I think we sometimes try hard to be a Christian when we haven’t quite understood the good news of the kingdom (Mark 1:15). The good news is not that you get yourself to a point where you qualify for acceptance by God by stopping some bad behaviour, or that you hold to some orthodox doctrines. Rather you repent that you have run your own life and done your own thing and you put your trust in Jesus as the king. In other words, you come under new management so Jesus is Lord now to direct your life. True repentance and faith are the two sides of the one coin. Seek and you shall find, said Jesus, who promises the Holy Spirit to those who ask. There’s a big difference between doing Christian ‘stuff’ because you are motivated by guilt and doing such because the love of God has been poured out in your heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5).
Rowland Ward born in Melbourne, Australia in 1945, is a lecturer in Church History and Research Lecturer at Presbyterian Theological College, Melbourne, and minister of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia. One of his favorite movies is the Sharp series set during the Napoleonic wars, he has a Shetland Sheep dog named Bonnie, his favorite smell is not coffee but fresh bread from the oven, his first job after leaving school, and before Seminary in the 1970s in Scotland, was a general insurance officer in Melbourne, and when not engaged in Spiritual disciplines he enjoys family history research.
