Repentance - Living out truth

I was watching "Shutter Island" with my parents the other night, and I am always reminded of a scripture in John 8 when I watch that movie. Christ, speaking to believers as it says in verse 30, said in 32-33 that "If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the trith, and the truth will set you free". It's strange, most people make this an evangelization passage, but this passage is about believers, therefore it is about sanctification. Christ continues His point by elaborating, saying that believers are set free from sin, for He says that "anyone who committs sin is a slave to sin". So the freedom is from sin. So truth is the means by which you are free from sin. What does this have to do with "Shutter Island" you may ask. Well in the movie, Andrew Laitus was living a lie. He had murdered his wife, and was committed to an asylum, but refused to accept that he was a murderer, and ended up getting so far in denial that he created a whole other reality where he was a detective named Edward. He refused to be the criminal, and made himself a hero. He was living a lie.
This convicted me as I watched this, because this is exatly what Christ is saying - when a Christian is stuck in sin, there is something he refuses to accept, and creates a whole other reality. This is why Christ says the one who sins is a slave to it, sin is a whole other reality. This also means that freedom isnt free par-say, but rather reality itself.
In his first epistle, John writes the same thing but expounded. He says that "if we say that we have fellowship with [God] and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice truth...if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sis, He is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrightesouness". John says that what we do is always in accord with what we say and believe by saying that if we say we have no sin that we are deceiving ourselves. This is so true, becuase often when my life gets hard or if I fall into some sin, it is long AFTER I believe some lie about myself, God, or (more often for me) others. I often start believing a lie, and that lie will always affect how I live.
I might get into a disagreement with a friend, and then start believing that that realy arent that great of a friend, then I start believing that about other people, and then all too often I am tempted to believe that about God.
This is why sin can never be repented without a change of perspective on what is actually going on outside of the world that I've created in my mind. I've heard that perspective equals reality. What you think is going on in the thoughts and behind the actions of other people ends up becoming reality, even if it isnt true. So how does one repent of sin? Sin is almost always a product of your own perceptions of things. People get drunk to calm them after a stressful day at work, husbands overeat to give them pleasure after a fight theyve had with their spouse. Fathers yell at their children because they are always interupting their work. In all three instances, they are stressed, frustrated, angry because they think that these certain people are against them. And as I saw this in the movie, I was incredibly convicted about how I fall into different things becauseof the lies that I believe about myself and who I am, and about the world around me. It is time do what Paul says in Romans 12:1, to "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind".

Contentment in the Moment

I was thinking about a few things today as my professor was going through the book of Lamentations. He was talking about how it was a mourning by the prophet Jeremiah as his whole nation went into enslavery to the nation of Babylon, a punishment from the LORD for their blatent idolatry. He wept as his nation refused to turn to their God, and yet he said something that was incredible to me.
This is perhaps the most clichey scripture, but I think it comes to life when you see the background of the history of Isreal in this scripture. I'm sure everyone remembers the hymn, "Your mercies are new every morning, they are new every morning...!", but it comes to life when you see the background. It's Lamentations 3:20-26, when Jeremiah looks on as Isreal is in chains, under the discipline of God, and says this:
"Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This i recal to my mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I have hope in Him'. The LORD is good to those who wait on Him, to the person qho seeks Him."
In the most devastating time of his country, Jeremiah still has hope in something bigger, in Someone bigger. And I was incredibly convicted. How often do I get insecure when things don't go my way? How many times do I chose to walk by my own wisdom and strength when I feel threatened? And yet I am called to walk by the power of hope, of faith, and by waiting on God's hand to work in my life.