Chase Sense With Why.

   I have often pondered various teachers definitions of repentance. It appears in modern times that repentance most of the time is promoted as a way to make people be dedicated to a “club” of people so that if you cooperate with their group – then they validate you as having repented and changed.

   Now, that might be a good definition of repentance  for a prison keeper and judge to go by while trying to discern if a person is going to be a threat to private property rights of others and other peoples lives physically, before feeling peace about releasing them back into the general public; however, a person passing that behavior test does not give a clear indication of what is in their heart. Prisoners sometimes behave well simply for the sake of gaining freedom, and although they might continue to behave well once they are free again it doesn’t specifically indicate they now have a reverence for God – it indicates that they want to keep their freedom.

   Many people want to be a part of church because it gives a sense of family. Many people are a part of church because it validates them visibly as being a “good” person. Many people are a part of church because it gives them a safety net with people who are at least trying to do better in some ways.

   There is nothing wrong with being part of a church family, trying to do well for yourself and to help your church family and community, and there is nothing wrong with enjoying the fact that being part of a church family generally gives you and others a general safety net with purity as a goal, IF it is from the genuine trust and love of God and hope for human souls in our own hearts.

   Before I get to the main point, I want to point out that although there are some people regularly in churches who do not love God or exercise love for their neighbors and might be there for the safety net, or to be among people who believe in making good financial decisions, and there are some hypocrites who are specifically there only for such reasons or to intentionally spread false doctrine; and there are also some who are simply delusional (Christ calls them Pharisees) who believe in themselves and their reputation as the mediator between God and man and they treat church like a gang loyalty thing; WELL, despite the fact that those ungodly spirits exist in churches in small and sometimes large proportions – Isaiah 55:11 “O shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it “

   The main point I want to make about repentance is that repentance starts in the heart. Godly repentance is a change and new birth in the heart. I have seen many people argue that repentance is a change of actions, and people who press that might be control freaks and/or could be quick to judge for the sake of being a control freak or for setting only 2 or 3 standards that they can uphold to glorify themselves with and to judge everyone else by. That is just one example of one trap that goes on in the psychological warfare of the emotional and psychological spirit realm.

   Repentance that trusts Christ is truly a thing of the heart, soul and mind. There are numerous holy actions and concentration preferences in the world. Everyone has different gifts, memory capabilities and passions. Therefore, one cannot easily discern someone elses change in action about many things.

   Was Jesus wrong to rescue the woman the Pharisees were going to stone for having multiple boyfriends (John 4)? No. Was Jesus wrong to speak to a Samaritan woman at a well when she was a Samaritan and He was a Jew? No. (John 8)

  Christians can’t really judge people’s repentance by who they talk to. If judging people by who people talk to is always the measure of repentance then no Christian would be able to do the “Great Commission” taught in Mark 16:15 which states, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

   If repentance means you cannot talk to unbelievers then you would not be able to practice what Matthew chapter 5 says in verse 44-46 straight from Jesus mouth, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise in the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (we should offer water to both). For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Don’t even the publican’s do the same?”

   The reality of being a believer in Christ, is that a believer will recognize their struggles with fleshly appetites more than an unbeliever who doesn’t see anything wrong with various fleshly appetites in part because, a true believer sees a long list of work that needs to be done in working on their own mind to share thoughts for people to understand the goal of reaching billions of people with each nugget of truth Christ gives us with salvation and after salvation. (Romans 7, Romans 12)

   The reality is that if someone is a true believer in Christ then they have compassion for the whole world to know Christ’s salvation and compassion for all people to at least have access to the knowledge about Christ, plus to experience seeing God’s fruit of the Spirit (listed in Galatians 5) walking with a true believer at some point. (“God so loved the ‘whole’ world” John 3:16; “Go ye into ALL the world and teach ALL people/ nations” Mark 16:15).

   When people experience salvation, what changes is that they now have hope for Heaven in the second life, they now desire spiritual goals, they desire to please God and gain wise knowledge from Him, and now there is a battle of high quality spiritual love that our bodies emotions, hormones, hungers and other physical and emotional features often want to battle against in seeking vain pleasures and often being short sighted. (Romans 7)

   One primary way to battle our fleshly desires is talked about in Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

   You can see in Romans 12:2 that we are not working on change to please other people’s opinion of whether we are good or perfect or not, in part because we cannot be perfect, salvation makes us whole and reconcilable, but not perfect on earth. Part of God’s purpose for a believer is to share God’s good will, learn and share what’s acceptable to God, and grow to understand God’s perfect will.

   Galatians 5 and Ephesians 6 show us some key tools for battling against our physical desires and against evil spirits, and there are many Scriptures to help us in our battle for purity of heart and understanding.

   John 3:16-17 and Mark 16:15-16 tell us what God’s good will is. Here is a paraphrase, “God loves the whole world, and gave us Jesus for us to realize and make it obvious that we can choose Him for the heavenly second life. God sent His Son to save us not to condemn us. Share this story with the whole world. He who believes and is baptized is saved, but whoever does not believe condemns their own self.”

   “Redeem the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).

   “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

   Now, here comes a verse that does tell us to do good works – for people to see. By the way, it doesn’t say that we are incapable of doing bad works and that we never will – other verses always tell us to guard ourselves against bad works because, emotions and other things that tempt us at times still exist and can become a temptation to us if we are not vigilant and even when we are vigilant but discouraged.

  Matthew 5:16 is the verse, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”

   In other words, we are to show the good works of mercy and peace to other people and do the other beatitudes listed in the first part of Matthew 5 before verse 16. Notice the second part of verse 16 says this if you break it down in the context of the whole chapter: “that they may glorify God in Heaven by seeing you show the good works He taught you.” And clearly people can recognize the good works of mercy and peace being shared with them as coming from the Spirit and hand of God.

   Ecclesiastes chapter 1 emphasizes over and over again, and explains in a thorough literary fashion that “life is short.” The point is to value what really matters. Value God. Value the inner spirit of life which comes from God and can last forever with God if we choose now to spend life with God before we die. Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”

   Proverbs 27:1 says, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

   Matthew 6:34 says, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

   James 4:14, presumably Jesus’s half brother writes, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.”

   To summarize the answer to the question in the title of this blog: Christ’s salvation is for you. It is for you to believe and receive eternal life. Once we receive salvation then we automatically have compassion for people who have not trusted and received eternal life, and we want to please God and be wise with our time so as to share all the hope, love and salvation we feel from God with others in this short life. We do that by sharing the good works of forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy, peace, truth, the fruit of the Spirit and many other things God shows in the Bible to share with others.

   Trying to show people how perfect we can be has little if anything to do with why we discipline our lives. We discipline our lives to create more time and fewer problems for the sake of being able to share God’s grace and truth with more people. Exercising purity is certainly a goal for self, because it saves us money and grief and does reflect more peace of God; but people, including believers fail and sin.

   It is neither our purity, failure or sins that save people. It is God’s purity that creates Heaven, it is God’s love that forgives people and it is God’s power that saves those who trust Him through Christ and His work.

   The change God made in me wants to point people to Heaven, NOT to a type of supposed athletic or disciplinary perfection that falsely indicates I am miraculously incapable of sin or failures.

   The change in me desires some disciplinary action mostly for the sake of using my time wisely toward studying and finding clarity to share Christ’s salvation invitate and to discern Godly justice toward helping implement as much as possible on this earth “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 from the Lord’s prayer)

   1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

   1 John 1:9 says, “But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

   1 John 1:10 says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

   After a person gets saved, then there may be some people they knew before they were saved who would see a change in their habits. They may be more considerate when they talk, and have a desire to talk about God. The saved person might not see old friends much anymore if they were involved in sins and unhealthy living together before that person was saved. So, the fact that there was a change in you after salvation is usually only recognizable by a few people. Therefore, it is not the evidence of change in us which is going to be highly relevant to billions of people, but rather it will be the regular change by renewing my mind and walking in the spirit and repenting of my sins that allows me to share God’s spirit and truth with clarity to many more people and also gives them clarity of their right to share the same clarity of eternal salvation many times through trusting resurrected Christ.

   Decisions and circumstances vary from person to person after someone is saved, but there is certainly an inner desire change and a confidence in Christ for the eternal Heaven.

   Do not fall for people in churches judging your salvation according to their standards of behavior. Everyone needs to implement various preferential standards in their lives which help them to harness their behavior toward achieving goals of how they see fit to exercise and share their faith and to take care of the health of their body to redeem the time and aim to live according to Galatians 5 “walking in the Spirit” and according to Mark 16:15 sharing Christ’s forgiveness and resurrection power salvation for eternal life with everyone they can somehow, or in some way that they are able to communicate it with some clarity by themselves, in a group, or by supporting an evangelist, or evangelist group, or to support a church that is active in evangelistic efforts of sharing Christ’s invitation for everlasting life.

   Certainly, if church folks are promoting standards that help your growth, understanding and reach in sharing salvation; then stick with that group, but if it conflicts with your style and stifles your growth and effectiveness for sharing with clarity, then find a different group or tell them you’d like to create your own sharing methods which may be too timely for a group.

   Whatever the case; understand that we are supposed to have the freedom to share truth and analysis in America. Promoting “thou shalt not steal or kill” is actually politics straight from God’s ten commandments that everyone should want everyone to engage in promoting and talking about. And yes, that means – “talk politics!” Because, if we don’t talk peaceable politics like the ten commandments bring, then we are not doing the good works that Matthew 5:16 tells us to do, because if we are not speaking “thou shalt not steal or kill” into the political arena or subject matter, then we are not doing the beatitude in Matthew 5:9 which states, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”

   People need to teach peacemaking and expect peacemaking from others. If I am peaceable and don’t expect others to be peaceful, then I am supporting passiveness. Peacemaking needs to be taught, and although it’s not always safe to address it directly to someone who is actively threatening or actively disturbing the peace, we all need to support the educational knowledge of Christ’s principles for peacemaking in society in some venue somewhere, and with a goal of people knowing those neighborly principles everywhere.

   The purpose of salvation is eternal life with God which is Heaven instead of Hell without God. The purpose of sharing salvation is so that other people can know they have a choice to trust Christ for Heaven. That is a pertinent choice they need to know matters forever and ever. No one needs to be perfect to share the invite information of trusting the forgiving resurrected Christ for eternity’s Heaven.

   If you believe in Christ’s Heaven, then you will share that invite and belief, you warn people that it will be Hell without God, and you will make time to share it yourself, or you will support venues that do it.

   Aim to be tactful and understanding of the fact that many people will not believe, and oftentimes listen to the reason they give for not believing; then share more evidence you know against their doubts and to answer more of their questions if they allow you to finish.

   If you do NOT share salvation at all, or if you do not support venues or individuals who actively share salvation, then you simply do not believe there is any reason to avoid danger and torment by getting saved yourself.

“He that loves not knows not God for God is love.”        1 John 4:8

Sense-Chaser Bob, 4/30/2024

Chasing sense makes sense

LEARN-Y