Godly Sorrows ...

“Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequence”

Francios de la Rochefocauld

As one who just got a driver’s license very recently, I make sure that I always have my seatbelt on at all times.  I do this to avoid the consequence of being fined by a traffic officer. I have observed some drivers who drive without their seatbelts on. And soon as they see a traffic officer, they quickly “buckle up”, but as soon as they pass the traffic officer, they take off the seatbelt again. Now to get to the point I need to make, there are also drivers who disobey the rules of the road and when a traffic officer pulls them up, they act sorry and promise not to do it again; yet do the very same thing again, on the very same day.  Showing remorse for wrongdoing is only natural for every human being. That is the reason for psychological exams done on people who commit serious crimes and yet show no remorse. It’s not normal not to feel sorry for wrongdoing. But sometimes we can get so used to doing something wrong that we do not feel guilty or sorry about it anymore.  I guess that is why we pretend as if we are sorry so that at least we don't look too bad in the eyes of those around us. But the other reason why we pretend to be sorry (and this is my main point), is because we just want to be exempt from the consequence of the sin.  I want drive above the speed limit; because I have developed a mechanism that will allow me to get away with it so that I can do it over and over again. 

Ted Bundy, a man who killed at least about 30 women in the 70’s; pleaded not guilty to all his crimes. There are numerous biographies of this guy on the internet, but there was one in particular that caught my attention and this is what it said about his remorse for his sins: “Ted never felt sorry for what he did; the only thing that he might have been sorry about was being caught”. Now that pierced my heart because I then realized that I was like that too and sometimes I still am. And Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians simply put it like this; “For the kind of sorrow that God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There is not regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death”. How many times have you gone forward for prayer in tears after a sermon touched your heart and you felt convicted to stop your habitual sin, only to find yourself doing it again? I struggled with masturbation as a teenager and even after I gave my heart to God it just would not go away.  I pleaded with God to take it away countless times, yet it remained. I used to cry in prayer to God, promising never to do it again; yet I went back. It was like taking 2 steps forward and then 10 steps backwards. After numerous failed attempts, I started owning it as my little secret. Looking back at those days, I realize that I had worldly sorrows which led me to not even feeling guilty about the sin (spiritual death). I thought that I would evade the consequences of masturbation by crying, but I needed to take another step further. I needed to take steps towards God in repentance, and when I did that I was able to break free, because now I was no longer scared of my mom walking in on me masturbating, I knew that my heavenly father saw me and as much as I can cry and pretend that I want to stop; He knew my heart.  I now understood that he was not fooled by my fake remorse, he wanted a genuine turning from the sin and a commitment of a day to day relationship with God.  So when a couple have pre-marital sex and the girl is pregnant, the sin is not the pregnancy; it is adultery. What they should feel sorry for is not that they will have a child that they did not plan, but that they have sinned against God. I learned that the hard way after years of struggling with the same sin; I learned that the only way was to view sin from God’s point of view.  

As a kid, when I knew that I did something wrong and that I was going to get a hiding. I would cry as soon as my mother pulled out the belt and that was my escape from the consequence of my wrongdoing, because my mother would feel sorry for me and let me off the hook.  From then on, I developed a habit of doing things and making sure that I get away with it so that I do not have to live with the consequence. I am all grown up now, I had to grow up and live with the consequences and make sure that I never have to live with having to sin habitually and recite my favourite “feel good scripture” just to ease my conscience for a little while only to do it again. I am through with that, and I encourage all of you with habitual sins to do the same.  It might not be such a “BIG” issue as mine, but nevertheless it must be dealt with. Mignon Mclaughlin says: “True remorse is never regret over consequences; it is regret over the motive.” Let this be true for you so that you may live freely ... without the burden of guilty weighing you down heavily. You do not have to carry that load, repent and let your heart be renewed. 

In the next blog post we will look at some examples of Godly and worldly sorrow in the bible.

God Bless you all

Love you all in staxxxxx.

I don't trust me with Myself

 “I would rather walk with God in the dark; than go alone, and walk in the light

As I know with him by my side, the darkness will be ever so bright” Debbie Looney.

I was so intrigued by this poem when I first read it a few years ago, not only because it so beautifully articulated what we believe in the Christian faith, but the depth of faith in God instead in self. It can easily be misunderstood as a human need for company, but I reckon it expresses man’s deep need for guidance, because regardless of how bright it/you may be; human beings will intentionally take the sinful path anyway. I suspect that part of the reason people do that is the misunderstanding of what is more valuable between the body and what the body contains, the spirit. We like to feed the container and totally disregard the content. We feed the outside which only helps us to be more arrogant, proud, greedy, and we forget the spirit which can produce of love, peace, kindness, joy, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness and patience which we would all agree that we need in our lives. When human being have problems which commonly have to do with the heart, they often try to fix it with something that is far from being the solution; alcohol, drugs, sex, etc which ends up hurting them more. Clearly we are our own worst enemies and cannot be trusted with ourselves, hence we need God. There is something that has gone terribly wrong in the human spirit and it needs to be dealt with spiritually, any attempt to deal with it physically will lead to more frustration because “flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit” 

The tragedy of a life led by self is that self is conditioned to live in the dark without realizing it.  So when I follow self’s lead, I am moving in a direction which seems right but has devastating repercussions in the end; hence the proverb “there is a way that seems right in the eyes of man, but in the end leads to destruction”.  Self has a way of messing things up when he has all the resources to do the right thing. Self lives for NOW and wants to be satisfied NOW and seldom considers the future.  He does not consider that “whatever you do today will affect your future”.  Self is all about pleasure and will always reminding you of things like “you are still young, you need to enjoy your life to the fullest” and intentionally forgets to let you know that “God will judge you for all that you have done”(Eccl. 11:9). I gave up following him; I woke up to the truth, that I cannot continue playing God. God is the only one that knows the end of the beginning, knows the path to everlasting life that we all so yearn for if we were all to be really honest with ourselves.  I realized in Christ that life was far deeper than what meets the natural eye, the physical.  Part of following Christ for the disciples was letting go of self so that they can receive the gift of God who was the Christ.  They had to trade something small for something bigger than themselves, which was Christ; the son of the living God.

Moses refused to leave without the presence of God. In Exodus 33:15 he says these words: “... If you are not going with us, please do not let us leave this place ...” Moses knew where he was going, he knew how to get there but he acknowledged that he needed God who knows everything. Moses could have just said; “well, if you don’t come I will just get a map and find my way to the Promised Land.” But knowing that he was helpless leading the Israelites himself, he acknowledged his need for God to go with them. This was not for companionship; he had Joshua and Aaron who were close to him. This was a different kind of need; he needed guidance from God which Joshua and Aaron could never give because they need it themselves.

 

Joshua 24 ... Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel and gives them a history lesson. He reminds them of Abraham their father.  He tells reminds them of how he parted the red sea and made them walk on dry land. How they crossed the Jordan River without drowning and many other miracles that he performed.  Then in v15 he says something that I think is still relevant for the modern Christian,

 “... Choose today whom you will serve ...” It’s almost as of God was reminding them of the times when he was with them and the times they worshiped other gods (relied on self). And from that history lesson, there was some homework ... CHOOSE WHOM YOU WILL SERVE. I had my one on one history lesson and the same question was asked as homework, and I have chosen to let go of self and serve God.  Won’t you attend your one on one history lesson and do your homework and give your answer to the master teacher, Jesus Christ...

God Bless You

Prayer

Lord, I acknowledge that too often I try to work it out myself

And neglect the call of your spirit to a life of righteousness and

Justice.  I pray that you rid me of myself and fill me more

with yourself that I may reflect you more than myself.

Today I choose to follow the lead of your Holy Spirit. Amen

If only they knew ...

It was Paul who birthed this thought in me in his first letter to the church in Corinth. In chapter 2, he explains the hidden plan of God which has been revealed to all saints through the spirit.  I often tell students that when I speak to them during a life skill lesson, I am not trying to tell them what to do or how to live their lives, but that I am giving them information to make informed decisions. I believe that this is helpful because the next time they make decisions, they will remember what the consequences are which may ultimately affect their choices. For instance you are more likely to change/stop bad habits if I told you of their long term consequence on your life holistically, than if I just told you to stop your bad habits. Because of this knowledge, my eyes got stuck on a specific verse which says quite a lot about how people’s actions and probably even thoughts could change “if only they knew” the plan.  “... what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God – [that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages of our glorification [to life us up into the glory of his presence]. None of the rulers of our age or world perceived and recognized and understood this, for it they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” If only the rulers of the day knew that Jesus would rise from the dead and establish the biggest movement in history, they would not have killed Him. Their ignorance of God divine plan led to the victory over death through the death of Christ, which they thought was a goal on their team, but in essence; they had just scored an own goal. 

There are actually a few “if only they knew” moments in the events towards the crucifixion of Jesus.  When Jesus was questioned by Pilate and did not respond, in attempt to intimidate him he said: “do you not realize that I have the power to release you or to crucify you” to which Jesus replied: “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above.” It’s almost as if Jesus is saying “No ... you have it twisted, you are the one that needs to realize here, not me. ‘if only you knew’ that my father has actually given you the power, you would not say that.” Pilate seemed to be the one in the position of power, but would soon realize that it was the other way around. At the arrest of Jesus, Peter draws his sword and cuts the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus immediately rebukes his ignorance by ordering him to put away his sword and he said these words to him: “don’t you realize that I could ask my father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them immediately? But if I did, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”  Peter himself did not understand the plan, it was not yet revealed to him even though Jesus had spoken to them about it.  If only he knew/understood that Jesus had to go through the struggle and the pain for the purpose of God to prevail, he would not have struck the soldier’s ear off.  It is much like our lives sometimes, we want the pain and struggle to go away and we don’t realize that the pain is there for a lesson that we must learn. Some of the struggles that we go through were divinely planned for our character to be built, in preparation for all the responsibilities that God has for us in the future and if only we knew that, we would; just like Christ endure the struggle/pain with hope in Christ who has plans to prosper us and not to harm us.  Romans 5 clarifies that we rejoice in our struggles because they develop in us “perseverance; perseverance character; character hope.”

In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and asks her for a drink. This simple request turns into a racial issue and Jesus; knowing exactly what the woman really needs says these words: “if only you knew the gift of God for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”(Emphasis added). The woman did not know that she was talking to the promised Christ, the Son of the Living God.  She was ignorant of the fact that he was able to satisfy her deep need for love and acceptance.  I bet you that if she knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah, her response to Jesus would have been different.  This is a classic example of how the plan of God is hidden and can only be known through the Spirit of God that is in us.  As soon as the woman realized who she was talking to, she left her jar there and went into the city to tell everyone of the man who told her everything about herself.  You see, Joseph’s brothers would never have sold him if they knew that they would need him in a time of famine.  The people would never have drowned if they had listened to the counsel of Noah when he announced the coming of the flood.  Nebuchadnezzar would never have thrown the 3 men in the fiery fire if he knew that the Son of Man would save them, neither would they have thrown Daniel in the Lion’s den if they knew that God would shut their mouth. All the things that happened above were all in the plan of God to show his greatness to man, but when they happened it was tough and seemed like God was not in them at all. Regardless of them being hard, people endured and in the end reaped the benefits of enduring hardship.  Won’t you have a different view of pain and struggles, now that you KNOW that it all is in the divine plan of the Most High God who cannot be mistaken?

God Bless You all and Thanx for reading

Sello Scalo Mmane

Self Sufficiency Vs Dependence. Part II

When human beings are left to themselves, they are a danger to themselves.  Sundar Singh puts it this way; “it is possible for the sheep to wander from the fold and the shepherd, and find in the jungle good pasturage, but they are all the time in danger of being torn to pieces by wild beasts, which will be their fate in the end.  But those who abide in the fold and with the shepherd, though they may appear to be sick and feeble, are certainly free from anger and in the shepherds care. This is the difference between believers and unbelievers.” Most of us would agree that this is the story of our lives; we wandered off into the jungle called “I want to do it MY way” and as a result we were almost torn to pieces by beasts and we have the scars in deep in our hearts to prove it.  For some us, we are still in this jungle and have no intention of getting back to the shepherd because the pasturage that we have found by ourselves is a bit too nice to let go of. Our experience can attest that commonly all the things that are not nice are good for us, and all the nice things are commonly not good for us.  Think of how you don’t like your veggies (that are good for u), but love your sweets (which are not so good for you) or how abstinence from sex until marriage is such a tough thing than just doing it now.  When we are relying on ourselves to get by, we end up hurting ourselves.  Ultimately, self-reliance is covert arrogance which says to God; thanks but no thanks. It is like saying to God: “Look I know you created this world and you know everything about it, but frankly I don’t need you to get around, I can be my own navigator.”  I used to live like this until I met Jesus and I realized that I needed a spiritual navigator whose batteries will never go flat, after all it was Jesus who said “without HIM we can do nothing.”

I was going through my bible the other day and came across a very interesting story of a man who demonstrated dependence in God instead of self-reliance.  It is found in 2 Chronicles 20, where 3 nations unite to attack the Israelites in attempt to annihilate them all.  At the word of the messengers about the coming of the army and how close they are, King Jehoshaphat immediately calls for a fast and enquires of the Lord. This struck me because I know that whenever I am faced with a struggle, the first person that I consult is ME, and if I don’t succeed; then only do I consult God.  But this man of God does not even look for the power within himself because he acknowledges that he is weak without God.  While they are fasting, Jehoshaphat makes this prayer of total helplessness to God (v:12b) “... we are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We don’t know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.” Notice that this is not only an acknowledgement of physical powerlessness, but also that of Intellect. He says that they do not “know” what to do, they have no clue how to deal with this. What he basically says in this prayer is “Lord if you don’t save us, we are doomed!”  I was shocked at the Lord’s instruction from there, he orders them to march against them, for he will fight on their behalf; all they have to do is march against the enemy (with no weapons). The Lord fights on their behalf and they did not even lift a finger in the battle, all they did was praise and worship God.  Their helplessness moved God to fight on their behalf; He could not stand and watch his helpless children be defeated by pagan nations. Now these people took God at his word and did not carry some swords or any other artillery to protect themselves just in case God does not show up, they fully relied on him to come through for them and he did, because the bible declares that those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame.

You know how your life is right now, and you know if you are part of the fold that is under the care of the shepherd, totally relying on Him to take them to greener pastures or if you are the sheep that wandered off in the jungle to enjoy your OWN pasturage which you found by yourself.  What is stopping you from depending on God? How about you give Him a chance to prove that he takes care of the sheep that is under his care?

God Bless You stax and thanx for reading.

Sello “Scalo” Mmane

Self-Sufficieny Vs Dependence Part I

It has become a common trend for the human race around the whole world to have alternatives for the probability of failure in our initial plans. While this may be a good practice and probably being; "realistic", it certainly does not do us any good when it comes to our walk with Christ Jesus.  Jesus does not do half jobs that are insufficient to meeting our needs, but instead; all that is created by Him for our benefit is able to thoroughly meet our needs.  Manufactured alternatives will always fall short of the satisfaction that comes from the original thing that God has created for us.  For us to embrace this truth, we need to be willing to let go of our alternatives. In the book of Jeremiah 2:13; God spells out two sins that they have committed: "My people have done two evil things; they have forsaken me the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all". This was during a time when the Israelites had totally forgotten about God and were worshipping Baals. As a result of this, God sent Jeremiah to announce the 70 year Babylonian rule over Israel. What makes it worse is that they do not think that they are at fault in any way. We see this in Jer 2:35" ... I am innocent; surely His anger has turned away from me ...". So, according to them; there is no fault in having a "plan B" if the initial one does not seem to work out. Are we not like this with God sometimes?

Let us go deeper into this scripture in Jer.2:13. for us to understand this scripture, we need to understand the difference between a fountain and a cistern.  A fountain is a natural spring of water from the ground whilst a cistern; is a man-made tack used to preserve rain water. Now, there is nothing wrong with having a cistern, but there is something wrong with making a cistern your main source of water(life) when there is a fountain available for use. This is exactly what the Israelites had done. The problem with a cistern is that it can break or crack, which was the case in this instance. I bet they tried everything in their power to try and fix this cistern and for some time got it right, but because water is an inevitably unstoppable force; they would find themselves trying to fix it again. Just like how we forget God and when life is not going well for us, we try and fix it with our own strength; we sometimes get it right and for a while life seems good. But because life's troubles are inevitable(John16:33), we find our cisterns leaking again and this become a vicious cycle; simply because we will not let go of our unhelpful "self-sufficient" mentality.  I imagine the Israelites blaming the cistern's inability to hold water on everything else but themselves.  Much like us human beings, we forsake God (the fountain) and we make our own plans (cisterns) and when they fail us, we blame it on everything and everyone else but ourselves. All they had to do was to forget about the cisterns and embrace the fountain of living water, which will never run dry. We need to rely on God fully for us to enjoy the pleasures that are at his right hand. God provides the fountain and all we have to do is "feast on the abundance of his house and drink from his river of delights" Psalm 36:8. 

As i read through the bible, I realize that God has a soft spot for people who admit their faults. I personally hate it (and I bet you hate it too) when someone trys to put me at fault for something that they did wrong. You know when someone says:"yeah I did it, but I would not have done it if hadn't done ..." or "I did that because you didn't ...". Those are some of the worst apologies that we hear from people these days. I guess that is why we even struggle with repentance, we just cannot see ourselves at fault. In the bible we see that God loves it when we admit our faults and ask for forgiveness. David understood this hence he said "a broken and CONTRITE heart you do not despise" in Psalm 51. In John 9;after Jesus healed a man who had been blind from birth. The pharisees did not believe it and even through the man out of the synagogue for believing in that Jesus was the Messiah. after the man accepts him as the Messiah and worships him, Jesus says these words: "For judgement I have come to this world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind" to what the pharisees replied "what, are we blind too?" to which he replied "if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you CLAIM that you see, your guilt remains" This suggests to me that, if the pharisees had admitted their spiritual blindness, they would not be guilty of any sin. So, the first step of moving out of your self-sufficent state to total dependance in God, is by admitting that you have dug your own cisterns and forsaken the fountain of living water.

join me again in the next post as we look at other instance in the bible on this vital matter.
God bless you all and thank you for reading!!!!!!!

Allowing God to be God Part II

Ever had that moment when you were doing something with a lot of people observing but not making sense of what you were up to, but you knew very well what you were doing and that it will all turn out great? Well, in the previous post, we spoke about things that God will ask you to do that do not make sense. In this post, we are going to look at the things that he will do that will not make sense to you. While the previous post comes mainly from the problem of human being’s obsession with control over “their” lives, this post is about the human being’s need of being certain/sure about the future.  We all want to be sure that our future is secure.  This is evident in us paying for insurance, should anything happen; we know we are covered.  This need becomes a problem when we meet Christ because, unlike insurance companies; He does not follow our template of how life should go.  This requires us to understand a truth which may seem “unfair”, but is essential for us to understand in order live in harmony with our LORD Jesus Christ.  God’s will, not yours; will always prevail. If you do not understand this truth, you will forever be angry at God for not doing what you asked Him to do for you. You cannot twist God’s arm into doing what you want, even if you fill a bucket full of tears; the Lord’s will shall prevail, not yours. 

Because of Israel’s rebellion of worshiping false gods, God sends Jeremiah to announce Babylon’s invasion in Judah and their 70 year long reign over Judah (Jer. 5:15 – 17). When we read this text, we find out that God does not hide the fact that He has willed this.  He openly says “I am bringing a distant nation against you …” Now to the Israelites, this does not make sense because everyone knows that Israel is God’s chosen nation.  If the enemy wins, it would weaken the testimony of a God who once opened the red sea for the Israelites to walk on dry ground.  People will think that the God of Israel is dead and cannot defend them anymore.  To the Israelites this does not make sense because according to them, this is not how the story should go; the children of God cannot be suffering and worst of all, be slaves to a foreign nation again. It seemed as if God had lost control, but they did not know that even though life and everything around us can be uncertain, God is never uncertain and is always in control.  God never loses control of any situation, even when it does not seem like it. We know this because this is what God says in Jer. 29:10 – 11 “when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future”  I imagine the Israelites rolling their eyes at these words saying “yeah right”. Some of us probably know how the story goes. Israel is invaded and captured by Babylon for 70 years. God speaks to the Israelites through Ezekiel through visions like the valley of dry bones, assuring them of restoration.  At the end of it all, Israel is restored and God fulfils his promise to his people.  He had been in control all along, even in their captivity He was God and nothing had changed about His sovereignty.

Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo; like Jesus Christ, understood that only God’s will must prevail regardless of how senseless and “unfair” it might seem.  Before Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo were thrown in the burning furnace, they uttered these words: “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace. He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if he does not do it, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  These were men that understood that God’s will must prevail, not theirs. They understood that crying and sulking will not change the fact that His will prevails.  In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is about to be captured and he also utters words that affirm His father’s will: “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” The message.  If it were up to Jesus, the suffering that he was going to go through was just too much, so he would rather opt out. But because of the big picture which included you and I being a part of his Father’s kingdom, He opted to be the sacrifice for our sins; which was planned by His father a long time ago. God might seem like a unloving father for letting his son die a brutal death on the cross when he had all the power to strike everyone with lightning and instantly kill them. It might have seemed as if he lost control of the whole situation, but in the end; Jesus rose from the dead, conquered death and because of his obedience we are called children of God.  Regardless of all uncertainty surrounding us, God is always certain and HE NEVER LOSES CONTROL!!!!

God Bless and Thanx for reading.