I’m guessing you have heard on more than one occasion just how mighty and powerful the ‘word of God’ is and how it ‘will accomplish what it is sent out to do and will not return void’. (Isa. 55:11)

You’ve probably heard how God’s word is ‘living and powerful and sharper than a two edged sword...” (Heb. 4:12)

I also imagine that if I started the quote about how the ‘heavens and the earth will pass away...’ that you could finish that quote made by Jesus how ‘His word will never pass or fade away’. (Matt. 24:35)

And let’s not forget when Peter quotes the passage from Isaiah on how the grass and flowers will wither and fade away, but God’s word will never fade or pass away. (Isa.40:8; 1 Pet. 1:24-25)

So when Paul reminds us that the “word of God works effectively in those who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13), is it any wonder as to why Satan “comes immediately...to snatch or take away that word when it is sown into men’s hearts...lest they believe and are saved”. (Mark 4:15; Luke 8:12)

And yet....in spite of the power that obviously lies within God’s living word...look what Jesus told a group of religious leaders in Mark 7:13:

“You make the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.”

Stop right there and read those words again. And if a light does not come on within you and that does not resonate with you, then you might want to read it another time or two until you ‘see it’.

Can I just caution you to not let this ‘go to your head’ to think you have the ability to disarm and make void the power of God’s word, please? To have such an ‘ability’ will not end well for you; that I can promise.

Yet this is what Jesus was chastising those teachers and Pharisees for there in that chapter. He outright accused them of “laying aside the commandments of God and holding to the traditions of men”. (7:8

 Do you think it is remotely possible that religious leaders do that today with God’s word? Dare I ask, once again as to why you think we have so many denominations today saying so many different things from that same Bible?

Let me give you a simplified illustration as to how we do that in many of our church circles today. A sincere person is visibly moved upon during some church meeting or revival service. They come forward in all sincerity, broken and contrite and ready for a genuine change in their life as they have heard preached...was possible. They are then led to repeat a prayer made up of some words acknowledging a few truths as to who Jesus is and what He did, while making a public confession of sorts renouncing their sins and ‘accepting Christ as their personal savior’.

Perhaps they are then encouraged strongly to ‘join the church’ and maybe even be baptized in water to make their ‘decision’ public. That is not an uncommon statement to hear in some church board meetings where in a particular service, they ‘saw 8 decisions for Christ’.

Have you ever stopped to wonder just what those ‘decisions” were and what did people actually ‘decide to do’? I mean, there is that old beloved hymn we love to sing about how “I have decided to follow Jesus” and a good hymn that is.

But where the ‘rub comes in’, as we like to say...is it seems more effort is made to convince that person they are now ‘eternally secure’ and ‘nothing can ever change their heavenly status’. A place is waiting for them in heaven...nothing can separate them from the love of God and no one will ever snatch them out of the Father’s hand’. And of course there are select verses shared promising such things. Why some well-meaning folks will drill into them that they are never to doubt their salvation nor question it, even hinting that is a favorite ploy of the devil to do to God’s children.

So now that this particular person has been convinced (indoctrinated) it is a ‘done deal’, he’s ‘in’ and all is right with his eternal soul...he is then encouraged to come to church regularly, get involved, read his bible, etc. There is this unspoken hope and belief that if they ‘do these things’, that over time they will be transformed into a shining example of what a Christian should be.

In other words, ‘just keep showing up’.

What is amazing is to hear misguided ‘old saints’ tell that new convert at some point in time all that joy and excitement they are experiencing will wear off. I’ve heard that uttered on more than one occasion for sure.

But here is where I would submit to you that a huge learning gap comes in to play that has affected more sincere believers than we would dare to imagine –

Jesus came preaching that the ‘time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand...and that we are to “repent and believe in the gospel’. (Mark 1:15; Matt. 4:17)

Jesus then gathered followers unto Himself and empowered them over unclean spirits and sent them out preaching...”that people should repent”. (Mark 6:7,12) Jesus taught that unless men repent, they will all perish. (Luke 13:3,5)

And on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell upon those 120 who were gathered in Jerusalem in prayer after Christ’s departure...Peter stood up and preached a sermon for the ages and conviction fell and people cried out asking...”What must we do?” Do you know what Peter told them?

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Why Paul would later make it known that God ‘no longer winks at ignorance but commands all men everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30)

So here is the $64,000 question: What does it mean to actually ‘repent’?

I’m hoping here that most are familiar with some form of that definition in that it means to ‘turn from’ or for one to ‘have a change of mind and direction’. This would be a good answer given that repentance does Not mean ‘saying you are sorry’ nor does it mean to ‘accept Christ’. Repentance means to turn from.

So the other ‘$64,000 question today is: “What are we turning away from?”

If you answered ‘sin’, then you are doing well here. So can you now identify what ‘sin’ actually is?

And is it possible for a person to truly turn from sin...all sin? Now this...is where man made traditions and ‘doctrines of demons’ come in to play. (1 Tim. 4:1) Because even though you may have answered those two big dollar questions...have we not been taught that we will always ‘remain sinners saved by grace’ and never truly be able to overcome sin ...’because of our human nature’?

So when we read verses like 1 John 3:6 that say those who abide in Christ no longer sin’...we refute that and get offended and say that is not possible. And why do we say that? Because we’ve been taught the traditions of men that have been handed down...and have ‘believed the lie’ that Paul warns about in 2 Thess.2:10-12 and end up ‘perishing’ just like Jesus said would happen in Luke 13:3,5.

We choose to believe the traditional teachings of men over...the word of God. We make the word of God of ‘no effect’.

I posed the question the other day in an earlier post...do we really know what it means to ‘repent...and follow Jesus’? Why would we need to know that...if we already have our ‘ticket punched’ and been told all is well with our soul?

Friends...we are living in the age of the great ‘falling away’ and deception abounds. But God is still in the process of trying to awaken those ‘wise virgins’. (Matt. 25; Rom. 13:11-14; Eph. 4:8-21)