Dale
I'd like to talk about something today that Deb brought up the other day. And that was Thanksgiving - talking about a people who are truly thankful. And it hit me that in our turning away, that's an opportunity to express our heart in thanksgiving to the Father. I think that maybe that's something of being a mature son. I want to add something to my turning away to the repentance. And I want to add, thank you, Father, thank you for loving me, thank you for doing what it takes to get me to turn away from whatever I was doing that was not a pleasure to Him. My heart just swells with thanksgiving and love, that He loves me so much, like He loved His only begotten Son so much. To me, that's a rarefied atmosphere. I think that's the presence of the Lord, where I probably couldn't get the words out to thank Him.
Ron
Recently, as I've been meditating on the thing of repentance, the very definition of it, the way it's been defined to me in the past is wrong. One thing is a maturity and a mature perception. Realizing the things you go through, are always for your good. It's always to produce, an everlasting relationship with Him, the moment of suffering that you go through the moment of discipline is minute, compared to the everlasting relationship He's trying to create, with you as you go along. And if you have the heart of thanksgiving, and you have the perception of I'll call the mature, I think the things you go through are shortened considerably. He's not trying to torture you. He's very scientific. And He's looking for something deep, something taken out of your nature and something imparted of His nature. And when that's done, it's done. As we continue on in the lifestyle of repentance, it turns to Thanksgiving and joy. I think the reason we go through a lot of the sorrow and the negativity is because we fight what He's doing. Because we don't believe it's for our good. But as, like I said, we begin to mature, we realize that He really is in control of our life. And it's not some weird circumstance or satanic “battle,” but it's God's hand on us, to produce His nature within us, and if we begin to see that in our heart, not our mind, but in our heart, that our heart responds with Thanksgiving and with joy.
Dale
I can't create myself, we think we can. Society and culture teach us you can. If I do all these things, and dedicate myself and give my all to it I'll amount to something in life. Our approach to the Father in turning away, repentance, has to be create in me God, You. Or do we want to say okay, God, I was wrong this time and I'm gonna do better, or do we say, God, I pour my flesh out to be killed. And I turn to you to fill me with Your heart.
Deborah
Repentance is the turning of your heart, to your first love. The desire of your heart, to know the Lord, the turning away from the thing that keeps you from that, and the turning to Him where your joy is. And when you realize that something is keeping you away from His presence. Then you cry out to Him, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Don't take your presence from me, Lord. But let me find You let me know You.”
Ron
Return to me the joy.
Deborah
Yes, my salvation.
Edward
Christ went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him. And that joy, I think, came when He was on the cross, and he finally looked to God, and He said, “It is finished,” all His suffering was done. And now, as He gave up His Spirit, after that there was nothing but joy that Christ walked in. He rose from the dead. nothing but joy. That's what happens to us when we come up, and repentance to God. How do you know that you've reached God? All of a sudden you have His joy, because now your heart is lifted higher in the joy of the Lord. In the beginning of Matthew said, “I bring you good news of great joy, for today, Jesus was born.” Now He's gonna save His people. The whole thing about the Bible is joy.
Dale
That's the joy unspeakable, the fullness of joy! It's not like anything we've experienced. Exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we can ask or think. I think it's everything God has for us. And specifically, His joy, because if you notice throughout all the scriptures the reward for a lot of things, is joy. I've been happy. You know, when I was a little kid and fire truck I wanted for Christmas and waited all year, and I got it. You know, my first car, there was a lot of things that I experienced joy in, and birth of my children, that they don't hold a candle, to whats exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can ask or think.
Deborah
We can reach into that joy through our repentance, letting go of the things that hinder us and reaching into the Lord. Don't you think that the Lord can enable us to repent, to turn to Him and receive that joy?
Ron
I think He wants to give us life and more abundantly. I think He wants to give us joy, and more abundantly. It's not about the things that we have to turn away from. He shows you those things, simply because He wants you to turn away from them because they are weights, they're sins, they're weights that keep you out of His presence and keep you out of His joy. He has this unfathomable love for us. And He wants us to, to experience that love and that joy. So, He tries to lead us down a path so that we can, so that we can come into those experiences and live in that. He's trying to lead us into a state of being.
Dale
Don't you think that's why for David, David boiled that down to “against Thee only have I sinned?” God is so intertwined in His love for us, and His expectations, that every chance He gets, He's going to give you all He can.
