REPENTANCE

Here's the breakdown.  When God created us, someone messed up.  We could've been sitting pretty, perfect in ourselves just like the God who created us.  Those people were Adam and Eve.  That's water under the bridge, though.  At this point, we are individuals and as individuals, we have individual relationships with God which is sacred between us and God.  However, because we cannot save ourselves from the screw up of Adam and Eve, God His only Son,  who gave  up His life as a sacrifice so that the old Adam is cancelled out by the new Adam, Jesus Christ.  He could have just as easily fell for satan's tricks while in human flesh and failed just as Adam did but He gained victory over the devil's wiles.

God extends the life eternal in paradise to us on Jesus' account.  Why is He doing that for us when we are such sinners and quite frankly, don't deserve it.  That's because He loves us and the only way we can escape judgment is to repent. There is only one way, and repentance is it.  

To its very core, repentance is a paradigm shift.  It is resetting your brain, your mind and your heart from that which you have grown to believe, whether it is from parental influences or environmental influences.  It is not easy to do this.  We have to surrender everything we've ever known to God, God then injects faith that Jesus Christ, His Son, died on the cross to forgive our sins, providing us with somewhat of a blanket forgiveness, no matter what the sin is, and then and only then can He absolve us from our sins and allow us to start anew.  

But even in that circumstance, we are but mere humans.  Humans are not immune to keep sinning, but because of that change of heart, we now, on our own recognizance, will refuse to sin or try our might not to become repeat offenders.  Even when we slip, God is always there for us ready to forgive.  

But most of us are confused with the meaning of repentance.  The word alone is often resisted because old habits are hard to ditch.  Understandably so, since we are human and it comes full circle.  However, the closer our relationship is with God, the less likely we are to fall for sin.  We will never ever be perfect, but when we become mindful of the goodness of the Lord, the less we are inclined to sin.  It's just how it works.  We start to understand within our hearts that sinning is no longer okay.  We begin to see the things of the flesh for what it is and realize that a moment of pleasure from the commitment of a sin is no longer worth the pain we cause God, the only one person who truly has our back.  We can no longer see people as reliable, or material things for completeness, nor politicians  or government to make us hopeful.

The more tenured we become in God's will for us, the more we strive to make a contribution to the kingdom of God.  The reward in this life is a fruitful one until we transition to heaven and the reward in heaven, well, as it was pointed out in the Bible, is beyond what we can even expect or imagine.  I don't know about you, but I am excited to find out what it is.  Ergo, my blog posts to you along with an artistic creation I share with you being obedient to the task God has assigned to me.

Out with the old way of thinking, sacrificing the enjoyment of what the world has to offer, in with the enjoyment of what heaven has to offer.  

We need to repent the old life, because repentance is more than just turning from the wrong ways; it is embracing the right ways.

To begin your trek to repentance you have to build relationships with your family by discipling to them, your friends, co-workers, etc.  Taking every chance to call them to faith.

Jesus already did all the work, all we have to do is embrace salvation by making that paradigm shift from worldly to heavenly.

Until my next rant.... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!