Give Ear to Jesus

[Sue J Love]

When we are born into this world, we are born with sin natures, without God, without hope, and destined to spend eternity in hell. God loved us so much, though, that he sent his only begotten Son into the world that whoever believes in him should not perish but should have everlasting life with God. God is not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance and to faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. When we repent, we turn from our lifestyles of sin, and we turn to follow Jesus Christ with our lives. We die to sin in order that we might live to righteousness – all in the power of the Spirit living within us.

Many people do not yet know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Some people profess to know him, but they never repented of their sins, and thus they were not born again, crucified with Christ to sin, that they might live to him; to righteousness. Others know him, but they are not walking with him in obedience. They have drifted from their pure devotion to their Lord, and they need to be brought back. Any of these may be living to please self, and may be caught up in wasting their lives away on what will never satisfy the deep longings of their souls. So, the encouragement here is to call on Jesus, to listen to him, to turn from your sins, and to walk in victory over sin, living to him and to his righteousness.

Give Ear to Jesus / An Original Work
Based off Isaiah 55 / February 16, 2016

Call on your Savior.
Seek the Lord while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way;
Turn to the Lord.
God will have mercy.
He’ll forgive you of your sin.
He will freely pardon you
And give peace within.
Turn from your sin, follow Jesus,
Be cleansed from sin.

Give ear to Jesus.
Come to Him. Your soul will live.
Listen to Him speaking to you:
“Eat what is good.”
If you are thirsty,
Come to Jesus, drink from Him.
Drink His Spirit given to you.
Be born again.
Listen to Him. Do what He says.
Rejoice in Him.

God’s Word, eternal,
Will achieve what He desires.
He is willing none should perish,
Saved by His blood.
Share now the gospel.
Jesus died so we’d go free.
Walk in vict’ry,
Free from your sin, eternally.
Die to sin, and live to Jesus.
In Him believe.

 

[amadeus2]

... Some people profess to know him, but they never repented of their sins, and thus they were not born again...

Alas, and the reason is so simple yet so complex. To "repent" as probably most readers on this forum already know means more than to be sorry that we sinned. It means to "turn around". It means for our ways to be changed so that we will not even want to repeat either the sins themselves or walk again in the ways which led us those sins in the beginning.

Much of the blame for this lies in insincere or poorly grounded ministers whose goal has not been equal to or at least sincerely desiring to be equal to God's goal for us. Yes, ministers are to blame, but so are we when we have stopped progressing because we got "weary" of doing things well as led by the Holy Ghost. Sometimes [or even all of the time] we have poor ministers because that is really what we want. We don't want to have to let go of some parts of this world that hold an appeal for us still.

First time repentance is a good thing, but it seldom, if ever, includes changing all of the ways to sin which must be purged from us...

Perhaps we cannot repent fully alone, but our God is both willing and able to help us in this if we ask and continue to ask from our hearts for His help.

1) Do we want to be forgiven without the necessity of doing anything difficult. We aren't likely to get very far with God this way.
2) or are we really willing to turn around (repent) so we can be forgiven? If we are sincere in this, God will help us in our repentance. The raod may be hard, but with God at our side we will not fail.

 

[Sue J Love]

Alas, and the reason is so simple yet so complex. To "repent" as probably most readers on this forum already know means more than to be sorry that we sinned. It means to "turn around". It means for our ways to be changed so that we will not even want to repeat either the sins themselves or walk again in the ways which led us those sins in the beginning.

Much of the blame for this lies in insincere or poorly grounded ministers whose goal has not been equal to or at least sincerely desiring to be equal to God's goal for us. Yes, ministers are to blame, but so are we when we have stopped progressing because we got "weary" of doing things well as led by the Holy Ghost. Sometimes [or even all of the time] we have poor ministers because that is really what we want. We don't want to have to let go of some parts of this world that hold an appeal for us still.

First time repentance is a good thing, but it seldom, if ever, includes changing all of the ways to sin which must be purged from us...

Perhaps we cannot repent fully alone, but our God is both willing and able to help us in this if we ask and continue to ask from our hearts for His help.

1) Do we want to be forgiven without the necessity of doing anything difficult. We aren't likely to get very far with God this way.
2) or are we really willing to turn around (repent) so we can be forgiven? If we are sincere in this, God will help us in our repentance. The raod may be hard, but with God at our side we will not fail.

@amadeus2 - Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I believe you have hit the nail on the head. So many people truly do not want to let go of their fleshly ways, and so they surround themselves with teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear.

Repentance, yes, is changing direction with our lives, and going the opposite direction from what we were going. It means forsaking our idols and our sinful lifestyles in order to follow Jesus Christ with our lives, in obedience to his ways and his plans for our lives. I see several scriptures which talk of God granting people repentance. We are the ones who must repent of sin, but the Spirit enables us, I believe. And, it isn't a one time deal, either. In Romans 8 we read that if, by the Spirit, we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live. This is in context with walking according to the Spirit, and no longer according to our sinful flesh. Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily and follow him. Every day we must choose to follow God with our lives and to reject our flesh, but we don't have to do this in our own strength. We have the Holy Spirit living within us empowering and strengthening us to live holy lives, pleasing to God. Amen!