Biblical Repentance....

We see the need of repentance in our own personal lives. We see the need of it in our churches and on a national level. If we want to see God withhold His Hand of judgement in our lives and in our churches and on our nation, we need to come to Him in humility and repent - turn from the wickedness and seek the Lord God with our whole heart.
But what is repentance? Repentance is a change of mind to the point where it changes your actions. It is a point of turning. You are going in one direction - you come to the knowledge of sin and you make a complete change and turn from it. You seek forgiveness from that sin with a determination to not repeat again.
In the Old Testament we read many places where it uses the word repent to describe how God withheld the punishment he was going to inflict on people when they turned from their sinful ways. A good example of this is in the story of Jonah. Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh saying that God would destroy Nineveh in 40 days if the people continued on in their sin and in Jonah 3: 10 it says  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
The story of Jonah is also a good one to show us what real repentance from sin looks like. It is not just saying "oh sorry God I messed up" and then continue on without any further thought and next thing you know, you are doing that very same thing again and the quick "sorry God"  did not change you at all.
Our sin grieves the heart of God and in the story of Jonah, God was grieved over the sin of the people in Nineveh. In Jonah 1:2 God says to Jonah - Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. Jonah did not go as the Lord God instructed and he had that whole experience inside the belly of the great fish. But in Jonah 3 God again sends Jonah to the city of Nineveh.and this is the message he brings -  Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. At hearing this the people acknowledge their sinful ways and turn to the Lord for forgiveness. Jonah 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Here we see that the realization of their sin brings sorrow to their hearts. They believe God's message - God is Holy and we have sinned against Him.
Jonah 3: 8-9  But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Repentance involves your mind, your emotions, and your will.
1) Mind - within your heart you must be convicted that God has the authority to tell you what is sin. You must believe the Bible when it tells you what God considers to be sin. The Ten commandments tell us the heart of God. I would encourage everyone to read my blog post on the Ten Commandments. If anyone reading this doesn't know what grieves the heart of God, Galatians 5: 19-21 tells you
¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
²¹ Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

2) Emotions - You become broken and ashamed of your sin. This definitely involves crying out to God for mercy and you grieve over your sin and for most people this would involve the shedding of some tears.
3) Will - You need to have a plan of action. You need to plan how you together with the help of God are going to make this change happen. This involves making things right with other people. This involves prayer, burying yourself in the Word of God, seeking Him with your whole heart. You hate the very sin that you used to love because now you see it as God sees it. You hate the sin and want no part in it at all.

You will know you have repented when you see these Fruits of Repentance in your life:
1) Absence of rationalization - you are no longer looking for a way to justify what you have done, or blame it on others or explain it to make it seem like no big deal. There is an absence of phrases like - "everyone is doing it" or " the devil made me do it", or "I just couldn't help it", or " it's just how I am and you will just have to accept it", etc
2) Genuine Sorrow, Heartbrokeness - You are genuinely sorry for what you have done. Even if you get the chance to do that sin thing again, you will not do it because now you hate it, the very thought that you did it other times sickens you. As I mentioned earlier you are grieving over your sin.
3) Open Confession of Sin - You are no longer trying to hide it. It is out in the open now. You have stepped away from that former lifestyle. You need to confess this to the people close to you and sometimes to your church. You are accountable to God.
4) Restitution - You want to make things right with those you hurt. You are willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. We see the heart of one who wants to make restitution in the story of Zacchaeus  Luke 19 verses 8-9 :  And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.  And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

So again I say we see the need of repentance in our own personal lives. We see the need of it in the churches and on a national level. If we want to see God withhold His Hand of judgement in our lives and in our churches and on our nation, we need to come to Him in humility and repent - turn from the wickedness and seek the Lord God with our whole heart.

Jesus to the Rescue!!

What would you do if...You were out on the lake fishing enjoying the afternoon, when suddenly you notice a short distance away from you, a young man in the water, no lifejacket and he is fighting to stay afloat. Without help, he will most certainly drown. You have taken a lifesaving course at an earlier time in your life so you know what to do. You have an extra life jacket with you in the boat. What do you do?  There is no doubt that each of us would do whatever we could to get that young man safely to shore and get him the medical help needed.
Or..  if  the weather channel was forcasting  a bad weather event such as maybe a tornado or hurricane, would we not do what we could to help people around us prepare and help get them to a safe shelter before the storm hit?
So also it only is common sense that as  Christians, we would want to share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ with people before it is too late. We want to reach the drowning man and get him to Jesus before it is too late. We want to reach the people facing the storms of life with the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ before it is too late. It is a matter of life and death! An urgent matter of soul salvation.
 We know that the decision for Christ must be made here in this life on earth. Once a person passes through death and into eternity, there is no longer any chance to repent of sin and be saved. If we have turned from our sin and accepted Christ Jesus as our Savior here in this life, then we will be eternally saved. But if a person rejects Christ and his offer of forgiveness here on earth, there will be no opportunity to do so after a person has passed through the door of death.
Perhaps some one reading this may be thinking - 'I am that person caught in the water or in the storm of life and unsure of my eternal destination'. - You may be unsure where you would be right now if you had died today.  Then I would like to encourage you to take the time now to reach out to Jesus as He is reaching out to you right now. Get to safety in Jesus before it is forever too late.

God loves you and sent His Son Jesus to die in your place to free you from the penalty of sin.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Sin separates you from God.  We have all sinned, We have all chosen to sin and  need to be saved through Jesus.
Romans 3:23 -For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

We cannot get to God on our own - by doing good works or by trying to be good people. God has provided the only way and that is through faith in Jesus finished work on the cross.
John 14:6 -Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Confess all known sin to God, turn from it and ask Jesus to come into your heart and life to be your personal Savior and Lord.
Romans 10:9 -That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
1 John 1:9 -If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There is no other way to be saved, to have assurance of eternal life with God in Heaven. Jesus is the only way!
Acts 4:12 -Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

1 Corinthians 15: 3-4 -For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
⁴ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

I urge you to pray and receive Christ today!

Heavenly Father, save those who are seeking You. Save them Father before it is too late. In Jesus Name, I ask, Amen

Only 1 Real God....

One of Satan's schemes to deceive people is that he would have us believe that there are many ways to get to heaven. Satan would have us believe that one god is as good as another and you can choose which one you want to serve. Satan would have us be favorable to all of the various religions (such as Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism ,etc) and have us believe we can live however we choose and still reach heaven. This is absolute falsehood and not true. The only God that Satan doesn't want us to have is the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Satan is fine with any or all of the rest of the gods that people worship.  BUT there is only one God - the three in One -( FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRIT) who  created the world, and there is no other God. There is only one way to Heaven.  Jesus is  only way to get to God.  Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father came as a baby, born of the virgin Mary, walking  on this earth and  showing us how to live,  died on the cross as the payment for our sin, rose again on the third and ascended to heaven to the right hand of the Father and now we wait for His soon return to earth to come for us. Those of us who are saved will meet Jesus in the air.  If we choose to try to reach God some other way, it will result in failure. Our eternal destiny is at stake here. And there are only two destinies - If we choose Jesus, then heaven. If we choose one of the others, then hell.
So the question is - What must we do to be saved so we can get to the one true God and heaven?
First, lets get a few scriptures that tell us about the only true God and there is none besides Him.
 Isaiah 43: 10-11..Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.  I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour
Here it is clear - there never was any true God other than the LORD and there will never be any other after.
Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
and verse 24:
Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Now let us consider the way to salvation. This very thing was asked of Paul and Silas while they were  in prison in Acts 16:30 -"...... Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
And the answer is very clear in verse 31 - And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
 Mark 1:15  is very clear where is states - And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
And of course the well known verse, a favorite of many people is John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So basically it involves repenting - which is to see sin as God sees it, If He says something is sin, it most certainly is and we give those things up in our lives and ask Him for forgivenes and cleansing through Jesus blood.
And we believe - Believe in Jesus , his death and ressurection as described in the Bible. Believe in the only true God the Father, Jesus the Son of God, and Holy Spirit who then comes to live inside of us and guides us through life.
Accept Jesus as Savior today and begin today to live the rest of life for Jesus.

So we can see that Muhammad is not the way, Buddha is not the way, Joseph Smith is not the way... JESUS alone is the way.
Acts 4:12 - Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.