Examine Yourselves

How To Forgive (part 2)

2012-09-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

Continuing on in our journey to forgiveness, if you are reading this then you have already made two decisions; the first being that you have decided to forgive, followed with the decision as to why you are choosing to forgive. In other words you have worked out for yourself (because you are the only one who can) what is in it for you, to choose the path of forgiveness. You did not make the decision because it’s what you are expected to do, or because others have told you that you should, because if you did, in the end you will not honestly forgive. You made it because you have answered the primary question that you must answer before you can truly begin pursing forgiveness… WIFM ‘What’s in it for me?’

Now you must answer another question that only you can answer, I can not give you the answer, nor can reading any book (or blog), listening to any scholar, friend, guide, pastor or family member. All of whom can give you “an” answer, but not "the" answer. You have to decide this for yourself.

You must define what ‘forgiveness’ means to you. If you don’t own the meaning of it, then it is simply a word, and not an action. To help you discover what forgiveness means to you, it will help to know what it is not, to identify any misconceptions that may be lingering about in your mind as to what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is NOT:

1. Forgiveness is not sending the message that he (or she) can do wrong and get away with it.

2. Forgiveness does not mean that you have to bury your anger

3. Forgiveness does not mean the other person wins and you lose.

4. Forgiveness is not putting a smile on your face and saying everything is okay

5. Forgiveness is not going soft on something that is severely wrong.

6. Forgiveness does not mean you have to be the good guy while the bad guys skips away free

7. Forgiveness is not letting go of healthy forms of anger

8. Forgiveness is not lying down and becoming a human doormat.

9. Forgiveness is not pretending to go back to normal as if nothing happened.

10. Forgiveness is not allowing others to disrespect your needs and boundaries.

11. Forgiveness is not telling the one who has harmed you that the past does not matter

12. Forgiveness is not denying that you may have to live with the pain caused by the one who harmed you. AND LASTLY

13. Forgiveness is not agreeing to be best friends with the one who harmed you.

Some things that forgiveness DOES:

1. You will release any demand for restitution, especially if you have exhausted all reasonable efforts at restitution or restoration.

2. You choose to let go of any illusions that you might somehow control the wrongdoer’s life.

3. You will choose to give up any obsessions in regards to the wrongdoer, as you have better things to devote your attention to.

4. You will focus on rewarding relationships and pursuits.

5. You will stop looking in the mirror at what is in your wake and instead look forward to the new opportunities that await you.

6. You will give yourself permission to make choices that will lead you to contentment, peace and joy.

The choice of forgiveness will not eliminate your pain, nor does it mean that you will never feel emotions associated with the trespass that has been committed against you. What it does do is regardless of the trespass you have been made to endure, it enables you to refocus your energy, emotions and thoughts on the better plans of the future instead of remaining tied to the burdens of the past indefinitely.

Before we turn our attention to how healthy anger and forgiveness not only can co-exist, but actually go hand in hand, you must first answer the question

What does forgiveness mean to you?

How To Forgive (part 1)

2012-09-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

I will go to church on Sunday and it is very likely that somewhere within the sermon that I will listen to, that my pastor will encourage forgiveness. He will quote scripture and draw a lesson on why we should forgive those who have sinned against us. If you go to church you probably have and will hear something similar on a fairly frequent basis. I have heard different variations of that same message my entire life and so have you. I do not disagree with the idea, the action or the encouragement to do so, however what is frequently lacking in these messages of “why” is the all important “how”. To explain the “why” and not the “how”, reminds me of the old Abbot and Costello comedic routine “Who’s on First”. It can only lead to confusion at best and frequently to long lasting guilt for those who are struggling with forgiving someone who has caused them harm.

Let’s be honest, we all struggle with forgiveness, no one is immune to it. If you have dwelled on this planet for any length of time perhaps you can relate to being haunted by problems from your recent or long ago past that seem insurmountable. Perhaps you have scolded yourself for not being “over” it, or at least further down the road towards forgiving the individual who hurt you. Many of you have gone so far as to attempt to convince yourselves that you shouldn’t even be feeling the pain that you feel, that somehow your pain is not legitimate. However the truth is, that your pain is legitimate and the good intentions of your friends, family, church, society, and finally yourself telling you that you are wrong for feeling unforgiving only magnifies and impedes your struggle to forgive.

There begins the motivation for the following series on “How to Forgive”. It is meaningless, pointless and cruel to instruct someone on why they need to do something, and then fail to show them how to do it. While I do believe that you should forgive, I will not tell you that you have to. If you choose to, then perhaps what I will write will be of benefit to you in that endeavor, if you choose not to then you need go no further then my first point.

Forgiveness is a choice

Read that again. Forgiveness is a choice. This is going to sound backwards, and it certainly sounds (at first) as if it goes against Christian theology, but as forgiveness is a choice, it means that you do not have to forgive. No one can force you to forgive, it is not mandatory. In other words, to understand how to forgive you must first understand that you do not have to. That the only way to truly forgive is to permit yourself to hold on to your anger and hurt feelings forever if that is what you want.

You can not settle upon which choice you are going to pursue until you have answered the same question we all must ask of ourselves. “Why should I forgive?” Or put another way “What benefit to you would there be if you choose forgiveness or if you choose to hold on to your hurt and anger?” You need to settle your answer to that question before you can move any further in either direction.

Next Post - What is Forgiveness

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 5 of 5)

2012-09-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

“Forgiveness is the final form of love.”

Reinhold Niebuhr

In the world you and I live in, there are very, very, very few things that can be stated with absolute certainty; but this is one of them; as long as we live on this side of Heaven we will face conflict. If you are most of us who dwell on this planet that means that you will be on the “losing side” of that conflict more often than you are on the “winning side”. As a result you will be susceptible to feelings of anger, anxiety and depression; you will suffer broken relationships, rejections, manipulation and abandonment….

Conflict is inevitable, and it hurts, sometimes it hurts so deeply that it rips at your very soul, however in spite of that you were made to have options, you were made to have the ability to choose, while you can not chose to opt out of the trespasses that will be committed against you, you can choose what happens inside you.

That is what this short series has been about - “choices”; for once you realize that you have options available to you, it is then possible for you to choose which course you want to follow. Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings hope.

I am not so naive to presume that by just telling a person that they need to forgive that anything has actually been accomplished, more often than not, such a statement causes more stress and does more harm than good. Why? Because while you may have been taught right from wrong, good from evil, that you were to be forgiving, and fair while you were a child; and while you may have had an awkward and brief conversation about sex; truthfully how many of us when were teenagers did a parent, counselor, trusted friend, guide, sit down with you and say “Let’s have a discussion about your emotions, the meaning and direction of them, how you deal with adversity and how you are going to deal with the inevitable heartbreaks and conflicts of your life.” You were never taught HOW to forgive; and the church in America which preaches forgiveness, offers no guidance whatsoever, other then to tell you that you must forgive to be forgiven. Talk about pressure.

I am going to tell you truthfully and straight up that to find the hope that you once possessed YOU MUST FORGIVE; however I will also acknowledge that it took me years worth of work to forgive those who betrayed, slandered, lied, stole from and abandoned me. Forgiveness does not happen overnight. But it can happen, if you choose to seek it. Time does not heal all wounds, it simply covers them up under a layer of dirt, you can not will forgiveness into existence, you can not pray it into existence, you must work at it, and it will be the hardest work you will ever undertake. If you ever want to have peace and hope, it is what is necessary.

While I have spent the last five posts writing about forgiveness and why you need to forgive, what I have really been doing is leading you to the next step. Doing it. To help you in that endeavor I will turn my attention to sharing with you what I have learned in my struggle to forgive, not why, but HOW - Twelve Imperfect Steps to Forgiveness (more or less).

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 4 of 5)

2012-08-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it takes a song, a poem, a letter, or a video to reach the coldest of the cold. Sometimes a song can touch that part of a person's heart where mere words fall deaf. If you struggle with forgiveness it helps to remind ourselves that which was done for us. He does not think it too great a price to pay, He does not think it is to late for love to win.

"Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins."

1Peter4:8

'This is How Love Wins' by Steven Curtis Chapman

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 3 of 5)

2012-08-15T00:03:00.001-07:00

“Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” Corrie Ten Boom

Have you ever noticed that those who have committed horrible acts of betrayal eventually come around to saying one thing about those whom they betrayed? “They just need to forgive and move on…” Of course if they honestly felt like helping the wounded along in the process they would admit to their sin, repent of it, and do whatever is necessary to make amends, but therein lies the rub, the reason for them making the statement is driven more by their own desire to absolve themselves of any responsibility, to pretend that there was no harm, no foul. However selfish and self-serving the reason for making the statement, they nevertheless are correct, but for the wrong reasons.

To them and if you were to admit it, to yourself; forgiveness always seems so easy, when we need it and so hard when we need to give it. So how do we do the impossible, forgive those who are not sorry for the harm they have caused? How do we forgive when we don't feel like it?

It begins with a decision, a decision to pursue forgiveness. How do we translate the decision to forgive into a change of heart? We forgive by faith, out of obedience. Since forgiveness goes against our nature, we must forgive by faith, whether we feel like it or not. We must trust God to do the work in us that needs to be done so that the forgiveness will be complete.

I believe God honors our commitment to obey Him and our desire to please Him when we choose to forgive. However it does not happen overnight, sometimes the journey to forgiveness may take years, but we must persist in our commitment to honor Him by forgiving those who do not deserve it. In His time He will complete the work He has begun in us. We must continue to forgive (our job) by faith, until the work of forgiveness (His job) is done in our hearts.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6

Forgiveness is not saying that what the person did against you is okay, it is releasing to God that which is reserved for God. If as a Christian you accept that God is your heavenly father, how does a father respond when one of his children deliberately hurts another of his children? He does not overlook it. He acts with mercy to the injured and with justice to the guilty; always tempered with love. What someone has done against you is one thing, however if you take the bait of unforgiveness, your decision will cause much more damage then they were ever able to.

Your father wants you to forgive, because the decision to not forgive is the decision to hate; to hate another created in the same image as you were, to hate someone that God loves. Every moment you hold on to that hate, it acts like a drug slowly poisoning your soul. You cannot praise God and curse another made in His image, one is fundamentally opposed against the other. Hate or love, only one can win.

God commands you to forgive, to give you life, a future, hope. Forgiveness is an act of faith; it is the ultimate submission of your will to God’s will. To choose to forgive makes your heart more like His. Forgiveness is how love wins.

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 2 of 5)

2012-08-07T01:24:00.002-07:00

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you Colossians 3:13

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matthew 18:21-22

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-16

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:25

Jesus is very clear … Forgive… However He does not tell us how to do so. He gives to us the impossible mandate, something that we are incapable of doing on our own. A command that leaves us twisted and turning knowing what He expects of us being pitted against our own desires for retribution, or at the very least, vindication. I believe that is precisely the point, that as we make the decision to pursue forgiveness, we are naturally drawn closer to Him. Anyone who has ever pursued the act of forgiving quickly realizes that we can not, it goes against our very nature; that the act of forgiveness is in fact a divine act, one that we are only capable of achieving with the help of God. Thus we begin a new series on the command to forgive.

How does a person know if he has forgiven? It is when you have crossed over that bridge, where you no longer feel rage over the circumstances, in it’s place you feel sorrow. The anger at the individual who has caused you such pain and suffering is replaced with a genuine emotion of feeling sorry for them. When finally, you have nothing left to say about it all.

Writing how you know that you have forgiven is the easy part, the journey to that point, however is hard. It’s filled with emotional upheaval, anguish, self-doubt, insecurity, and any number of false ideas. The journey of forgiveness itself, is frequently sabotaged by ourselves before we begin. The road towards forgiveness must begin with ‘accountability’. As you pass through the junction of accountability there are three paths that exit the far side of it, only one of which can show you the way to forgiveness. Some, choose the path of denial, of justification; you know who they are, it is your co-worker who blames his wife for his infidelity, the neighbor who only backed into your car because you parked in his blind spot, the employee who takes home a few items from work, because his boss doesn’t pay him enough, or the woman at church who only gossiped about you because everyone else was.

Then there are those who choose the path of self blame, of blaming themselves for the actions of others, the woman who tells her best friend that it is her fault that her husband is having an affair, the neighbor who apologizes for parking where his neighbor could back into him, the manager who thinks that if he were a better manager then his employees wouldn’t take things from the company, or the member of your church who smiles and says that it her fault that people gossip about her, because she deserves it.

Finally there are the few, the very, very few who know that to honestly forgive someone you must first know precisely what it is that you are forgiving; you must face the truth. Those who tell the adulteress husband that she was not there when he made the decision to betray his family, the neighbor who informs his neighbor that it was not his car that was moving when it was hit, the employer who lets an employee go because they accepted the position knowing what the benefits and requirements were, and lastly the member of your church who confronts those gossiping with a gentle reminder to read James 3

It is only when you are honest with and about yourself as well as those whom you seek to forgive that you can begin the journey. Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger, it does not excuse evil, and it does not tolerate or smother it. Genuine forgiveness begins when we look evil full in the face, call it what it is, let it’s horror shock, stun and enrage us, only then are we capable of beginning the road to forgiving it.

Forgiveness - How Love Wins (part 1 of 5)

2012-08-02T23:32:00.002-07:00

Forgiveness is not something you choose to do because of who someone is, or because they have earned it; rather it is what you choose to do in spite of who they are. Because they can never earn it; and neither can you.

"Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again" 1 "Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again" 2

1. Saint Augustine 2. Dag Hammarskjold

Forgiveness by Mathew West

True and False Repentance (Part 4 of 4)

2012-07-29T22:20:00.001-07:00

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:10-11

In concluding this 4 part series on true and false repentance, the distinction between them is the difference between light and darkness. Perhaps the simplest test to ask of yourself is this: Are you ashamed to have any person talk with you about your sins? If you are, all you have accomplished is to experience worldly sorrow, the effects of which are short lived and contrary to what you may think, act only to drive you further from Jesus and forgiveness, then you were before. Why then do so many, who are still unrepentant sinners, get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance.

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:
IV. How it may be known:

How will false repentance be known?

1. It leaves feelings unchanged: the disposition to sin remains unbroken within the heart. The feelings as to the nature of sin are not changed, but rather the individual still feels a desire for sin. He abstains from it, only from the dread of the consequences of it.

2. It leads to hypocritical concealment: The individual who has exercised true repentance is willing to have it known what he has repented. He who has only false repentance, resorts to excuses and lies to cover his sins, he will cover up his sins with a thousand apologies and excuses, trying to smooth them over, and minimize their enormity. He commits one sin to cover up another. Instead of that genuine, open-hearted breaking forth of honesty and frankness, you see a smooth-tongued, half-hearted mincing of words that is intended to answer the purpose of a confession, and yet to confess nothing. He is ashamed to have anyone talk with him about his sins, his sorrow is only a worldly sorrow, and works only death.

3. False repentance produces only a partial reformation of conduct: The change that is produced by worldly sorrow only extends to those things of which he has been strongly convicted of. The nature of his heart remains unchanged. He will only avoid those cardinal sins, about which he has been humiliated by. He has no desire to alter or even recognize the pervasiveness of the sinful life that he lives. Overtime you will witness that he continually relapses into his old sins. The reason is, the disposition to sin is not gone, it is merely restrained by fear, and as soon as he has a hope and is in the church, he gets bolstered up so that his fears are allayed, you see him gradually wearing back, and presently returning to his old sins. They love to call this ‘backsliding’, or something in that vein; but the truth is, they always loved their sin, and when the occasion offered, they returned to it.

4. Lastly false repentance leads to a hardened heart: The individual who has this type of repentance grows harder in proportion to the number of times he is sorrowful. If he has strong feelings of conviction, and his heart does not break in response to his guilt, the fountains of those feeling dry up, and his heart more and more difficult to be reached. Not so a true Christian, take a real Christian, one who has truly repented, and every time the truth bears down upon him, it crushes him before God and he becomes more mellow, more easily affected, excited and broken under God's word. His heart gets into the habit of going along with the convictions of his understanding, and he becomes as teachable and as a child born again.

True and False Repentance (Part 3 of 4)

2012-06-13T00:42:00.003-07:00

Why do so many, who are simply filled with regret and remorse get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. This is the third part of a four part series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. W hat is false and counterfeit repentance:

IV. How it may be known:

This is not difficult, yet so many of us seem intent on making it so. In America today even the clergy seem to have diluted repentance down to regret. However, just because you call a sparrow an eagle does not make it so. So what is false repentance? False repentance is said to be worldly, the sorrow of the world, that is, it is sorrow for sin, arising from the worldly considerations and motives connected to your present life, or at most, has respect to his own happiness in a future world, and has no regard to the true nature of sin.

1. It is not founded on such a change of opinion as I have specified to belong to

true repentance, there has been no change in the mind in regards to sin. As such the change is not on fundamental points.

A person may see the evil consequences of sin in a worldly point of view, and it may fill him with anxiety. He may see that it will greatly affect his character, or endanger his life; that if some of his concealed conduct is found out, he would be disgraced, and this may fill him with fear and anguish, but it does not alter his conduct, his disposition, nor does it lead to any restitution to those whom he has sinned against. It is very common for a person to have this kind of worldly sorrow, when some worldly consideration is at the bottom of it all.

2. False repentance is founded in selfishness.

It may be simply a strong feeling of regret, in the mind of the individual, that he has done what he has, because he sees the evil consequences of it to himself, because it makes him unhappy, or exposes him to the wrath of God, or injures his family or his friends, or because it produces some injury to himself in his lifetime or in eternity. All this is pure selfishness.

He may feel remorse of conscience--biting, consuming REMORSE—and yet no true repentance. It may extend to fear--deep and dreadful fear--of the wrath of God and the pains of hell, and yet be purely selfish, and all the while there may be no such thing as a hearty abhorrence of sin, no change of conduct, no restitution, no altering of his character; and no feelings of the heart going out after the convictions of the understanding, in regard to the infinite evil of sin. You know this person, it might even be you, the person who regrets their sins, the one who feels deep sorrow and remorse for what he has done, but does not turn away from his choice, rather he tells you that God has forgiven him, while he fashions the noose around his neck (so to speak).

Judas regretted what he did, Judas felt deep sorrow and remorse for his betrayal of Jesus. Judas hung himself in remorse. But Judas was not repentant, and he took his sin with him into hell.

True and False Repentance (Part 2 of 4)

2012-06-02T02:32:00.004-07:00

Why do so many, who are still unrepentant sinners, get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. This is the second part of a four part series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:

IV. How it may be known:

II. How will true repentance be known?

It is the purpose of this post to show you what are the works of true repentance, and to make it so clear to you, that you will know without any question whether you have repented or not. You must possess all 5 qualities below to have truthfully repentant, 4 out of 5 simply means that you are lying about the other 4.

1. If your repentance is genuine, there is in your mind a conscious change of views and feeling in regard to sin. On this you will be just as conscious of this change of viewpoint as your are about any change of view and feelings on any other subject. Can you honestly say this? Do you know, that on this point there has been a fundamental change within you, that the old things are done away with and all things (meaning your viewpoint towards not only the sins you are guilty of, but all sin) have become new?

2. Where repentance is genuine, the disposition to repeat sin is gone.

If you have truly repented, you do not now love sin; you do not now abstain from it through fear, and to avoid punishment, but because you hate it. How is this with you? Do you know that your predisposition to commit sin is gone? Look at the sins you used to practice before you ‘repented’. How do they appear to you now? Do they look pleasant, or merely acceptable given the right ‘excuse’, would you be willing to commit them again or still, if you knew no one would know? --If they do or you would, then you are only convicted. Your opinions of sin may be changed, but if your willingness remains to commit that sin remains, you are still an unrepentant sinner; and you are not forgiven, and you are right to fear the punishment that awaits.

3. Genuine repentance works a reformation of conduct.

This to be the idea chiefly intended in scripture, where it says "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death...” 2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow produces a change of conduct. What the Apostle Paul is speaking of was a change of mind that produces a change of conduct, ending in salvation. So again, let me ask you, are you really reformed? Have you forsaken your sins? Or, are you practicing them still? Here is the big point in case you like so many in our society seem to want to overlook, anything that first begins as a sin, will always be a sin, it does not matter how long you do it, or even if you attempt to make it look right in man’s eyes; for example if you were to divorce your spouse for another woman that you have been having an affair with {Adultery} and then marry that woman a couple of years later, it remains Adultery, you are still a sinner. While you may have changed your mind, about your sin, if it has not brought a change of conduct, an actual reformation, it is not godly repentance, or such as God approves, merely worldly sorrow.

4. Repentance, when true and genuine, leads to confession and restitution. The thief has not repented, while he keeps the money he stole. He may have conviction, but no repentance. If he has repentance, he will go and give back the money and be willing to accept whatever the consequences are for his sin. If you have cheated anyone, and do not restore what you have taken unjustly; or if you have injured any one, and do not set about it to undo the wrong you have done, then your claim of repentance is a lie, you have not truly repented. You may be convicted, you may feel worldly sorrow, but you do not have Godly sorrow within you as God demands before He will forgive of your sins.

5. True repentance is a permanent change of character and conduct. Scripture says it is repentance unto salvation that leaves no regret. What the apostle Paul means by that expression is that true repentance is a change so deep and fundamental that the person never changes back again? What the scripture means is that repentance that will not be regretted, so thorough is the repentance, that there is no going back (there is no possibility of backsliding) the love of sin is truly abandoned. The individual, who has truly repented, has so changed his views and feelings that he will not change back again, or go back to the love of sin. Keep this in mind, that the truly repentant sinner now exercises feelings and beliefs of which he will never regret. The scripture says it is "unto salvation." In other words his repentance goes with him all the way to heaven. The very reason why it ends in salvation is because it is such as will not be regretted. True repentance is such a thorough change of feelings and beliefs that the individual who exercises it comes to hate sin that they will persevere, and not go and take back all his repentance and return to sin again.

True and False Repentance (Part 1 of 4)

2012-05-30T01:39:00.003-07:00

"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" 2 Corinthians 7:10

Why do so many, who are still impenitent sinners, get the idea that they have repented? The only logical reason is that within the church in America there is a wholesale lack of instruction and discernment respecting true and false repentance. Thus I begin a short series on repentance, touching on four aspects of repentance

I. What true repentance is:

II. How it may be known:

III. What is false and counterfeit repentance:

IV. How it may be known:

I. What is true repentance?

The short one paragraph definition of True Repentance would be that TRUE REPENTANCE involves a complete change of opinion on the nature of sin, and this change of opinion is followed by a corresponding change of feeling towards sin. Feeling is the result of thought, not emotion; and when this change of opinion produces a corresponding change of feeling, if the opinion is right (as defined by God) and the feeling corresponds, this is true repentance. The opinion now adopted, by the sinner would align with the opinion that God holds respecting sin. Godly sorrow, such as God requires, must spring from such views of sin as God holds, nothing less.

First. There must be a change of opinion in regard to sin.

To someone who truly repents, sin looks like a very different thing from what it does to someone who has not repented. Instead of looking like a thing that is desirable or fascinating, it looks the very opposite, it is repulsive and detestable, and she is astonished at herself that he ever could have desired such a thing. She looks at her own conduct as perfectly hateful; she looks back upon it and exclaims, "How hateful, how detestable, how worthy of hell, such and such a thing was in me."

Impenitent sinners might look at sin and see that it will destroy them, because God will punish them for it. However, it appears so desirable. They love it. They roll it under their tongue, savor it in their mouth. If it could end in happiness, they never would think of abandoning it.

Sinners do not see why God threatens sin with such terrible punishment. They

love it so much themselves, that they cannot see why God should look at it in such

a light as to think it worthy of everlasting punishment. When they are strongly

convicted, they see it differently, and as opinion is concerned, they see it in the same light as a true Christian does, then they only want a corresponding change of feeling to become Christians.

Many a sinner sees their relation to God to be such that they deserve eternal death, but her heart does not go with her opinions. This is the case with the devil and wicked in hell. Therefore; a change of opinion is indispensable to true repentance, and always precedes it. The heart never goes out to God in true repentance without a previous change of opinion. There may be a change of opinion without repentance, but no genuine repentance without a change of opinion.

The unrepentant sinner has almost no right ideas, even so far as this life is concerned, respecting the sin. Suppose she admits in theory that sin deserves eternal death, she does not believe it. If she believed it, it would be impossible for her to remain an unrepentant sinner. She is deceived, if she supposes that she honestly holds such an opinion that sin deserves the wrath of God forever. However the truly convicted sinner has no more doubt of this than she has of the existence of God. She sees clearly that as a simple matter of fact, sin must deserve everlasting punishment from God.

Secondly. In true repentance there must be a corresponding change of feeling.

The individual who truly repents, not only sees sin as detestable, vile and worthy of abhorrence, but she genuinely hates it in her heart. A person may see sin to be hurtful and abominable, yet her heart loves it, desires it and clings to it (you know the person who says adultery is a sin, yet keeps doing it). But when she truly repents, she reels backwards in repulsion of it and renounces it.

The individual who truly repents feels sin as it is. When she views sin in its tendencies, it awakens a vehement desire to stop it, and to save people from their sins, and roll back the tide of death. When the Christian sets her mind on this, just as if she saw all the people taking poison which she knew would destroy them; she lifts up her voice to warn them to BEWARE.

She has not only an intellectual conviction that sin deserves everlasting punishment, but she feels that it would be right, reasonable, and just for God to condemn her to eternal death, that so far from finding fault with the sentence of the law that condemns her, she thinks it the wonder of heaven, a wonder of wonders, if God would forgive her. Instead of thinking it hard, or severe, or unkind of God, that unrepentant sinners are allowed to sent themselves to hell, she is full of adoring wonder that she is not sent to hell herself. It is the last thing in the world she would think to complain of, that all sinners are not saved, but, it is a wonder of mercy that the entire world is not damned. And when she thinks of such a sinner's as herself being saved, she feels a sense of gratitude that she never knew anything until she was a Christian.

Gay Marriage, - The President verses Manny Pacquiao

2012-05-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

‘Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…. And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.’ Jude 1:3-4, 7

I do not on this blog involve myself with politics. While it may appear at first glance that I am breaking with that on this post, it is only because so many within our country are working to make a morality issue, a political issue, and for the most part they have succeeded. The issue at hand has nothing to do with politics, even though political parties, politicians, celebrities and the like are all driving the issue; rather the issue is a clear cut morality issue. It did not begin with the current topic that is being thrown around Washington, and the rest of the country, nor will it end with it. The people of this country began this journey long ago, they just didn’t realize it, where it ends up – personally I do not think that it does end. As a nation and a people we just keep sinking lower the outcome within this country is already a forgone conclusion. However, victory does not make the victors correct, or those who appear to have lost this battle – wrong.

Recently the President of the United States announced that he was in favor of gay marriages. Previously the Vice-President said that he was “absolutely comfortable with gay married couples”. Celebrities (i.e. Hollywood) across the country jumped at the opportunity to chime in their support for gay marriage, and to state how proud they were of the President for switching his previous position in opposition to gay marriage. Then something curious happened, Manny Pacquiao (the first 8 division world boxing champion) and one of the most well liked sports celebrities in the world stated simply that gay marriage was against God’s law. The torrent of hate and anger that was poured out at Mr. Pacquiao for his comments was relentless, even from those who profess to the world that they are Christian.

Now before I go on to the central point of this posting, you need to stop and re-read that last paragraph, and think about it, I mean really think about it. A man, who is obviously following God’s word, gets blasted by those within a “Christian Nation” for saying that the President of the United States is wrong and that gay marriage violates God’s word. Hmmm…. so much for the President's claims to be a Christian, perhaps yours as well. But what is really amazing is that those who scream the loudest for ‘tolerance and acceptance’ are the most intolerant when someone disagrees with them, guess it makes them happy to berate someone with a different opinion. As a side note Mr. Pacquiao is absolutely correct, the Bible is absolutely clear on the issue.

This is the jest of why the president and those who support gay marriage say that they support gay marriage – ‘Everyone has the right to be happy’. That’s it, nothing deeper than that, nothing more profound - just the time honored argument that has been used through the ages to commit unspeakable sins, “just do what makes you happy”.

I am not going to argue the morality of the issue, my opinion does not matter, any more than yours does; God has already decided the morality of it, and regardless of what you and I think, He isn’t going to change His opinion (and His is the only one that counts). What I am going to discuss is the glaring flaw in the argument used by the President and those who use that argument to advance causes that will make a particular segment of the population ‘happy’.

Simply stated, once you sign off on the argument that a particular segment of the population is entitled to do what they believe will make them happy, there is no going back from it. There is no end to it. You can not (without being a hypocrite) state in the future that others can not do what will make them happy, regardless of what you think is the morality of it. It was that exact fatal flaw that gay activist used to silence those within the church. The church and professing Christians had signed off on heterosexual couples divorcing for any reason and remarrying (in direct violation of God’s word) all under the guise of ‘God just wants you to be happy’ so don’t worry you are forgiven. The Church took the first bite of the apple years ago.

I am not going to make a long winded argument to support my position; instead I am going to ask you to think about a several questions.

Should a woman be allowed to marry her brother? How about her father?

Is committing adultery with your neighbor’s husband okay? How about your neighbor’s 17 year old daughter?

Is premarital sex something that you want your 13 year old daughter to engage in?

Is it alright for a 50 year old man to marry a 17 year old girl? How about 16, 15, 14, 13 (you know they do grow up faster these days)?

Is it morally acceptable to divorce your wife because you found a newer younger model?

For that matter, why do we make such a big deal out of prosecuting those who have more than one wife?

If you agree to the argument that gay marriage is not a sin and should be allowed because everyone has the right to do what they think will make them happy, then what are you going to say to those who tell you in the future that doing any of the above is what makes them happy. How do you tell them that they can not do what makes them happy, when you are already doing the same. Who are you to judge? Sing off on one, and you have signed off on all of them.

Let me be perfectly clear, I am against gay marriages, I am also against divorce, adultery, fornication, child molestation, incest, polygyny etc. etc. I do not distinguish between any of them, neither does God. Each is a sin, and those who commit them, or encourage others to do so, will ultimately face the wrath of God.

America, if it doesn’t already, will soon make Sodom and Gomorra pale in comparison.

“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” Matthew 10:14-15

Follow Your Heart..... (Otherwise know as the Path to Hell)

2012-05-14T03:05:00.001-07:00

I interact a lot with those who are either going through a divorce or who are thinking about one. On a daily basis I witness the worst in people. I listen to their excuses, their selfishness, their lies. Which make the conversation I recently had with a woman no different then the one I have had a hundred times over. She was thinking of divorcing her husband , and in the depth of the conversation she revealed that she was having an affair with another woman’s husband. Which if you do not know, is a sin, which I in a direct manner pointed out to her. Needless to say she wasn't very happy with me for saying that, so I asked her if she thought she was a Christian.

"Of course I do," she said.

To which I responded "do you believe the Bible is true?"

Imagine my surprise when she said, "Absolutely."

So then I quoted verse after verse that identified what she was doing as a sin. She told me, "That is your opinion. That's your interpretation. You just don't understand and besides you are not suppose to judge and God forgives everything." Like I haven’t heard that before. Interesting how people always tell you that you are not suppose to judge, when they are committing the evilest of sins.

In the end I simply told her the truth, “You will do what is right or you will do what you want. However, they are not the same and whichever course you choose you will reap what you have sowed.”

Which brings me to this point: Do what your heart tells you is a creed believed by millions today. It is one of the great cultural myths of the Western world, a gospel proclaimed in movies, songs, television programs and stories. Heck I have even heard pastors say it. But the truth is, if you want to stamp your ticket to hell, then just follow your heart. However, don’t be surprised at your final destination.

The Bible is very clear on the matter, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

Adultery, Divorce, Fornication, Gay marriage, the list goes on and on; as long as it doesn’t intrude on me, live and let live… you just don’t understand. To which I reply “No, you do not understand. Your opinion, your desires, do not alter God’s laws, they have been, are and always will be the same.” If you need proof that you will reap what you sow, just look around, look at the decline of America.

We need a higher standard of authority than our heart, a higher standard of authority than mere opinion, and that is the Word of God.

The problem we have today is a watered-down gospel and because of that, many have a watered-down Christian life. We have Christians who have become so much like the world that the world doesn't want to become like them. What is considered normal Christian living in the first century would be considered radical by today's standards. But that is what we need: radical Christianity. To put it another way, we need biblical Christianity.

Instead of trying to accommodate the Word of God to our changing culture, we need to accommodate our culture to the unchanging Word of God.

What is a Christian?

2012-05-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

Three ‘Christians’ go to church each week, one volunteers in the nursery, one is an Elder, the other a member of the choir. Each has their own story, each continues in their chosen sin unabated. Which leaves this question? Is the woman who is having an affair with her best friend’s husband a Christian? Is the man who sells illegal drugs to pay for his daughter’s education a Christian? Or what about the man, who divorced his wife because he wasn’t in love with her anymore, is he a Christian?

What is a Christian? If you were to ask 100 “Christians” you would get 100 different answers. I think the reason for that, is partly because we have a lot of anemic, shallow preaching today, which has left the church with a generation of people who think they are Christians but really are not. These are people who have been told to believe, but they have never been told to repent. They have been promised heaven, but they have never been warned of hell. They have been told that God wants them to be happy, but they have never heard that God wants them to be holy. I wonder whether a lot of these people even know what the genuine gospel message is. Recently there was a survey that revealed that 7 in 10 American adults have no clue what John 3:16 means “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (As I have pointed out before believes means to obey, for even the devil believes, yet he is doomed)

The same study also revealed that barely one-third of all adults know the meaning of the term, "the gospel." Thus it should not surprise us that the fact is, what is considered as Christianity by many today would not even qualify as such in the first century. However the Bible is very clear about who is a Christian. According to the apostle Paul, a Christian is someone who has put his or her faith in Jesus Christ, and Christ alone, as Savior and Lord and God. A Christian is someone who has turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God “to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’” Acts 26:18.

It is not for me or you to decide who is a Christian and who is not. That is ultimately up to God. We are told however that we will recognize them by their fruit. I do know one thing, what we don't need more of today are 'sort-of Christians'. What we need are 'no-doubt Christians'—people about whom you could say, "There is no doubt in my mind that person is a follower of Jesus Christ." Could you say that about the three individuals mentioned above, could you say that about those you know, more importantly would they say that about you?

Rules for Life - Six Little Words

2012-05-05T12:13:00.001-07:00

I was reading an essay by a noted author the other day on the rules for life, and he had come up with over 100 of them. So I started searching and discovered that tens of thousands of “authorities’” have written up "their" rules for life (a Google search turned up over 937 million pages). Which got me thinking, what are the rules for life in their most fundamental form? Amazingly they come down to six little words. If you don’t get these six correct, every other list that has ever been devised is meaningless. Six simple words …

It does not matter if you choose to have faith in God or not,

“He is”

It does not matter if you seek to know His word or not,

“It is”

It does not matter if you like or obey His rules on life or not,

“They are”

What matters is what you do with those simple six little words in your life,

“He is, it is, they are”

Because at the end of your life there are two more words that apply to everyone, regardless of what you did with those six little words in your lifetime.

“He judges”

Entitlement = Resentment = Anger = Death (Part 5 of 5)

2012-05-02T00:05:00.004-07:00

This is the final destination of resentment. You don’t have to have read the headlines about the studies showing dangerous ill-health effects of anger; some call it the heart attack emotion. Instinctively you know it is true. But here is what you miss; this is what the articles don’t point out, what they usually don't tell you is that the harmful effects of anger come not from their frequency or intensity. Rather they come from duration: how long it lasts. Unhealthy levels of anger are those that last longer than a few minutes. In other words, the real culprit is the seed of resentment, which quiets now and then but never stops.

For a model of how anger is supposed to function (in a normal well adjusted person), you need look no further than common house cats. When your cat gets angry, he'll arch his back, hiss, slash at the drapes, run through the house, jump off the walls, etc. However, within five minutes, he's licking himself like it never happened; if he was angry at you, he'll rub your legs and purr. The animal responds to his perception of a noxious stimulus in the environment. Following his natural instincts about anger, he either corrects his perception (there's not really a threat) or adapts to it - the dog has to live here, too. As quickly as it came over him, the anger is completely gone.

But we don't do anger that way. We think about it afterwards. We dwell of how things should be and how unfair they are, how we were disregarded, devalued, disrespected, or wrongly rejected. We fantasize about things didn't happen: "When he said that, I should have said this. Then he would have said that, and I would have said this! He would have replied with...and I would have...." Such imaginary dialogue can recur, off and on, for days, months or even years.

The end result of this is predictable, long-lasting resentment can cause depression and lower immune system efficiency - if you're resentful a lot you probably experience lots of little aches and pains - headaches, stomachaches, muscle pain, difficulty sleeping, etc. You may get frequent colds and bouts of flu. Admit it, you know someone like that, it might even be you. Left to go its course, chronic resentment puts you at higher risk of hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and cancer.

But that isn’t the worst of it, the resentment-laden consciousness cries out to be altered by something - a drink, drug, someone else’s wife or husband, large doses of caffeine or nicotine, or some compulsive behavior that will ease the tension, dissipate the sour feeling, energize the tiredness, or relieve the leaden mood, because after all “you deserve it”. Affairs, drinking and drugging, new toys, new thrills create an illusion of power that mitigates the powerlessness of resentment. It is this illusion of power that twelve-step programs target as the primary barrier to recovery - the first "Step" is admitting to powerlessness over the drug.

It is the illusion of power and entitlement that traps you into a lifestyle of unrepentant sin, a lifestyle that becomes progressively more self-center, and more destructive to yourself and those around you. As opposed to reality and truth, resentment greatly distorts thinking - through oversimplification, confirmation bias, inability to grasp other perspectives, and an inability to distinguish thoughts from reality. Over time, resentment becomes a world view and a way of life. Because the resentful have to devalue others to protect their fragile egos, resentment inevitably leads to some form of verbal or emotional abuse and, eventually to contempt and disgust. In the end is the illusion of power that traps you into fooling yourself that you are somehow owed all that you steal, that you are somehow entitled. When in reality and more importantly in God’s eyes, it is your lifestyle that has become contemptible and disgusting.

For the originator of entitlement simply look at Satan, he believes he is entitled, is that really who you want to pattern your life after, all the while professing to believe in God? Entitlement, such a dangerous thought, the seed of much of the sin that you choose to commit begins with one simple thought, "I am entitled". Painful as it is to admit, you are not entitled, no more than Satan is. Don't let that truth get too far away from you in life, or you will receive in death exactly what you are entitled to.

Previous Post Entitlement - Resentment (Part 4 of 5)

Previous Post - Entitlement I, I, I, it's about I. (part 3 of 5)

Previous Post Entitlement A Quiz (Part 2 of 5)

Previous Post Entitlement The Enemy Within (Part 1 of 5)

Entitlement - Resentment (Part 4 of 5)

2012-04-27T00:12:00.001-07:00

Stress gets a bad press in America. Blame for stress-related health problems is everywhere: time pressures, insecure jobs, congested commutes, information overload, fragmented social schedules, complex financial worries, and so on. It's certainly a tough world out there. However much of what is labeled "stress" is actually resentment for not getting what we believe we are entitled to.

Resentment enhances stress by breaking down concentration and draining off energy that would otherwise serve the task at hand. The report you need to write will take longer and have more errors if you feel that it should have been assigned to someone else. It might have been an interesting assignment, if you didn't regard the quotas placed on you as unfair. You might enjoy driving your kids to the soccer game, if you didn't mummer about your spouse expecting you to do it. Traffic congestion would be easier to bear if you enjoyed the music or audio book you're hearing.

I have borrowed a little test to see if your stress is inflated by resentment. It actually is very simple; the problem of course comes in requiring you to be honest with yourself.

Write down the five main things that cause stress in your life.

On a scale of 1-10, rate your average ability to cope with each item on your stress list.

Now take a moment to imagine that all traces of resentment have been removed from your stressors - there is no unfairness or injustice involved. Everyone pulls his or her weight; all live up to their responsibilities. You have all the help, understanding, appreciation, consideration, praise, and reward you deem appropriate.

Now reevaluate your capacity to cope with the stressors you listed. On a scale of 1-10, rate your average capacity to cope with each item on your resentment-free stress list.

Once resentment is removed from the mix, most people notice a significant increase in their capacity to cope with their stressors. It is Resentment that increases stress by lowering your capacity to cope with it. Chains of resentment, not stress, overwhelm and ultimately dispirit you.

Living a life of resentment is the complete opposite of living a life of gratitude. It’s the persistent feeling that you're being treated unfairly - not getting the respect, appreciation, affection, help, apology, consideration, praise, or reward you believe you deserve. It keeps you locked in a devalued state, where it is extremely difficult to improve or appreciate or to connect positively with people in general. It carries fantasies of retribution, which stimulate small doses of adrenalin and cortisol for temporary increase in energy and confidence.

Resentment never goes away on its own, simply because it doesn't produce enough adrenalin for the amphetamine/crash effect of stronger forms of anger. While exhaustion limits the duration of rage, you can stay resentful for years on end. Without the exhaustion factor, the retaliatory fantasies of resentment persist long enough to become habituated. Thus resentment is more of a mood than an emotional state, and the behaviors it motivates are more habit than choice, with disastrous effects on you, your family, friends and community.

The habitual nature of resentment means that it is never specific to one behavior - nobody resents just one thing - and that its content is rarely forgotten. Instead, each new incident of perceived unfairness automatically links onto previous ones, eventually forging a heavy chain. Eventually it projects itself into the future. That's when you hear things like, "It's going all right now, but she'll find some way to screw up the weekend," or, "It's fine at the moment, but the ‘real him' will come out, just wait."

The tremendous effort required to drag the chain of resentment through life makes us makes us look for things to resent. This creates frequent sour moods and an atmosphere wherein no offense is too trivial or too unrealistic to be added as yet another link on the chain. We'll find things to resent in the news, traffic patterns, a dearth of parking places, the temperature of drinking water, and in other people's tastes, thoughts, opinions, mannerisms, and feelings. All this because you jumped on the entitlement bandwagon.

A friend of mine who helps counsel those in an anger management class has a colorful way of describing the effects of resentment. He said that dragging the chain of resentment through life is like carrying around a bag of horse manure. (Okay, he didn’t say "manure.") You want to smear the bag of horse manure in the face of the person you resent. So you carry it around, waiting for the opportunity, and carry it around, and carry it around, and carry it around.

And who stinks?

Next Post Entitlement Resentment=Anger=Death (Part 5 of5)

Previous Post - Entitlement I, I, I, it's about I. (part 3 of 5)

Previous Post Entitlement A Quiz (Part 2 of 5)

Previous Post Entitlement The Enemy Within (Part 1 of 5)

Just a quick note to mark that this is the 100th post of this blog and it seems that with each one I find two more topics that I feel compelled to address. So it is safe to assume that there is not a lack of topics that need examination. Because at the very genesis of this blog, the intent was to help those who call themselves Christians examine themselves to see if they truly are.

Entitlement - I, I, I it's all about I (Part 3 of 5)

2012-04-22T01:18:00.001-07:00

Me, me, me, it is all about me. To some degree, we all have entitlement feelings. We carry around a sense of being owed for something we have done or for some wonderful trait we have. When we feel entitled, we focus on what we are owed, not what we might need to give to others. It is a "one-way street" mind-set. When these feelings are strong and people don't meet our expectations, we often find ourselves bitter, resentful, and angry. Relationships can be (and often are) destroyed by feelings of entitlement.

How much entitlement do you walk around with in your life? I can see a fair amount of it in mine. I feel those "I deserve" feelings more often than I want to admit. Even in small things, I can see the problem. When I hold the door open for someone, I feel he or she owes me a "thank you" and I get disappointed, when I don't get one. In my relationships, I sometimes catch myself thinking, "so and so owes me this because I have done that for her or him."

Even with my adult daughter, I run into it. If I go to a lot of trouble to do something special for her, or to help her out at cost to my own personal time or money, I can sometimes find myself thinking, "Okay, you owe me some good behavior, as well as your lifelong appreciation for what a great dad I am." (Unfortunately, she is thinking, "I are so doggone cute, it must be a real privilege for him to get to do these things for an adorable daughter like me.)

It's human nature to feel entitled, this isn't pleasant for me to admit. But unless we do admit to having these feelings, we stay in denial about them and they continue to destroy us. The painful truth is that we are not entitled to anything on this planet. You are not entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," despite what the authors of the Declaration of Independence had to say. Nothing is your birthright! You are not entitled to anything, not even the next breath you hope to take.

Now, the good news, while we are owed nothing, it is perfectly fine to pursue what we want (within reason and as long as it is “right”). For example, we aren't owed our spouse's or parents' love, but it is fine to want it. We aren't owed a high-paying job because we may have a diploma or a special talent, but it is okay to want a high-paying job and try to find one. We aren't owed a thank you for anything we do, but it is okay to want one and hope to get one.

Entitlement is a self-serving, one-way street attitude that creates bitterness and resentment in the people who feel entitled and in the people around them who don't like being treated that way. The fruits of the sense of entitlement is seen all about , the person who takes something from work, the wife who cheats on her husband, the child who copies and exam, the man in the car tailgating you. It plays itself out in the governing of the country, I am entitled to this benefit, this money, this special privilege, regardless if the country can afford it or not, just cut someone else’s entitlement, because I am more deserving than they are. You see it at your church, if you are honest with yourself, I have been here longer, and I have done this or that. I, I, I, it is all about I.

Take a minute to examine your own entitlement assumptions. Have you fallen into this way of thinking? Toward whom or what do you harbor feelings of entitlement? How has it affected you emotionally? How has it affected your relationships?

Are you willing to try to let go of entitlement attitudes and feelings wherever they may be directed? Because if you do not, a sense of entitlement always leads to one outcome… It is the seed of entitlement that once nurtured grows into one of the most destructive feelings a person is capable of. One that is in the process of destroying a nation, marriages, families, friendships, and your relationship with God. Entitlement is but the birthplace of Resentment.

Next Post Entitlement - Resentment (Part 4 of 5)

Previous Post - Entitlement Quiz (Part 2 of 5)

Previous Post - Entitlement The Enemy Within (Part 1 of 5)

Entitlement - A Quiz (Part 2 of 5)

2012-04-19T01:50:00.004-07:00

In my previous post, I began a series addressing our sense of entitlement. However it has occurred to me that perhaps you are under the opinion that while everyone else you know has a false sense of entitlement; but you being a healthy and mature Christian do not possess a sense of entitlement at all. If that is the case, then any discussion regarding the sin of “being Entitled” would fall on deaf ears. So before I proceed further into the issue, now would be an appropriate time for a little self examination. To that end I have borrowed an "Entitlement Quiz" for you to take.

For each of the fifteen statements below, mark a number from one to seven which gauges your personal feeling about the statement (one being the most disagreement and seven being the most agreement). Please answer the questions below using the following scale:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

Do not spend too much time on any one item. Also please respond in terms of how you actually feel as opposed to how you think you should feel. Try to avoid using the neutral response if possible, because let's be honest you are not neutral on any of these.

______ 1. I deserve respect from others.

______ 2. I demand good service in a restaurant.

______ 3. My closest friends owe me loyalty.

______ 4. I expect fairness from others.

______ 5. I'm owed a good-paying job for my abilities.

______ 6. People should treat me the way I treat them.

______ 7. When I do something nice for someone, I expect them to do something nice for me.

______ 8. I deserve a "thank you" when I hold a door open for someone or let someone ahead of me in traffic.

______ 9. People should listen to what I have to say.

______ 10. I often feel "owed" for things I have done.

______ 11. Other people have told me I expect too much.

______ 12. All in all, I deserve a good life.

______ 13. I am entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

______ 14. I find myself getting angry inside when others don't do things for me they said they would.

______ 15. My children owe me cooperation and obedience for all the sacrifices I have made for them.

Add all of the numbers of your fifteen responses, and then divide that total by fifteen. The number you are left with will show you on the scale how convinced you are that you are "entitled" to certain things.

If your score is from one to three, you probably are not expecting much from other people in the way of gratitude, approval and response. As such, while you may be disappointed when such responses aren't forthcoming, the sense of disappointment does not build in you to the point of feeling resentful.

If you scored a four, you are showing signs that a sense of entitlement is becoming dangerous to you.

If you scored from five to seven, you are probably a person who is carrying a lot of internal anger over the fact that people fail to give you what you feel entitled to. If this is the case, it is time you begin to readjust your expectations. You need to remind yourself that you are "owed" absolutely nothing for all you do and that God has given everyone the choice to fly in the face of what you want. You need to remember that God’s expectation and challenge is for you to do things for people because it's the "RIGHT" thing to do, not because you can earn "frequent flyer points" that you can cash in whenever you want.

Painful as it is to acknowledge, in life you are not entitled to anything, not even the next breath you are hoping to take, everything is a gift. Don't let that truth get too far away from you in life, or you may just receive what you are entitled to in death.

Next Post - Entitlement It's all about I, I, I (Part 3 of 5)

Previous Post - Entitlement The Enemy Within (Part 1 of 5)

Entitlement - The Enemy Within (Part 1 of 5)

2012-04-16T20:18:00.003-07:00

Recently I was having a conversation with a friend, That quickly turned to a discussion regarding something that he felt ‘entitled to’; when I disagreed with him regarding it and stated a completely opposite opinion he took offense to my position and the evening came to a fairly quick close, as he abruptly rose to call it a night; primarily because he is emotionally invested in his ‘entitlement’ and ‘resented’ the fact that someone would dare to challenge it. He will get over the difference of opinion, but it got me to thinking about how the American culture both outside and inside the church has radically changed in regards to our now closely held belief of being entitled. While this may not at first glance seem to be an issue that is addressed in the Bible, upon closer examination of the problem you will find that the undercurrent of entitlements and their destructive consequences are consistently being addressed. However perhaps I should begin at the beginning.

A sense of entitlement means that we feel that we have a right or a claim to something, whether it's the best school, a grand home, a better job, preferential treatment, or the good life. On its own there is nothing wrong with wanting those things (well excluding the preferential treatment); however we begin down a perverse and eventually self-destructive super highway once we take that first step.

When I was growing up in the 70’s, my mother had a copy of the best selling book “I’m OK—You’re OK” written by Thomas Harris, which was part of the self esteem movement of that time (how has that worked out for America?), McDonald’s slogan at the time was “You deserve a break today”." In the 1980's, another ad campaign said, "Pamper yourself with Calgon." In the 1990's, it was "You owe it to yourself to buy a Mercedes Benz." Society continues to bombard us with the message that we are such fantastic people; we are entitled to an equally fantastic way of living. I half expect to see a new book titled something in the vain of “I’m Entitled and So Are You, Just Not as Much as Me”.

Entitlement issues are increasingly becoming a top concern of psychologists, therapists, Pastors and educators. We seem to have come to the place where we feel entitled to the good life. We're entitled to have everything work for us. If it doesn't, someone must be to blame, and you can be sure of at least this: Whoever is at fault, it isn't us.

How crazy of an idea is that?

Think of last year’s Christmas, recall the pile of presents under the Christmas tree as large as Diamond Head, that's taken for granted. That's just the way it's supposed to be. Every child has a right to presents by the ton, and even that will not be enough if the latest, coolest gadget of the minute isn't to be found.

A person standing on Waikiki beach with a frown on his face, muttering, "I really liked our vacation to Tahiti better" -- that's an entitlement issue, too.

Or how about these? "I'm a college graduate, so I deserve a high-paying job." "I've been good to my friends, so they owe me their loyalty." "I am a senior citizen, so I deserve younger people's respect." "We weren't put on this earth to suffer, so life owes me a break." "I took care of my kids when they were young, so I am entitled to some special care from them when I grow old."

The upshot is a culture of complaint. We have, it seems, grown fluent in the language of blame, complaint and grievance, while having lost our linguistic capacity when it comes to words such as, "Please," "Thank you," and "I'm sorry." We also seem increasingly disabled when it comes to expressing personal responsibility for our part in the problems that beset us. After all, how can we possibly say, "It's my fault," when we've been weaned and schooled on self-esteem? If I'm OK and you're OK, then it must be "Them."

How has this pervasive sense of entitlement come to pass? I have my theories, but the how is irrelevant. It is the consequences that matter and whatever the cause, this much seems true: Entitlement is the handmaiden of the ego, the sign of a neglected, malnourished soul, and the cornerstone of Resentment.

Entitlement signals a rejection of the core values of America and of Christianity. Our national genetic code and faith, at least at one time, was patterned on respect for the common man and woman. A shared belief in the dignity of human life that's not the consequence of having, but of being created in God’s image.

My grandmother, who lived through the Great Depression in the Midwest, was imprinted with this genetic code and made a point of passing it on to my mother, who was just as determined to pass it on to me. When I was a teenager during one visit to her modest home with my mother, I said something that must have sounded either arrogant or entitled. My mother locked her glare on me while my Grandmother fixed me with a stern look and said, "Don't you ever think you are any better than anyone else!" I have remembered it, precisely because I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was special to both of them, the apple of their eyes. However even considering that idea of putting myself above others was never to be tolerated.

Here's a project you can undertake, pull out your bible and try to find the passage where Jesus proclaims that as the Son of God He is entitled to special privileges, or Paul claiming a special exemption from suffering because of all he has done. Easier to find (as the others do not exist) are the passages where David thought he was entitled to preferred treatment and see how God dealt with him.

In the end, it's the entitled who, however rich, are truly poor. Instead of knowing life as a gift from God, life turns into something that's taken for granted -- or worse, begrudged. That's real poverty, and no sense of entitlement can alleviate it, or stop it from digressing to what comes with it….Resentment.

Next Post - Entilement A Quiz (Part 2 of 5)
Part 3 of 5 Entitlement - It's all about I, I, I.

The Sin of Coveting

2012-04-12T02:19:00.001-07:00

You have heard it a thousand times from your pastor that the law is external (meaning behavior), many of the churches within America have perverted and neglected the laws of the old testament to the point of making the laws enemies of humankind. However here is the rub (so to speak) Since God’s moral nature does not and cannot change (Ex. 3:14; Isa. 41:4; Heb. 1:11, 12), the laws which are based on His nature are absolute. The moral laws of God are those laws which are based on God’s nature. God Himself is the absolute standard of righteousness. Since the moral laws reflect His nature and character, they are “immutable and irrepealable even by God Himself.” This brings us to an interesting, but often overlooked umbrella concerning many of God’s Moral commands.

It's interesting that many of God’s commandments are about coveting, and that God would have to go to great lengths to teach people all the subtleties of the inner workings of the law against covetousness. You see this played out in everyday life all about you, a person who deceives himself and others without uttering a "real lie" would fulfill the law...in his own mind. A person who gossips against his fellow man, destroying another's reputation and life and causing grief and hatred to tag along at a neighbor's foot, would not consider herself a murderer. However in God's eyes, that person is guilty of great sins of the flesh; malice, resentment, adultery, fornication, etc.

Imagine if you can for a moment that you have been enslaved all your life. Suddenly you are now free. What do you suppose you would be like? Slavery does not make people good or pure. Pain and bitterness and a hard life does not make people holy. Sickness and suffering doesn't make people kind. Interestingly, a bad life --lived without God's constant uplifting strength-- will make people rather nasty and horrible and covetous. They covet the "good life" of others. They resent the beauty and the popularity of others. They resent the ease and happiness of others. Sorrow and hurt will bring sorrow and hurt. Covetousness is not only wanting something that is not --or never has been – yours; it is much, much more.

Covetousness is judging God, and judging others...for our life. C.S. Lewis once said, "the devil of resentment is that it is justified." Some of the greatest coveters have been the kindest, most sorrow-filled people. Covetousness leads us to the concepts of envy and to sin in general. Looking at just one particular sin of covetousness helps to reveal the true nature and destruction that covetousness brings.

The law of adultery is a tough one, especially for this generation of American Christians, it is one of those trespasses (I will deal with trespass verses a sin in another post) that so-so many people are guilty of. I suspect that adultery is probably more prevalent in our media-driven society because we always have the media defining our happiness for us (happiness, not holiness or joyfulness). Just as it shows us the beautiful things we do not have and makes us resent our lowly home....or ungrateful for what we have, it also shows us beautiful women and men who make our spouses look like nothing.

Paul warns us that Adultery is idolatry. We look at the person we have and somehow they don't seem perfect. Paul warns us against emulations, adulations, and fleshly mental sins of that type. But Christian Americans often have an idealism that is rooted in the world's idealism. Paradoxically, American Christians are so "idealistic" in a worldly way that they are often quite likely to divorce their wives and husbands to find true love because of their "idealism". They say they have found the perfect spouse. But what they feel is lust, and what they have found is Sin. However, even if it were true love, it is no excuse for adultery.

Jesus made this clear when He said that if someone divorces someone and marries another, that person has committed adultery (He also made it perfectly clear what the adulterer’s fate is). Many of those sharing the pew next to you, have or are doing this. They divorce their spouse and marry their adulterous partner, then use the act of matrimony in a truly blasphemous way to attempt to hide/erase the fact that the marriage began in adultery; which by definition is an act of covetousness.

With a close reading of the Bible you will discover that many of those things that God declares that He hates are those things that come from the sin of Covetousness. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says: "the race is not to the swift nor bread to the wise." People often say this as if they are the swift and the wise and life is treating them harshly. But as for me, Thank God, the bread doesn't always go to the wise! Thank God that most of us (especially me) don't get what we deserve! I have a great job, amazing friends, a varied and interesting life; God has graciously given me some wonderful blessings, while withholding some of the things I desired. Thankfully God has helped the weak and poor and sent away the strong and rich.

Easter - How Will You Respond? (Part 5 of 5)

2012-04-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

…“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” Luke 24:5-7

Many people are still looking for Jesus among the dead. I think of scholars who study the words of Jesus and the gospel manuscripts but do not believe in Christ’s resurrection. I think of the archaeologists who two thousand years later are still trying to find Jesus’ body and bones in the tomb but keep coming up empty. I think of people who finger the body of Christ on their crucifixes but do not know the reality of the living Christ. I think of those who attend church on Christmas and Easter (C.E.O’s). These people all have one thing in common. They are all looking for Jesus among the dead. And if you are looking for Jesus among the dead, you will not find him. He is not there.

Frank Morison was a man who went looking for Jesus among the dead. Morison was a British journalist who lived early in the twentieth century. He was not a Christian. Although he admired the figure of Jesus, Morison was a skeptic at heart who felt that these stories about Jesus were nothing more than myth or legend, especially the story of the resurrection.

So, Morison had a brilliant idea. Why not prove that the resurrection never happened? Why not use his research skills as a journalist to dig into history and prove that Jesus never rose from the dead? He would do his research and then write a book presenting the historical facts about Christ and the events surrounding his death. So Frank Morison went looking for Jesus among the dead.

Guess what? He never found him. What he did find is exactly what Luke said in verses 2-3: He found the stone rolled away, but he did not find the body of Jesus. Instead he found the risen Christ and put his faith in him as Lord and savior.

Frank Morison set out to write a book disproving the resurrection of Christ. Instead, he ended up writing what has become a Christian classic presenting the evidence for the resurrection of Christ (Who Moved the Stone?). Morison went looking for Jesus among the dead. But he did not find him there. You will not find him there either. If you want to find Jesus this morning, you must look among the living. And that brings us to the good news of Easter.

Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and the grave. He rose from the dead on Easter morning. He is alive and well today. You will not find him among the dead, for he is among the living. And he offers new life to you. The Bible tells us that those who trust in Christ will share in his resurrection. The fear of death and judgment is taken away. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

That is the good news of Easter. Only one question remains.

How will you respond?

Previous Post Easter - The Final Hours of Christ (part 4 of 5)

Easter - The Final Hours of Christ (part 4 of 5)

2012-04-06T03:33:00.002-07:00

You are there, you just don’t admit it. Like the Disciples who believed that their life and hope died on the cross that dark Friday, in truth Life and Hope had just begun.

The First Good Friday

Very early in the morning the leading priests and the elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death. Then they bound him, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor. When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.” Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself. (1) By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. (2) After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. A sign was fastened above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!” The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way. (3) One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (4) Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last. When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. (5)

In the recounting of the final hours of Jesus’ life, you are there. Look closer, Judas, Pilate, the Pharisees, the mocking crowd, the criminals, the Roman Centurion. In them you will find yourself.

Judas the betrayer - who forfeits his own life for his betrayal of the truth, it is not by accident that he chooses an eternity in hell, before Jesus sacrifices His own life so that those who believe may have eternal life with Him. Are you Judas – one who chooses betrayal, perhaps of your family, your friends, your spouse, deliberately trespassing against those who love you, claiming Jesus as your savior but not your Lord?

Pilate - who though he finds no fault, still refuses to do what is right, for his own selfish ambition. Are you Pilate, more concerned about your own self interest and desires, then doing what Jesus commands?

The Pharisees – those who hate him and think that they are judging him, when in actuality are being judged by the one on the cross. Are you a Pharisee, hating Him and His word?

The Crowd – those who just a few short days ago, sang Hosanna, but now mock Him. Many of you will find yourself here, a member of the Crowd, mocking Jesus by professing to be a Christian, while mocking him with your behavior and selfish choices.

The Criminals - one who is part of the mocking crowd, seeking his own self interest, condemns himself to hell, or the other who in an instant of clarity repents and receives ever lasting life in paradise. You are absolutely one of the two criminals, you are either the one who like the crowd will die a un- repentant criminal, or you are the one who realizes that you deserve death for your sins, and in an act of submission choose repentance and ask Jesus for forgiveness, and grace. You are one of the two and you will share one of their eternity.

Or the Roman Centurion – a man who does not believe in our God, but when faced with the overwhelming evidence that Jesus was in fact the son of God, falls to his knees and worships God. Perhaps you see yourself as a Roman centurion, a person who denies the existence of God, and are fearful of the relentless inescapable fear, of what if you are wrong. A fear that in it’s self provides evidence of the truth.

How God must have hurt to watch His son suffer the most horrific form of death on the cross. How God must hurt when we reject His sacrifice for our own desires. How much God must love you to let His son suffer at your hands so that you could have everlasting life with Him. Whichever one you are, forgiveness is just one choice away

Previous Post - Easter Betrayal and a Broken Heart (Part 3 of 5)

(1) Matthew 27:1-5

(2) Luke 23:44-45

(3) Matthew 27:35-44

(4) Luke 23:39-43

(5) Luke 23:46-48

Easter - Betrayal and a Broken Heart (part 3 of 5)

2012-04-02T16:25:00.002-07:00

When we think of God, we usually consider that fact that He is righteous, holy, loving, and good. But here is something else to consider about God: He is the God who has suffered. We don't tend to think that a perfect Creator would experience such a human trait as human pain and suffering. After all, why would you suffer if you did not have to?

But God has suffered, and more deeply than any of us could ever imagine. In his book The Cross of Christ, John Stott said, "Our God is a suffering God." And I think he is right.

"He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief . . . Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:3-5

"A man of suffering." That was Jesus. But why did God suffer? Because He loved and loves. That means He also enters into our suffering as well.

"Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us when we are being tempted". Hebrews 2:17-18

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." — Luke 19:41–42

As Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowds were celebrating. They were laughing. They were cheering. They were having a great time. And what was Jesus doing? He saw the city, and He wept over it. Here was the crowd, whipped into a frenzy, and Jesus was weeping. The crowd was rejoicing, and Christ was sobbing.

Why did Jesus weep when He saw Jerusalem? Being God and having omniscience, Jesus knew these fickle people who were crying out, "Hosanna!" would soon be shouting, "Crucify Him!" He knew that one of His handpicked disciples, Judas, would betray Him. He knew that another disciple, Peter, would deny Him. He knew that Caiaphas, the high priest, would conspire with Pilate, the Roman governor, to bring about His death. And, He knew the future of Jerusalem. Looking ahead 40 years, He saw the destruction that would come upon the city at the hands of the Emperor Titus and his Roman legions.

Jesus also wept because His ministry was almost over. Time was short. He had healed their sick. He had raised their dead. He had cleansed their lepers. He had fed their hungry. He had forgiven their sins. Yet for the most part, He had been rejected. "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." John 1:11 And so He wept. This broke His heart, and it still does.

Unbelief and rejection breaks God's heart, because He knows the consequences. But when the door of the human heart is shut, He refuses to enter forcibly. He will only knock, wanting to gain admittance. He has given us the ability to choose. But when we choose the wrong thing, He knows the repercussions that will follow—in this life and the one to come. And His heart is broken.

Which are you this Easter week? A Judas, who has betrayed the truth, or just one of the crowd singing Hosanna, and Crucify Him? Either way you break His heart, nevertheless He did this for you.

Next Post - Easter The Final Hours of Christ (Part 4 of 5)

Previous Post - Easter The Blood Moon (Part 2 of 5)

Easter - The Blood Moon (part 2 of 5)

2012-03-29T01:37:00.001-07:00

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. Joel 2:30-32

The verses above were written 800 years prior to the birth and death of Jesus; it would seem that regardless of how hard you press the bible it stands up. Science thousands of years later brings us a chicken skin moment when science proves the verses above to be a true and accurate description of what was to happen at the crucifixion of Christ. Which explains how Peter on the day of Pentecost could and did proclaim to all of those present “as you yourselves also know” everyone there had seen and witnessed that first horrible Good Friday. It also makes it much easier to understand why the Roman Centurions quickly came to understand and admit that “truly this Man was the Son of God!” Boy did they choose the wrong side that day.

A blood moon, watch the video and if it doesn’t open your eyes to the truth, to God’s pure love for you, that God would write the story in the sky above for those of use two thousand years later to find, so that we might believe. How we could use a blood moon this Good Friday. God left no doubt to the truth, and He left us markers that point back to Him. But if it doesn’t change your heart, your own self love, and your love for the things of God instead of God, then you are as lost as the Roman centurions 2,000 years ago.

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[c] lema sabachthani?”… And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit….When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:45-46, 50,54

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?... And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:33-34,37-39

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: …“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— , Acts 2:14-16, 22

Next Post - Easter Betrayal and a Broken Heart (part 3 of 5)

Previous Post - Easter The Truth (Part 1 of 5)