Breaking
All Chains
Setting The
Captives Free
Repentance
The world
is in a very sad state because we simply do not love our neighbour.
Summarizing the ten commandments, Christ said:
Matthew 22:39
. . . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
We
are so very messed up, that today, we do not even love ourselves.
The reality is that whenever, we cause hurt, pain, or damage to another,
it
is our duty to humble ourselves, and do whatever is necessary to make amends.
Too
often, we pontificate over this and that issue, we justify our wrong deeds,
or even lie, rather than do what we ought to do.
This is normal.
What do you think the command to
“Confess your faults one to another” means?
It certainly does not mean going to a priest to
confess,
nor does it mean going to any sort of meeting,
and making yourself a public spectacle.
What it does mean is that when you have wronged
another, you should go to the
person whom you have offended and acknowledge your
sin.
You need to confess your
faults to all those whom you have sinned against, no one else.
Most continue with their daily lives, as if all is well.
This clearly shows the lack of a sound mind, and also of love,
which believers should possess.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God
hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power,
and of love, and of a sound mind
Proverbs
puts it very bluntly.
Proverbs
13:19 ¶ . . . : but it is abomination to fools to
depart from evil.
It is imperative that we carefully
evaluate ourselves, lest we find ourselves cut off
from the Eternal God.
Numbers 15: 30 ¶ But the soul that doeth ought
presumptuously,
whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same
reproacheth the LORD;
and that soul shall be cut off from
among his people.
Numbers
15:31 Because he hath despised the word of the LORD,
and hath broken his commandment, that
soul shall utterly be cut off;
his
iniquity shall be upon him.
If you have offended me, how will confessing this to
anyone else help me?
James 5:16
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
During the summer there were two little
girls playing in their front garden,
one was four years old, and the other was eight.
Something had gone wrong between them.
The four year old had unintentionally upset the older girl.
I then heard the four year old say to the eight year old, with feeling,
‘I am truly sorry’, and she meant it.
It is no wonder Christ said that we have to become as little children.
This does beg the question are you really converted?
Throughout my life, my experience is that most times, people
like to be wrong and strong.
It is ignorance of the highest order, but I see it all the time.
Whatever these people might think, I can assure them all,
that they can only go backwards and never forwards, until they humble
themselves,
and obey what the Eternal God commands.
Quoting the bible, or others, who are in rebellion, is a pointless
exercise.
Matthew 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto
you, Except ye be converted,
and become as little children, ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:4
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The apostle Paul puts this whole matter into its context in the following verses,
Where we can see how problems should be dealt with by the parties
involved.
We are not told that anyone else should be involved.
If the offender does not speak
the truth and acknowledge their error,
the devil will enter and make the situation even worse.
One cannot be forgiven for a wrong that has not been
acknowledged.
We must speak the truth to our
neighbours, this means everyone.
Read the document: Brothers And Neighbours
We must never give the Devil a place in our lives.
We must not grieve the Holy Spirit.
We must forgive one another.
If we actually understood, and carried out these clear instructions,
we would then find that our Christian condition would greatly improve.
The Holy Spirit and the Devil cannot dwell in the same place at the same
time.
Ephesians
4:25 Wherefore putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbour:
for we are members one of another.
Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not:
let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Ephesians 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no
more: but rather let him labour,
working with his hands the thing which is good,
that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve
not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour,
and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath
forgiven you.
Literally
billions of people have the totally wrong concept of repentance.
Many have set themselves up as
teachers,
when they do not even understand
the basics of Christianity.
The result is that we end up with
the blind are leading the blind.
This is what Christ
said:
Luke 6:39 And he spake a parable unto
them,
Can the blind lead the blind?
shall they not both fall into the ditch?
Repentance cannot take place whilst
pride, arrogance and ego,
are central in our lives.
Read the
Document: EGO - Our Biggest Problem
Repentance has to be preceded by
genuine humility.
Without humility there will never be
repentance.
Even tears, do not mean repentance.
Let us say that a husband has been
unfaithful to his wife,
and he comes with many tears, does that
mean that he is repentant?
No not at all.
He could easily be crying, because he
has been found out,
and not because he is acknowledging his
gross sin.
It can simply be crocodile tears.
Hebrews
12:15
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you,
and thereby many be defiled;
Hebrews
12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person,
as Esau, who for one morsel of meat
sold his birthright.
Hebrews
12:17
For ye know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the
blessing, he was rejected:
for he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears.
In view of this, what do we think that
our arrogant attitude will achieve,
when we think that we can adopt the
Roman Catholic attitude,
when we say, well I have sinned, so I
will just confess my sin,
and that is the end of the matter, and
if I sin I will confess again,
and so on indefinitely.
I have to tell you that is utterly
wrong.
There is nothing casual about
repentance.
It demeans the awesome horrific
sacrifice of Christ.
Repentance means that we are determined
not to commit the same sin again.
We saw that Esau’s tears were just not
what was required.
We have to move out of the mindset,
that the Eternal God is so very
desperate to save us, that we can do
exactly as we wish, and He will
quite happily accept us, with open arms, and give us a ‘group hug of welcome’,
regardless of our rebellious attitude.
Very rarely do we commit sins of
ignorance,
but far too often, we commit sins of
arrogance.
Additionally, many are experts at
seeing the supposed sins of others,
whilst they are totally oblivious of
their own sins, which are clearly seen by others.
Luke 6:41 And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother’s eye,
but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Luke 6:42
Either how
canst thou say to thy brother,
Brother, let me pull out the mote that
is in thine eye,
when thou thyself beholdest not the
beam that is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam
out of thine own eye,
and then shalt thou see clearly to pull
out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
The reason for the blindness was stated
above.
Ephesians 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
In Revelation
chapter 3, the ‘Believers’, were told that they
did not know that
they were blind and naked.
If you are in denial, or you do not
know your true condition,
how are you going to repent?
It is an oxymoron, that is a
contradiction.
You cannot.
Revelation 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods,
and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
The first condition is to humble oneself.
I have been explaining this for a very long time.
Until this is done, I can absolutely guarantee you will make no forward
progress.
You can only go backwards, and the little bit of truth which
you might have had, will quickly vanish into thin air.
In my experience, most people prefer to ignore the reality of their
situation,
and to continue their lives as if all is well.
I have found this to be the case even
when their very lives are at stake.
It sounds unbelievable, but it is true.
The solution to blindness is given.
Read the Documents: Are You Naked? The Narrow Road
Revelation 3:18 I counsel thee to buy
of me gold tried in the fire,
that thou mayest be rich;
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed,
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve,
that thou mayest see.
If we can only understand that true ‘Christianity’, is not an intellectual exercise,
we would dramatically improve our
relationship with the Eternal God.
Sadly most of us prefer to live a lie.
It is as if we are oblivious to the
fact that the lake of fire awaits all liars.
Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs,
and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie.
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and
unbelieving, and the abominable,
and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters,
and all
liars, shall have their part in the lake which
burneth
with fire and brimstone: which is the
second death.
When we sin we cannot treat our sin casually as if it is a small thing.
Some think that they can say some ‘magic words’, and all will be well.
Then they can move on with our lives.
Watch the Videos, listen to the Audios or read the Document: What Is Sin?
Sin is primarily against the Eternal God.
Most times our sins involve other people.
Therefore we have to go to the people, whom we have
offended, hurt or damaged,
and apologise to them.
We then have to replace what we have damaged or stolen, if this is the situation.
Then we can go and confess our sin to the Eternal God.
To think that we can go to a priest, and make a
“confession”,
and tell him what has been done, and that is all
that is required is wrong.
Furthermore, it is a great error to believe that
Penance replaces Repentance.
Read the Document: The Abomination Of The Confession
Penance is where some act is carried out to atone
for a sin.
This is an abomination and means that Christ’s
sacrifice was insufficient
to cover all sin.
You cannot beat yourself with whips, crawl long
distances on your knees,
or say some ‘Hail Mary’s, or do anything
whatsoever, to atone for any sin.
Only the
blood of Christ can wash away sin.
Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood,
even
the forgiveness of
sins:
Hebrews 9:12 Neither by
the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained
eternal redemption for us.
It is also wrong to imagine that you can commit
some atrocity,
which has had a devastating impact on the lives of
others,
and in the privacy of your home, make your peace
with ‘God’,
and all will be well.
This is also wrong, and it also guarantees that there
will be no change
in the lifestyle of the sinner.
If we realise that we have first of all to make
peace, and restitution,
with our brother, whom we can see, even before
going to ‘God’,
we would think many times before we offend others.
1 John 4:20 If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen,
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Humbly, and sincerely we have to seek forgiveness
from those whom
we have wronged.
There is no way around this.
Matthew 5: 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the
altar,
and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought
against thee;
Matthew 5: 24 Leave there thy gift before the
altar, and go thy way;
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come
and offer thy gift.
Matthew
5: 25 Agree with thine adversary quickly,
whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer,
and thou be cast into prison.
Matthew 5: 26 Verily I say unto thee,
Thou shalt by no means come out thence,
till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
We need to be very careful indeed, in this time of
instant mass communication.
In the past, our words were heard by just a few
people,
now, in a moment, countless millions of people have
access to what is made
available on the Internet.
Total removal of this information is quite impossible,
just as you can not un-speak or un-hear what has
been said.
Woe to the many people who are posting
mis-information on the Internet,
and deceiving others, who are naively accepting
such things as truth.
I have no idea at all how one would go about putting
such things right.
I think that it is quite impossible.
In a sense this becomes an unpardonable sin, as the
person spreading the lie,
cannot directly make redress to those who have been
affected.
Even if retractions were made, it is unlikely that
those affected might ever
see them.
Most of us think that we are “‘holier’ than
‘thou’”.
Often this is a sad illusion.
We have said for many years that our choices affect
our children.
Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life, that both thou and
thy seed may live:
It therefore follows that the choices, which our parents made, can be
affecting us right now.
It also follows that choices that we have, and are making, are affecting
our children,
and grandchildren.
Several of the prophets of the despised Old Testament, were spiritual
giants.
They not only concerned themselves with their own sins,
but also with those of the nation of which they were a part.
Daniel did this.
Daniel 9:20 ¶ And
whiles I was speaking, and praying,
and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel,
and presenting my supplication before the LORD my
God
for the holy mountain of my God;
Jeremiah did this.
Lamentations 5:7 Our fathers have
sinned, and are not;
and we have borne their iniquities.
The
Psalmist did this.
Psalms 106:6 ¶ We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity,
we have done wickedly.
The Psalmist did this.
Nehemiah 1:6 Let thine
ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open
that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant,
which I pray before thee now,
day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants,
and confess the sins of the children of Israel,
which we have sinned against thee:
both I and my father’s house have sinned.
What does this all mean for you today?
It means, that you should not only consider
repenting for your own sins,
but also those of your ancestors, because there are
people,
who are suffering right now because of your deeds,
and those of your ancestors.
The problem is this.
If you are unable to be true about your own
condition,
how are you going to be
able to be true about the condition of others?
Many people have a mistaken idea about themselves.
They do what makes them feel good, and even
important.
They then go around confused, and every day they
sink deeper into the mire.
They are totally unaware, or refuse to accept their
true position.
Just like Job, they think that their present condition, which they deem to be good,
is even very good, and is all the work of their own
hands.
They will therefore have to learn the very same or
even more severe,
lessons than Job did.
I have experienced the most absurd situations,
and I cannot believe that these ‘Christians’,
really imagine that under the reign
of Jesus Christ, it will just be more of the same.
I have seen, ‘Christians’, members of the same family who do not speak to each,
but they are attending the same weekly meetings.
I have seen ‘Christians’, members of the same family,
attend meetings in one
part of the city and the other attends meetings in
another part of the city,
because the members of the family do not get along
together.
You can imagine what happens amongst Christians,
who are not members of the same family.
It is common to have major ‘us’ and ‘them’ divisions.
Then there are further splits in those divisions.
It is not only absurd, but it is also totally
unacceptable.
Ephesians 4:26
Be ye angry, and sin not:
let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Fact: It is not within us to humble ourselves.
Fact: Repentance is a gift, from the Eternal God.
Some time ago I went back to the
West Indies.
I arrived on the Saturday
afternoon.
On the following Monday morning, I
turned up in the office of someone,
whose family had been wronged by a
family member of mine.
We had always gotten along quite
well.
The person was pleased to see
me.
After the normal pleasantries, I
quickly explained why I had made the visit.
I said quite simply that I had
come to apologize for the hurt that my family
member had caused. The person was
stunned, and could not believe
that I would do such a thing.
The person then said:
‘You could not have done that if
God had not empowered you to do so’.
I was thrilled and delighted by the
comment.
This understanding showed that this
person had an excellent grasp of the Eternal God.
Of course this was absolutely
correct.
In these days
of phones, emails, and text messages, we can easily
hide behind
these things. It is an entirely different matter to confront someone
face to face,
as the bible recommends.
In such
meetings there is nowhere to hide.
Your
sincerity, or the lack of it, is immediately seen.
I have found that others tell us what they want us
to believe.
The fact is that what we are told is a stranger to
the truth.
I have known situations, where others have told
themselves the very same lie,
so often, that they have actually come to believe
that it is true.
For many years I have explained that I never have
to check out when people
are lying to me.
I do not have to do research.
I do not have to covertly ask any questions.
If I need to know, at the appropriate time the
truth will be made clear to me.
Often the person says the truth or displays their
confusion,
without realising that they have done so.
Sometimes, a person can say something, which they
have no doubt carefully
rehearsed, because this is how our evil minds work.
It sounds very good, and then I would be given the
clear thought of what the real
situation is, which contradicts what I have been
told.
The point is this.
If you are going to approach someone, whom you have
wronged,
do not make the mistake to compound the situation
by adding lies, or more lies,
to an already bad situation.
Are you repentant about the fact that it is our
governments,
who are using our taxes, which is our money, to
main, torture and kill others,
who have done us absolutely nothing.
Are you ‘Christians’, aware that it is your
offerings, to the tune of millions of dollars,
which are going to destroy the homes, orchards, olive
groves and other plantations,
of people in the nation called Israel, and replace
them with millions of non native
pine trees. The result is these people have no
home, no food, and nowhere to go.
Are you aware that this is going on?
The depleted uranium babies, are you repentant
about this awful disaster
that our governments are perpetrating?
As I said if you cannot humble yourself about your
own sins,
how can these pictures disturb you and force you to
act?
Fatima Ahmed was born in Fallujah
with deformities that include two heads
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/depleted_uranium_iraq_afghanistan_balkans.html
Horror: A woman lies on the pavement near the General Hospital,
in Port-au-Prince where people
infected by cholera are being treated
Are you supporting these immoral acts?
Where are you on the repentance ladder?
There is a great deal of personal and international
repenting to be done.
What are you going to do about it before it is too
late?
See The Video: Obedience Is The Only Way Of Escape
Be Humble Repent Listen To The Eternal God
Obey Him
15.08.10