THE ACTS OF REPENTANCE
Greetings in the name of Jesus our Lord:
The church in this age is in real trouble from the standpoint of real intent in the hearts of people behind what they do. I see this in small ways all around me in life. If we do something for the glory of God and out of our love for Him then why do we feel slighted if we do not receive recognition from other men over what we have done?
This tendency toward having personal agendas in our giving to the Lords service is not so that others can give us any glory or recognition at all, but it should be for the Kingdom of Heaven alone. It becomes a spirit of the law thing for us that everyone of us has to deal with in our service to God. I work very hard at holding in check those things I have felt were done well, but which were taken for granted by those around me...I think that we all have those feelings of needing a pat on the back sometimes, but instead we need to be finding more reasons to stop clinging to this world and get serious about our new home in God's Kingdom.
We have been studying about things that are lost recently in our church body. We see God's view of us through the lost sheep, and the great personal value that He places upon our recovery in the lost coin. We see His concern and love also in the prodigal son story...not just from the stand point of a Father welcoming home a wayward son, but from the standpoint of that son or daughter who needs to come to a place of complete repentance before returning home. We also see the attitude of the son who stayed at home, but who was just as lost because of his unwillingness to forgive or forget.
It is the son who stayed home that is now in the most danger for forming a riff between himself and the father because of not having the same spirit and mind as his father in forgiveness and repentance. You see unless we can have the same feelings about those who have been found as the Father does we are in danger of being separated from Him once again by lack of repentance on our part to forgive and accept...even rejoice as our Father rejoices over someone found. We can posture all we want on this subject but everyone of us has been or is guilty of this at some point. It is a spiritual problem that can be fixed by simple repentance from our heart.
We may well be involved with some ministry within the church we attend right now, but find ourselves grumbling over a service we have rendered that goes unnoticed by those around us. The feeling of slight are not from the church folk, but from the enemy. It is the same tendency that Lucifer had when he had done a perfect job for God and felt he needed more recognition, or that he was better than all that! Free will can be a real dangerous thing for us if it gets out of control...and that is why repentance is so important. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
The church in this age is in real trouble from the standpoint of real intent in the hearts of people behind what they do. I see this in small ways all around me in life. If we do something for the glory of God and out of our love for Him then why do we feel slighted if we do not receive recognition from other men over what we have done?
This tendency toward having personal agendas in our giving to the Lords service is not so that others can give us any glory or recognition at all, but it should be for the Kingdom of Heaven alone. It becomes a spirit of the law thing for us that everyone of us has to deal with in our service to God. I work very hard at holding in check those things I have felt were done well, but which were taken for granted by those around me...I think that we all have those feelings of needing a pat on the back sometimes, but instead we need to be finding more reasons to stop clinging to this world and get serious about our new home in God's Kingdom.
We have been studying about things that are lost recently in our church body. We see God's view of us through the lost sheep, and the great personal value that He places upon our recovery in the lost coin. We see His concern and love also in the prodigal son story...not just from the stand point of a Father welcoming home a wayward son, but from the standpoint of that son or daughter who needs to come to a place of complete repentance before returning home. We also see the attitude of the son who stayed at home, but who was just as lost because of his unwillingness to forgive or forget.
It is the son who stayed home that is now in the most danger for forming a riff between himself and the father because of not having the same spirit and mind as his father in forgiveness and repentance. You see unless we can have the same feelings about those who have been found as the Father does we are in danger of being separated from Him once again by lack of repentance on our part to forgive and accept...even rejoice as our Father rejoices over someone found. We can posture all we want on this subject but everyone of us has been or is guilty of this at some point. It is a spiritual problem that can be fixed by simple repentance from our heart.
We may well be involved with some ministry within the church we attend right now, but find ourselves grumbling over a service we have rendered that goes unnoticed by those around us. The feeling of slight are not from the church folk, but from the enemy. It is the same tendency that Lucifer had when he had done a perfect job for God and felt he needed more recognition, or that he was better than all that! Free will can be a real dangerous thing for us if it gets out of control...and that is why repentance is so important. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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