If you never see and grieve over your own sin, you never sense any need for God’s grace. Repentance requires sincere remorse and sorrow for our sins. That’s called compunction. Grace is the invitation to repentance, not a substitute for it. Grace without obedience is counterfeit. Obedience without grace is prideful.
Churches like to talk about, “Resources for Lent.” Perhaps the best resource for Lent is compunction — deep remorse and genuine repentance.
Christ-followers are called to live, propelled by the inner workings of God’s Spirit — not compelled by the propensity to sin. It’s not unloving to believe that certain behaviors are wrong. In fact, that’s the essence of ethics and morality.
If there’s no supernatural light inside of you, the idea of “Christ in you,” will seem like religious doctrine not everyday reality. You cannot know the sun’s light thru your intelligence; you must see it. The same with the light of the Son of God. It’s good to think about Jesus, but it’s much more powerful to live face to face with His glorious resplendence.
There is an internal way to experience and follow the risen Jesus that is far more powerful than any outward religious way. However, If you are determined to resist the Holy Spirit, the living Jesus won’t force His way into your life.
When you recognize the reality of the risen Jesus, Christianity comes bursting out of the walls of religious tradition. Without Christ’s internal inspiration working inside your inner being, sermons won’t help you much. Do you experience inner manifestations of the living Jesus, where He shows up with power in your soul?
Much is made of “God’s love.” However, until you’ve been deeply smitten by it, it will remain a mere theological concept to you.
Your inner activities can either improve or mess up your life. Be careful what you do with your mind and your heart. Absorb God’s positive thoughts into daily actions. Toss negative, tormenting, and/or destructive thoughts out of your mind and heart. Perhaps the worst pollution is self-pollution, when you, of your own accord, trash your own life.
Those who never learn to fight and control their harmful and/or wrongful desires, experience and cause much misery in life. Hostile thoughts and a contentious spirit are often motivated by feelings of self-justification.
“The right to own slaves” and “the right to prenatal killing,” seem equally, morally indefensible to me. America at various times, has embraced both of those evils. Perhaps it’s time for compunction.
