Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Gift of Repentance

     Scandals in church are as old as time: brothers killing their own brothers (Cain and Abel), kids sleeping with their dad's wife for all to see (Absolom), king sending hoi polloi to war to be killed and get their wives (King David), fellas slandering one another, the list goes on. They are still happening today, divorces, who slept with who, drugs abuse, abortion, homosexuality, pedophilia and more. And all of us at one point in time or for a time period, have stood on either side of the fence as a victim or as a perpetrator. To the victim I say, pray til your soul is totally restored, to the perpetrator I'd say, pray til the gift of repentance is given to you and your soul is totally restored. And this brings me to what  I would like to talk about: The Gift of Repentance.
     The fact remains that none of us is perfect, we all have our little shenanigans: lies (white or black), bad thoughts, porn, unforgiveness, impurity, adultery, slander, self-righteousness..., thus we're condemned to hurt one another one way or the other regardless of how much we may love one another. Fortunately we all possess the ability to say: "I'm sorry" or "Forgive me" and that's called repentance. Now, what I call the Gift of Repentance is not only to say "I'm sorry" and to truly mean it but to also go one step further and renounce our ways!! Was this the case, so many partnerships, friendships, camaraderies would be healed and get stronger.
     Unfortunately, our tendency as Christian perpetrators is to do bad and to confess to God, then do bad again then confess to God. Well this works if and only if your badness is only affecting you and you alone. In the case where more than one person are involved, we must ask for forgiveness not only to God but also to all the parties involved AND renounce our ways. Sadly, we treat our badness like cocaine, we inhale it and its magic works on us. Then we tried to stop using it but we can't, we try harder but we still can't. We're hooked, we're trapped, we're addicted.
     Henceforth, we need God's grace to intervene in our favor. There are many of us who take resolution "I will no longer do this"..."This is the last time" but who for some reasons can't help themselves. To them I say please persevere for the God of the Bible will let himself found by you if you truly seek him with all your heart. We Christians have altered the word of God by saying "We won't watch, we won't pray and we won't fall into temptation" says H.W. Resenting what God says doesn't make it less true nor does misinterpreting it to our own advantage. If we don't watch and don't pray, we will fall into temptation, square and fair.
     When I started my program of  "Starting Over Start From Scratch", in prayer and lamentations (sometimes you have to get them tears out), I resolved to ask for forgiveness from all I knew I had purposefully offended with no harm incurred from them. To get there, I had to do some soul searching, wondering about the height from which I had fallen. Then, I had to repent and start doing the things I did at first. Sometimes, to resume doing the things we did at first, requires a change of scenery, a change of garments or even a change of friends. It requires a total disassociation with things of the past, anything that or anyone who has partaken to our downfall, otherwise history is condemned to repeat itself.
     Repentance is a gift from above to the repentant. To repent does not merely mean to plead guilty to all charges, but also to renounce our ways. The latter may take more than one try, or two or even three, whatever the number may be, let's just not give up.

Stay Tuned, Stay Bod, Stay Repentant
Tresor De Beaute

3 comments:

Prince Hamilton said...

Pat, I doubt that repentance is a gift though (Para 1 line 7). I have heard and read many preachers and teachers say that repentance is a gift, but I respectfully disagree. In the Old Testament it means to show sorrow (Hosea 13:1). In the New Testament, it means a change of mind that someone develops for what one intends to do or has done. It is almost like understanding something different, after rethinking it over again. It is a total change of attitude about God. That means; the sinner decides to do that. It is not given to him or her. Look at Lk 13:3, 5 “I tell you, nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Why would they be given perdition if the act if supposed to be given to them? Look at Lk 15:7,10 also “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” This tells you that the act comes from the sinner and not from God, so it cannot be a gift. When the sinner repents then he/she is given the gift of salvation.

Anonymous said...

why were some "comments" removed by the autor ? I wish I had read them before they got removed.

Tresor De Beaute said...

@ Prince Hamilton -- I'm not a theologian and I don't intend to become one. Most of my posts, this one included, are based on experiences either personal or around me. All I was trying to outline is that, in some situation, we need more than "I'm sorry" to change around our course of action and to take that further step requires additional assistance and that's what I call "gift".

@Anonymous--mistypes from the author, I suppose.

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