Minister’s Corner: The message of the early church

The message of the early church was a straightforward message of repentance. The word means to change one’s mind for the better, to turn one’s back on sin. When genuine repentance takes place, the change in a person’s life is radical ad powerful.
Most of the time, repentance is only preached in its negative sense. People are told they need to stop doing certain things, and that is true. Repentance is more than that, however.
Repentance has both a negative aspect and a positive aspect. Repentance looks backwards, but it also looks forward. Repentance says, “I will stop doing the things I should not do; and I will begin to do the things I should do. I will stop living a life of sin, and I will start to live a life of holiness.”
Repentance arises out of a heart that is sorry for the wrongs it is guilty of committing, according to 2 Corinthians 7:10. That sorrow produces a desire to change the way the repenting sinner is living. That is genuine biblical repentance, and it is something that we do not see a lot of these days because most people do not like to be told they are wrong and need to change their lives. I am here to tell you that you will never have the blessings of God in your life until you repent of your sins. If you can live with sin, without seeing the need to turn from it and repent, most likely you are not saved by the grace of God, according to 1 John 3:9. It says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sins, for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”