Self in the Dirt

Self in the Dirt!

 

The writer this week asks the question

” Did you ever think you would be further along in your spiritual life?”

 If we recognize our own sin and come to grips with our distance from God’s will in our life it should move us in a direction towards him and the broken relationship that needs healing. This would usually result in repentance, personal brokenness, and is the first step in a personal cleanup of the wreckage that sin brings. Never forget that repentance is a work of God using the influence of the Holy Sprit seeking that intimate relationship he so jealously regards with us. To quote James McDonald in the lesson Downpour “Repentance is a gift that God gives to a person who wholeheartedly seeks him. ” Is there a possibility that you believe that your attitudes or actions are not wrong even though the word of God says they are? Have you thought to yourself that your actions are OK since truth is kinda of a mystery and besides it’s too hard to say no? After all there are a lot of worse things I could do and this is “not that big a deal”. This is a good indicator that the truth is still 18” from our heart and needs to make the journey south.

 Mat 6:12  and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

 Luk 15:7  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

 Act 3:19  Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

 Act 17:30  The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

 Repentance

REPENT’ANCE, n.

 

1. Sorrow for any thing done or said; the pain or grief which a person experiences in consequence of the injury or inconvenience produced by his own conduct.

 2. In theology, the pain, regret or affliction which a person feels on account of his past conduct, because it exposes him to punishment. This sorrow proceeding merely from the fear of punishment, is called legal repentance, as being excited by the terrors of legal penalties, and it may exist without an amendment of life.

 3. Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. This is called evangelical repentance, and is accompanied and followed by amendment of life.

 Repentance is a change of mind, or a conversion from sin to God.

 Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. 2 Cor 7. Mat 3.

 Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice, from conviction that it has offended God.

 2Co 7:9  As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

2Co 7:10  For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

2Co 7:11  For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

 Mat 3:2  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 The writer of the lesson states there are 5 marks of repentance:

 1. Grief over Sin

2. Repulsion

3. Restitution

4. Revival toward God

5. Moving forward

 The Greek word used in the New Testament for grief is lupeo meaning “greatly distressed” also to be in heaviness or sorrow. If repentance not guilt, over getting caught is really the objective in our lives. Then we would bear that heaviness or feel anguish in our Spirit. Have you considered?

 

                                  

 

 

 

 

            

 I use visual images to help me grasp concepts better in my mind (I still need pictures). This one helps me realize several thing about repentance, a.) I deserve the cross for my sin b.) my sin caused Christ to suffer on it c.) he paid for my sin so I could be forgiven! Only later in my life do I realize how precious his blood is and how careless I have been with its application in my life. Every time I sin and I still do quite often I have to come to terms with this image in my life. Here I am again seeking forgiveness for something I should not have done in the first place. More and more I am repulsed by my own irresponsible behavior towards the very thing I cherish the most, my relationship with Jesus. The only way I can ever repay him is to simply surrender and let the Holy Sprit work in me renewing me, reviving me and filling me again. You see I can never repay the gift of love I owe to a God who would sacrifice his only son just so he could have a friendship with me. So moving forward the central question I have to answer “ Am I being as good friend to God as he had been to me? What about you?

 

 The scripture speaks to this as well:

 

Gen 18:27  Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.

 Job 42:6  therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

 Isa 6:5  And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!

 Luk 5:8  But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”