"Let Them Know or Let It Go"

In Challies' A La Carte posted today is a link to the article "Let Them Know or Let It Go?"

Desperate for Forgiveness

Here's a link to a videoclip from an ER segment: Atonement

It portrays a man desperately, frustratingly longing for answers; he's longing for forgiveness because he's "running out of time"...

How many people may feel this desperate without me even knowing? How many people might want me to share with them how to find forgiveness, or how many people want to know about the gospel or life after death? How often do I hide this vital news from those desperate to know?

I think my mom has described 1 or 2 occasions in her pre-saved days where she wanted to be told about Christianity, where she wanted to be told, to be let in...

How often might I deny people the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ? How many don't know the basic gospel message:

realizing how great God is and how people cannot match that perfection; we fall short in our sin,

knowing that the consequence of sin is eternal separation from God and punishment after death,

confessing our sin and realizing we need some way outside of ourselves to be made clean in God's eyes; knowing it is only by God's grace that we can be saved,

believing that Jesus (God's Son; fully God and fully man) is the way; He bridges the gap between us and God; His death paid the penalty our sin deserves. He rose again on the third day and is alive today.

Hope in both this life and the one after death can be found through Christ.

John 3:16 --> "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That verse right there contains the saving message of the gospel.

Blessed Obedience

In the moment of obedience, the fruitful end cannot always be seen. Abram left Haran to follow God out of faith in Him. As God promised Abram blessing, so He promises us blessings. But faithful obedience can be tough. Yet the beauty in trials is that through them faith "may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1:7b). If our faith leads to qualities of obedience, we will not be entirely ineffective.

From 2 Peter 1:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

Repentance & Temptation

Piper refers to repentance as being an internal change of mind and heart. Can this internal change be the acknowledgement of one's sin, and realization that Jesus needs to be the one to do the changing? How does one change internally and undergo true repentance if s/he is still attached to the sin? Prayer? Change eternally first? Simply look to God? A mixture of some of that? Maybe a change of desire could be one method to encouraging/leading to heart change. James 1:14 says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." So if those desires are transformed, perhaps the temptations will decrease as well. On another note, I wonder what exactly 'temptation' is...can it be possible to be tempted without any evil desire? Hebrews 4:15 talks about Jesus being "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." So he was tempted...and even suffered. Hebrews 2:18 says, "he himself has suffered when tempted"... but does that word have a different meaning than it does in James 1:13, when it says, "...God cannot be tempted with evil..."? Maybe in the latter case it means there is no way God would give into the temptation...or maybe it means that He is finished with personally experiencing temptation?

2 Scriptures -- Contentedness in Adversity ; Jesus the Advocate

"So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -- 2 Cor. 12:7-10

Lord teach me to be content with adversity for the sake of Christ. In my weakness please be my strength...

"But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, [...]" -- 1 John 2:1b-2a

He is the Advocate...

(boldness added)

How to avoid 'ineffectiveness'

"...make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins."

2 Peter 1:5-9

(boldness added)

Fresh starts

I often lack eloquence in regard to my speech and social interactions. But if attention is drawn to my social awkwardness or inadequacies, perhaps this impression will become more deeply implanted into people's minds. I would like people to allow me fresh starts. I then should give others the same grace. Do we have to carry the same weaknessess day after day? Although it may be common to continually struggle with particular burdens, do we have to be necessarily bound by those? If we treat others or ourselves with an "every day is a new day" approach in regard to weaknesses, would we be ignoring recurring problems that may need to be addressed?

Repentance

John Piper Quotes :

"...The demand to repent is as basic as it gets in Jesus’ message. It is equally basic to, and almost synonymous with, the command, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). One of my concerns is to show that repentance in Jesus’ message is not behavior but the inner change that gives rise to new God-centered, Christ-exalting behavior. "

"...Two things show us that repentance is an internal change of mind and heart rather than mere sorrow for sin or mere improvement of behavior. First, the meaning of the Greek word behind the English “repent” (metanoeo) points in this direction. It has two parts: meta and noeo. The second part (noeo) refers to the mind and its thoughts and perceptions and dispositions and purposes. The first part (meta) is a prefix that regularly means movement or change.1 So the basic meaning of repent is to experience a change of the mind’s perceptions and dispositions and purposes. "

"The other factor that points to this meaning of repent is the way Luke 3:8 describes the relationship between repentance and new behavior. It says, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” Then it gives examples of the fruits: “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise” (Luke 3:11). This means that repenting is what happens inside of us that leads to the fruits of new behavior. Repentance is not the new deeds, but the inward change that bears the fruit of new deeds. Jesus is demanding that we experience this inward change. "

By John Piper. ©Desiring God. Website: http://www.desiringgod.org/. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 888.346.4700.

Clean slates

What would life be like if we were to always treat everyone we knew as if they had a clean slate every day? What would life be like if we treated our fears/insecurities/struggles as if they are being washed away on a daily basis?

To not remember past wrongs, grudges...

Once this quarter, I talked with a student (A) about another student (B). "A" told me that "B" knows his mistakes. I told "A" to tell "B" that we can have a new start and that I can forget the past (or something along those lines)...and, I think that recently "B" has been doing fine overall, attitude-wise...

Should I have this type of chat with another student (C) in that same class...? Ah, the drama that is human life...

Although it would be great if we could live our lives without remembering or keeping grudges about others' wrongdoings, how about in regard to our own guilt/fears/insecurities/ struggles/sin? We don't necessarily HAVE to be a certain way....right? Do we have to repeatedly encounter the same struggles? Perhaps it is very common, though, for people to struggle with the same sins for a long period of time...

Ideally, it could be nice if we could live each day with a new slate, in regard to our own sins, and in regard to not bitterly harboring others' sins...

Also, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to feel like we have the same fears?

I think my mom had the following experience, or something similar to it-- when climbing Mt. Lassen (maybe), a certain thought came to her mind -- something along the lines of making her think that she doesn't HAVE to be afraid of heights...

So..if people have fears of certain things (heights, cockroaches, etc.) one day, do they necessarily HAVE to have that fear the following day? Is it too simplistic to apply the 'every day is a new day' approach to one's fears?