It’s a very simple message from God, actually – what He expects of us. His message is to all of us — us sinful, willful, rebellious, self-centered creatures:
…He commands all people everywhere
to repent
[that is, to change their old way of thinking,
to regret their past sins, and
to seek God’s purpose for their lives],
31 because He has set a day
when He will judge the inhabited world
in righteousness
by a Man whom He has appointed
and destined for that task, and
He has provided credible proof
to everyone
by raising Him from the dead.”
– Acts 17:30-31 AMP version
God is asking you and me to repent. To “repent” – that means:
“to change
[your] old way of thinking,
to regret
[your] past sins, and
to seek
God’s purpose for [your life]“
When we leave-out any of what makes “true repentance” – then it is a false repentance, and God does not accept anything “false”. Repentance must be done with “sincerity and truth“. Or else it’s like the rich young ruler who was told by Jesus, “One thing you lack….”
Jesus Christ came to earth as God-man in order to make it possible for mankind to be forgiven by God. We can either choose to follow God’s way, or make our own way. But only God’s way through Christ will ever make us acceptable to a perfect God. Kind of a narrow way, eh? Yep. That was His idea, not ours.
– Source: Your Chance To Choose
Being real with God requires sincerity and truth — because, to fake anything is so very very transparent to God (it won’t work!). No foolin’ our Omniscient God.
Are you so mired in the mud of vile values, that one day, of a sudden, you will be revealed as having a hardened heart, your soul not actually regenerated, the truth be told – never been born again? Have you let your living actually be comformed to this world, living a lifestyle given over to what is not of God? Would you call that “following Him”? Source: Signs of an unrepentant heart
This is what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: (my unauthorized paraphrase)
9 Don’t you know this!?
…that those who live their own way
will not actually get into God’s Kingdom?
They won’t have even the slightest share in it!
Don’t fool yourself by your limited thinking.
Not one person who lives their life their own way
will ever inherit the Kingdom of God or share in any part of it.
Not the sexually immoral, not idolaters,
not adulterers, not effeminate [by perversion],
not those who participate in homosexuality,
10 not thieves, not the greedy, not drunkards, not revilers
[whose words are used as weapons
to abuse, insult, humiliate, intimidate, or slander],
not swindlers.
– 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Swift’s Amped-up Paraphrase of the Bible (AMPED-UP)
God does not want any of us to remain under His sentence of judgement. He willingly died for your sins and mine. Are you there yet? Have you chosen Him? Now is your chance to choose.
FOR MORE:
What a Crock – Having no Religious Affiliation
What God expects of us:
The Mystery of the Gospel has been revealed
Is this you? …to live in a manner pleasing to Christ.
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