For though I caused you sorrow by my letter,
I do not regret it;
though I did regret it— for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—
I now rejoice,
not that you were made sorrowful,
but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance;
for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God,
so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
For the sorrow that is according to the will of God
produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation,
but the sorrow of the world produces death.
For behold what earnestness this very thing,
this godly sorrow,
has produced in you:
what vindication of yourselves,
what indignation,
what fear,
what longing,
what zeal,
what avenging of wrong!
In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.
So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender
nor for the sake of the one offended,
but that your earnestness on our behalf
might be made known to you in the sight of God.
That is why He told the disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised . . . ” Luke 2:49
The promise was the Holy Spirit.
Let’s track this Holy Spirit from the beginning: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis1:1-2
You can’t go any farther back than that, the first page of the Bible. But there’s lots more.
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18-20
The HolySpirit appeared visibly at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. Luke 3:22
It was prophesied that Jesus, Himself, would baptize people with the HolySpirit. Luke 3:16
The old man, Simeon, recognized Jesus, by the power of the HolySpirit, when Jesus was a week-old infant. Luke 2:25-26
Jesus taught that the heavenly Father would delight to give His HolySpirit to His followers, even more than our own fathers would give us food. Luke 11:13
Jesus said His followers should never worry about what to say in His defense, because the HolySpirit would give them the words to say. Luke 12:12
Jesus taught that one of the purposes of the HolySpirit is to keep teaching us, because of so many things we must learn that we cannot grasp all at once. John 14:26
Jesus said He could not send His HolySpirit unless He went away. John 16:5-7
Jesus said, “Father, into Thy hand I commend my spirit,” when He died. Luke 23:46
Jesus promised power to be good witnesses after receiving the HolySpirit. Acts 1:8
Having the HolySpirit is how we get godly love. Romans 5:5
Righteousness, peace, and joy come from the HolySpirit. Romans 14:17
Our bodies are to be a temple of the HolySpirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19
Purity and patience come from the HolySpirit. 2 Corinthians 6:6
The HolySpirit seals us. Ephesians 1:13
The Old Testament was written by inspiration of the HolySpirit. 2 Peter 1:21
Jesus did an amazing thing after He returned to the Father. He sent His own spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be IN the disciples and IN us!
Without Him, we have no power over sin, the flesh, or the devil. Without Him, we are doomed to fail. We need Him every hour of every day and our Father wants us to have the Holy Spirit.
“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the HolySpirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13
“Christ died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
Jesus’ death is God’s way of saying, “Even though you have failed me many times, even though you’ve sinned, even though you’ve made mistakes, I still love you! I still want you!”
Sometimes we might think, “I have failed so many times, I don’t see how God could work in my life. I keep sinning the same ol’ sin and my sin seems so great, I feel like I’m disqualified even from the dishonor roll.”
You need to understand grace.
Grace is the power of God working in you, through you, with you, and for you. “Faithful is He who has called you, and He will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 He did it for Abraham, Moses, David, the disciples—and He died to do it for you.
The wonderful truth is that God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will.
He uses flawed people to accomplish His flawless will.
If you’re willing to let Jesus have His way in your life, God will use you to be a blessing to others, just like he used all the others on the dishonor roll.
You need to understand that God never tires of forgiving us.
Even if I have to ask God for forgiveness 5 times a day for the rest of my life, if I am sincere about it, He will forgive me.
How do I know that?
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
To fully grasp the meaning of this verse, we must realize the wisdom of God in placing His Son close to Greece, where the language has an extra verb tense we call “aorist”. The aorist tense means “keep on keeping on”.
So the above verse, in aorist tense, really says: If we keep on confessing our sins, He keeps on being faithful and just, and will keep on forgiving us our sins and keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
I need that.
Notice, also, the word “all”.
God is willing to forgive ALL our sin.
Why?
He loves us. Even though we sin, God wants to use us if we repent.
Once we realize we have sinned, we need to confess and ask God to forgive our sins. We can’t just say, “God loves failures, so I’ll just keep sinning and let God clean up after me.”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:1-4
We have to give our failures to God. We have to say “Lord, I sinned! I blew it! And I confess and repent from the bottom of my heart.”
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
Have you noticed the two words, “confess” and “repent”? They are both vitally important, and most folks think they are the same, but they are not, therefore an explanation is in order.
Repentance: This is turning around, turning your back on your sin, hating it enough to change or to want to change. It is the giant, “OH NO!” that accompanies our realizing the consequences of what we have done.
Confession: God does not forgive excuses; He forgives sin. If you tell Him all about how it was the other guy’s fault or how you couldn’t help it because of your headache, you are not confessing your sin.
Listen to the prayer of David after He committed his great sins:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:1-17
How does God respond to people who have sinned? How does He respond to our failures?”
Mark gives us a clue, on the morning of the Resurrection:
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'” Mark 16:5-7
In other words, even though the disciples sinned, even though they had lost faith, even though they had abandoned Him, Jesus wanted to be with them!
Consider the times of Jesus. The whole New Testament demonstrates to the world that Jesus is the Son of God by His deeds and by His death. And His 12 Apostles had a front row seat for the whole thing.
Let’s look at what they saw, as recorded by Matthew the Apostle:
Jesus drove out demons, as recorded in Matthew 8. Jesus told the wind and the waves to be still in Matthew 8. They saw Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead. They were there, we read in Matthew 12, when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees like no one had ever spoken to them before. In addition, in Matthew 26, they were there for the Last Supper, when Jesus established a new covenant with all of humankind.
Yet in spite of all these things the apostles were privileged to see, in spite of all the things that were designed to strengthen their faith, “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” Matthew 26:31
How could anyone fail God with Jesus walking alongside him?
The disciples swore they would not leave Him, but they were about to find out how weak they were.
They walked with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus told them to watch and pray. However, they were so tired that they could not even keep their eyes open. Then the soldiers arrived and took Jesus into custody. The disciples were so scared and so startled that they turned and ran for their lives. Jesus was right. They all fell away. They failed Jesus and they failed to keep the faith.
What about us? In church, it’s easy to pledge our allegiance to Jesus Christ. But when we are out in the world, it is not so easy. Out there, we consider other things:
Our marriage.
Our job.
Our finances.
Our family.
Our health.
Our worries.
As much as we want to serve God, there are times when it is hard. We fail, we sin, we deny Jesus as Lord, and we fail to keep the faith.
Yes, we are in pretty good company with God’s dishonor roll of failures. Thank God, He is not finished with us!
House Servants at Stonehouse Hill, Estate of F. L. Ames
Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, and will have them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Allegory of Hope: Oil on Canvas, Francesco Guardi, 1747
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
. . .
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
First page of Gospel of Mark, by Armenian Sargis Pitsak
More on the New Testament:
The Twelve, the closest and first disciples of Jesus, or their close associates, wrote the New Testament, inspired by the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. They wrote what they saw and heard because it was too precious to them to let it go, forgotten.
And because it was the Truth.
These writers also wrote from quite different backgrounds: tax collectors, fishermen, physicians, lawyers—quite a motley crew. Their styles differed, from intimate, highly personal account, to historical record, to the flowery sentences popular among the legal circles of the day.
Although they wrote from sometimes totally differing perspectives, everything they wrote jives. I mean, one was a killer of Christians before he saw the light and began writing about the glory of Jesus. One was a social mis-fit, working with the wrong political party just for personal gain, before he heard the call to follow Jesus. Another was exiled to a deserted island when he produced some of his writings—far from any contact, any library, yet totally in sync with the rest of what was going on in Christendom at the time.
Christianity, always persecuted from Day One until today, forced people to hide in caves and meet in homes, only to be captured and drug away, on trumped-up charges. Therefore, every scrap of communication from the ones who actually knew and learned from Jesus was and is precious to Christians.
They preserved these writings with their lives, copying them repeatedly, in the days before Internet, word processors, typewriters, ballpoint pens, pencils, or even decent paper. They used homemade ink and quill feathers on chemically-treated sheep skins, rolled up on sticks. They were used to it.
As attacks grew, and began coming from within the followers, Christians even had to devise ways to let people know when writings were authentic. They met, even, to be sure everyone was in agreement on which writings were from the original few followers and which were bogus.
Perilous times.
Like today.
Although we cannot know, for sure, what was said in most of these gatherings, we can read what they preserved. What we notice, again, is a consistent agreement with the writings of the Old Testament, although some of the writers were not scholars, sometimes not even very nice guys, before they met Jesus Christ. We notice gorgeous poetic prose, crystal logic, and heart-rending appeals from men, most of whom had never been to college, indeed, who lived where college happened abroad.
And we find amazing willingness to die.
NOT TO KILL.
To die.
To die for the Truth.
Because He had died for them.
And because they knew Him and, as the Truth, He had set them free.
Home's Cool! 