Repentance is more than just "turning".

Posted: 28 May 2014 06:11 PM PDT

Reblogged from The end time

As one reads through Hosea, particularly chapter 7, it is amazing the number of metaphors God uses to show Israel's perfidy. They were separated from their God and Protector through their own actions. God hadn't gone anywhere, Israel had. They needed to repent and turn to Him.

However there is turning and there is turning. God was angry that Israel turned to idols. They turned to Egypt. They turned to Assyria. They turned to themselves, in their own beds crying and wailing. ("They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds"; Hosea 7:14) They turned a lot. They didn't turn the right way.

They turn, but not upward,  (Hosea 7:16a)

Turn upward!

Judas turned. In the KJV of Matthew 27:3 it says, "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,"

Did Judas repent? No. He turned, he felt grief, he refused to look at his sin... but he didn't turn upward.

Easton's Bible Dictionary says there are several words for repent used in the bible. In the case of Judas the verb is "metamelomai is used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily a change of heart. This word is used with reference to the repentance of Judas (Matt. 27:3).

The other word for repentance according to Easton's is "Metanoeo, meaning to change one's mind and purpose, as the result of after knowledge. This verb, with (3) the cognate noun metanoia, is used of true repentance, a change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission of sin is promised."

In Judas' case, his turning was not upward.

In your grief over sin, in your restlessness in finding peace, in your agitation, turn, not from one worldly thing to another, but upward!

The lessons of Hosea 7 are many. One is, that God is looking down upon His elect. He is looking. Look upward! See Him! Our holy Savior as High Priest is looking at us, loving us, calling to us to repent. Repentance is a matter of turning, but turning in the right direction, and it is having a right heart condition. Judas' heart wasn't right. Ephraim's heart wasn't right. They cried but it wasn't from the heart. Judas cried, but it wasn't from the heart. If you cry over your sins, is it from the heart? If you turn from your sin, is it in the right direction? We have learned that a horizontal turning is not the right direction because the only thing in our horizontal field of vision is the world. The world doesn't forgive. God in heaven forgives. Upward is the right direction and having the right heart attitude is important too.

"because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." (Romans 10:9).

Hope from the Word of God

^{Hope for 2014 from the Word of God.
Abiding faith, hope and love   
Written and posted by Jean-Louis.}
 
Abiding Faith 1 John 2:24-29
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
²⁵ And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
²⁶ These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
²⁷ But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
²⁸ And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
²⁹ If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

Hope 1 John 3:1-3
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
² Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
³ And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Romans 15:12,13  
Again Isaiah says,

“There shall come the root of Jesse,
And He who arises to rule over the Gentiles,
In Him shall the Gentiles hope.”

¹³ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This hope that the Bible talks about belongs only to those who have believed in and received Jesus-Christ as Lord and Savior. 

If you do not know the Lord Jesus, have not experienced his love, mercy and grace, I invite you, I plead with you now to make your peace with the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and receive his Salvation through His Son Jesus-Christ. 

We all know what the conditions of the world have been in 2014. You know your personal situation. Money won´t save you, politicians won´t save you, guns won´t save you, running and hiding somewhere else thinking you are out of danger won´t save you, belief in any religion, in your own human goodness and performing good works wont´save you, belief in reincarnation and acquiring good karma won´t save you. I am talking about your immortal soul.  

When we die, and nobody knows the hour, we all have to give an account about our lives. The Bible says: It is given for man to die once and then comes the judgment. 
The ones that have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to pay for the just punishment for their sins and put their trust in Jesus-Christ will live eternally in resurrected spiritual glorious bodies in the presence of God whom they love, worship and serve.

The others who have rejected the offer of salvation from a loving but just God available to all will be resurrected also but will suffer eternal separation from God and eternal conscious torment in hell (the lake of fire) in the presence of satan and his demons. They have brought it upon themselves because of their own choice to rebel against their loving Creator who has demonstrated his love for his creation from the beginning of time.

From all we can see in the world today and from the Bible prophecies that have never failed concerning the near future, we can only expect the world in which we live to spin out of greater control if not for divine intervention. 

God has already intervened on your behalf 2000 years ago and provided the way to be reconciled with your Creator. 

If you feel hopeless in this dying world and want to know the way to be reconciled with God, this is what Jesus the Son of God said in the Gospel of John 3
  
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.^[a]”
⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.^{[e] 14} Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,^{[f] 15} that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”^[g]

Love   
John 3:16 reads:
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. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

John 1:1-13 speaking about Jesus the Son of God, the Word of God, the Light of the world, the giver of life abundant and eternal,the Savior of mankind:

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.
³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
⁵ And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
⁷ The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
⁸ He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
⁹ That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
¹¹ He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
¹² But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
¹³ Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 14:6;  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

I am praying for you who read this and are overburdened and feeling condemned by the weight of your sins without any hope of finding a way out of your predicament, whatever it is, that you would seriously and sincerely consider the above Scriptures and humbly ask the LORD God to help you, to come to your rescue, to reveal to you the Truth of his Word and to let him transform your heart, your mind and give you an abundant life that satisfies in the now and the hereafter. 

Isaiah 57:15 reads: For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Click here Psalm 51. A broken and Contrite Heart  and  HERE  to read my own testimony as the result of God´s intervention in rescuing me from the New Age Movement.

For a more thorough explanation of the Gospel "the good news" of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life click HERE  and for how to be born again HERE      

Prayer of a contrite and repentant prodigal son

When the Lord delivered me from the occult, Hinduism and the New Age in 1984 and restored my life and my calling.
Written and posted by Jean-Louis.12/2012

If you want to read more of my journey in a fiction short story, here is the link for the first chapter:
Sighing and the divine response:
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/2011/02/joshua-tree-desert-parable.html 
or in this blog under the title "The Joshua tree"  
 
Lord Jesus, teach me to pray.

Teach me to learn and understand what prayer is, not only through intellectual knowledge, but according to the truth of your blessed word engraved in the heart, in the deepest place of my being that you created.

Lord, I am not learned enough to understand you or to understand the world that surrounds me. I need you like an explorer lost in the middle of the jungle needs a compass.

I have the map, but I don´t know how to read it. Teach me to read and understand the meaning of the map. But most of all, guide my steps on the right path.

May your strength help me to walk for my legs are weak. Grant me the will needed to follow you, wait for me, do not stay in front, I beg you. Stay at my side; let me hold your hand, because if I stay alone behind, I run the risk of being lost and loosing you again.
Give me your will, because mine is too weak now.

May your light illumine the darkness in my mind and disperse the harmful thoughts and illusions that don´t cease to overwhelm me and keep me from getting up again and continue on the way.
I am your child who implores you in his poverty to fill him with spiritual riches, to bless him with the presence of your Holy Spirit and granting him the assurance of the peace that passes all human understanding. I need you, without you my life is not worth anything.

Teach me obedience, surrender and humility so that I can accept fully the grace and the eternal life that you give us through your death and your resurrection.
Teach me to be faithful.
Teach me to confess my faults and sins to you first, then to those against whom I have sinned.
Mold me according to your pattern.

Replace the emptiness that I feel in my life, in my heart with your purifying love.
Replace my weak intellect by the force of discernment and wisdom of your Spirit.
Use me, only you can make something of my life because until now I have not made much of it.  

Teach me how to be a good husband and a good father.
Help me to show my love not only with words but also with deeds.
Help me to be honest with myself and sincere with others, to always tell the truth, to fight against evil, to encourage and support my brothers and sisters and my neighbors when they live through hard times.
Help me to stay simple in my faith and my devotion for you.
Give clarity to my thinking and the ability to organize my thoughts.
Help me to trust you every moment of my life in the little things as in the big ones.

Rid me of the burden of guilt.
Deliver me, O Lord from the fetters that chain my feet and prevent me to walk with you in me and me in you.
I plead with you; I implore you, hear and receive my prayer.
I cannot stand anymore this absence, this emptiness deep inside my being and my life. 
Lord Jesus, be the Lord of my life and the ruler of my heart.
Rule my heart and my spirit. I surrender to you, do with me as you please. Show me your will.
Thank you Lord for giving an attentive ear to my prayers. Blessed and praised be your Name.
Your son.