Do You Fear Having an Open Mind

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Do You Fear Having an Open Mind? Monday Meditations – Episode 5 Originally written September 5 2011 posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/05/monday-meditations-acts-319/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/08/monday-meditations-2-timothy-316/] Today’s Meditation Verse: Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Have you ever had an Etch-a-sketch? I may be dating myself here, but I did as a child. It was one of my favorite toys! I would painstakingly work and work to produce a spectacular work of art. I really never came close to the visions that I had in my mind, but I kept trying, day after day. The coolest thing about the Etch-A-Sketch was that as soon as I made a mistake I could instantly wipe it away as if it had never been there and start all over. I wouldn’t even stop to think about it. I’d shake it and — Boom — away it would go. Now sometimes that wonderful feature on an Etch-A-Sketch was a two edged sword. There were times that I would have a great picture going and then by accident I would bump it or shake it and it would all be wiped away, and I could not recover it. When something was wiped out, it was gone forever and could never in any way or fashion be recovered. No matter how hard I tried, I could never recover it again. Well that is how far removed our sins are. They are not recoverable. So as we are drawing on the Etch-A-Sketch of life and we make a mistake, just shake it (off) and move forward. Start again with a clean slate and move forward with Christ. The past mistakes are over and gone, wiped away. Don’t allow the enemy to keep bringing them up and reminding you of them. Remind him that they are gone, wiped away never to be recovered. Move forward with hope for tomorrow, knowing that the old is gone and the new is just ahead. And should we make another mistake, and we will, we have Christ to wipe it clean — again. Wednesday Word Study – Episode 5 Originally written September 7, 2011 posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/07/wednesday-word-study-repent/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/08/monday-meditations-2-timothy-316/] Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. This is the Strong’s Greek Concordance Number: 3340 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3340.htm] Transliteration: metanoeó Phonetic Spelling: (met-an-o-eh’-o) Definition: I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent. When I first learned the true meaning of the work ‘repent’ I was very surprised!! The church I had grown up in taught us that repenting was telling God you were sorry and that you wouldn’t do it again, then asking Him to forgive that sin. It was usually a one-sided dialog where we repeatedly kept telling God how sorry we were. It was usually accompanied by remorse and a sense of guilt. But because of the shame, we never really allowed the Father to work on our heart. It was if we kept Him at arm’s length while we babbled on about how sorry we were that we thought would make it all right. So, the remorse, shame and guilt stayed, and afterwards, because we had not allowed ourselves to receive from the Father, we went away unchanged, untransformed and we made the same mistakes and operated in the same sin again and again. But the true meaning is to ‘change your mind’! I copied this from the Biblios website under the Strongs word section: 3340 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3340.htm] metanoé? (from 3326 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3326.htm] /metá, “changed after being with” and 3539 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3539.htm] /noié?, “think”) – properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent (literally, “think differently afterwards”). The phrase above “changed after being with” makes so much sense to me. When we are with the Father after doing something wrong, we will change our mind and realize that what we did was wrong and that we should not do it again. Being with the Father will change our heart and when we leave His presence we will desire to be different and to do different than before. If we will take our remorse, shame and guilt to Him and allow Him to reaffirm His forgiveness and love, we will see a new and better way. Our selfish desires will fade away more and more as we go to the Father in repentance, but not just admitting a wrong done, but receiving His transforming grace, instruction and love in regards to the matter. That would make sense. If we thought it was a good idea, or if our selfish desires were leading us to that behavior, then we will change our minds and believe that it is behavior that is not beneficial to us or the kingdom. Therefore, we will strive to never do it again. Being with the Father will change both our hearts and our minds. His immeasurable love and grace will give us the power to live a Holy life. But we must move toward Him so that that change can occur. We must take our mistakes, our sin, our missteps and deeds to Him so that He can reveal the truth of our behavior to us. As He does, He will also show us His loving heart and that kind of love never fails. It never fails to transform us into His image, little by little, day by day. Friday Finale – Episode 5 Originally written September 9 2011 posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/09/2413/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/12/led-or-driven/] You Might Change Your Mind This week our word study and mediation focused around the word repent. If you have ever spent any time at all in any Christ based church in the world you have heard the word repent. But what I was taught was the meaning of the word from a small child on up, was not what the true meaning was. I have been doing a lot of word studies in the past few weeks and very surprisingly when we go look at the root Greek word, it doesn’t have the same meaning that we believed it to have. I am not sure just how the meanings of the words have become so distorted through the years, but it is vitally important that we know the truth of what is being said in the gospels, for our sake as well as others. The word repent in the Greek means ‘to change your mind’. It doesn’t mean to beg for forgiveness every time we become aware of a wrong we have committed. It doesn’t mean for us to beat ourselves up in an effort to punish ourselves for that wrong. It also doesn’t mean to force our behavior to change without the transformative power of God. But realize this, all behavior begins in the mind with your thinking. No action is carried out without a thought first. It may be a lightning fast thought that we are not initially aware of, but the brain controls every behavior, thought and deed. Even involuntary...

Do You Fear Having an Open Mind

4. juli 202616 min

Archive Story | Check Engine Light. Is Yours On?

Archive Story Episode 17 Originally written March 23, 2023 Check Engine Light - is yours on? For many of you, it may seem that my last blog post Religion - A Dead Man Walking [https://www.nancyjacksonauthor.com/blogs/inspirational/religion-a-dead-man-walking] distilled Christianity down too far. I did that in order to make a point. You should know by now that I love to push the antithesis to shock you into thinking. BUT, I believe every word I posted. I believe we were meant to be a unified body with one goal: to be the body with Christ as the head, and to spread God’s love throughout the world. Therefore, drawing (not pushing, prodding, coercing, or manipulating) all men to Jesus by lifting HIM up in honor, respect and love. But we have become a brawling set of siblings on the backside of the playground. We’ve lost enormous respect from those who are pre-believers. Why on earth would they want what we have and respect who we are when, from the outside looking in, all they see is discord and strife? But, I digress. I want to discuss something else only slightly related to my last post, and that is what the church world refers to as sin. Yep, I said it - sin. You may also want to hang on to your hat for this one. Does Your Church Discuss Sin? First, let me say that when we discuss sin in the church, we often do not dissect or differentiate between our sin nature and the acts of sin we do once we have become born again. Adam and Eve sealed the deal on the sin nature part. Their act of disobedience put their generational lineage into a perpetual state of bearing a sin spirit from birth to death. If we do not personally say ‘halt’ and ask God to be born again we will continue that perpetration. Nicodemus marveled at that term. He searched Jesus out by night, eager and hungry to learn. John 3:3-6 3) Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4) Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” 5) Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6) That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit... Do You Truly Live? It is still a unique turn of phrase to our human ears. It is an act that God can only do divinely himself at our request once we realize we need to die spiritually. When we realize that the sin nature or spirit we were born with is corrupt, and we need for it to die and be born again so that we can truly live. Notice in the above passage that Jesus says a person cannot see or enter the kingdom of God if they are not born of the Spirit. Let me ruffle some more feathers here (I seem to be so good at it). I take issue with the little ‘ask Jesus into your heart’ prayers we tack on to the end of our religious box sessions. That is not being born again. It is watered down and very vanilla instruction. The most minimal 'way out'. They aren't asking to be born again because they do not know they need to ask for that. At best, it may allow those saying it to realize that there is a need in their life to allow Jesus to help them change, and by saying that prayer sincerely they are acknowledging that something in their life needs to change and to give that to Jesus. Asking Jesus into our hearts seems to be a gentle way of attempting to confront a dire moment of truth. And we, the body shout hallelujah and fast forward them to the head of the line as though now they are fully one of us. One of us who knew we needed to go from death to life internally and asked for the death, burial, and resurrection of our spirit. Something they probably don't know they need because it was just too much to load them down with initially. Going Beyond Acknowledgment That Something Is Wrong I congratulate all those who have had the courage to say that prayer at the end of a service. You have a heart to follow Christ and were doing what you thought you should. But I believe we already in the body do those new believers a disservice by not going further to teach, and pray with them to complete the new birth process. We have attempted to get as many as possible into the body by making it benignly easy with little explanation. We fear our explanation may frighten and turn most away. But by not fully educating them, we are dooming them to fail. Being born again is so much more than just a quick, brief prayer. We are talking about death, burial, and resurrection of their spirit here. We have to understand that a death needs to occur. That is serious business. It is no wonder why thousands that have said the prayer have then walked away with absolutely no noticeable change in their lives. They may want to do what is right. They may try to not ‘sin’. But unless a spiritual death has occurred inside, where the old sinful nature ceases to exist, and a new God breathed and born again spirit has been birthed and takes its place, there will be no genuine change or entrance into the kingdom of God. It Is Easy To Misunderstand The Bible is rich with countless layers of knowledge, passion, and instruction. Because of that, and the fact much of it was written in various languages and parts specifically for the people at the time who were alive to hear it, we get some things wrong. I know I have. Digging deep into the actual Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic and the literary styles the bible it is written in can clarify much misconception. A section of verses that we have often used to excuse our ‘sin’ is the passage by Paul in the last half of Romans 7 discusses the law and controversy surrounding it. Do You Try To Do The Right Thing and Can't? Romans 7:19-20 19) For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20) But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. We have used the above specific verses many times to excuse away what we consider is our inappropriate behavior. “Oh well, I want to do good, but I do the things I don’t want to do and I don’t do the things I do want to do.” After all, if it was the way Paul was, then it is okay for us to be that way too. However, in reading most of Paul’s other writings, it seems very contrary. After spending a large amount of time listening to various Hebrew and Greek scholars who pointed out that there is a shift in the original text that denotes that Paul is referring to the way he used to be before he was born again, it now makes perfect sense. In fact, several verses before and after the two above are in that same literary change. Finishing a Cohesive Argument Romans 7:24-25 24) Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25) Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Romans 8:1-5 1) Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and ...

28. juni 202617 min

Do You Fear Having an Open Mind

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