Which way today?
Apr 5th, 2010 by ljkim
There are NOT many things you have-to do to get to God… the whole point of Easter is that God has done it all for you. But there is one thing you need. It’s a prerequisite – something you need in order to even get started: To admit, “I’m a sinner and I need God’s help everyday…”
We call it repentance…it’s a willingness to change, let God do some soul surgery. And it’s the only way to really get God. The opposite of this is pride: “I’m good on my own, don’t tell me anything, I don’t want to hear it.” At any point you are either doing one or the other… In the words you say, in the tone of your voice, in the content of your inner dialog, you are either saying “yes I am a sinner, in need of or thankful to have God” or you’re saying, “I am good, now leave me alone.”
In a sense, with every thought and every word we’re either drawing near God through repentance, or away from him through pride. So you can ask yourself “which way am I headed today?”
About the two tones or perspectives, what if you know you have character flaws, but don’t see how you could change. If god fixed u up everytime u repented wouldn’t we have perfect people walking around NYC? I mean it would be great to get rid of flaws just by admitting them but that doesn’t seem to be the way it works.
How could repentance or a God that you can’t see lead to change. It sounds kind of like a placebo effect to me. I am guessing that this could work without a god in the equation. If anything the whole idea that one can change through saying sorry validates the power of saying sorry more than the existenceof a god one cant see.
I am using repentance and sorry interchangeably even though repentance has a more sincere tone to it.
Hey Daniel, good questions…
For the first one, you don’t need “perfect” people everywhere to prove that something (here it’s God) can make someone “better.” Jesus’ disciples don’t even have to be “better” people than everyone else to prove that Jesus’ way works… Many non-believers are “better” people than many believers! Does that disprove Jesus’ teaching? Not necessarily… Everyone starts from a different place. What you want to ask is “do people become better from wherever they happen to be – thru this teaching?” Are they better than they were before, is there improvement? That’s how you know whether it works or not…
So why isn’t NY filled with GREAT people? Dude… Most people – including most people in churches don’t believe or follow Jesus or his teaching. Most people don’t believe in repentance either… That’s what we’re here for – we want to help fix that.
BUT… if repentance does seem to work (scenario #2 – which by the way contradicts the first argument) – if people who are repentant do seem to work through their issues better – how do you know it’s God that’s doing it? Maybe it’s just the mental affect of being humble and repenting…?
I do think God supernaturally works in people’s minds and will when they repent… BUT I don’t think that has to be the case every time…
So if you followed Jesus’ teaching and started repenting – and as a result you grew into a better person… How does that invalidate the existence of God? It’s only a “placebo” if the prescription doesn’t actually do anything… In this case – does repenting actually do something to your character that eating a sugar pill wouldn’t? Even if there is no supernatural work of God in your heart (when you repent of a particular thing), and as a result you become “better” somehow… Who was it that prescribed this repentance in the first place?
But just to clarify – I’m saying that repentance is something you need to do – a prerequisite – to *getting to God.* You can’t get to God without repenting… So for instance many people are angry with God: ever try listening to someone you were mad at? You can’t hear a word they’re saying…
We get mad because our (all of us in our natural state) deepest prayer is “my will be done” and it pisses us off that God doesn’t listen to it. Even though everything He does is for us…even though if he were as hostile to us as we were to him, we’d be in trouble… The first step in getting to God would be to admit “Lord I’m being a jerk towards you.” Until you sincerely believe that at the core ‘you’re the jerk who persecutes God (and not the other way around)’ you can’t know Him or hear Him.
But to people who do practice an attitude of repentance – they see things about themselves and about God every day!