Tears of Repentance

This is exactly why I question the salvation of so many people who say they are Christians. They have no testimony of having been broken over their sinfulness, even fighting to argue how good they think they are or becoming enraged when challenged to greater holiness.

"Either sin must drown in the tears of repentance or the soul must burn in hell." Thomas Watson

Sealed for Eternity

When we trusted Christ, He came to dwell in us, from then on He continues to train us, help us and discipline us when needed, but He never leaves us.

Ephesians 1:13-14 "13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

Judge Righteously Not Flippantly

Leviticus 19:15 'You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

Isaiah 11:3 “And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

When we judge by what we hear or see rather than by God's Word, we are going to be led astray, often working against the Lord in worldly wisdom rather than righteousness.

Do not evaluate a speech based on words alone, or what we think we see. Dig deeper, evaluate the entire matter through research and prayer.

Anything that does not match up with God's Word we are to discard. Far too many people are predisposed to accepting men and circumstances on words alone or a witness of snippet of actions, rather than the whole matter.

Forgiveness God's Way

The modern church teaches many things that were spawned from psychological teaching not from the Word of God.

We have been told to forgive offenders when they are not repentant. This is the opposite of what Christ taught.

Luke 17:3 "3 Take heed to yourselves. IF your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and IF he repents, forgive him."

When we remove the step of requiring sorrow for sin, we validate and facilitate an attitude of entitlement without need for change in the offenders behavior or attitude. This is the reason so many preachers exclude the step of conviction of sin in their preaching while promoting a Jesus that winks at and overlooks sin.

God says this: Isaiah 26:10-11 "10 Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD. 11 O LORD, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it."

Satan knows the effectiveness of making an unscriptural act look compassionate to thwart God's ways and principles. Short cutting God's ways destroys the chances of a hardened heart to become softened toward God.

When we have faith we don't have to soft peddle the hard truths that sin cannot be forgiven without repentance, either toward God or in personal relationships. God's ways are the right ways, psychology follows after human desires while orchestrated by the devil to remove all guilt, all conviction and all real restoration.

Psychology's claim is that we will become bitter and angry if we don't forgive the unrepentant. There is no scripture that indicates this, we hate that the unrepentant will not humble themselves, because our desire to restore the relationship is strong. God commands us to forgive, but to forgive His way.

Simply "letting go", whatever that means, when someone will not repent, does nothing. It does not restore the relationship, it merely promotes superficial friendliness that keeps a wall between those who were harmed and the unrepentant heart. Nothing is fixed, nothing is resolved. It is tantamount to sweeping the dirt under the rug or throwing a sheet over it, rather than eliminating the problem entirely. It is similar to placing a bandaide over a gaping wound that requires surgery.

An unrepentant heart WILL repeat their behavior, having to confess to be forgiven is a deterrent to repeat offenses. The more we confess the greater possibility that the sin will be forsaken.

To not require confession is to disobey God's Word which does require it.

James 5:16 "16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail."

1 Corinthians 11:29-31 "…29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment.…"

We do no one any favors by forgiving before they have been broken over their sin. We help them to remain comfortable with what should change. Change only comes when conviction makes the heart heavy until one desires a change.

1 John 1:9 "9 IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

God does not forgive us when we do not repent and we should not forgive the unrepentant either. When a believer walks in pride and will not confess, then we are to remove ourselves from them until they choose to confess and forsake that which has ruined the relationship.

I have met many people who never change their ways because no one holds them to account for their behavior. They go through life believing God forgives no matter what they do or how many times they offend Him. These people count on everyone around them just "letting go" of their anger over offenses. We give them this sad view of Christ by incorporating psychology into our thinking. Doing things God's way is harder work with greater life long results.

When we forgive without repentance we do it so we will "feel" better. It is a grievous thing to have to distance ourselves from those who will not repent, but it is for the greater good. When temporary feelings are the focus of how we operate, we thwart that greater good in favor of superficial and ineffective means for our own personal comfort.

When our focus is Christ, we see things in terms of the eventual outcome rather than temporary superficial feelings, we see the possibility of a changed heart toward God, perhaps even salvation because of the burden of guilt that is God ordained for those who are in sin.

The greatest love toward anyone is to promote confession as God does. Forgiving when there is repentance and remaining open and honest, working out problems rather than sweeping dirt under the rug, only to surface later.

An Election Will Not Save Us

It is important that all Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ remember that in this election cycle we will not be saved by "President Whoever."

As a nation we are going down for the count as a free nation because of our open rebellion against Christ and righteousness.

We have acted the way Israel acted when God said;

Matthew 15:7-9"…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”…

Divorce and remarriage accepted nearly completely.

Abortions: babies murdered at the rate of 4000 a day, now over 56 million killed since 1973.

Gender confusion, the newest craze of America.

More babies born out of wedlock than in marriage.

Movies that depict evil as good, while pornography is rampant. America is the largest distributor of filth than any other country.

Homosexuality rampant, while 10,000 people ride through the streets naked with children watching.

Ball games taking over church services, while rock bands dominate the attention at "worship" in the modern gathering.

The list is very long, all the sins that America enjoys and defends as "freedom to do evil" has become her god.

We have added Christ to our man made celebrations as though they were ordained by Him, when in fact He hates them.

Amos 5:20-22 "…20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it? 21"I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22"Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.…"

The violations of the principles of God as described in the Word of God are so many it is impossible to count. Almost every believer I know is practicing rituals and holidays that would anger God. They fight to argue their validity while ignoring the scripture with which we warn, to justify their sin under the misguided manipulative language of love and "do not judge."

We have ignored the warnings about violating nearly every command of God, while claiming to follow them.

One way the devil has worked, has been to add Christian words out of context to pagan and rebellious man concocted ideas, causing people to feel justified in their defiance.

So many superficial believers think as long as a "god word" comes out of someone's mouth, that means they are saved. There is no sense of "questioning all things" as God tells us to do, discerning good from evil.

Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

The church as a whole has so little discernment they cannot even tell if something is in the Scripture or not, because they are not reading it, praying over it and seeking God to enlighten them. Is it any wonder why our culture that calls itself Christian is a stench in God's nostrils or that the blessings of God are methodically being removed.

The family in America is nearly destroyed. Most people have so much chaos in their genealogy they don't know how many grandparents they have. Now the children are being raised to believe they can choose which gender they want to be.

When we have stopped listening to God, He will stop blessing and has! We have not yet seen the devastation, we still have our money, places to live and are fat with enough food.

I am convinced that until those things are hard to come by, we are not going to see the folly of our own defiance. By the time we do, it will be too late to recover, and I believe that time is now.

However, there is hope beyond this country in the next existence if only those who have lived by their contempt and revolt, will repent (change their mind toward God), confess their sin of rebellion against Him, asking to be changed by Him, then will they be saved for eternity, the life that far surpasses anything we think we have on this earth.

This life, no matter how wonderful for some, is dung compared to the love of Christ and the place He has prepared for those who love Him. When our eyes are opened to His love, His ways and our sin, we see clearly how ugly our way was and how lovely His way is.

Romans 11:33 "33O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways! "

When my eyes were opened to truth, all the sin I loved became ugly to me. My new desires were for those of the Lord's, I began to think like He thinks, desiring what He desires. He changed me, it was not my doing, but all His.

Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life."

Do you want to be born again, changed into a new creation by Christ? Just ask Him to do it in you, save you from your sin and hell. Then your eyes will see with new eyes.

Your circumstances may not change, but you will perceive them differently. Your life will begin new challenges to grow and develop that desire within you. Often it means having to lose the old friends, the family who will be against your choice and a loss of many things we used to want, but no longer.

2 Corinthians 5:16-18 "…16 So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:…"

Conformed to Whom?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBpO_1e5L_I

Never Let Discouragement Control You

For those who feel discouraged about all you have been through and what is going on in the world I have this to say;

If we see things the way Christ sees them, we will know that everything that is happening has purpose, even our very difficult times.

We are in training to be rulers in the Millennium. If we had no difficulties to work through, toughness to endure and planning to resolve issues, then how could we ever rule over anyone.

We must know what the mind of the rebellious looks like, how it operates and actions it takes to be able to handle it in wisdom effectively. We must also know the impact of attitudes and actions on victims, their needs must be taken into account.

Yes, Christ will give us all we need, one way He does that is to take us through challenges that have to be endured and solved, while trusting in His ability to show us all we need to know.

Romans 8:27-29 "27 And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.…"

After the crying is passed, the sorrow diminishes, then we can stand back and look objectively at the lesson we were to learn that makes us stronger than we were before. Crying releases stress, making us ready at the end of it, to continue on in obedience to our Lord.

Philippians 4:12-14 "…12 I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. I am accustomed to any and every situation—to being filled and being hungry, to having plenty and having need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. 14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share in my affliction.…"