Karen and I like going to the Farmers Market (a market where there is fresh vegetables, crafts, and sometimes country or blue grass music) on Saturday before we go shopping at the commissary, the military food store I talked about in my last article. One of the reasons we like the Farmers Market is we get to meet our good friends Dale and Linda from Whispering Dove Ranch whom we buy our local honey. Well, one Saturday we stopped by and purchased four bottles of honey, a bar of goat milk soap, and chatted awhile. I enjoy talking with Dale about bee-keeping, something I would love to do if I had the time. So we said our farewells and off we went to the commissary. We shopped (a part of our weekly ritual) and when Karen was paying for the groceries she noticed she forgot to give Linda the check for the honey and the soap, well Karen was mortified she could not believe she forgot to give Linda the check. So I said no problem we can call them and let them know we will get the check out in the mail and Karen said no let’s drive back to the Farmers Market 15-20 minutes by car. I said no let’s call and see what they want us to do. So reluctantly Karen called (I was driving) and Linda said, please stick the check in the mail Monday, no problem, but there was a problem in Karen’s eyes she made a mistake and it had to be corrected as soon as possible. Yes, it could wait until Monday, but why wait until then. Karen said it was her good Catholic up-bringing that kicked in and she was compelled to make it right. Knowing Karen’s sense of morals and heart condition I would think my Protestant friends could learn a lot from my Catholic friends. So in the end we drove back to the Farmer’s Market and Karen gave Dale the check, error corrected. Now this was a minor error, but if we look at the remedy of the error through the eyes of the Scriptures we will learn a truth that will benefit us far beyond just correcting an error. When we miss it in God it is never about just correcting a mistake or error. We look at sin and say, we must not sin. Now this is true, if we are sinning we must stop, repent (flow in the opposite direction) and then try to correct the error. One can never repent and try to correct the error unless they stop sinning. Now I know that sounds simple, but if we will be honest with ourselves and others we know this to be true. Never think the act is what God calls the sin oh no. The act is only the wickedness and disobedience in our heart that manifests itself by doing what God told us not to do. God says, do not lie and we lie. God says do not commit murder and we commit murder. The list goes on. The act of lying and murder is not the sin, but the doing of what God said not to do. Anytime we do what God told us not to do we have sinned, we have missed the mark, we know what is right to do (because the Bible tells us) yet we do not and we sin. It is like it does not matter what we do for God that counts, but how we do things. Well sin is no different. Did you know sin was the biggest topic Jesus spoke on? Yet we seldom hear a message on sin, not a sermon (a moral or religious story you can apply to the Bible), but a message (thus sayeth the Lord) from God. Could it be sin is not important anymore to God? I think not. We focus on the acts, but God focuses on our heart condition, our intentions, and our motives, there my friend is where the heart of sin resides.
In this article I would like to look at two areas, the first is the heart condition we must have to be able to repent and then correct our errors and the second is this thinking in the church that says it is okay to make a mistake or error. Let us begin to look at the heart condition of true repentance. In Corinthians Paul shares with us, “For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. 9Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 11For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” (2 Corinthians 7:8-11) Did you get that, “For Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” I wonder what “Godly sorrow” looks like? If you cannot tell me then there is a good chance you have never experienced this sorrow and not really saved. I would think “Godly sorrow” is more of an inward feeling of devastation then just feeling bad. When we see what sin has wrought in our lives and the eternal sublime truth of who we are apart from God it should drop us to our knees as we too like Paul say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24) This discovery, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of who we really are should kill us, bring us to tears, wailing and sobbing, snot running out our nose, but that is not what we see in church when someone (rarely happens any more) comes to the Lord, they make a commitment after they repeat the sinner’s prayer. Well my friend the sinner’s prayer is something man made up so that they will not have to follow the Biblical format of leading someone to Christ. Paul taught, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10) Confessing (agreeing with God what He is saying about us is true) with our mouth and believing in our heart God raised Jesus from the dead is the only format that will lead us to salvation. And when we really confess we will understand, we will see, we will know of our shame and waywardness from God and it will kill us. Repeating after someone is NOT “confessing with thy mouth.” The words “thy mouth” is an utterance from the heart since thoughts of a man’s soul find verbal utterance by his mouth. Jesus taught, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Matthew 12:34) Make no mistake my friend, whatever is in our heart will come out our mouth. We will be known as God knows us. We must speak true and honest words from our heart to be saved. And not repeating some words on a card, but words (from our heart) like I am sorry and really mean it from our soul. I am afraid many people have been deceived by the sinner’s prayer, thinking they are a Christian, but knowing all along they lack the evidence and power of the normal Christians life. Man is not dumb, he knows when he has something genuine, but I wonder why many people are content with the type and shadow of salvation when they could have the real McCoy? This too is why many fall out of the way so fast, they were never really on the way, no foundation of salvation was laid, no recognizing the cost Jesus paid on the cross, and no counting the cost we must pay to be numbered as a Christian. Oh no just make a commitment, well my friend this is dead wrong. Denominations like to make it easy, just repeat after me, they get more folks that way who have money, well it was not so easy for Jesus it cost Him His life. God does not care about our money, unlike many denominations, He is after our heart something which is far more valuable.
We will never be able to come to salvation unless there is an understanding of our need for “Godly sorrow” so too we will never be able to correct the errors (saying or doing something against someone) we make unless we come to an understanding of our need for repentance (stop making the error) and restoration (try to make it right). Now I am not talking about sin here we have discussed the remedy for sin, but they both require the same thinking process to remove them from our lives. When many people correct an error there is no real repentance, most are sad because they got caught not because the Holy Spirit has convicted them of their error. This is why they are doomed to repeat the error again and again. Yes, the Holy Spirit will convict us of not only our sin, but of the errors we make. How wonderful is this? The error is corrected only when we feel remorse and sorrow for our error and then try to make things right. Both processes must be moving in our attempt to correct our errors. If we only try to make things right (like what most people do) then the price in our heart we are to pay to remember our shame and folly will not be there and we will fail in our heart. If we only remember the shame and folly (not to speak of the condemnation we heap on ourselves) and not try to make things right, then we forfeit the joy and wholesomeness we always feel when we do the right thing. Can you imagine the joy Karen felt when she handed Dale the check for the honey? You will only be able to feel what Karen felt, if you have done what Karen did. Some churches ignorantly sing, “I want to dance like David danced” well my friend you will only be able to dance like David danced, if you went through the things David went through. Oh how we like to dance, but forgo the going through of things.
In this article I would like to look at two areas, the first is the heart condition we must have to be able to repent and then correct our errors and the second is this thinking in the church that says it is okay to make a mistake or error. Let us begin to look at the heart condition of true repentance. In Corinthians Paul shares with us, “For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. 9Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 11For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” (2 Corinthians 7:8-11) Did you get that, “For Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” I wonder what “Godly sorrow” looks like? If you cannot tell me then there is a good chance you have never experienced this sorrow and not really saved. I would think “Godly sorrow” is more of an inward feeling of devastation then just feeling bad. When we see what sin has wrought in our lives and the eternal sublime truth of who we are apart from God it should drop us to our knees as we too like Paul say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24) This discovery, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of who we really are should kill us, bring us to tears, wailing and sobbing, snot running out our nose, but that is not what we see in church when someone (rarely happens any more) comes to the Lord, they make a commitment after they repeat the sinner’s prayer. Well my friend the sinner’s prayer is something man made up so that they will not have to follow the Biblical format of leading someone to Christ. Paul taught, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10) Confessing (agreeing with God what He is saying about us is true) with our mouth and believing in our heart God raised Jesus from the dead is the only format that will lead us to salvation. And when we really confess we will understand, we will see, we will know of our shame and waywardness from God and it will kill us. Repeating after someone is NOT “confessing with thy mouth.” The words “thy mouth” is an utterance from the heart since thoughts of a man’s soul find verbal utterance by his mouth. Jesus taught, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Matthew 12:34) Make no mistake my friend, whatever is in our heart will come out our mouth. We will be known as God knows us. We must speak true and honest words from our heart to be saved. And not repeating some words on a card, but words (from our heart) like I am sorry and really mean it from our soul. I am afraid many people have been deceived by the sinner’s prayer, thinking they are a Christian, but knowing all along they lack the evidence and power of the normal Christians life. Man is not dumb, he knows when he has something genuine, but I wonder why many people are content with the type and shadow of salvation when they could have the real McCoy? This too is why many fall out of the way so fast, they were never really on the way, no foundation of salvation was laid, no recognizing the cost Jesus paid on the cross, and no counting the cost we must pay to be numbered as a Christian. Oh no just make a commitment, well my friend this is dead wrong. Denominations like to make it easy, just repeat after me, they get more folks that way who have money, well it was not so easy for Jesus it cost Him His life. God does not care about our money, unlike many denominations, He is after our heart something which is far more valuable.
We will never be able to come to salvation unless there is an understanding of our need for “Godly sorrow” so too we will never be able to correct the errors (saying or doing something against someone) we make unless we come to an understanding of our need for repentance (stop making the error) and restoration (try to make it right). Now I am not talking about sin here we have discussed the remedy for sin, but they both require the same thinking process to remove them from our lives. When many people correct an error there is no real repentance, most are sad because they got caught not because the Holy Spirit has convicted them of their error. This is why they are doomed to repeat the error again and again. Yes, the Holy Spirit will convict us of not only our sin, but of the errors we make. How wonderful is this? The error is corrected only when we feel remorse and sorrow for our error and then try to make things right. Both processes must be moving in our attempt to correct our errors. If we only try to make things right (like what most people do) then the price in our heart we are to pay to remember our shame and folly will not be there and we will fail in our heart. If we only remember the shame and folly (not to speak of the condemnation we heap on ourselves) and not try to make things right, then we forfeit the joy and wholesomeness we always feel when we do the right thing. Can you imagine the joy Karen felt when she handed Dale the check for the honey? You will only be able to feel what Karen felt, if you have done what Karen did. Some churches ignorantly sing, “I want to dance like David danced” well my friend you will only be able to dance like David danced, if you went through the things David went through. Oh how we like to dance, but forgo the going through of things.
There is another area on this topic the Lord would have me briefly touch on. In James (one of my favorite Books) we read, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:14-17) Now “err” is not error, they are distinctly different. An error is to make a mistake (mild or malicious), but to “err” (Strong’s #4105) is to cause to stray, to lead astray, lead aside from the right way, and to go astray, wander, roam about. Brethren we must not cause “err” for our brothers and sisters. I believe this is one of the biggest failures of the denominational churches today to lead people astray from the truth of the Gospel and indoctrinating them into the denominational doctrine, customs, and traditions of men. This is what was going on in the church of Jerusalem. False teachers had infiltrated the church by 48 A.D., “err” had already crept in and defiled the brethren, sounds like today. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes knew what he was saying when he said, “there is knowing new of the sun.” My friend take heed God takes “err” very serious. God personally will show up and defend His word and His church He is building. We must be very careful (take great heed) not to stray ourselves, but more important not to lead people astray from the truth of the word of God. You know I tell the kids at the school where I work as a substitute teacher we must think right, it is not okay to keep making mistake after mistake, oh thank God for grace, but that is not God’s intention for us. Grace is there in case we need it (and I am glad it is) but God’s intention for us is to do it right the very first time and not make an error to correct. Written by David Stahl
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