David Pawson on Key Steps to Becoming a Christian Pt2- Repentance

For David Pawson's message on "Key Steps to Becoming a Christian" Pt2 Repentance, visit https://inspirational.org.nz

Thoughtful Thoughts 25.2.22 by John Dunning ‘Becoming a Christian’?

Part 2… REPENTANCE

Example 1)?

Luke 18:9-14 The prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector…?

A Pharisee and tax collector went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee puffed himself up to boast about himself to God.?

The tax collector went to the temple and begged God for mercy and forgiveness. God only heard the prayer of the tax collector, whom He forgave.?

The religious leader’s empty words prayed at God He simply didn’t hear.?

Jesus used this everyday example to teach that only the repentant are forgiven.

Example 2).?

Acts 2:38 ‘The Peter Package’?

Peter was asked by a man in the crowd, “Brothers, what should we do?”?

This was his answer… Kefa (Peter) answered them, “Turn from sin, return to God, and each of you (Complete Jewish Bible).be immersed on the authority of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah into forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit)!’ (Complete Jewish Bible).

?Notice the order in verse 38…?

a). Turn from sin, (repent);

b). Be immersed (or in Greek, “Baptizo);

c). Then there is the promise that we may receive the Holy Spirit.?

Application…

The so-called “Peter Package” is the basic 101 discipleship teaching which requires our obedience.? They are steps for us to keep on taking, as set out.?

Now, just in case someone has a query in their mind about the dying thief on the cross who was accepted immediately by our Lord;- that was because after taking the first obedient step in faith, there was no opportunity for him to take the next step, as he was dying. He went as far as he could. In 99.9% of cases, people are simply not about to die when making that first step of faith, reaching out to the Lord… For those of us in the 99.9% category, we are expected to continue being as obedient as possible to the One we claim to be our Lord. He is only our personal “Lord” if we obey Him. If we don’t obey Him, we cannot claim He is our Lord. Death ends our opportunity for continued obedience.

A Welsh Sunday School Story…

Sunday schools in Wales will be only too familiar with the story of a child who walked to her Sunday school in the winter, in the 19th century. The church was some distance from her home. That Sunday, the Sunday school teacher taught the children Psalm 23. She taught them “The Lord is my Shepherd…” by getting them to touch each finger in turn for each word of the sentence. After Sunday school finished the child walked home in a freezing cold Welsh winter. She never arrived home. The search party found her frozen body rigidly holding the fourth finger of her left hand, which was the finger for “MY”, in the sentence, “The Lord is MY shepherd”.?

That child was obeying all that she knew that could do at that moment in time… and for that reason, I believe that for her, that first step was all she needed for her to be welcomed into paradise. Why? Because that was all which the thief on the cross did. It was childlike faith that Jesus said He was looking for in us. (Cf. the Israelites in the wilderness who were only required to look up at the snake in the wilderness and which Jesus used as a picture of what He was about to do.) That is our starting point - the first step - turning to Jesus in simple faith and obedience. The word “repentance” literally means, “turn around”, (as in ‘faith’). We start just by obeying Jesus, and we don’t stop! Next week, I’ll bring a testimony…

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.?

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