My wife wanted me to fix a couple of our garage door remote openers that had stopped working, so I found the manual, dusted it off, and started reading. Turns out they needed new batteries. I called Radio Shack around the corner and they had them in stock, so I swung by to pick them up. Jericho was working again. I blogged about my encounter with Jericho a few weeks ago or so.
Another worker, Gino, came over to help out, too. The Lord provided a way for the conversation to swing to spiritual things. Gino thought he was going to heaven because he confesses his sins, believes in God, and tries to live a good life. We talked about how each of those things is great. We must confess our sins. We must believe in God. And we should try to live a good life according to God's Word. However, confession is not repentance. Even the demons believe in God. And our good works are like filthy rags and we are not saved by our works of righteousness (Tit. 3:5). To care about Gino and to love Gino is to be willing to ask the probing questions that elicit where he's at spiritually--to seek to save what may be lost.
While confession involves an admission that one has sinned, it does not necessarily involve to turning back to and following the Lord. One can confess their sins while walking headlong down the broad way that leads to destruction, refusing to give up one's own ways. Repentance, in contrast, involves not only a confession of sin, but also a return to the Lord, who stands on the narrow way that leads to life (Matt. 7). It involves following Him (John 21). As John the Baptist said, it involves a life that reflects the fruit of genuine repentance and discipleship in a sincere walk with the giver of Life (Matt. 3). It's not perfection, it's the direction. I pray the seeds sown for Gino will bear eternal fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment