L eroy Brownlow, was an interesting and skillful preacher of God’s word. In one
humorous story he told about an old preacher affectionately known as
"Grandpa." Grandpa believed that church life demanded reformation. He
said, "One winter we broke the ice on a frozen pond to baptize some
people. ‘Is the water cold, Sam?’ a decaon shouted to the shvering, dripping
convert after he had been immersed. ‘Not a bit cold,’ replied Sam as he shook.
‘Better put him under again, Preacher,’ said the deacon. ‘He hasn’t quit lying
yet’ " (p 33, Grandpa Was a Preacher). That deacon understood a vital and fundamental fact related to
becoming a Christian – we must change!
Inspired
first century preachers called on people to make that change through faith and
repentance. A clear example found in the apostle Paul’s sermon to King Agrippa
in Acts 26:20. Paul told the king that after becoming an apostle of
Christ, he [Paul] "declared to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and
throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should
repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance" (or as the English Standard Version says "performing
deeds in keeping with their repentance").
Note that repentance came first, then deeds produced by repentance followed.
That idea accurately reflects the New Testament concept of repentance. The
Greek word is metanoia meaning "a change of mind" or "to
think differently." But caution is needed, because, us Paul told Agrippa,
repentance goes way beyond mere mental activity. James Meadows accurately and
succinctly defined repentance in a sermon at (what was then) East Tennessee
School of Preaching in Knoxville, TN on March 9, 2010. Meadows said,
"Repentance is a turning of the mind brought about by godly sorrow that
produces a change in life." Without a change in mind and in manner
of life, there is no Biblical repentance. There are people who weep and cry and
even go so far as to confess Jesus and be "buried with Him through
baptism into death" as taught in Romans 6:4a. But sadly,
judging by what happens after they come up out of the water, the case can be
made that they didn’t repent of their sins, they only reported them, as I heard
West Virginia preacher David Powers say it more than 40 years ago. There is no "waking
in newness of life" as taught
in Romans 6:4b. A dry sinner was buried down into the water but the same
old sinner was resurrected up out of the water, only now wet! No reformation,
no apparent commitment to change sinful attitudes and actions occurred. Little
love for the church and her worship assemblies and work. They claim to have
gotten into Christ through their baptism (a very scriptural idea – see Romans
6:3 and Galatians 3:27). But they are hard pressed to prove by their
deeds that Christ got into them at all! Still dominated by stinking thinking
and low living. Contrast all that with what we read in Romans 12:2 – "And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. Like a caterpillar that goes into a chrysalis and comes out a
butterfly, so, too, becoming and being a Christian necessarily involves a
radical transformation in the way we think and live. Christ is the Great
Transformer! Are you being transformed?
By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
Have
you ever "nursed a grudge?" That figure of speech means to keep
resenting and disliking someone over a period of time, usually an unreasonably
long time. According to idioms.thefreedictionary.com, "The expression uses
nurse in the sense of ‘foster a feeling,’ a usage dating from the
mid-1700's." My aim in this article is to address those who work hard not
to "nurse a grudge." Sincere Christians don’t do that. Decades of
life in the Lord’s church have convinced me most Christians sincerely desire to
be like Christ, including "bearing with one another, and forgiving
one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave
you, so you also must do" (Colossians 3:13). Authentic
disciples of Jesus know He taught, "For if you forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses" (Matthew 6:14-15). That being said, desiring to forgive and actually forgiving are
two entirely different things! Even devoted followers of Jesus sometimes
struggle to forgive. Like wounds on the physical body, a wound to our spiritual
heart and soul hurts and needs healing. Physical wounds and injuries can be
slight or serious, but even a surface scratch or cut can turn into a big deal
if left untended and untreated. Infection can easily set in. Of course, the
more serious the injury or wound, the more intense the pain and the longer the
process of complete healing. So it is, the Bible encourages us to forgive the
spiritual wounds and injuries and hurts inflicted on us by others, whether
slight or serious! Hear this Holy Spirit inspired directive in Ephesians
4:31 – "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil
speaking be put away from you, with all malice." No right-
thinking person would welcome and nurse any level of infection in their body –
and no right-thinking Christian will welcome and nurse any level of
unforgiveness in their spiritual heart.
So
how do you go about forgiving when it sometimes proves hard to do? Dutch
Holocaust survivor and Jewess (now deceased) Corrie ten Boom told of struggling
to forget a wrong done to her. She said she kept rehashing the incident and
couldn’t sleep. Finally she told a minister about her inability to sleep after
two weeks. The minister pointed to the church building’s bell tower and told
Corrie, "You ring that bell by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After
the sexton [that is, the bell-ringer], lets go of the rope, the bell keeps
swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong
and then it stops." The preacher went on to tell her the same thing is
true of forgiving, saying, "When we forgive, we take our hand off the
rope. If we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be
surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for awhile. They’re just the
ding-dongs of the bell slowing down." Dear reader, my hope is that any
ding-dongs of unforgiveness resounding in your heart are slowing down and growing
dimmer. Let us pray that our hearts may come to be totally healed and
uninfected by the hurtful wounds others inflict on us. Ask God to help you turn
loose of the rope of unforgiveness and dim your ding-dongs until they are no
more! Here’s to hearing that final dong.
By: Dan Gulley,
Smithville, TN
