Real Repentance

I've really been enjoying Michael Lawrence's new book, Conversion: How God Creates a People. A few chapters into the book Lawrence writes about repentance and the dangers of false repentance. Here is how Lawrence defined repentance...

Real repentance is a new worship. It looks like a changed life, but the changed behavior results from a change of worship, not the other way around.  

Repentance is being convicted by the Holy Spirit of the sinfulness of our sin - not the badness of our deeds but the treachery of our hearts toward God.  

Repentance means hating what we formerly loved and served - our idols - and turning away from them.  

Repentance means turning to love God, whom we formerly hated, and serving him instead. It's a new deepest loyalty of the heart. 

So what do you think? Is your repentance genuine or false? Tomorrow I'll post how Lawrence describes false converts.

Leviticus and Our Sin (part 2)

Yesterday I briefly wrote on the Seriousness of Sin as observed in the book of Leviticus. Today I want to share with you a second challenge/encouragement.

2. Sin is Costly. Because sin is serious Leviticus also teaches us that it is costly. In other words there is a price to be paid for sin. In Leviticus we find that a persons sin would cost them a beast of the field, a bird of the air, or some grain (in the case of the poor). But beyond the material cost there was the humiliation of a public confession. Not that the sinner would announce to everyone the specifics of his sin (though he probably did to the priest), but just walking that animal to the tabernacle was probably considered a "walk of shame" because everyone knew that you or someone in your house had broken one of God's perfect commandments.

Because we tend to make light of sin we also tend to forget how costly sin is. We often take for granted the sacrifice of Christ, never considering the high price He paid for our salvation. Also, because we tend to make light of sin we often fail to humble ourselves by confessing our sin to God and even more so to others.

Take some time today and consider the cross; consider the high price that Jesus paid for your sin. Take time to humble yourself and confess your sins to God and to others (certainly those you have offended).

Leviticus and Our Sin

For those who are following the Scripture reading plan we are now 8 chapters into the book of Leviticus. In these first eight chapters we read of sin, animal sacrifice, blood, alters, priests, guilt, and much, much more.

As I have been reading there are three truths that have challenged/encouraged me and that I hope might challenge/encourage you as you consider Leviticus.

1. Sin is Serious. In Leviticus God takes the sin of His people very seriously, even the sins that they have committed unknowingly (5:14). In Leviticus we see our Holy God demanding justice for those who would violate His perfect commands. This is important for us to understand, because we live in a culture that treats God's perfect commands and our violation of those perfect commands (sin) as a joke; a punchline on a prime time sitcom. Sin is no joke. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin destroys people, families and churches.

If there is one lesson we must learn from Leviticus it is that sin is serious and we must treat it as such. Where are you prone to make light of sin? What do you find non-offensive (maybe even funny) that God finds offensive? Are you giving more attention to Scripture (where we learn of the perfect commands of our Holy God) or the media (where they treat God's commands as a joke)?

More to come tomorrow....

Repentance - Part Three

So how do we repent? James MacDonald suggests that the best biblical model for repentance is the story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-32. (let me encourage you to take some time and read through that text) MacDonald then writes that repentance involves the mind, the emotions, and the will. (I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God, 92)

First is the mind. In the story of the prodigal son verse 17 says that he "came to his senses." We too must come to our senses we must begin to see our sin for what it really is - disgusting and destructive!

Second is the emotions. As we discussed earlier, grief is the appropriate emotion (2 Corinthians 7:10). Our sin should grieve us and not just because we suffer the consequences of it, but because it displeases and grieves our Father. The prodigal was grieved by his sin; he returned home guilty, humble, and weeping.

Third is the will. Here is where the rubber meets the road; here is where plans begin to form, that is, plans to avoid our specific sin in the future. So, what will you do to avoid your sin in the future? Let me give you a few suggestions:

1. Accountability is a must. Find someone you can depend on to provide you with biblical encouragement.
2. Renewing your mind with Scripture is also vitally important. You must continue to remind yourself what God has to say about your sin. (Ephesians 4:20-24)
   
3. Finally radical amputation may be necessary (Matthew 5:29-30).

I know this is a pretty simplistic approach to a big issue, but my hope is you might find some help in these posts. If you are struggling and need some one on one counsel don't hesitate to let me know.

Repentance - Part Two

Yesterday we began a discussion on the topic of repentance. Most of our attention was focused on determining what it is we (individually) need to repent of. Once the Holy Spirit reveals to us our sin, repentance is the process of seeing our sin the way that God sees it. Once we see our sin the way God sees it we will have what the Bible calls 'Godly Sorrow' and 2 Corinthians 7:10 teaches that godly sorrow leads to repentance.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

The question is does our sin cause us to sorrow? And I am not talking about sorrowing because of the consequences of our sin, but rather to sorrow because the sin itself brings displeasure to our loving Father. Do you weep for sin? Do you cry out to God for mercy? Maybe we can all take a cue from the grieved and humbled tax collector in Luke 18:13

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

Brothers and Sisters we (I'm in this with you) must come to the place where we weep for our sin; we must hate it just as our Father in heaven hates it. God be merciful to us!

Repentance - Part One

Repentance is more than saying, "I'm sorry;" it's more than regret. To repent means to change your mind (and purpose) about something. In his book I Really Want to Change...So, Help Me God, James MacDonald defines repentance as the process of seeing our sin the way that God sees our sin. I love that definition because it reveals a much deeper issue: we don't like to call sin, sin. In a recent Wednesday night discussion we were talking about getting frustrated by circumstances that don't go the way we want them to go. In the discussion that word "frustrated" kept getting used, over and over again. Until someone finally called frustration what the Bible calls it: Anger. You see "anger" is a much heavier word than 'frustration.' But we resist the heavier words; we make light of our sin or we don't even classify our sin as sin.

I write all this to direct our attention to the first step of repentance - recognizing our sin; recognizing what needs to change; viewing our sin as God views our sin. James MacDonald asks these provoking questions: "Can you name a specific area of your life that is not like that of Christ and is bringing you heartache and struggle because of it? What specific thing is God seeking to work on in you?" He then goes on to list 5 steps to help us get specific in naming our sin:

1. Ask God for wisdom to know exactly what He wants to change in you. (James 1.2-7)
2. Review Biblical lists for attitudes and behaviors to change. (Colossians 3.5-10; Galatians 5:16-21; etc.)
3. Isolate your own areas of need.
4. Confess to a friend.
5. Express to the Lord your willingness to change.

So here is where we must begin, calling our sin what God calls our sin; seeing our sin the way God sees it. Let me encourage you to spend some time searching the Scriptures and allowing the Spirit to search your heart and we will pick up here tomorrow.