Interesting
Today at lunch, I decided it would be a great day for a walk. I did not get far before I came to a man with a megaphone. He was standing across the street from the central bus stop in the city. Next to him stood his female friend\wife holding signs that read "Repent" (not a bad suggestion)
I decided to stop my walk there and listen to the message that he was sharing with the crowd.
It turned out his message (technique) was to scare people to God. I heard very little reflecting the hope that is found in Jesus. I was lead to pray silently for this man, and the people hearing his voice, to truly come to know freedom in Jesus.
There is a need to fear life without God, but the people of this area, and of the world for that matter, need to also be told about the freedom and joy that comes from a relationship with our living God. Repentance is a step toward that, but where do they go from there. Why should they do it? After they receive forgiveness, how do they show their thankfulness? What does it mean or feel like to truly repent? I understood his words, but what was lacking in his message was sharing a knowledge of God's desires for us to know his love, live for Him and be free from ourselves.
Accepting Jesus out of fear limits the intimacy that can be achieved in a open an trusting relationship with God. That is what God desires most for us. Knowing Him, trusting Him, pursuing Him, honoring Him and ultimately reflecting Him. He loves us and he wants everyone to know that. He wants us to know that so badly that He came down to Earth and walked among us.
Romans 8
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
I decided to stop my walk there and listen to the message that he was sharing with the crowd.
It turned out his message (technique) was to scare people to God. I heard very little reflecting the hope that is found in Jesus. I was lead to pray silently for this man, and the people hearing his voice, to truly come to know freedom in Jesus.
There is a need to fear life without God, but the people of this area, and of the world for that matter, need to also be told about the freedom and joy that comes from a relationship with our living God. Repentance is a step toward that, but where do they go from there. Why should they do it? After they receive forgiveness, how do they show their thankfulness? What does it mean or feel like to truly repent? I understood his words, but what was lacking in his message was sharing a knowledge of God's desires for us to know his love, live for Him and be free from ourselves.
Accepting Jesus out of fear limits the intimacy that can be achieved in a open an trusting relationship with God. That is what God desires most for us. Knowing Him, trusting Him, pursuing Him, honoring Him and ultimately reflecting Him. He loves us and he wants everyone to know that. He wants us to know that so badly that He came down to Earth and walked among us.
Romans 8
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
posted by KLW @ 3:14 PM
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