When you Hear the Word Repent – What Image Comes to Mind? Confession? The Image of a Crazy Person? – Here’s the True Meaning of Repent
You’ve seen the image in movies and on street corners – A disheveled person with wild, hair, holding a cardboard sign with the scribbled words in bold, black print – Repent! The End is Near! – Or Repent! The Kingdom of God is Near! Sometimes they’re shouting and sometimes they have a look of quiet madness.
When we see someone like this on the street, our reactions are varied; we snicker, ignore them, feel uncomfortable or just dismiss them as crazy and go about our business.
The most famous person for declaring this word, repent, was John the Baptist. In the third chapter of Matthew, Jesus is beginning his ministry. This is when we meet John the Baptist, a wild, crazy, preacher who eats locusts with wild honey as his meal of choice. He went around the Desert of Judea preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
The English translation of repent means to feel sorry for a past action and to feel such remorse for that action as to change your ways. Interpreting this raving lunatic preacher shouting, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” we hear the message as – “You better confess and change your ways before it’s too late!” But that’s not what he was saying at all. Continue reading
The Law of Attraction and the Christian Faith Part II
Yesterday I wrote about The Law of Attraction and the Christian Faith Part I where I shared a true story that happened to me when I attracted a past connection into my life.
I wrapped up that first post by saying that there were two caveats with the asking and receiving process.
Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We also need to believe. In the book of Matthew, a man approached Jesus regarding his son. He had first taken his son to his disciples to heal him, but they couldn’t do it. Jesus was, let’s say, a little upset. He rebuked the demon and healed the boy.
The Law of Attraction and the Christian Faith Part I
There’s been a lot of buzz within the last decade about The Law of Attraction. Classes, books, workshops, even a movie have been created to teach people how to harness this law. The Law of Attraction states that what you put your attention on you can manifest into being. By asking and believing you are supposed to receive. The outcome can be good or bad, by the way, depending what you truly believe consciously and unconsciously. But how do you use The Law of Attraction in the Christian faith?
Hmmm, where I have heard those words before? Asking, believing and receiving are words found in a book published way before the popular book, The Secret, was published that defines The Law of Attraction. Matthew chapter seven and verses seven and eight come to mind:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
The Law of Attraction works as sure as another law, the Law of Gravity. Don’t go stepping off a ladder or from a high place because you will hit the ground. God created all of the laws of the universe.
I have found that whenever I have put my attention on something, especially if I am deeply emotional about it, I attract what I am thinking about into my life. Let me share a funny, true story of how The Law of Attraction can work. This law works not only in the big things in our lives, but in the little things too.
Modern Day Good Samaritan – A Random Act of Kindness
There always seems to be depressing headlines in the news, but I heard a story this week about some good news. It’s the story of a modern day Good Samaritan (the original, in case you wanted to look it up, is in the book of Luke 10:30-37). The story comes from my mother, and it was too good not to share.