Sunday, December 6, 2009

PART 3 OF MY SERIES: "'THE SECRET PLACE"


2 Cor. 7: 9b-10a (NLT): "..but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants His people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin..."
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THE SECRET/SACRED PLACE, part 3
REPENTANCE
The great Moody Church Pastor Dr. H.A. Ironside once said " Repentance is the recognition of my sinnership - the owning before God, that I am as vile as He declared me to be, in His Holy Word" (from his book "EXCEPT YE REPENT").

If anyone reading this thinks this does not apply to them, preacher, priest or programmer, then we have another problem. Repentance is the ongoing process of Sanctification which never stops once the believer is alive on this earth.

Both Repentance and Faith are gifts from God. We are first saved by Grace through Faith in Christ (alone).Grace is the first gift. We grow by gradually or dramatically turning away from our evil, vile and disgusting sins...making them dead to the flesh, as we grow weary of battling the flesh and surrender more and more control to Christ, through the Holy Spirit (this is the Spirit-filled living).

In the Secret Place, we bare it all. We hide nothing from Christ. He knows it anyway!! If you struggle with smoking a pack a day, plainly state this and plead for help to stop. If you struggle with looking at miniskirts in the office, more than confess and ask the Lord to direct your eyes elsewhere. If you struggle with drinking beers almost daily and thinking you're not an alcoholic, come to Christ for the strength to quit drinking, even socially.

In the Secret Place, where the rubber meets the road, where His Eyes see all and He is just waiting to help - just come! You can't lie to the Holy Spirit who just convicted you! Will you wake up 15 minutes earlier to spend time with your face up to Heaven calling on His Name? You can't con Christ, why not Repent? He loves when His sheep come calling. Won't you?
Part 4...More on Repentance! (Bernie)

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