Bible Teacher. Pastor.Educator.

Grit, Grace, and Repentance

Acts 3:17-23

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way, God fulfilled what He’d foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in Heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through His holy prophets. Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever He tells you. And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’"

 

“If you pretend that you are not a sinner (refusing repentance) you are pretending that you will be forgiven.” -Jim Thomas

 

Repentance is a greater gift than Grit!!!

 Repentance is a glorious gift, for I know that on the other side of repentance, I find grace! Real Grace!!! Joy!!!! Forgiveness!!!!Repentance!!! Not grit!! Grit has helped me to walk daily with God, but it has its limit. Grit cannot replace grace. A life of grace grounded in Truth is a true gift from God! Grace, like oxygen, is a gift from God. We are called by God to be a people who are committed to living lives that make God happy--a calling of grace from Heaven. We are summoned by God’s grace in Scripture to make the glory of God known to everyone on the earth. We are sinners saved by grace, not by grit. He is holy, but we are not holy. He is righteous. Only repentance produces the joy that we seek from the heart of God!!!

Repentance calls me to run to God. I refuse often because I love my sin--I actually love my addiction to carbs more than I love the Word of God! My body actually craves sin rather than God. But God calls me to a different life--a life of radical commitment to grace; a life of radical commitment to Truth; a life of radical commitment to repentance. Grit is awesome, but Grace is a river that allows me to experience the results of a heart that seeks after God.

 

Repentance is a gift that keeps giving me Joy

Repentance, then, is my only option to truly and successfully pursue a daily walk with God. Repentance is not a chore, but instead, it is what we experience when we have faith in a God rich in mercy and whose heart for us is radically greater than our own imaginations, actions and emotions.

Friend!!!!!The fruit of repentance through grit is affirmed, not by our feelings, but by our faith in the Word of God. It is a gift that can come only from God, and repentance is a joy from God.

Grit, although a good virtue, will not allow me to experience the peace that comes from obeying Christ. Grit, though a core value of the successful, will not cause my heart to experience the grace flows into a  heart of repentance. Forgiveness, then, is a gift from God that allows me to experience His power in a very real way. Repentance is a glorious gift, for I know that on the other side of repentance, I find grace from a good father! My admission of my need for God allows me to experience His grace. Praise God!!!!The water of God’s forgiveness flows to a heart that is willing to repent and turn from sin.

Repentance is my daily desire!

God, make my heart a celebration of your grace through relentless and daily repentance! Make my mind one that cherishes repentance in the name of the fantastic and awesome Jesus Christ! Amen.

Respectfully 
Pastor James Owolabi

GOD! LEAD!!!AM DONE!!!!!!I WILL FOLLOW!!!!!!

• God does not need me. I am a dot in the global stratergy plan of the ETERNAL King of the nations.
• Reminding myself DAILY that the galaxy is simply one of God's thoughts.....my health which is falling apart right now.........is in His HAND!!!!!
• He has a plan and it will done whether I join Him or not.
•  It is a pleasure to be part of God work and plan.
• I want comfort.. ministry within my race, my social status, people just like me, similar social and economical story, same tax bracket.......teenagers who look and talk like me....
• ME think GOD HAS OTHER PLANS.......... God is more intrested in purging me of self dependency. 
• God desires my full surrendar above all things.......
• Following HIM is my greatest mission in lIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOW!!!!NO JOKE!!!!
• I am not the best thing that Happened to me.
• God is the best thing that happened to me.
• My next ministry assignment seems uncertain and beyound my comfort zone.
• God will do His work whether I join him or not..........
•  Tozer has a better rap on this!!!!!

"Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. ( GOD DOES NOT NEED ME!!!thanks GOD for using me......) The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one (YES OH!!!!); yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see.

Twentieth-century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God.( HUMM>>>>)

But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist. That we do exist is altogether of God’s free determination, not by our desert nor by divine necessity. Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help.We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy..

 

GOD LEAD!!!AM DONE!!!!!!I WILL FOLLOW!!!!!!

 

GOD LEAD!!!AM DONE!!!!!!I WILL FOLLOW!!!!!! God is BIGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!

• God does not need me. I am a dot in the global stratergy plan of the ETERNAL King of the nations.
• Reminding myself DAILY that the galaxy is simply one of God's thoughts.....my healthy which is falling apart right now.........is in His HAND!!!!!
• He has a plan and it will done whether I join Him or not.
•  It is a pleasure to be part of God work and plan.
• I want comfort.. ministry within my race, my social status, people just like me, similar social and economical story, same tax bracket.......teenagers who look and talk like me....
• ME think GOD HAS OTHER PLANS.......... God is more intrested in purging me of self dependency. 
• God desires my full surrendar above all things.......
• Following HIM is my greatest mission in lIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOW!!!!NO JOKE!!!!
• I am not the best thing that Happened to me.
• God is the best thing that happened to me.
• My next ministry assignment seems uncertain and beyound my comfort zone.
• God will do His work whether I join him or not..........
•  Tozer has a better rap on this!!!!!

"Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. ( GOD DOES NOT NEED ME!!!thanks GOD for using me......) The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one (YES OH!!!!); yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see.

Twentieth-century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God.( HUMM>>>>)

But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist. That we do exist is altogether of God’s free determination, not by our desert nor by divine necessity. Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help.We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy..

 

GOD LEAD!!!AM DONE!!!!!!I WILL FOLLOW!!!!!!

 

What I read today ......God is using Paul Tripp to rock my mind

What I read this morning:

 

" The Christian life can really be boiled down to two words: trust and obey. I must always entrust the things that are out of my control to God (Circle of Concern), and I must always be faithful to obey His clear and specific commands (Circle of Responsibility). - Paul Tripp From Pg 255 of Instruments in the Redeemers Hands..[1]

 

“Because sin is deceitful and fallen people are so naturally blind to uses of self, data gathering must always pursue two goals. First, the process must give the counselor the information needed to provide wise biblical counseling but an even more fundamental purpose is that we would be the Messiah’s instruments to open the eyes that have been blind for too long”. Pg 277 Instruments in the Redeemers Hands

 

“Our goal is not only to expose the darkness that exists in relationships and situations but the darkness of the heart, so that the gospel can be applied”. Pg 278. Instruments in the Redeemers Hand

 

“ I want to help counselees see themselves in the mirror of God’s word I will ask questions that they would never ask and probe in places they would not know to probe”. Pg 278. Instruments in the Redeemers Hands

 

Pray. Plan. Prepare. Pursue. Perspire. Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard! Give it all you've got today, and then make it a habit! -Bishop Dale C. Bronner

 

Facts about Spiritual Blindness from Paul’s Tripp:

• A fundamental part of being spiritually blind is that you are blind to your blindness... Pg292
• Spiritual blindness is the condition of every sinner, every counselee. Pg 292
• Spiritual blindness is deceptive because it masquerades as other things.
• Manna falling from heaven became to the Israelites because they were not focusing in the covenant love it’s provision represented, but on it’s taster as compared to the menu of Egypt”.  Page 282
• If you really want to understand what is important to a person, find out where he feels needy. Values become desires, desires become demands, and demands get expressed in counseling as “needs”.  Page 281.
• Another scriptural term for the spiritually blind is  “fools”.  Page 282

 

How this impacted me?

Do I come to situations with silent demands and respond with anger when my needs are ignored? I need to remember that I cannot hold people responsible for unwritten or unspoken expectations.

---

[1] . Facebook status on Thursday, October 25, 12.

How to use Bible Commentaries | HeadHeartHand Blog

The following is a summary of the lecture I’m giving today on how to use Bible Commentaries.

1. Use them
“It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others. My chat this afternoon is not for these great originals, but for you who are content to learn of holy men, taught of God, and mighty in the Scriptures. It has been the fashion of late years to speak against the use of commentaries…A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of the giants of the past, might have saved many an erratic thinker from wild interpretations and outrageous inferences” (C H Spurgeon).

2. Use them for appropriate tasks
Commentaries vary in size, detail, level, and theological basis; they also have different roles in the exegetical process. The following classification is partly chronological – the first books are used earlier in the process than the latter books. (The books in brackets are OT focused and are merely exemplary not exhaustive).

• Critical: Emphasis on technical matters like the composition of the text rather than its meaning (e.g.  International Critical Commentary, some Word commentaries).
• Expository (Original Language): Close and detailed exposition of the text, usually requiring some knowledge of the original languages (e.g. some Word commentaries, New International Commentary on the OT, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Mentor series by Christian Focus).
• Expository (English): Stay close to the text but do not usually deal with critical issues and do not require original language knowledge (Focus on the Bible series by Christian Focus, Evangelical Press Study Commentaries).
• Summary: Do not explain everything but focus on main points and present conclusions rather than extensive arguments. Excellent summaries of a verse or passage’s teaching. Big is not always better. (e.g. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Bible Speaks Today).
• Classical:  Reputable commentaries from the past that usually do not deal with technical issues, but rather the theological meaning of the text (Banner of Truth Geneva series, John Gill, John Calvin).
• Applicatory: Suitable for lay-people, usually with more of an applicatory focus (NIV Application Commentary).
• Homiletical: Tend to be the result of sermon series or at least more sermonic in style (e.g. Welwyn, Dale Ralph Davis).
• Devotional: Extensive comments on spiritually rich texts. Focus on edification rather than critical or controversial issues (e.g. Matthew Henry).

3. Use recommended commentaries
Ask pastors and professors for their recommendations on various books. Weigh the recommendations. Just because a Word series’ commentary on one book is good does not guarantee that they are all good.

Spurgeon: “The best commentators are those who have written upon only one book. Few men can comment eminently well upon the whole Bible.”

There are many OT commentary guide books (e.g. Tremper Longman III, Douglas Stuart, Charles Spurgeon, etc). Here are some online recommendations:

• Joel Beeke’s best OT Commentaries
• Joel Beeke’s best NT Commentaries
• Best Commentaries
• Best Commentaries: Top 2 for each b

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