Repentance

Today's sermon was about the continuation of the Prosperity Gospel last week. The pastor opened with the last three wishes of Alexander the great. Alexander said: "I want everyone to understand the three lessons I have learned.

1) To let my physician carry my coffin alone is to let people realize that a physician cannot really cure people’s illness. Especially when they face death, the physicians are powerless.
2) I hope people will learn to treasure their lives. My second wish is to tell people not to be like me in pursuing wealth. I spent my whole life pursuing wealth, but I was wasting my time most of the time.
3) My third wish to let people understand that I came to this world in empty hands and I will leave this world also in empty hands."

For the last wish of his, I quote my dearie, "Live your life in such a way that when you were born, you cry and the world rejoice, when you die, the world cries and you rejoice... A value I hold." When you do things for yourself, your career, those things also die with you. When you do things for others, they remained even when you've died.

Repentance is the act of changing one's mind. Repentance involves changing one's affections - from earthly things to heavenly things. It involves turning to the living God from a god of self. It is looking unto Christ instead of looking unto another. Repentance must be followed by works proving that change. All men need to repent. All men sin and as a result, all men need to turn from sin and turn to righteousness; unrighteous people need to repent.

They are not told to wait, to read, to pray, to receive an experience, to relate a revelation in the expectation that repentance will be given to them. Such unrighteous beings are to repent, to change their affection, and to turn to the Lord. There is a blessing in repentance. For the one who has never been baptized into Christ, turning to the God is the initial step of his response to the love of God which he has heard, and believed, by hearing the life of Jesus Christ, the Savior of man. When man sins, he must either repent or perish. When man comes loving his sins and resolving to continue practicing them, God will not hear him. (John 9: 31, I Peter 3: 12).

Repentance is the 180 degrees turn in one's life, rejoining the fellowship with God and his kingdom. When I was a non-believer, I thought I'm in control of my life and hurt the precious daughter of God, my dearie. The first lesson I've learned in Repentance is fear; fear of God, and his wisdom and love that he has shown upon us, and I have neglected his blessings. Second lesson I've learn is love, the love of Jesus for me and us, that he died for our sins.

I have learned to be compassionate and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place. I hereby pray that the sorrows, pains and shatters of hearts will be never repeated again in our lives because as the rightful daughter and son of the God, we both will learn to respect each other and not to use each other as "washpots" because that will disgrace our Lord. Amen.