Living Water: Repentance

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we start looking at Living Water by Brother Yun during our Tuesday morning Bible Study.

Brother Yun is a Chinese Christian evangelist who has had both persecution and miracles in his life. This is a call to radical faith.

This is a very interesting book. During the study we are going through it roughly a chapter each week. The first Chapter is titled: Repentance.

As I read through the chapter I was struck by several things that I have been feeling for sometime. The first is summed up in this quote:
"thousands of sermons are preached every Sunday in which Jesus is presented as Savior only, but not as Lord and Master. People are told "Jesus will help you, bless you, forgive you and empower you." But very little is said about repentance, humility and sacrifice."

This really hits home. Sermons are taught where we here the salvation message but not how to live as Christians. Or we are told to continue in the way we currently live just relabel ourselves from nonbeliever to Christian.

As the Brother Yun points out: "The result of the false gospel so prevalent today can be seen in churches full of half hearted Christians whose lives are still centered on selfishness and the principles of the world."

I remember attending a new members class a few years ago and as the leader went around the room asking why each couple was there, most of the people responded that "it was time for the kids to have some training in the church." And that is why so many people are in church: my father made me go so I am going to make the kids go. There is no change of heart.

Brother Yun's central thesis here is that repentance is the first step in maturing as a believer. consequently we end up with churches (and pulpits) filled with immature Christians who are unsure of what it means to be a Christian and who are not growing in their faith. Don't get me wrong, many of these people are good people who do good things (from time to time) but they are not living their Christian walk to the fullest.
As I heard it put one time: their faith is a mile wide and an inch deep.

The roots are what make our faith stand against the storms that will come if we are truly following Christ. The roots have to be more than an inch deep to stand against anything other than a light breeze.

I found myself convicted on reading through this chapter. I tend to do the normal thing of trying to fool myself that things are alright with me and God and not truly repenting of my sins. Especially those sins that I kind of like so I don't want to let God deal with them. Or the sins that I don't want God to deal with because I think that they will be painful for me to confront.

But if I am going to live the life that God wants me to live to the fullest I must:
"Ask the Holy Spirit to take full control of my life and to help me daily walk in humility and dependence on Him."