God’s Hand In Repentance

I always thought we had to look at allllllll our sins and repent for each and everyone of them BEFORE God could change our hearts and put His Spirit within us and give us the strength to obey Him. Like we gotta clear our house before allowing Jesus in. I read Ezekiel today and v31 really blew my mind.

Ezekiel 36:25-32

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.²⁸ Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. ³⁰ And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. ³¹ Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations. ³² Not for your sake do I do this,” says the Lord God, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!”

Here Ezekiel is splitting up the relationship between God’s action and our action very clearly. v25-30, He will cleanse, He will change our hearts, He will help us walk in obedience, He will give us the inheritance and prosperity, He will make us successful in what we do, He will make us forget our shame. THEN and only then, will WE, v31, will realise our sins and hate our past sinful self.

It actually does kinda make sense.

Firstly, we are sinful and sin filled creatures. We only want the best for ourselves and to satisfy ourselves. We will never willingly repent until the Holy Spirit does some kind of work on our hearts and some kind of rewiring in our minds. The first step of repentance and humility requires a soft heart. v26 says God will put a spirit in us which would soften the heart of stone into the heart of flesh. God was labouring in us even before we said yes to Him.

Secondly, we can’t possibly know ALL God’s laws and repent of all the sins. I don’t think we could even know our heart attitudes or problems that well until after we’re dead. If we had to be super holy before Jesus could come into our hearts, no one would ever be Christian. God’s work in perfecting our lives is a step by step process. We realise and overcome one sin, then another. We learn one Godly attitude, then another. And this whole process can only be done with God’s strength and grace.

We need Him for us to be rid of sin. We even Him even for us to just repent for the first time.

Paul Expands Jesus’ Ministry and Teaching to 13 Books. John Summarizes Jesus’ Ministry and Teachings in 11 Verses.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

3 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ² while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. ³ And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, ⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.
⁵ Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
⁶ And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

John Preaches to the People

⁷ Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ⁹ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?”

¹¹ He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.”

¹² Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”

¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”

¹⁴ Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?”

So he said to them, “Do not ^[c]intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

Mind Blown By C. S. Lewis AGAIN

An Excerpt From Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis You may remember I said that the first step towards humility was to realise that one is proud. I want to add now that the next step is to make some serious attempt to practise the Christian virtues. A week is not enough. Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try six weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point one began from, one will have discovered some truths about oneself. No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.

The Knowledge of Christ

The words of Paul in Philippians 3 says

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.

I find myself asking what is this knowledge that Paul is talking about? This knowledge that can cause us to be found in His Presence and also in His Righteousness (v9).

What if Knowledge is an important key? Without knowledge, we would be believing in all sorts of made up imaginations. Let’s call this False Knowledge. With True Knowledge we would really know for sure.

Now WHY do we need to know for sure? I think it’s because knowledge brings forth faith. No matter if it’s false knowledge or true knowledge, it will bring forth faith. We practice faith everyday. Even in the simple things. We have faith that the chair we sit in will support our weight. We believe that the amount of salt we add into our soup adds the right amount of saltiness we want. But we also make mistakes of having faith on a pen that is out of ink, so we only brought one pen to class. Or leaving the powerbank at home because we remember (falsely) that we charged our phone at home.

Why do we need true knowledge? Because it affects our faith which affects our actions. The value of knowing Christ Jesus that surpasses every other knowledge. I have yet to achieve this level of value and regard to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. But I believe I will. Let’s press on into God’s will and words. Keep studying His word, keep looking to Him for perspective and leadership, and keep doing everything you can for His glory. And may He Grace you with revelation upon revelation.

Kneel And Bow

Lord Jesus may Your name abide in my heart. May Your glory be my highest desire. May Your Spirit fill me to overflowing.

Abide in me.

Less of me.

More of You.

Take the throne of my heart.

I step down as king and crown You, the Rightful King.

Will We Ever Understand Him?

God works in mysterious ways

Truth

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;
But happy is he who keeps the law.

 

If there was only one reason to teach the Word of God. This would be it. To reveal the truth. And that people see that there is a way to obtain real fulfilling joy. Without the truth, the world is stumbling into chaos.

Prayer For Youth

I’ve been married for 8 months!

Can you believe it?!

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We’re currently going through an Alpha Youth Course. And it’s great, because of the great discussions and life changing lessons. Most importantly, we see God’s children being blessed. Both newer and older Christians. Here’s a great prayer to pray for them.

Eph 1:15-23

Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom

¹⁵ Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ the eyes of your understanding^[c] being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what isthe exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power ²⁰ which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

²² And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

If God Loves Us, He WILL Let Us Go Through Tough Times

As I was praying for Joey, I asked Him to just stop and fix a situation she’s in. I know He can. He’s the Master Fixer. He can heal anything. He can stop anything from happening. And He can make anything happen. It’s entirely up to Him.

But He reminded me that He let’s us go through tough times and tight spots because He loved us. 

He said He did it to protect us and strengthen us. What??… Isn’t that the opposite? I know He’s the Master Protector and Master Strengthener, but I forget He uses tough and bad situations as He pleases! Okay I admit, they’re probably more effective.

Tough times are like vaccines pumped into our lives. 

He’s in control just like the doctor control’s the dosage. He has our situation under control no matter what. 

He tells us it will hurt and it might even leave a permanent scar. He doesn’t lie about it being just an ant bite. He knows what a punctured skin and what scars feels like.

He knows our body will be able to take it and overcome it, thus effectively be immune to it. 

So He tells us to just hold on. You may feel a bit sick from it, but keep on keeping on. You can take the punches. 

Passive Christianity Is Dead Christianity

What do you want? What do you desire? What is your ambition?

Do you really want to know? Look at your behavior. You do what you want.

This is a devastatingly simple psychology of motivation. But it’s what the Bible teaches:

James: Faith without works is dead. Don’t tell me you have faith if the way you live doesn’t back up what you say. (James 2:17–18)

John: Love without deeds is dead. Don’t tell me you love if the way you live doesn’t back up what you say. (1 John 3:17–18)

Paul: Grace without holiness is dead. Don’t tell me you revel in God’s grace if the way you live doesn’t back up what you say. (Romans 6:12–14)

Jesus: Discipleship without obedience is dead. Don’t tell me I’m your Lord if the way you live doesn’t back up what you say. (Matthew 7:21)

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Read the full article here

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/passive-christianity-is-dead-christianity