repent – I AM for You!

Who doesn’t Jesus love?

Jesus loves the mentally ill.
Jesus loves the mentally healthy.
Jesus loves those in a one-man, one-woman married relationship.
Jesus loves those who are not.
Jesus loves the scrupulously honest.
Jesus loves those who tell black, white and various-shades-of-grey lies.
Jesus loves the doctor who ends the life of an unborn person.
Jesus loves that unborn person.
Jesus loves that unborn person’s mother.
Jesus loves the person who believes they were predestined to be saved.
Jesus loves the person who believes they were not.
Jesus loves Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants and all religious people.
Jesus loves the person that believes there is no God.
Jesus loves the person who rejects Him.
Jesus loves the person who commits the unforgivable sin.

Jesus loves ALL people just the way they are.
And ALL need Him.
Even me. Even you.
And ALL can choose to receive Him as Savior, Lord and Friend.
If they are willing to turn away from their evil attitudes and actions WITH JESUS’ HELP.
And trust Jesus to forgive their evil attitudes and actions.
And trust Jesus to give them His Resurrection Life.

Nobody’s perfect (part II)

I am part of a team of people starting “HOPE” for Mental Health at Kentwood Community Church. We are part of Celebrate Recovery founded by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. This group of courageous people, who admit their imperfections and trust Jesus to deliver them, have been a catalyst to me being able to confess my sins to another trusted person (or small group). I read my Nobody’s Perfect post from August of 2013 tonight and realized I had promised to get back to you when I had put this into practice.

Much better late than never.

I had told Jesus my sins but telling another person with skin on freed me from most of the grip of satan in my life. No amount of prayer has freed me as much as telling my sin to another person. Sin loses power when exposed.

I have known for years that I was “supposed to” confess my sins to another. But I made excuses and told myself it really didn’t matter. I lost years of my life to satan’s influence simply because “I know more than God.”

God is not mocked. I reaped what I sowed.

But I have learned.

Hopefully.

You have to be a sinner before you can be forgiven

Jesus isn’t looking for the good people, the perfect people, the people who have it all together. If we could be perfect then He didn’t need to die. No, Jesus said through David in the Psalms:

Psalm 34:17-18 (NKJV)

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite [to repent, to turn around] spirit.

(Brackets mine)

Psalm 51:16-17 (NKJV)

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3-4) and “those who mourn” over their sinful condition. “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “they shall be comforted”. Not the haughty, not the proud. Not those who claim to have it altogether, and say they have no sin. Jesus said God accepts those who recognize who they are and cry out to God to clothe them with His righteousness, with Jesus.

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