Forgiveness God's Way

2 Chronicles 7:14
…[when my people] turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins…

"WHEN" and "IF" are the operative words here.

Those who love God have forgiveness in their heart and hope that they can extend it when someone is ready to confess.

However to extend it before someone is sorry is defying God's order and very likely empowering those who are unrepentant to continue along the same lines they have always operated.

No man will be forgiven to a restored relationship with God until they are sorry for their sinfulness and desire to be changed by Him. 

Neither can human relationships be restored without God's formula. Are we greater than God to forgive without repentance and confession?  Think about it!

God Does Not Honor Unrepentance

Unrepentance is to not feel bad about the evil that they do!

God requires that we change our minds about sin, hate it and want to be free from it.

Those who refuse to change their mind about their sin cannot be born again. God will not save those who are not sorry for their sin.

God only saves those who are sorry and want to be changed into a new creation by Him. Those who will not confess their sorrow and will not ask God to change them, will not be saved.

This is also true in human relationships.

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him”. Luke 17:3-4

Sadly our wrong teaching about how to restore a relationship has been skewed by psychology, making forgiveness superficial and ineffective in restoring anything.

When we have a wrong view of repentance, that is a change of mind toward sin then we will operate in human relationships in a way that prevents a change of heart in those we superficially forgive. We remove the sting of sin that God intended to be there so that the sinner will want to be restored to God first and then to other human beings.

How we think about repentance determines how we honor or dishonor God. If we trust Him we don't look at results we look at obedience to God's way and just do what He commanded. The results belong to God, we are not responsible for someones reaction to truth.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7 " 6 I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.…"

When we demonstrate a wrong view of repentance and relationship restoration we prevent people from coming to Christ the right way with the right attitude. Sadly far too many people think they know better than God, after all they were educated in psychology......oh wait a minute.....God never uses manipulation He uses truth, He commands and then He responds based on our obedience or lack of it.

Stop looking to man for the psychological answers and begin trusting Christ.

Who is More Important to You?

Who is more important to us, God or everyone else?

God does not bless or forgive those who are not sorry. He never enables those in serious sin to continue in their sin without consequences.

Matthew 11:20-24
The Unrepenting Cities
20 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent.
21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.
23 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

Here we see that God chastises the wickedness of the people, He does not coddle them in their sin nor have compassion for them, He destroys them. This is the side of God most people don't want to believe.

Those who think that sin is not very important cannot be led by the Holy Spirit of God. They love their sin, they love their freedom to do as they please and they do not love God.

When we love someone we desire in our very depth to bless them, to follow them and to engage with them as often as possible. God wants our hearts not merely lip service to make ourselves appear spiritual to those around us.

One can read the Bible often, know it inside out and upside down, but if they violate its teaching they are demonstrating their love to be honored for what they know rather than a desire to please and follow Christ.

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.’”…"

1 Corinthians 8:1 "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies."

Our modern idea of love is not love at all, it seeks to "feel good" about self while our companions are destroying their lives and their eternity through their sin and rejection of Christ.

Yes it is true, most people understand that if they stand for righteousness to please God and to help the sinner to repent they will be rejected, mocked and lectured by others as though they are mean or wrong. They will be treated with dissmissiveness and contempt by nearly everyone around them.
Those who are sinning will reject us along with all their friends.

Many people can spout verses from the Bible, even sound very interested in the Bible while at the same time violating more of scripture than they obey. These people are play acting to impress others. They say; "see how smart I am, how much I know" while spurning any correction that might help them to actually become wise.

2 Timothy 3:1-5
“Difficult Times Will Come”
3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 HOLDING TO A FORM OF GODLINESS, ALTHOUGH THEY HAVE DENIED ITS POWER; AVOID SUCH MEN AS THESE."

When we discover that someone is walking in sin without repentance, we must remove ourselves to avoid becoming like them.

Psalm 13:19-21 "Desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but turning from evil is detestable to fools. 20 He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed. 21 Disaster pursues sinners, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous."

God is not impressed with these diatribe stage productions to defend adamantly their position to sin all they like without challenge. These same people reject and mock those who desire to help them move forward in holiness. Their dedication to their sin is far greater than their disdain of it, if there is any disdain at all.

Those who defend sin to claim we are under grace are more concerned about their human relationships than their relationship with God. These people are also more interested in being loved by their peers and family than they are pleasing God. Helping someone to remain in sin makes us complicit in their sin, we are responsible when helping others to sin if we do not come against it.

Psalm 50: 16 "But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to tell of My statutes
And to take My covenant in your mouth?
17 “For you hate discipline,
And you cast My words behind you.
18 “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
And you associate with adulterers.
19 “You let your mouth loose in evil
And your tongue frames deceit.
20 “You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.
21 “These things you have done and I kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes."

Everything we think will determine our walk. What is in our hearts does not stay in our hearts it emerges as actions that destroy or build up. Building up someone does not mean merely kind words and flattery. When we build up our brothers and sisters we bring truth so they can pray to fix what is wrong in their character.

Romans 1:32
"and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

We are responsible to be dedicated to God first and human beings as they honor God. If they do not honor God in their lives then we are responsible to speak the truth for them to repent, if they do not we are responsible to remove our self to allow God to do what comes next for them. If our words will have no effect then our presence won't either.

Proverbs 14:7 "Go into the presence of a foolish man, And thou shalt not perceive in him the lips of knowledge."

Luke 16:30-31 "…30 ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone is sent to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”"

John 5:46-47
…46 If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

Repentance, What the Bible says about Repentance, Biblical Repentance

Lies of the Devil

We are living in a time when so many people are creating memories in their head that never occurred. These are not their own thoughts, they are from the devil who paints pictures in the minds of defenseless unbelievers to cause problems in relationships.

Many people I have known have been accused of things they never did or said.

One very famous case was in the garden of Eden when the devil placed doubts in Eve's head saying "did God really say that?" His purpose was to cause Eve to distrust God. If he could get her to distrust God she would resist listening to the very One Who created her. Satan accused God of lying to Eve, even withholding information from her to prevent her from becoming like God.

Eve believed the devil because he flattered her, she liked that he was making her feel as powerful as God, even to the point that she could defy his command to not eat from the tree.

Don't think for one minute that the devil created the doubts in mankind just that one time. He has been continuing to destroy interpersonal relationships from the very beginning.

The truth is that most people do not have the courage or dedication to remain strong against lies. The sad truth is that most people will cave easily to the pressure of their peers to fit with the crowd. The pull of the crowd is far greater than the dedication to truth and righteousness.

All we have to do is look around us to see all the people who are indulging in the latest fad or fashion so as not to stand out. They will give up important character traits to be able to be loved by others.

Titus 1:9
"He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it."

One cannot rebuke or administer sound doctrine if they fear the reaction of others.

1 Peter 2:1-25
"So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ..."

Our love for Christ must be so great that rejection of others is completely irrelevant. We must be able to walk away from those who love their pride and acceptance of others more than they love God.

Psalm 34:17-20
"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken."

No one will be as close to us or as dedicated to our well being as Christ is, no one should be honored above Him.

Luke 10:16
“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

Where is your loyalty is it to Christ or to man?

Miss-judging Out of Bitterness or Jealousy

Often people will judge something as harsh even when it is the cure and blessing if they would just listen. Because they don't want to hear it, they deliberately misjudge it. Also those who are jealous will wrongly judge on purpose. 

Joanne Maya DeGroot

5 hrs

If you think I'm harsh, then you see
Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Paul, and the Prophets were mean as well.
They Spoke Truth!

Do You Fear the Devil?

I don't fear the devil at all, he runs from the Holy Spirit that lives in me. If he attacks me it is only with God's permission to test me. 

When God tests me He doesn't need to see how I will respond, He already knows that. He tests me so that I will see what is in my heart. 

When we respond badly its no one else's fault but us. We can train ourselves through prayer and self restraint to act according to God's will, we do not have to be manipulated by the expectations or manipulations of others.

Matthew 4:1
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."

When God reveals us through our responses to His tests then is when we confess our failings and ask for strength to do better next time. Those who cannot confess will not grow.

Those who do not think they have any failings remain spiritual and emotional babies without growth and possessing intense pride. The very pride that got the devil thrown out of heaven.

Is our goal to become more like Christ or just loved by the world? Its an important question in order to move on in holiness and obedience to Christ.