The Trampoline

I believe this morning was one of those visits from God that we can't afford to just slide into the recesses of our minds. Hopefully, you received the message from God with a great spirit. The basis of HOPE is peace with God, which is achieved from being made "right" with God through a submitted relationship with Jesus Christ involving a repentant heart. I really recommend that you spend time with your spouse, your mentor, and/or your cell family on what you heard and experienced today. There is a lot of victory in flushing this out more. Check out Angela Ong's comments below for further insight into idols of the heart and the trampoline. On a humorous note, Flavio (our Italian exchange student who lives a stone's throw from the Vatican) asked me last night what I was speaking on today. I told him "Hope," but he thought I said, "Pope." He proceeded to tell me in no uncertain terms that he had no interest in hearing about that. I said, "No, Hope." He thought that would be fine. HA!

Angela's thoughts:
Since the whole talk is about repentance and where that repentance should lead us, I think the most valuable question for someone to ask himself is whether they have correctly applied the Gospel to their life. If there is a lack of fruit in one's life, this question becomes foundational.

James MacDonald put it this way - "In every believer's life there are times when he glimpses just for a moment, how desperately lost he really is. During those seconds, the abundant mercy and amazing grace of our loving God dawns upon our forgetful minds. Right at that moment we understand deep within that God's grace cannot be abused or ignored. Such grace should fuel our passion to be like Him."

So if one doesn't first see their own depravity and have such a response that change is required, it sure is a sign that they have at the very least become dull to the Word, and at the worst have deceived themselves into believing they are securely saved. Without grace, and that kind of grace always produces change, they have no assurance of salvation. That's a frightening place to be.

Some questions to ask at that point would be:
Do you emphasize the love of God over the justice of God to lessen your own sense of responsibility?
Have you been cultivating a desire to hear truth about the love of God more than other biblical truths because it lessens your sense of responsibility to be holy?

For those busy about church work:
Do they stay active in church activities and ministry while they have unresolved issues they have not repented of?

From Darren Patrick's talk:
Has something or someone taken title to your heart besides Jesus Christ in your happiness, meaning and purpose?

When you are a Christian, you really want these things exposed. If you donʼt, you either are not a Christian or you have some serious sin going on.

People donʼt worship well corporately because they donʼt repent well privately. So they just come to be religious.

Please give us some response. This is some really real stuff.