How sorry are you?

How sorry are you?

For the wages of sin is death... Romans 6:23 (KJV)

A typical scenario for a born-again, saved Christian. Say you're a guest at a church. The preacher gave a stirring sermon on sin, death, and hell. You know you've sinned, done a lot of things wrong. You may feel like you're basically a good person, but there are things in your life that you shouldn't be doing. Hell sounds like a terrible place and you don't want to go there. The preacher gives an altar call. This is as good a time as any. You go to the altar, kneel down, and say a prayer. Whew, you won't go to hell when you die.

But how true is that?

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4:17 (KJV)

And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15 (KJV)

I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Luke 13:5 (NKJV)

So we see that there is suppose to be repentance. We're sorry for our sins. We feel bad.

How many of us, as children especially, have done something wrong, gotten caught, and cried and said we were sorry. Promised that we would never, ever do it again. (My hand is up. I've done it.) Then a couple of days or weeks later, we go out and do the same thing again. And once again, we say we're sorry. So, we're sorry, but did we repent?

So let's see what the word "repent" means.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the meaning of the word "repent" as  1) to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life. 2) to feel regret or contrition: to change one's mind.

The origin of the word "repent" is "Middle English, from Anglo-French repentir, from Medieval Latin repoenitēre, from Latin re- + Late Latin poenitēre to feel regret, alteration of Latin paenitēr"

To turn from sin - TO CHANGE ONE'S MIND.

So, did you really mean it when you said you were sorry for your sins? Or did you just feel guilty because you were "caught"? Or did you go to the altar, say this prayer, just to impress someone or to "prove" you were now a Christian? Or maybe you went to Vacation Bible School and raised your hand to talk to an adult about being "saved" (because your friends were there?), but maybe you didn't really understand what it was all about. You're the only one who can answer that but you CAN NOT fool God. He knows.

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Romans 6:1-3 (KJV)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 (KJV)

If you were truly repentant, and if you are truly born again, then Christ lives in you. You don't go back to your sinful lifestyle. Search yourself. Only you and God knows. But do it soon because Jesus is coming back soon and tomorrow is promised to no one.

God willing, until next time

Maranatha

Your Babylon

1 By the rivers of Babylon,
         There we sat down, yea, we wept
         When we remembered Zion.
2 We hung our harps
         Upon the willows in the midst of it.
3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
         And those who plundered us requested mirth,
         Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song
         In a foreign land? Psalm 137:1-4 (NKJV)

I received an email from a place I subscribe to called God's Daily Promises about the Israelites in captivity and it got me to thinking about how times are today. There are many of us who call ourselves "Christian". There are many of us who know we are going to heaven. But I wonder how many of us are really ready to go.

When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel, he took the Israelites to Babylon. They were held captive there for seventy years. In captivity in Babylon, the Jews wept for their homeland and prayed for the day when they might return. But when the day of their release from captivity finally came and they were allowed to return, only about fifty thousand (out of hundreds of thousands) made the trek back to Jerusalem. Why?

For one thing, some of the Jews were making a good living in Babylon — a better living than their fathers had made in Jerusalem. Others had married Babylonian spouses and become assimilated into Babylonian culture. They had forgotten Jerusalem. Can you blame them? Seventy years of captivity is a long time.

We are but travelers through this world. This isn't our permanent home. The Bible speaks of heaven as our Jerusalem and suggests that where we are now living is Babylon on earth. How comfortable are you in your Babylon? How are you faring there? Have you forgotten that you, too, are an exile, a pilgrim in a foreign land? What are you looking ahead to? Which world do you belong to?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15 (NKJV)

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Philippians 3:20 (NKJV)

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NKJV)

God willing, until next time

Maranatha