Repent or Perish

In Him we have . . . the forgiveness of sins . . .

—Ephesians 1:7

Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.-(My Utmost For His Highest Nov.20th)

Your Salvation does not come free. God does not just simply forgive, God is just and He is Holy, God doesn't merely forgive you because He is love. God isn't a big hippy in the sky

who is required to forgive you because all he knows is "love".

You can not earn salvation and Gods love, you are fallen

fallible man, you are horrible, you are wicked and the only

thing you deserve is GODS righteous just wrath, the only

thing you deserve is eternal punishment. Your salvation is

NOT FREE! the wrath and anger of our just God was poured

out onto God in the flesh Christ Jesus, only through the sacrificial lamb are you forgiven. It is only free in the sense

that you did nothing to deserve or earn such forgiveness,

and there is nothing you can do.

Christ was sacrificed, He accepted the cup, accepted the Fathers will.

"O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;

nevertheless, not as I will, but as YOU will."

Matthew 26:39

He took the wrath of God that you deserve, paid the price

so you could be made clean. otherwise God couldn't even

look upon you.. because you're filthy and sinful in His eyes.

You can not humanize God, you can't put him in a little box

and make Him who you want Him to be,

You can't simply ignore that God is not just love,

He is also a God of wrath and isn't oblivious to open rebellion. You can't say God will just simply forgive me

because He loves me, there was nothing simple and easy

with Christ shedding His blood for you on the cross.

I have finished the work which You

have given Me to do —John 17:4

The death of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. There is no place for seeing Jesus Christ as a martyr. His death was not something that happened to Him— something that might have been prevented. His death was the very reason He came.

Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God in Jesus Christ. It makes the Cross unnecessary, and the redemption “much ado about nothing.” God forgives sin only because of the death of Christ. God could forgive people in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted as Savior because of His death. “We see Jesus . . . for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor . . .” (Hebrews 2:9). The greatest note of triumph ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ— “It is finished!” (John 19:30). That is the final word in the redemption of humankind.

Anything that lessens or completely obliterates the holiness of God, through a false view of His love, contradicts the truth of God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus Christ stands with us, and against God, out of pity and compassion, or that He became a curse for us out of sympathy for us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by divine decree. Our part in realizing the tremendous meaning of His curse is the conviction of sin. Conviction is given to us as a gift of shame and repentance; it is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the sin in people, and Calvary is the measure of His hatred.

(My Utmost For His Highest Nov.21st)

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins

Ephesians 2:1

Repent or Perish

But unless you repent you will all likewise perish

Luke 13:3

Take up your Cross! It's time for battle!

And he who does not take his cross

and follow after Me is not worthy of Me

Matthew 10:38

We've established the fact that Christ died

for our sins, so now what? Do we ignore

that fact? Do we continue on with

our lives as if no price was paid?

That verse is telling us to take up

our cross and follow christ,

burdens and all, turn and follow HIM.

To not be afraid of persecution,

in fact the disciples rejoiced in

being persecuted. They never even

considered themselves worthy enough to suffer

for Christ. Here is a question for you

Would you die for Christ?

would you die for what you believe in?

Is your faith so small that if someone threatened

you with death unless you denied Christ that

you would deny Him? before you say..

"I would never deny Christ!"

Remember that Peter denied Him not once,

but three times. Peter saw Christ, he heard Christ,

touched Christ, lived with Christ and he still denied

him. Of course Peter got the chance to redeem

himself as he spoke with the resurrected Christ,

and said he loved him three times, Peter also

died as a martyr, and he was crucified upside down.

So obviously in the end Peter died for Christ

What I'm getting at is this, Our faith...our love for

Christ should never be compromised. We should

never be afraid to stand for Him, speak for him...

LIVE for him! for we don't live for ourselves,

we live for CHRIST!

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live,

but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

and I know at times it can be hard,

and I'm not even including the times

we are around other people. Some

of the hardest times is just when we

are alone with ourselves struggling

in our own sins, with our fleshly desires

and our corrupted ways. We try so hard to

stand for God, to live and be like Christ

only to fail, like Paul said

"For what I am doing, I do not understand.

For what I will to do, that I do not practice;

but what I hate, that I do."

Romans 7:15

In a place of desperation and self-hate

of our selves (which is nothing but sin)

is exactly where satan wants you. He wants

you to fall down, and he wants you to keep YOURSELF

there! He wants you to deny the power of Christ's

sacrifice!

Don't get it twisted, I'm not

saying we shouldn't care if and when we sin,

what I'm saying is Christ died for your SINS!

Don't wallow in pity and in your shame

and cry woe is me! stand up out of your failures!

MAKE WAR against your sins! continue fighting

and striving to be better, to live for Christ!

We were freed from the chains of sin,

are we perfect? No...

We are always battling with our selves

because our nature is to.. SIN

GIVING UP IS FAILURE,

letting your sins control you is failure,

NOT SEEKING GOD and REPENTING

IS FAILURE.

For if you say

"God can't forgive what I've done,"

and you turn away from God,

because you don't think he can forgive

Then you are LOST, and you are denying

the power of GOD and you are denying

the forgiveness and the price that was PAID

on that CROSS!

"Growth in grace is measured not by the fact

that you have not gone back, but that you

have an insight into where you are spiritually;

you have heard God say "come up higher"

not to you personally,

but to the insight of your character."

My Utmost for His highest(Oswald Chambers)

March 27th

Sin can be damaging, I'm not denying that,

and I'm not denying the fact that sin is wrong.

If we don't give it to Christ, and ask forgiveness

if we don't attempt to turn from them, if we don't

put up a fight, then we become harden to sin

and we won't recognize what we are doing is

wrong anymore, until it is to late.

athletes exercise their bodies to gain strength

and endurance for game time, so they are ready

for anything that may happen.

If we don't exercise our "soul's", if we don't

seek God more, yearn to read and understand his word

then we will never be ready to make war, and our sins

will become failures that will consume us from the inside.