Six Months Later . . .

True repentance begins six months after the 'thing' that you are repenting from. We have always been taught about repentance and a lot of good things about repentance. But repentance is a lot deeper than I realized. God is showing me some new things about how to live out this 'Christian' thing.

So let's start here, repentance is NOT an altar call, a special service, a unique prayer meeting of some sort or any kind of emotional/pseudo-spiritual moment. That frustrates and mostly confuses me as a charismatic. I think that everything spiritual happens in a service - the RIGHT service. But I am beginning to see how very misplaced that really is. As I am beginning to see now, services are cool, but they are there to help us then go out and LIVE. (But we are not talking about that right now, we are talking about repentance.)

Next thing I have noticed about this repentance thing. The Bible, especially the New Testament has a lot to say about it. John the Baptist's main/only message to people was "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." And that theme seems to carry through the new testament. So now the question is, what is repentance?

If your immediate response is, "OH OH I KNOW - It is a complete 180 degree turnaround." You are right, though you need to think a little more before you respond next time. But, this question plagues me, WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT ACTUALLY MEAN? Go ahead, plaster it on my shirt, preach a whole weekend conference on it, heck name a youth ministry conglomerate it, but WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Well, I can see some things now. True repentance begins six months after the fact. True repentance begins once the altar calls are over. Once the tears have dried up. Once the embrassment has worn off. Once the guilty feeling begins to dissipate. Once your life begins to rebalance itself out - THEN (and only then) does true repentance make itself felt (or show us that those altar calls, etc were NOT true repentance.)

Six months later are you willing to allow yourself to just reset to everything that you were BEFORE the 'incident'? Are you going to think the same way? Have the same habits? Enjoy the same friends!?! Are you going to just allow your life to reset itself to just what it natural to you? If so, you are not living out a completely repentant heart. (Don't feel bad about it, just ask God to help.)

True repentance is six months later CONSCIOUSLY making decisions to NOT go back to the same things that caused you to stumble in the first place. DECISIONS is such a big word, but that is how we MUST live out our Christian walk! Day by day, moment by moment - am I going to do the same things that led me down that road. Those things may not even be bad things - they might just be average or worse good!

On the other side of this 'incident' I feel a HIGHER calling to character and integrity than I did before! I feel that BECAUSE of the grace that I received that covers and 'removes the stain' now I have a HIGHER obligation (not in a burdensome way, but in a challenging way) to live right and purely before my God - because I KNOW that I have to! Grace calls us HIGHER!

We all remember our parents using that guilt-inducing phrase, "If you were really sorry, you wouldn't have done it in the first place." I don't buy that. But grace does come to us and says in a gentle way, "Because you are truly sorry, you are going to do what you need to to not have it happen again and I will help." Remember, "His grace is sufficient for me." "He who is able to keep you from stumbling."

I conclude this with two verses one that is blunt and true (a proverb) and another that God spoke into my world this week and brought me to tears with it - His grace is AWESOME! Good night!

"As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly."

"And NOW, [that it is all over] isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, [more real], more passionate, more responsible! When you look at it from every angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart!" (2 Cor. 7:11; Message; brackets mine)