Repentance

Be Fruitful & Multiply

/ Jodie / Leave a comment

Genesis 1:28

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply…

After creating everything in the universe, God proclaimed it “good”- until He formed man. He knew that it was “NOT good” for him to be alone. So, as only God could do, He created a helper that was suitable for him; spiritually, emotionally & physically.

Far too often, couples find it difficult to be fruitful & multiply in all 3 of these areas.  To further complicate matters, when the physical union of the relationship is broken, it can greatly affect the spiritual and emotional aspects of the marriage as well, making it almost impossible to become one.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”[a] 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

The enemy is crafty. He beings to prey on us when we are young, tempting us to submit to the yearning of our flesh, instead of the yearning of our soul. The fact is, God created us to express our love in a physical manner with our spouse, but our bodies begin to prepare themselves- as He designed- years before we say, “I do.” Satan knows that sex can be a powerful form of worship between a husband and wife who are submitted to God and one another. Therefore, he will do anything he can to ensure we never experience the euphoric union that God intended for us to share with our spouse. Unfortunately, his schemes have worked on far too many couples, leaving them feeling numb and full of spiritual, emotional and physical scars inflicted by sexual sin.

-Pornography

-Masturbation

-Fornication

-Adultery

If we want to live fruitful lives and multiply our descendants and disciples we must allow the Great Physician to gently pull back the scars, carefully clean out the wounds and lovingly heal our mind, body and soul.

God offers redemption and restoration for every person- every couple, if they will trust Him and submit to His commands. Only then can we experience true oneness, as God intended, with our spouse. And that my friends, is GOOD.

“Father, I repent for engaging in pornography & masturbation. I ask that you break the “oneness” with every image/person I’ve seen and fantasized about.”

“Lord, I repent for engaging in (any form of) fornication with _____________. I ask that you break the “oneness” between us.”

“God, I repent for breaking my marriage vows by engaging in (any form of) adultery with ____________. I ask that you break the “oneness” between us.”

Jeremiah 31:3-6

3 Long ago the Lord said to Israel:
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
    With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. 4 I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel.
    You will again be happy
    and dance merrily with your tambourines.5 Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria
    and eat from your own gardens there.6 The day will come when watchmen will shout
    from the hill country of Ephraim,
‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem[a]
    to worship the Lord our God.’”

In the Light

/ Jodie / Leave a comment

1 John 1:5-10

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus[a] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

Upon my salvation, I believed God forgave ALL my sins; past, present & future. Although this is true, as a new disciple, I was inadvertently taught that I didn’t need to repent -ever again.

Romans 3:23-24

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

By God’s grace, I HAVE BEEN SAVED from eternal punishment and my destiny in Him is secure! And now I know that when I repent, it is not to re-secure my spot in heaven, but to re-open the door to God’s light in my life. Choosing to rest on the laurels of praying the sinner’s prayer 14 years ago does not exclude me from living in darkness today. To pretend that I have not sinned since that day is foolishness. When there is unconfessed sin in my life, my relationship with God is hindered. The only way to uncover that darkness is to penetrate it with His light. As I pause each day and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those places in my soul (some of which I may be completely unaware of because I am being deceived by the enemy), He is faithful to answer:

-judgment

-unforgiveness

-complacency

-doubt

-fear

Then, instead of offering a “blanket” apology, I repent in detail for these things:

REPENT = to feel or show that you are sorry for something wrong that you did and that you want to do what is right (Merriam-Webster)

-“Lord, please forgive me for judging ________. You know their heart, and you will judge according to your perfect will, not mine.”

-“I choose as an act of my will, to forgive _________. They owe me nothing.”

-“Father, remove the complacency from my soul. Help me to run boldly after you to further your Kingdom on this earth.”

-“God, forgive me for doubting that you are good- and that you will provide for me.”

-“Lord, please show me the root of this fear. I repent for being bound to my circumstances, instead of trusting in you.”

A “blanket” repentance can be likened to a “blanket” apology after a fight with my spouse. In the beginning, Doug and I were ok with just saying “I’m sorry…” to one another. But, as our relationship has deepened and the light has pushed the areas of darkness back, our souls long for greater oneness. Now, when we repent to one another, we are specific:

-“I apologize for yelling and disrespecting you in front of the kids…I wanted you to do what I wanted.”

-“Would you please forgive me for disregarding the budget you set in place? I made a hasty decision to buy what I wanted.”

-“I’m sorry I didn’t consult you before making plans with friends. I was only thinking about what I wanted to do.”

When we confess our sin- in detail- the other person knows the sincerity of our heart. It also shows that we desire complete restoration for the relationship. A quick “I’m sorry” is usually expressed to just get ourselves out of trouble, so we can move on with what we want to do (take the kids to their activities, watch the big game on TV, go shopping, have sex….). But our spouse is not fooled- and neither is God. He knows our hearts intent, even before our lips utter a sound. If we truly want to live in the light and experience a redeemed and restored relationship with Our Father, sincere repentance must be a daily act of submission for us.

The beauty of our willingness to humble ourselves before the Creator of the universe is that He is always faithful to forgive- and embrace us with open arms.

Luke 15:11-32

11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.[a]’

22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”