearances.  Here is the second half of that story in 1 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 2:5-8 “If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.  I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”

The Body of Christ world-wide needs the kind of wisdom that Paul exhibits here, to manage those things that are remaining hidden inside our churches. We also need to make it clear to the world around us that our churches are full of forgiven sinners. For too long the Body of Christ has avoided confronting the things that need to be confronted. We simply must learn to deal with ourselves, because one day… the book says …we will judge the angels. 👋🏻

P 2091  Repentance is a process.   

/ DVH

I think I have mentioned before that my dear hubby sometimes sends me a verse that has touched his heart, and I loved it as well. Like this one in Luke 7:47: “She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown me such extravagant love.But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”” (Emphasis mine.)

This was hubby’s comment: “I love this verse. It shows me those who think they are ok and basically good won’t reach out for forgiveness, and therefore don’t have the love for Him (expressed in action) because they’ve shut the gate of experiencing it.”  Wow! We won’t experience God’s love in all its fullness when we hide from our own sins – or gloss over them – or excuse them.

But when we acknowledge our sin – His immediate tender forgiveness opens our eyes further and suddenly we will see what we’ve been given! Our love for Him is released.. But if we excuse, or dismiss our sin as nothing, we are missing out on one of the PRIMARY WAYS to recognise God’s love and give love back to HIM.The whole point of calvary was to set us free from sin and reassure us that no matter what we’ve done – we are loved.  When we ask for forgiveness – it opens our hearts, then gratitude takes over because He is gracious to us and we are so undeserving.

This verse says that the measure that we use to assess our sin is the same thing which will cloud the view we have of sin. Itlimits our perception of His Love and it puts a ceiling on our love toward Him. EG: If we think whatever we did was kind of nothing – then we will not live gratefully and our hearts won’t be open to more of His love pouring in. It’s an exchange – repentance opens our hearts to the exchange. 

The punch line is that NONE of us deserve forgiveness. This woman understood she had sinned against HIM and her actions opened the floodgates of her heart toward Him. She demonstrated her love for Him! We cannot afford to assume we are OK in His eyes, we need to ask Him to show us how, when, where and with whom – we have missed the mark. And thenhumbly fall at His feet. What she did that day, through those actions, is still remembered to this day. Her gratitude and love was in those tears.

We don’t have to be afraid anymore to be utterly honest with ourselves because His love races toward us. When we repent we stay “in Christ Jesus” – covered by His blood.Confession and repentance open the doors to a greater awareness of how wide how deep and how great His love is toward us, and how much love we owe Him. Being sinful is no longer our problem, Jesus took care of that – BUT – deliberately staying that way IS still sin! Telling the Lord that we cannot change when He paid for us to change, and gave us the power to do it – is sin. We are minimising His incredible Grace and cheating Him out of the glory He deserves.. 

We can also be imprisoned by our own lack of humility. Pride gets in the way. It is as if we are in a jail cell and the door is wide open, Jesus Himself opened it, and He is waiting on the other side, and we sit there like Gollum hanging onto his ‘precious!’  All because we refuse to acknowledge that we have hurt others and ourselves. The woman in this story went from sorrow to ACTION. She did something about her sin, she didn’t just acknowledge it and go away, she openly repented, in front of the very people who condemned her. She poured out her grateful love on His feet.

We must not use the forgiveness that cost Jesus so much to just blithely go about and do what we like. When we refuse to acknowledge the sins that we tolerate, the things that need His Grace, we can’t see Him properly. Christ paid a huge cost to give us this freedom, and He has even more incredible love to pour out upon those who will humble themselves and set their faces to live a life of grateful service. 

God’s good news is this – human beings no longer have to be punished for their sinful behaviour, Jesus was punished in our place. BUT … we cannot use this precious incredible gift to continue down the pathways of sin – by not loving, not caring, not sharing, not changing etc. We are primarily a grateful people who love MUCH. Bless you today, 👋🏻

“But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:47a

Hi! The ads are not my choice, ASAP I am hoping to return to my usual site. Please bear with me, thanks. 🤗