What is Repentance? Luke 3

                He (John the Baptist) went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

                                                                                           Luke 3:3-8

             What is repentance? First of all what it's not is cleaning up your act and coming to Jesus. The change in behavior is called "the fruit of repentance". It's what results from repentance. To call unbelievers to stop sinning and start living Godly lives is like telling a cat to stop licking itself - it can't be done. It is their nature. This is why John's baptism was insufficient and needed to be supercharged with the baptism being brought by the Messiah, the One he was introducing. The message he was echoing from Isaiah gives us a clue to what repentance is. In days of old when a king was coming to an area he would be preceded by 2 things. First a herald would come announcing the good news that the king was coming. Of course if the people didn't want the king to come this would be bad news and if he wasn't welcomed it would bring judgment on that area. Secondly, a road crew would be sent out to make the road smooth for the king's travel.

            Isaiah's prophecy stated that the messiah, who is indeed God (Lord = Yahweh), was coming and the herald, John the Baptist was preceding Him and the roads needed to be leveled because He is the King. Repentance can be defined as a change of mind that results in a change of direction and behavior. What in the mind has to change? Who is my king needs to change. Are you going to allow God, your maker, your owner, to be king of your life or are you going to remain on the throne. Repentance is saying to God, "I'm sorry for being the king of my life and I surrender control to you."  Mike winger gives this illustration that I like.

When we yield control, the supercharged part of salvation, the baptism spoken of by John the Baptist that the Messiah would bring, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, immerses us and we now have a new nature that enables us to flee sin and live a life that pleases God.

         Have you surrendered control of your life to the King or are you still calling the shots. You need to answer that question because it's a matter of life and death.

Why Youth Leave the Faith in College - and the Bachelorette

              I recently received an email from Focus on the Family offering a course on how to defend the Bible or how do we know the Bible is true. I love this stuff! I love to watch youtube videos talking about scientific facts confirming the Bible, archaeological finds confirming the historicity of the Bible, testimonies of atheist scientists who converted - I love all of it. Then they go on to say that not knowing these verifications of the authenticity of the Bible causes kids to fall away when they get to college. Answers in Genesis, who I also love and support, would make the same claims about college students being deceived by evolutionary teaching and losing their faith. This jump to cause and effect I balk at. What they are saying is that when a student loses faith in the Bible, then they decide not to follow the teachings and leap headfirst into sin. After years of working with teens I think it is more that the desire to sin looks for a reason not to believe the Bible, not the other way around. I have found that a logical question to ask when a teen says they no longer trust the Bible is - "Did you meet someone you want to have sex with or have already?" or "Are you wanting to have homosexual relations?" Although these seem like maybe too probing questions or too big of a leap to ask, I think you would see that the answers would lead to why they don't believe the Bible.

          I've been watching the Bachelorette with my wife lately (don't judge me - it's quality time with her doing something she loves and I don't) and there was an interaction with Charity and Xavier that I found fascinating and I think lends some insight into this topic. Excuse the language but this was the only video I could find.

What you see is Xavier confessing that he has cheated in past relationships and he can't promise that he won't in this one. To be committed to one woman when there are so many beautiful temptations out there may be something he isn't capable of. What she wants to hear is that the reason he has cheated before is because he had never met Charity before. His heart had been searching for a love like theirs and now his restless longings are over. How could he look elsewhere when he has found the best. That's what she wanted to hear but didn't. Rightfully so she sent him packing.

Relating this to the question posed at the start, why do kids leave the faith in college? Why do they cheat on Jesus? Because they aren't in love with Him. They love the youth group, retreats to the beach, free pizza, 5th quarters after football games, trips to amusement parks but they never developed an intimate love relationship with Jesus. No wonder they have wandering eyes for the beautifully packaged allures of sin. Then they blame it on the Bible and we react by beefing up the Bible or worse deconstructing it, when the real problem is they failed to see that the wonder of Jesus far surpasses anything that Satan has to offer.

What can we do to cultivate that love? It starts with a personal relationship. Why do so many of these Bachelor relationships end? They are asked to fall in love after 2 dates in exotic locales. Do you love the person or Fiji? Youth need to meet with the Lord spending time in the Word in prayer in talking and listening and then serving the poor and lost with Him. The problem is that you will get 100 to play dodgeball but 5 to have an intense in depth meeting with God. What you will see is those 5 moving ahead with their faith and the other 95 struggling. Parents need to assist and encourage their kids in hearing from and knowing Jesus, you can't expect the youth pastor to accomplish it if you aren't first of all modeling it at home and secondly helping and encouraging them to do it. Buy them devotionals and journals. Ask them if God showed up in any way today. Ask them what they are praying about and one thing they learned from their Bible reading. Do devotions with them that are fun so that they can taste and see that the Lord is good.

 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching." John 14:23,24