The Fruit of Repentance

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Matthew 3: 1-8

How the people longed for Messiah to come!  They came eagerly and willingly to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  This would be the first time that they had owned up to their individual sins, taking personal responsibility for them.  This was so different from the annual Day of Atonement that they were so familiar with, a day of confession that was more of an event than a change of heart.  It was their yearly spiritual 'bath' that made them feel better for a year.  It was not heart change, for how often had they returned to their sins only to come to next year's Day of Atonement?  Yes, this confession and baptism in the Jordan was a brand new thing, and as they came up out of the water, what zeal and great desire to LIVE RIGHT came up out of the water with them!

The Pharisees and  Sadducees came to the Jordan as well, but with a completely different mindset and attitude.  They too longed for the coming of Messiah, but for them, it was all about how they appeared.  They neither came repenting, nor confessing their  sins, nor desiring true heart and life change.  You see, they believed they were already 'good to go.'

John's charge to them has a bit of a sting to it.  "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance!"  The sting is this:  the command implies that they currently were not bearing the correct fruit  So what is it that they were missing?  Just what was the right fruit?

The fruit of repentance is always obvious, especially to others.  It is the ACTION of turning around, turning away from the sin of which you are repenting.  The fruit of repentance is the cessation of the sin!  It is no repentance at all if you confess a sin to God and even others and then continue to walk in it.  The fruit of repentance is living life without the sin.  This is the fruit we are to be bearing!

Lord, I lay my heart bare before Your holiness, knowing  the multitude of sin that resides within it.  I confess that my sin is offensive to you, and that I am going the wrong way in so many areas of my life.  But I don't want to stop at this confession of my sins, believing that is all I have to do. Confession and repentance go hand in hand.  Speak to me and reveal the sin You wish for me to turn away from this month, as I begin the long process of rooting out all sin in my life.  Reveal to me another one next month, so that at the end of this new year, I will be able to look back and see the mighty work You have accomplished in me.  Holy Spirit, take my hand and guide me as I turn away and walk in a new direction.  I surrender to You and the process of repentance, knowing I will never bear the right fruit of repentance unless You produce it in me.  I am Yours; come do Your work in me.  I desire to live a holy life before You.

The Contrite, Confessing and Repentant Heart

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

"There is a huge difference between telling God that you are sorry for something that you have done, and true confession with a repentant heart.  Saying, 'Sorry, God,' becomes our quick way to get back into His good graces, or at least that is what we tend to think, then do.  If we feel that response hasn't gotten us very far with God, we will usually put a 'please forgive me' with it. 

Don't get me wrong. Telling God that you are sorry and asking for His forgiveness is not wrong at all.  As a matter of fact, we should tell God we are sorry and thank Him for forgiving us.  But if that is as far as we go, then our response is not a confession to God at all.  A confession to God is agreeing with God on these two thing--that you know that you are wrong because you are seeing your sin from His perspective, and that you do not want to repeat the offense.  God wants our confession to lead to something other than the repeated performance of, 'I'm sorry, and please forgive me.'  He desires that our truly contrite confession will to to our future obedience.

Obedience to our Holy God is critical on our journey toward a heart that is no longer divided by its wrong priorities, sin, and idols.  Our obedience is the one thing that sets us apart from the world in how we handle life's situations and choices.  Obedience is the ongoing, outward sign of an inner transformation." 

(Quoted from Chapter 8, "Fully Following God's Commands" in Cheryl Gnagey's book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory.  Her book is available at www.cherylgnagey.com or www.cherylgnagey.blogspot.com)

When was the last time you found yourself on your knees, confessing your sin with a contrite heart and humility that weeps over your error, and God's displeasure of it?  Have you become desensitized to true contrition?  Would you much rather gloss over your sin with an insincere apology to Almighty God?

Are You REALLY Sorry?

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

When you have sinned, do you just come to God and blast out a quick, "I'm sorry"? Are you really sorry when you do this or are you just trying to get out of trouble?

"God does not want us to let our sin off the hook!  And He is not nearly as interested in our, 'I'm sorry,' as He is in our confession of sin and repentance.  Have you ever hear children (and sometimes adult too) say that they are sorry when they really are just sorry that they got caught and are now in trouble?  It goes a little something like this:  'Mary, tell your brother that you are sorry for taking his train engine away from him.'  Several moments pass, so you prompt, 'Mary...'  With all the iciness and attitude of a snow queen, you hear this come from your precious little girl, 'Sorrrr-reeee!'  Within moments, little brother is screaming again for his train engine.  Do you get the picture?"  (Chapter 8 of Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory)

Confession is not telling God that you are sorry.  Confession is agreeing with God that you have done something wrong according to His standards and guidelines.  Saying you are sorry to God, with now plan to really be different, will eventually reveal that you not really sorry at all.  To be sorry means that you understand your sin and error, and that you desire greatly to never do it again.  That heart desire should cause us then to take the first step, and then many more, in the opposite direction of the sin.  This is repentance. 

When you have sinned, and go to God with your apology, consider approaching Him this way:

1. Come in true humility
2. Tell Him that you completely agree with His assessment of the sin (confession)
3. Then tell Him that you are sorry
4. Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, so that you might turn away from repeating this sin
5. Walk away from anything that will lead you to sin in that way again (repentance)

The integrity of your "I'm sorry" that is sandwiched between the confession and repentance of your sin will be revealed in your true repentance of the sin.  Will you walk the other way, or were you just trying to feel better in the presence of God?  Were you trying to let you and your sin off the hook, or were you serious about walking on in holiness and purity by the Spirit?

Is It Really All About Me?

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Is it really all about me?

We are very capable of creating our own gods. When we begin to worship them, we are opening a door not only to feed our flesh, but a door that many others might follow us through. Our self-created gods have one purpose. In the end, they make US god. As we worship them, our flesh gets to be in control and do what it wants, making us the god of our own lives. Life then becomes all about me, not the God I claim to worship.

There is a woman in the Old Testament who gave her silver to her son to create an ephod (Israel's priests already had one that they used in worship at the Tabernacle) and other household idols (teriphim that were worshiped to gain prosperity and guidance).  In the end, her son created graven and molten images that were idolatrous duplications of the priestly ephod and ark of the covenant.  He even hired a wicked Levitical priest to be the priest of his family.

You might ask how this story is relevant to us.  The answer is found in the historical account of what Israel was like in the days of the Judges.  This one sentence is repeated throughout the book of Judges:  "Every man did what was right in his own eyes."  Doing this very thing, this Jewish son re-created a religion that would be to his liking and his benefit, a religion in which he was in control.  He already knew what was right in God's eyes, and turned from it to what he deemed right.

This man led his family astray.  And he could not have known that the creation of his own god according to his desires would also lead one of the twelve tribes of Israel into idolatry as well.  The tribe of Dan discovered this ephod, fake image of the god, and the priest who absolved this family of any guilt, and the tribe of Dan stole them!  Now following this "god" instead of Jehovah, Dan is led astray and is not even mentioned in the twelve tribe in Revelation 7: 4-8.  By the same token, Eve would have had no idea that putting herself first would affect every other human being!  One person's sinfulness can have disastrous consequences in the lives of many.

What are the gods of your life?  What is it that you have created to protect you, bring pleasure to you, make you feel good, put you in the driver's seat, let you do what you want?  What is it that seems right in your eyes because it is not hurting anyone else?  Is it tobacco, alcohol, television, exercise, Facebook, pornography, working too much, material goods of any kind that you just can't get enough of, ministry?  Is it self-sufficiency that says you don't need anything or anybody, pride and arrogance, self-absorption, believing that everything is just fine in your life, false humility otherwise know as the "Eeyore syndrome"?  Every day we should be looking deeply within our hearts so that we might see the gods we have created.  Then we should be about the business of destroying them by surrendering to the only God who can.  

What is damaging our walk with God has the potential to damage others as well.  Who is your "collateral damage?"  Is it your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers, your friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Putting your flesh first is destructive to the kingdom of God and the work He wants to do before Christ returns.  

Think about it.  Ask God to show what your gods are.  Pray about it.  Surrender to the God Almighty, confessing your idolatry (agreeing with God that it is true).  Then stand up and walk in faith in the only God, as a witness to the whole world!