Do You Fear Having an Open Mind
Do You Fear Having an Open Mind?
Monday Meditations – Episode 5
Originally written September 5 2011
posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/05/monday-meditations-acts-319/
Today’s Meditation Verse:
Acts 3:19
Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
Have you ever had an Etch-a-sketch? I may be dating myself here, but I did as a child. It was one of my favorite toys! I would painstakingly work and work to produce a spectacular work of art.
I really never came close to the visions that I had in my mind, but I kept trying, day after day.
The coolest thing about the Etch-A-Sketch was that as soon as I made a mistake I could instantly wipe it away as if it had never been there and start all over. I wouldn’t even stop to think about it. I’d shake it and — Boom — away it would go.
Now sometimes that wonderful feature on an Etch-A-Sketch was a two edged sword. There were times that I would have a great picture going and then by accident I would bump it or shake it and it would all be wiped away, and I could not recover it.
When something was wiped out, it was gone forever and could never in any way or fashion be recovered. No matter how hard I tried, I could never recover it again.
Well that is how far removed our sins are. They are not recoverable. So as we are drawing on the Etch-A-Sketch of life and we make a mistake, just shake it (off) and move forward. Start again with a clean slate and move forward with Christ.
The past mistakes are over and gone, wiped away. Don’t allow the enemy to keep bringing them up and reminding you of them. Remind him that they are gone, wiped away never to be recovered. Move forward with hope for tomorrow, knowing that the old is gone and the new is just ahead.
And should we make another mistake, and we will, we have Christ to wipe it clean — again.
Wednesday Word Study – Episode 5
Originally written September 7, 2011
posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/07/wednesday-word-study-repent/
Acts 3:19
Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
This is the Strong’s Greek Concordance Number: 3340
Transliteration: metanoeó
Phonetic Spelling: (met-an-o-eh’-o)
Definition: I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent.
When I first learned the true meaning of the work ‘repent’ I was very surprised!! The church I had grown up in taught us that repenting was telling God you were sorry and that you wouldn’t do it again, then asking Him to forgive that sin. It was usually a one-sided dialog where we repeatedly kept telling God how sorry we were.
It was usually accompanied by remorse and a sense of guilt. But because of the shame, we never really allowed the Father to work on our heart. It was if we kept Him at arm’s length while we babbled on about how sorry we were that we thought would make it all right.
So, the remorse, shame and guilt stayed, and afterwards, because we had not allowed ourselves to receive from the Father, we went away unchanged, untransformed and we made the same mistakes and operated in the same sin again and again.
But the true meaning is to ‘change your mind’!
I copied this from the Biblios website under the Strongs word section:
3340 metanoé? (from 3326 /metá, “changed after being with” and 3539 /noié?, “think”) – properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent (literally, “think differently afterwards”).
The phrase above “changed after being with” makes so much sense to me. When we are with the Father after doing something wrong, we will change our mind and realize that what we did was wrong and that we should not do it again. Being with the Father will change our heart and when we leave His presence we will desire to be different and to do different than before. If we will take our remorse, shame and guilt to Him and allow Him to reaffirm His forgiveness and love, we will see a new and better way.
Our selfish desires will fade away more and more as we go to the Father in repentance, but not just admitting a wrong done, but receiving His transforming grace, instruction and love in regards to the matter.
That would make sense. If we thought it was a good idea, or if our selfish desires were leading us to that behavior, then we will change our minds and believe that it is behavior that is not beneficial to us or the kingdom. Therefore, we will strive to never do it again. Being with the Father will change both our hearts and our minds. His immeasurable love and grace will give us the power to live a Holy life.
But we must move toward Him so that that change can occur. We must take our mistakes, our sin, our missteps and deeds to Him so that He can reveal the truth of our behavior to us. As He does, He will also show us His loving heart and that kind of love never fails. It never fails to transform us into His image, little by little, day by day.
Friday Finale – Episode 5
Originally written September 9 2011
posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/09/2413/
You Might Change Your Mind
This week our word study and mediation focused around the word repent. If you have ever spent any time at all in any Christ based church in the world you have heard the word repent. But what I was taught was the meaning of the word from a small child on up, was not what the true meaning was.
I have been doing a lot of word studies in the past few weeks and very surprisingly when we go look at the root Greek word, it doesn’t have the same meaning that we believed it to have. I am not sure just how the meanings of the words have become so distorted through the years, but it is vitally important that we know the truth of what is being said in the gospels, for our sake as well as others.
The word repent in the Greek means ‘to change your mind’. It doesn’t mean to beg for forgiveness every time we become aware of a wrong we have committed. It doesn’t mean for us to beat ourselves up in an effort to punish ourselves for that wrong. It also doesn’t mean to force our behavior to change without the transformative power of God.
But realize this, all behavior begins in the mind with your thinking. No action is carried out without a thought first. It may be a lightning fast thought that we are not initially aware of, but the brain controls every behavior, thought and deed.
Even involuntary...
Do You Fear Having an Open Mind?
Monday Meditations – Episode 5
Originally written September 5 2011
posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/05/monday-meditations-acts-319/
Today’s Meditation Verse:
Acts 3:19
Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
Have you ever had an Etch-a-sketch? I may be dating myself here, but I did as a child. It was one of my favorite toys! I would painstakingly work and work to produce a spectacular work of art.
I really never came close to the visions that I had in my mind, but I kept trying, day after day.
The coolest thing about the Etch-A-Sketch was that as soon as I made a mistake I could instantly wipe it away as if it had never been there and start all over. I wouldn’t even stop to think about it. I’d shake it and — Boom — away it would go.
Now sometimes that wonderful feature on an Etch-A-Sketch was a two edged sword. There were times that I would have a great picture going and then by accident I would bump it or shake it and it would all be wiped away, and I could not recover it.
When something was wiped out, it was gone forever and could never in any way or fashion be recovered. No matter how hard I tried, I could never recover it again.
Well that is how far removed our sins are. They are not recoverable. So as we are drawing on the Etch-A-Sketch of life and we make a mistake, just shake it (off) and move forward. Start again with a clean slate and move forward with Christ.
The past mistakes are over and gone, wiped away. Don’t allow the enemy to keep bringing them up and reminding you of them. Remind him that they are gone, wiped away never to be recovered. Move forward with hope for tomorrow, knowing that the old is gone and the new is just ahead.
And should we make another mistake, and we will, we have Christ to wipe it clean — again.
Wednesday Word Study – Episode 5
Originally written September 7, 2011
posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/07/wednesday-word-study-repent/
Acts 3:19
Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
This is the Strong’s Greek Concordance Number: 3340
Transliteration: metanoeó
Phonetic Spelling: (met-an-o-eh’-o)
Definition: I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent.
When I first learned the true meaning of the work ‘repent’ I was very surprised!! The church I had grown up in taught us that repenting was telling God you were sorry and that you wouldn’t do it again, then asking Him to forgive that sin. It was usually a one-sided dialog where we repeatedly kept telling God how sorry we were.
It was usually accompanied by remorse and a sense of guilt. But because of the shame, we never really allowed the Father to work on our heart. It was if we kept Him at arm’s length while we babbled on about how sorry we were that we thought would make it all right.
So, the remorse, shame and guilt stayed, and afterwards, because we had not allowed ourselves to receive from the Father, we went away unchanged, untransformed and we made the same mistakes and operated in the same sin again and again.
But the true meaning is to ‘change your mind’!
I copied this from the Biblios website under the Strongs word section:
3340 metanoé? (from 3326 /metá, “changed after being with” and 3539 /noié?, “think”) – properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent (literally, “think differently afterwards”).
The phrase above “changed after being with” makes so much sense to me. When we are with the Father after doing something wrong, we will change our mind and realize that what we did was wrong and that we should not do it again. Being with the Father will change our heart and when we leave His presence we will desire to be different and to do different than before. If we will take our remorse, shame and guilt to Him and allow Him to reaffirm His forgiveness and love, we will see a new and better way.
Our selfish desires will fade away more and more as we go to the Father in repentance, but not just admitting a wrong done, but receiving His transforming grace, instruction and love in regards to the matter.
That would make sense. If we thought it was a good idea, or if our selfish desires were leading us to that behavior, then we will change our minds and believe that it is behavior that is not beneficial to us or the kingdom. Therefore, we will strive to never do it again. Being with the Father will change both our hearts and our minds. His immeasurable love and grace will give us the power to live a Holy life.
But we must move toward Him so that that change can occur. We must take our mistakes, our sin, our missteps and deeds to Him so that He can reveal the truth of our behavior to us. As He does, He will also show us His loving heart and that kind of love never fails. It never fails to transform us into His image, little by little, day by day.
Friday Finale – Episode 5
Originally written September 9 2011
posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/09/2413/
You Might Change Your Mind
This week our word study and mediation focused around the word repent. If you have ever spent any time at all in any Christ based church in the world you have heard the word repent. But what I was taught was the meaning of the word from a small child on up, was not what the true meaning was.
I have been doing a lot of word studies in the past few weeks and very surprisingly when we go look at the root Greek word, it doesn’t have the same meaning that we believed it to have. I am not sure just how the meanings of the words have become so distorted through the years, but it is vitally important that we know the truth of what is being said in the gospels, for our sake as well as others.
The word repent in the Greek means ‘to change your mind’. It doesn’t mean to beg for forgiveness every time we become aware of a wrong we have committed. It doesn’t mean for us to beat ourselves up in an effort to punish ourselves for that wrong. It also doesn’t mean to force our behavior to change without the transformative power of God.
But realize this, all behavior begins in the mind with your thinking. No action is carried out without a thought first. It may be a lightning fast thought that we are not initially aware of, but the brain controls every behavior, thought and deed.
Even involuntary actions were instilled in an earlier thought process. Highly skilled martial arts learn involuntary actions by thinking and practice and repetition.
Let’s look at a few commonly known scriptures with the word repent in them and substitute with ‘change your mind’ and see what we get.
Acts 2:38
Peter replied, "Change your mind and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:22
Change your mind about this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.
Acts 3:19
Change your mind, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
Revelation 2:16
Change your mind therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Luke 24:46-49
46) and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47) and that the changing of one’s mind for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48) “You are witnesses of these things. 49) “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
So when you are engaging in wrong behavior you may think it is the right thing to do at the time. Even if you know down deep inside that it isn’t right, you justify it at the time.
For instance, you know you should go the speed limit, but you justify speeding because you will be late for work. You haven’t really changed your mind to the belief that you should not speed at all, for any reason. You still believe it is okay to speed some of the time.
So, when we see that the word repent means to change your mind, that is the beginning of changed behavior. Once the light of the Word is shed on a subject and revelation knowledge is received, it changes your mind. You then have the power and ability to live it out.
If you try to change your behavior only without really changing your mind, then you will not have the power to continue on the right path. True change starts in the mind, but must drop into our spirit to bring life changing power.
True change comes from transformation from the inside out, by first changing your mind.
So, today read the Word, meditate on the word and allow it to change your mind. After being with the Father your mind will be changed.
This is the full teaching on this subject in one place. You will flow from the Monday Meditation to the Wednesday Word Study and then the Friday Finale where I bring the teaching home with in depth teaching.
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