Tag: Repentance

Man praying with clasped hands inside a stone church

But Did You Mean It?

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“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, ‘We have not sinned,’ we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:9-10 CSB – Read the chapter)

I had the chance last night to see the band MercyMe in concert along with Jeremy Camp, Tim Timmons, and Sam Wesley. It was a great show. Timmons and Wesley I hadn’t heard of, but that’s apparently because I haven’t yet seen the movie I Can Only Imagine 2 in which both feature prominently in the story. Wesley is actually the son of the lead singer of MercyMe. None of the actors who played them looked even remotely like the actual people, which is always funny to me. One of MercyMe’s biggest hits over the years is the song “Flawless.” The song offers listeners the assurance of forgiveness thanks to the incredible grace of God. The idea is that like John writes here in his first letter, God’s grace in Christ Jesus will cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we are flawless. God’s grace, won for us by Jesus on the cross, is indeed an amazing thing. But it comes with a catch. Since I didn’t preach yesterday, let’s take a few minutes to talk about this catch this today.

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Multigenerational family standing outdoors at sunset with glowing cross behind them

Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 5:18

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“Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are some movies that define a generation. For me, The Karate Kid was one of those movies. It had everything. Great action, a love story, a redemption arc, a fantastic soundtrack and score, and the acting was mostly pretty good. Oh, and like the name says, karate. Lots of karate. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the first one. The second was always my favorite. The third one was even still good. So, when YouTube announced they were creating, and then Netflix picked up, a series rooted in the world of Karate Kid, but focusing on the bad guy dojo, Cobra Kai, I was intrigued. Eight years later, I finally got around to finishing the sixth and final season. I’ve been excited all week to talk about it. Let’s jump right in.

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Digging in Deeper: 1 John 1:5-10

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“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus the Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, ‘We have not sinned,’ we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The world is broken. People are broken. They do what’s wrong at least as often as they do what is right…sometimes more often. They are selfish. They do what they want and don’t think too much about how getting what they want will affect the people around them. And nobody seems to be able to do much about it. What if there was a way, though, to fix it? What if there was a way to make everybody do the right thing, to make them be decent people? What it be worth it? The second season of Amazon Prime’s, Fallout, ponders that very question. Let’s talk about it.

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Advent Reflections: Luke 15:7, 10

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“I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance. . . .I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Kids have a built-in desire to do what makes their fathers happy. There was a time when I was growing up that I said I wanted to be a lawyer. Why? Because my dad is an excellent lawyer, and I wanted to be like him, to make him happy. I soon thereafter realized I was built to be a teacher, and thankfully he gave me the extremely significant gift of supporting me in whatever I pursued, so all was well. But that desire to please him never really went away. I suspect that if you have a healthy relationship with your dad, you’re the same way. Well, God is consistently described in the Scriptures as our heavenly Father. Let’s talk about something that makes Him happy.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 11:23-24

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“And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Is there anyone too far gone for God to save them? That’s certainly a question believers have wrestled with over the centuries of church history. We wonder this objectively. We muse on it when thinking about public atheists and whether it is possible for them to finally come around. We agonize over it when the individuals in question are family members. What Paul says about Israel as a genetic people here speaks some to the question. Check this out with me.

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