2 kinds of repentance

Anyone who is married can understand that you get a nice life long lesson on forgiveness and repentance (both being forgiven and forgiving). I read a book recently that caused me to reflect on the topic of repentance. I recently wrote on my twitter page: there are two kinds of repentance: gospel driven (driven by the love and nature of Christ) and merely legal driven (simply driven by fear). Which do you do?

Gospel Driven Repentance:
To help make clear the distinctions between the two I will first focus on Gospel driven repentance. First repentance comes from the Greek metanoia which means a change of mind. The 22 uses of metanoia in the New Testament indicate that it is much more than simply a change of ones mind but a change in attitude, character and interest. A good picture I have used many times is that we turn our backs on sin and walk away pursuing Christ (See Acts 3:19 below). Here are two passages with metanoia for examples:

Luke 5:32-"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Acts 3:19-"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Romans 2:4-"Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?


All of these passages illustrate the wonderful message of Gospel Driven repentance. We know that through Christ' death and resurrection we have the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). This beautiful act of love leads us to repentance. Paul is asking the question in Romans 2:4, would the Romans really show contempt because God is rich in mercy and kindness, His tolerance and patience which is rooted is love leads us to repentance, to change our attitude, our interests so that we now want His attitudes and His interests!

What is most important is that God's expression of kindness is rooted in what Christ has done for us:

"And God raised us up with Christ...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."

This richness in love, mercy and kindness rooted in Christ' death leads sinners (depraved, broken people who fall short of God's glory-Romans 3:10-11; 23) to repentance.

Our aim is love Christ through a transformed heart and through bearing fruit that will last (John 15:16). The problem is we do not always bear good fruit. So when we do not live this way then we must repent. Not because we did something bad or we fear that God will leave us but because of the gospel. This probably why so many people distort Scripture passages because they devoid them of what they point to: the gospel! This kind of repentance doesn't merely say sorry but recognizes that there is something wrong. They seek godly counsel, they seek accountability, they pour over God's word and most importantly they recognize they are free, redeemed, forgiven and loved.
The motivation of repentance is love which is manifested perfectly in the gospel.

Legal Driven Repentance:
Legal driven repentance is pretty self explanatory and yet I can admit find myself and others falling into this category way too often. This kind of repentance beats the person up. You feel remorse for the sin you have done, but you are more scared than sorrowful. You dwell on it so much that you shut out those who love you and in the process compound the sin you've committed. You spend hours mulling over it and this kind of repentance can incite emotions to. You can cry, feel terrible, say I never want to do this again because your afraid of what God will do not because of what He's done. It is driven by legalism, and fear. None of the 22 biblical uses of metanioa have this kind of repentance in mind.

The motivation for repentance is simply fear, not love.

I leave you with an example as I believe marriage is the one of the clearest pictures of the gospel and Christ:
Just imagine if I sinned against my wife and repented simply because I was motivated by fear of what she might do rather than because I loved her. She may get the result (or not) but she doesn't get my heart.

Be Blessed.

My Bride

I waited nervously but with such excitement I couldn't help but smile. I had a grin on my face that would not go away and I cherished every minute. When she arrived the smile (or stupid look) on my face only got bigger. My mind ran through the past 5 years: the good, the rough, the laughter, the prayers, everything that it took to get us to this point. Finally before friends, family and those closets to us, we stood before God and made vows and promises to look like Christ. This picture in my mind is of me waiting for my bride to come down the aisle at my wedding. It is probably one of the clearest and most amazing pictures I have of that day. I have read several books about Christ and his bride, I have heard many sermons on the bride of Christ, but it never really came full circle until I got married.

The wonderful thing about marriage is that it truly models our Lord ( or it should). It is the best picture to Christ that I have experienced to date.

Marriage and wedding were a vital picture in Scripture:

Matthew 25:1-10 Jesus uses a parable of 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to return.

Ephesians 5:22-31-Model of husband and wife with Jesus' love.

Revelation 19:7--Where the wedding of the lamb and his bride (the church) is beginning.

Revealation 21:2--Where the new city of Jerusalem is described as the bride.

I would like to focus my excitement described earlier through John 3:29:

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom...... He must become greater and I must become less."

Now (and this is important) contextually John is speaking about the role that he plays, as many thought that he was the coming Messiah. John refutes this claim by stating it clearly in 3:28, then using a picture of a wedding as his example. Here he wants to illustrate that he is not the Messiah (bridegroom) but rather the best man (or friend). He finishes this up by stating that "He (Jesus) must become greater and I must become less."

But I also love this verse in terms of my own wedding because of the picture it creates:

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom."

The bride (the church) belongs to Christ and to Him alone. No one else can claim the bride as she belongs to her groom. I couldn't imagine my bride belonging to someone else. It would seem absurd (and I would have to pull out the old guns from the gun show--guns being my arms--yes I know) and she would know it. The joy that my heart felt seeing my bride was not simply "oh she looks pretty"(though she did), but that soon she would be mine. I would belong to her and she would belong to me. We are united as one (Hebrew echad).

"He must become greater and I must become less." Now in no way is my wife greater than me (though she may think so) but I find the more I walk with Christ I also have noticed that being a good, godly husband requires a lot of death to self (Eph. 5:22-25). A continuous death to the selfishness that I naturally run to and to where I can no longer stand alone, nor be the center of attention. Marriage requires a lot of adjustments and sacrifices as you fully incorporate a person in to your life. The way you sleep, what you eat, sometimes how you eat it, when you go out, how your day looks, your thoughts about your future, where you will move and giving up who you are so that you may love that person better.

Our walk with Christ is no different: we give up our old self, which Christ crucified with his life, to live the new regenerated self. (Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 5:24; 2 Cor. 5;17). Similar to John's statement about Jesus can be said of the marriage: I must become less....my thoughts, my wants, my desires, become less in terms of not being the center of everything (or atleast I ask my wife first) so that I can love her and lift her up to Christ and vice versa.

This is why the picture of marriage to me is so beautiful. It exudes the gospel, it overflows with the pictures of Christ being married to his bride, caring for her, loving her, and dying for her. My biggest prayer since being engaged is that my marriage will look like Christ, and be a sweet aroma and example to believers and non-believers. (2 Cor. 2:15)

Be Blessed

Common Phrases

It has been awhile since I have had the ability to write here. Many things have happened and naturally I have been trying to keep up with all the things that occur in life. I was married to my best friend about a month ago, had a wonderful honeymoon and currently learning a lot through married life. I will write something on this soon, but today I want to cover something I think that as a Christian I have come into contact more frequently than people who blatantly hate the church or Jesus. I am speaking about common phrases that we hear and I want to choose one of them today.
As a pastor I talk to many people, but sometimes I talk to people who tell me they believe in God or Jesus but they simply: "don't believe in organized religion." How many of you have heard this before? I hear this phrase more often then others. This phrase bewilders me because there usually is never an actual explanation as to what they mean by that statement.

Is it I don't like worship services?
Is it I don't like people who worship?
Is it I don't like organized bodies of people singing, hearing God's word, and fellowship?
Is it I don't like those hypocrites in the building singing and praising?

Whatever it is it has never been clearly defined and every person has their own take on what "organized religion" is. Either way they don't like it.

Here are some insights to consider:
1. Defining organized religion:
If by organized religion you mean church then you must understand that the church is one body. If you do not like worship services, which are designed to put our hearts and minds focused on Christ as a collective local body, then you do not have a problem with religion you have a problem with worship.

2. We are called to meet together corporately.
I wrote about this a while ago so for the sake of not repeating myself the author of Hebrews encourages the body of people to" not neglect meeting together as some people do..."(Hebrews 10:25). Here the author has laid out for the community to motivate one another to love, to good acts, to affirmation in Christ as the whole context of the passage is to persevere especially as the "day of his return draws near."(NLT) Some people had already abandoned the community and stopped meeting corporately. There is strength in numbers, and fellowship is vital for a community to grow. The early church set this standard--Read Acts 2:42-47, 5:32-36.

3. Finally this statement is a mask for idolatry:
If someone loves Christ, serves Christ, worships Christ, wants to see Christ exalted, wants to grow in Christ they will not make a statement like this. It doesn't say your church is perfect but that you want to worship corporately with believers, and work to bring people into the kingdom through coporate missions, tithing, discipleship, etc. It is a group effort through the power of One God: Jesus Christ. But this statement also reveals that the problem again isn't the church but something deeper: our idols.

The idol of experience: "Well I had a bad experience about 15 years ago and I haven't been back!"

The idol of mismanaged time: "We stayed up really late on Saturday hanging out with friends and so it just would have been too hard to get up."

The idol of sleep/laziness: "I just wanted to sleep in today. I stayed out late, or was up watching a movie or I just wanted to have a "me" day Ten in the morning is just too early."

The idol of work: "I decided to go into work today so I could get some overtime or time and a half or just to get extra hours."

The idol of sports: "I didn't want to miss the Redskins play today! Its football season!

The point is we make room for a lot of things that we know "moth and rust will destroy" (Matt. 6:19) yet we make excuses for worship, fellowship and growth.

4. A church must be organized:
Lastly, we are an organized church body because, "God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people (1 Cor. 14:33---keep in mind this is used in context about the disorder and lack of organization of the church's use of tongues). Paul encourages organization by selecting leaders (elders, overseers--1 Tim. 2, 1 Peter. 5:1-3; Titus 1:1-5) to run things along with deacons to help get ministries and people cared for. So organization is a good thing for the church body. If they have a problem with simply religious stuff, well then so do we. Come join us for worship of our Creator, our Savior, Our Lord in whom we have a relationship beyond anything religion could ever give you. Folks someone who loves Jesus, serves Him and worships Him will want to be around people like Him, and in a place that worships Him.

Be Blessed.

Tempted and Tried

I read a lot of books. Sometimes I think I have too many--my wife would agree! But there are certain books you read that not only impact you from an intellectual level but from an emotional and spiritually one too. Professor and pastor Russell D. Moore's book Tempted and Tried is that kind of book. I recently finished this book and was convicted, encouraged and pointed toward the cross. Moore write about how temptation is a dangerous aspect of the Christian life that Satan loves to use as he used it against Christ. Moore uses the interaction of Jesus and Satan in Matthew 4:1-11, to illustrate how we have a Savior who knows what it is to be tempted and to triumph over them. (See Hebrews 4:15)

For example Moore says of the three temptations that Satan uses on Jesus:

"Satan in all three temptations is assuming the role of a father--first in provision, then in protection, and now in the granting of an inheritance. Satan didn't just want to be Jesus' lord; he wanted to be his father."

Moore uses great illustrations and funny stories (even at his own expense) to make his points and questions clear: Why does temptation matter? Why do we pursue sin rather than take joy in the comfort of our Father? Why we'd rather be right than rescued? (All chapter titles).

There is a ton of biblical passages used but the book doesn't have a theological or technical feel. It is very well written and anyone who reads this will benefit from it. This book is great for those who are struggling with sin, are in a spiritual drought, are feeling defeated, who need encouragement in regards to struggles or struggling, and for those who want to understand what exactly Christ experienced and how it relates to us as His children.

I strongly recommend this book. You can find it here at Amazon.

Be Blessed.

Would you invite me to your church?

This is a question I think that requires immense reflection. I sat and thought about this the other day whenever I people watch and ask : Would you like to come to my church? This got me thinking would you really want people to come to your church?
Disclaimer--this is with the understanding you know what a church is supposed to be. If not read Acts 2:42, 4:32-37, 5:12-16.

I see churches and the invitation in 3 ways:

1. You are the kid who didn't have sleepovers cause you didn't want other kids to see how dysfunctional and broken your family was.

These are the people who have churches that are broken, in decline spiritually and numerically, have no accountability, no church discipline, they have small cliques keeping the church alive, hardly any transformation...they look similar to the Corinthian church but worse---they have lost influence and their focus. They do not want to change, nor be relevant to today's culture. Most people do not want to invite people to this church. These people want to but realize that there just isn't anything healthy at their church and have even visited other churches to find a possible new home. They have no vision, no mission, therefore they cannot carry it out. They are coasting until every member either leaves or dies.


2. You were the kid who was excited to have everyone over cause your parents or family was fun, open, loving, relevant and you wanted people to see the atmosphere was exciting and there were many things to do.

This group loves to invite people to their church. They can't wait to invite people....why? Because the people are growing in Christ, they are meeting together for the biblical fellowship of praising God, not fulfilling their religious attendance. They have small groups meeting for intimate time with each other and God, they have missions (local and global) taking part for their members, they have outreach to meet with the local community and meet various needs (economic, social, fiscal,. They love people, they greet people, they preach God's word, they have facilities to meet the various needs of various demographics. Their members feel more like a family than a person attending a meeting because they can share, love and worship Christ freely. This does not exempt them from having problems as they have church discipline, and their leadership authority established in their church because they have a clear vision and mission, and it is executed through its various ministries, and everyone in the church knows it.

3. You were the kid who didn't invite others because you didn't have any video game systems, board games, or a yard bigger than 4ft by 4ft or just anything to do. (Don't joke I lived in a townhouse like this).

These people have a church, and it could have good people who love Jesus. They could preach the Word, but they simply do not have anything else. I call these churches One Hit Wonders because they try to do all they can only on Sunday. These churches do not have what is essential to growing: small group ministries, community outreach, evangelism, and local and glo bal missions. They simply cannot retain people as they are a Sunday only kind of church. Growth is either plateaued or is declining. You could invite people here but they can't grow. Its like buying a plant and watering it but once a week. Or imagine eating as much as you could on Sundays and then not eating again until the following Sunday. You simply can't grow. This church has nothing outside of its occasional special events. They have a vision (or not) but do not convey it to their church (cause they dont have one), they may or may not have church discipline and no one really knows who is leading the church (congregation, individuals, Jesus, the leadership??) or who has authority. The thing that these churches most is a lack of discipleship ministries and outreach ministries. So you could get people in, but do nothing with them.

So my question is posed for those to think and answer in the comment section: Would you really want to invite someone to your church and why? If not then should you really be at that church that is not growing, not feeding you, and where you do not get intimate time and fellowship with other members ?

Be Blessed

Working......with the wrong mindset

Now if you are Protestant you have heard it said a million times that grace is through faith (alone). Got it! That isn't the hard part. The hard part for me is the sanctification part. I get that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8), I know His grace is completely sufficient (2 Cor. 12:1-4) and I get that my Facebook status in life has changed from guilty to forgiven by his blood.

I can admit that I find myself getting in a mentality that I think many Christians find themselves: if I work harder at not sinning that means I will sin less in life. Let me elaborate.
Jim is a believer, he loves Jesus, serves at his church and does what good Christians do: pray, read, serve. He struggles with sin in his life, just as any Christian does, some more than others are consistent, so he decides to work harder at not "doing" those sins anymore.

See the problem? Tom's focus is not a matter of obedience to Christ, it isn't a matter of him being a bad Christian, rather his focus is more on him working harder (self-oriented) to eliminate his consistent sin.

Read any Paul book and you are going to get a list of exhortations. For examples read: Eph. 4:25-5:3-21; Colossians 3:5-17.

Through the Holy Spirit, Paul makes exhortations to "put to death....kill...or put away various sins and falsehoods (sexual immorality, gossip, slander, etc...). Sin that kills your joy, alters your mood or steals our focus. Stop doing these things.

But this is only half of the battle.

In no way am I saying that we shouldn't combat sin through the Spirit, God's word, prayer and petition. That's biblical. But I do find that we become very works oriented with our struggles and self help and self combat becomes our solution. I am saying that to work harder at not sinning is going to leave you feeling lonely and defeated. Rather than spending so much of our time trying "not to sin" I propose another and I believe biblical approach.

What do we know? Using Ephesians 4:22-24: That our old self (unregenerate, sin destroyed life) is over. It died with Christ,(Gal. 5:24) and that life was corrupted through desires that were deceitful (as part of our unregenerate nature). Now our call is to renew. To renew is to restore, to begin again in our minds and our thinking. Similar to Jesus conversation with Nicodemus about being born again, our new life our sanctification is a product of new creation that took place through Christ working on the hearts of his people through the cross.

Look at 2 Cor. 5:17--"We are a new creation...the old has gone the new has come"
Ephesians 4:22-24-" put off the old self....put on the new self"

Rather than trying to NOT sin, we should be busy with pursuing the things of Christ. Read Galatians 5:16-"I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Paul tells us in 5:17 that these two natures are opposed, they are in combat, war with each other.

What Paul is getting at here is if you are so focused and busy with living or walking by the Spirit, then you will not have time to gratify the flesh desires! What a profound concept.

The Greek word for walk is (peripateo) which means to physically and literally walk, but is used in the metaphorical sense to conduct one's life, to behave, to live in a way that glorifies God. This is the context Paul uses it: live (walk) in a way that is characterized the Spirit, which is shown by the fruits (outward signs) of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, gentleness. Pursue these!

What Paul doesn't say is expel so much energy in working harder and focusing NOT to sin. I recently read a psychological article about how a person can tell themselves over and over not to do something, and because of it being a constant reminder on the brain, they are actually more prone to do whatever it is they told themselves NOT to do. They have defeated themselves already. Translate this to the Christian life: we have sins we struggle with, and we cannot have victory apart from Christ. We cannot hope to achieve a Spirit-filled life by simply trying harder. We need Christ to help us, forgive us, heal us of the sins that "so easily entangle" us (Heb. 12:1-2) and we need to put effort in working out our salvation (Phil 2:10) which is supplied by Christ' power. We do this by setting our hearts and minds to pursuing Christ, and the fruits of the spirit (mentioned above).

Finally another great example of pursuing the things of Christ is Paul's letter to Timothy in 1 Tim. 6:11-12 where he tells him to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness." Chase after those things, so that you won't have time or a desire for the things of the flesh.

Be Blessed

Character Should Matter

Recently if you have not read any newspapers, online journals, TV, internet sites, etc... you may have noticed that several high profile politicians have been caught cheating, fathering a child (not from their wife). Rep. Anthony Wiener, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the indictment of John Edwards for using funds to help, etc...

I would love to sit back and say that the church is doing better, but it isn't.
_Anyone remember the Jim Baker Scandal of the 80's?
-Or who can forget the Ted Haggard sex scandal?
-Eddie Long's sexual encounters with young men

I am saddened constantly when reading about another pastor involved in a sexual scandal, or some sort of moral failure. Or some family that now is torn apart because of the moral misgivings of a father, a husband, and a pastor. We are called to live differently!

Character should matter. Now of course, we are taking into account that all of these people could confess and repent of their sin and be forgiven. In no way are we to sit back and judge as we have all been in the same predicament (maybe not the same situation) but we all know what it feels like to be in a place where you have dishonored and sinned against God. (Remember we ALL fall short of God's glory). The point I am making is that we seem to in our society honor appearance, impressive accomplishments and competency OVER character. Character should matter a lot more to us.

The Bible addresses character from cover to cover. One of the main evidences of actually know Jesus as Lord and Savior is that your character is different from that of the world. Meaning that you do not pursue the things of the world, you choose to be "set apart" (hagios=holy) in your life, marriages, jobs, families, to your children in regards to your character.

Scripture tells us that "we are to be imitators of God...(Eph. 5:1). It goes even further for leaders, laying out an extensive list not of accomplishments, or gifts or talents but a list of characteristics a leader should have: to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (1 Tim. 3:2-5)
The only competency listed is that a leader must be, "able to teach". This same notion goes for deacons and deaconesses---character is from the top down.

I have always heard it said that accomplishments, success, and organizations gets you to the top, but character keeps you there. I believe this in ministry, as I have worked with several different people and found the ones I loved were competent (we need competent people or else we would never get anything done) but their character made me want to follow them.
Dave Kraft wrote a wise book for leaders and makes this statement that has resonated with me:

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

Be Blessed