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Repentance a MAJOR Door to understanding!
G. Driggs:
Hi Arc, very good topic.
I thought and prayed about it for a few days and re-read Ray's paper on repentance, and came up with these two Scriptures. Not sure if they are what you were referring to though.
Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye (repent); and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
2Co 7:10 For the grief according to God works repentance to salvation, not to be regretted, but the grief of the world works out death.
This to me means first the goodness of God needs to lead us to repentance and quite sinning as much as is possible in this age, in this flesh, then and only then will we be able to help others and understand and live the Truth. When God makes us sorry, makes us feel guilty and ashamed for our sins, then can He begin to make us repent. He gets us to realize sinning is not ok. It does not happen quickly either, it seems to be a long and often painful process. Also to be thankful for all the grief and suffering He cause us to go through. Rather than be like the rest of the world who blames Him instead of understanding why suffering is important, to understand evil is meant to humble us. I believe part of the reason suffering is so important is like Ray says, its all about contrast. How will we know good unless we know evil? We will appreciate the good all the more. The "light suffering" cannot compare to the incredible glory He has in store for us. I even thought I read somewhere that Ray said that when we look back on this, we will wish we had suffered more. Dont get me wrong, I know suffering does not feel good right now, but it is what will produce many godly characters that God wants in us as sons and daughters. I dont thing He would have us go through what He hasnt gone through Himself. You have probably heard that "what does not kill you makes you stronger" but I think what is more true is what kills you is what will make you stronger. Dying to self is killing the carnal mind isnt it? Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
I have personally noticed when I'm going through periods of sinfulness that I cant see the truth. Everything is confusing and cloudy and I end up not knowing what to believe. Pride, hate, resentment, jealousy and self pity take over and I find myself in a big mess. It is only when the goodness of God leads me to repentance, and I come out of these periods of sinfulness, is when I become humble again, and the Truth starts to become clear again.
I think only now am I beginning to understand what Ray meant when he said "I wanted to repent long before I did". I've often prayed, and cried and begged God to lead me to repentance, because I just cant do it on my own, and that can be very painful and frustrating. Usually I just give up asking, and after a while He leads me to repentance. It is a tormenting thing to deny self, to deny carnal desires, and then sometimes fail and have God show you how bad you were. This carnal mind wants to sin so bad, and if it was not for His Spirit I would be sinning as much as I want to without a conscious about it. It's getting to the point I do not trust myself anymore.
I dunno, maybe I'm off, but this is how it seems right now. Still a long way to go, God willing He will let me live long enough and be patient enough with me to teach me how to overcome the world and to put sin to death. All I can do is hope, pray and believe all will be ok no matter what happens. What choice do I have?
I hope I have made some sense. ??? If not, I tried. :-[
G.Driggs
aqrinc:
--- Quote ---I dunno, maybe I'm off, but this is how it seems right now. Still a long way to go, God willing He will let me live long enough and be patient enough with me to teach me how to overcome the world and to put sin to death. All I can do is hope, pray and believe all will be ok no matter what happens. What choice do I have?
I hope I have made some sense. If not, I tried.
G.Driggs
--- End quote ---
Hi G.Driggs,
Makes perfect sense to me, keep on repenting brother, i do everyday and everytime God smacks me between the eyes with the attention stick.
Deb,
You are right, this is a topic that we cannot exhaust; while still in this tent of flesh.
I just put my stones away, and leave this Scripture as a reminder, to me, of why Repentance ???.
Joh 8:7 (GNB)
As they stood there asking him questions, he straightened up and said to them, "Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her."
george :o ::).
Deborah-Leigh:
Thank you for your contribution G Driggs.
--- Quote ---I have personally noticed when I'm going through periods of sinfulness that I cant see the truth.
--- End quote ---
It is excellent that you are experiencing the connection between knowing and understanding the truth and the need to repent in order to do so. Ray puts this so clearly to us all through his own testimony in the Transcript. It is very important and so simple. A real find!
You mentioned the Scripture through which Ray gives insights regarding :
Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye (repent); and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Did you catch the insight? :)
It is not that when we loose our beam in our eye, then we can see the mote. NO. Look at this again! It is awesome!
So you think your brother has a speck in his eye, he does not. He has a beam in his eye too. But you can’t see it with a beam in your eye too.L Ray Smith
That is so profound. Look again!
So you think YOUR BROTHER has a speck in his eye, he does NOT. HE HAS A BEAM IN HIS EYE TOO. But YOU can’t see it with a beam in YOUR EYE TOO.
It is so breathtakingly beautiful is it not?
Ray goes on to say, But you can’t judge him with a BEAM IN YOUR EYE, you can’t even see what his faults are, for crying out loud, you have so many yourself.
But this is what always got me.
Rom 2 :1 ‘……for you who judge practice the same things.”
This is just so exquisite don’t you think?
Hey aqr
It is good to put the stones away. :D
Did you know that the Scripture you posted is not in the oldest manuscripts and is considered spurious? John 8 1-11
Ray says : We are the Lake of Fire, we will be judging man and the angels. Don’t you think we aught to have some practice at doing that then? Don’t you think we should be learning to judge now?
Should we be throwing stones or trying to kill giants? Nope.
Some of the words Ray has said I have highlighted as follows As you judge,....... can mean to do good and to set right, it can also mean...... be bad....…there are always two possible sentences. Ref Repentance transcript.
That said, I do think judgment is really another topic for another thread. It is so vast!
So let's stick rather to this topic....The Door to understanding....what does it mean to you?
Arc
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