1 Word Changed my Perspective on Death
Tamara shares how she decided to dive deep on the the meaning of one word: repentance. This changed her entire perspective on death.
Episode Discussion Points
I have two words I have never liked: repentance and death. They have a negative connotation in my brain. But all of this changed one day when I deep dived into what the original Hebrew and Greek words for Repentance meant (surprise: they don't have a negative connotation at all).
Both the Hebrew (שׁוּב or shub) and the Greek (μετάνοια or metánoia) both really mean to turn or return to God.
It is the Latin root word for repentance where the negativity comes into play. Poenitere: This word is related to the words punish, penance, penitent, and repentance. But this root word means hurting, punishing, whipping, cutting, mutilating, disfiguring, starving, or even torturing! Yikes! No wonder I don't like this word very much!
As I studied this idea of returning my epiphany came. God sent His son, Jesus Christ, so we could give Him our sins and return to Him. Repentance is simply the process of removing anything that would keep us from returning--pure, clean and whole.
No unclean or unholy thing can dwell with God, so that means we also have to give up our current physical and imperfect bodies for a perfect one at the resurrection. I had never thought of my body, as wonderful but flawed as it is, as something keeping me from the presence of God. But because it is imperfect, I need a resurrected body before I can return to God. Death is a step in getting me closer to God.
How the seasons, universe, water cycle etc. all show us this process of returning or repeating over and over.
Bible verses that go along with this concept
#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #death #repentance #jesuschrist #bible
Transcription
You can read the entire transcript of today's episode here:
0:02
Do you have a hard time with the concept of death? If you do, you're not alone because this is something I've struggled with my entire life until I had a recent study on a word in the Old Testament that completely changed my perspective on it. Stay tuned.
0:26
Welcome to Stories of Hope in Hard Times, the show that explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult times. All with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. Join me on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and wisdom learned in life's hardest moments.
0:51
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Tamara's takeaways on the Stories of Hope in Hard Times podcast. I'm your host, Tamra K. Anderson. And today we're going to talk about two words that probably are not favorite words. But as I did a deep dive into one of them, it changed my entire perspective not only about that one word, but about another word that I don't like very much either.
1:18
The two words are repentance, and death. Now, if I were to ask you, do you have a negative connotation when I say the word repentance, or a positive connotation When I say the word repentance? What would you answer?
1:36
If you're like me, when I think of the word repentance, it gives me a negative connotation inside. It always has, I think of myself being a little kid, and doing something wrong, and feeling the shame and the guilt and, and my parents teaching me that I need to repent. And there's just this negative connotation that goes along with the word repentance.
1:59
About a month or two ago, I did a deep dive into repentance because I thought surely there's more to this word than meets the eye. And I was able to go back and find like the Old Testament meaning of the word repentance. And I found it to, and I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, but shub and shub actually means "turn or return to God." So it's kind of a turning a change process.
2:31
And I thought, that doesn't have a negative connotation, or did this negative connotation come from? So I looked at the New Testament Greek, which is Metaneoeo. (And I don't know if I'm saying that right, either). But that also means to change change your mind, a thought, the way you perceive something, something. It means kind of a change of life or perspective that changes everything about you. And the way you think about something. And and as I've studied this word, repentance, I completely had a change, which is kind of ironic. But I did find where the negative connotation comes in. It comes in with the Latin translation. Latin translation of the word repentance comes from Pontiere, which is the same root of punishing, penance. It involves hurting, whipping, cutting, mutilating. I mean, I'm like, why did repentance get so messed up in the Latin translation?
3:32
I don't know. I don't know. But as I have dug more deeply into this concept of repentance and turning back to God, it has totally changed the way I look at not only life, and Jesus Christ, but it's also changed the way I look at death, which has always been a fear of mine.
3:53
I can remember being scared as a little girl that as I was falling asleep once said, I was going to die while I slept. And just intense irrational fear that sometimes we have as children.
4:06
And and so as I studied the word repentance, and started thinking about it as more turning back to God or returning back to God, I started seeing some interesting things in the scriptures that I have never seen before.
4:24
And one of these concepts is this concept that when we return to God, that God is so pure and clean and lives in a place that is so pure and clean, that we have to be pure and clean to return and live with Him there. We lived with him before. We are his sons, spirit, sons and daughters. We came to earth we got these "corruptible" bodies as it talks about in the New Testament. And then our goal is to return and live with God.
4:59
In a Ephesians 5:5 we learn, "For this, you know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man," etc, etc, "hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." So basically, if you've got things that make you unclean, you can't go live with God who is clean and pure.
5:22
And so as I started thinking about the concept of repentance as returning to God, then his invitation to apply Jesus Christ's saving blood in my life, enables me to remove anything that prevents me to return to Him. And I thought about that, I thought, Oh my gosh, that's really what this is all about. This is what repentance is all about. It's not about, you know, beating ourselves with stripes. It's not about whipping, or mutilating or anything like that.
6:00
The whole goal with repentance is God gave His Son so that "whosoever believeth in Him," can return and live with God, again, in a state of purity, in a state of cleanliness. And so in order to get there, we want to get rid of anything holding us back. And I just...
6:26
Once I thought of repentance in that light, like I need to get rid of anything holding me back, it just kind of blew my mind. So I thought, okay, when I look back on my life, and I think about the hurts, that have been inflicted on me, that I carry around--the trauma, the bullying, the the sadness, that I felt when my kids were diagnosed with autism, all of these things that I carry as weights or burdens, or stressors--things that I have said that are incorrect or have been mean, or, or anything that I've done--any of these things, whether they've been done to me, And I carry them as trauma, of course, a victim. Or if I've committed the sin, myself--all of these things are holding me back from returning to God. And Jesus came so that I can give those burdens to Him, and he'll take them and allow me to return pure and clean and, and to live with God, perfect.
7:38
And I've had some of the most interesting experiences in prayer lately, as I've gone back and talked to God about these, either injustices in my life, because of the actions of others, or injustices in my life that I've brought upon myself, or things that have just happened. And as I've talked to him about that, and given those things to him, I've had such an interesting change happen in my soul.
8:12
That I just desire to give it all to him, like, I want to be pure and clean again, holy cow. And I can do this on a regular basis. And, and it works. It works. It works. I, I don't know why I didn't learn this concept of repentance, until I put the words together. But it's amazing.
8:37
Now, I have to tell you about the shift that took place in my brain with regards to the second word that I've never liked. And that is the word death. I have never liked the concept of death, I just death to me is a bad thing. We don't want it to happen. I mean, I know I have to die someday. It's one of those things--death and taxes, right? But it also has had just a super negative connotation in my life.
9:06
And so as I started thinking about this place that I want to return and live someday, which is with God, it dawned on me that one of the things that is holding us back from being perfect, is this corrupt body that we have. Because in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it says, "So also as the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption."
9:39
And so one of the things that we need to shed in order to return to God is our corruptible bodies. And it was like when I learned that and put those pieces together in my brain, that my my whole perspective changed on death. And I realized why people call It Oh, it's just a 'necessary step.'
10:02
And it doesn't make the loss of those we love any easier. But when I pause and think about the people that I've loved and lost, and then think that they are one step closer to getting their incorruptible body and living with God. We learned that the great resurrection will take place as Jesus Christ comes again and starts that whole process. And I'm so excited for that to happen.
10:37
I'm excited to someday get a body that's not going to have physical challenges. I'm excited for my son's to have bodies that won't be impaired by autism. That all these things that are corruptible with our bodies, will be incorruptible.
10:56
And so I'm thankful for this process of repentance or returning as I think I'm going to call it from now on--this process of returning, I see it more as a gift now, that Jesus wants all of us to return and live with Him. And, and that's why He did what he did. That's why he suffered for our misdeeds and misdeeds of others--for every trial, temptation, sorrow, grief, we can give that all to Him, and return, perfected and clean and incorruptible, with perfect bodies, minds that remember things, and that aren't impaired.
11:45
Another really cool thing I've noticed as I pondered, returning, is that if we look around us at this world, and the universe that we live in, there are so many symbols of returning. If you think about the pattern of the water cycle, it falls down from heaven gets muddied, gives nourishment to the earth, and then it comes back up through evaporation. And it's a cycle of falling down, and coming back, falling down and coming back. And that's symbolic, not only of our journey here to earth, and coming back to God, but it's also symbolic of the many times that we make mistakes, fall down, return to God, and and try again and try over.
12:31
I think of the cycle of plants and seeds. You plant something, it It lives, it grows, more seeds fall to the earth as it dies. And there's a process of renewal and rejuvenation that happens.
12:47
I think of the Earth's rotation on a daily basis, how we have the sun, and then there's darkness, and then we return to sunshine the next day. And so there's processes. You think of the seasons, we start with spring, summer, fall, winter, death, returning to spring, summer, fall--So the seasons.
13:13
Stormy days, where you have a whole bunch of storm and destruction, and it returns to sunshine, eventually. And so I think that we can see this pattern of returning not only in our lives, but also in the world around us. And that God is trying to teach us through these amazing things around us this same process of returning and trying and continual trying, until obviously return and live with God someday.
13:50
And it just gives me hope, guys, as I think about my life, and even though it has been full of imperfections and trials and challenges--some that have just brought me to my knees for many, many years. And I'm just thankful to know that someday all those sorrows, and those griefs will be turned to joy.
14:20
So to those of you who are struggling, and wondering what to hold on to, what to hope for? I love in the book of Revelation when it talks about all of us being resurrected and chapter 20 and being judged. And then in verse in chapter 21 at the very beginning of the chapter we hear this about what we can hope for. It says, "God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, no crying, either, shall there be any more pain. For the former things are passed away." And then he says, "Behold, I will make all things new."
15:14
And I love that. So if you're struggling, hope for that day when all these corruptible things can be made new, perfect, glorified, and dwell with God, with no more sorrow and pain and tears. Hold for that day. Hope for that day. Keep trudging through life, and renewing and returning to him on a daily basis. Giving Him your sorrows, giving Him your burdens, because He wants you and me to return. Hope on friends.
15:55
Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. If you like what you heard, subscribe so you can get your weekly dose of powerful stories of hope. I know there are many of you out there who are going through a hard time, and I hope you found useful things that you can apply to your own life in today's podcast. If you would like to access the show notes of today's show, please visit my website storiesofhopepodcast.com. There you will find a summary of today's show, the transcript and one of my favorite takeaways.
16:29
You know, if someone kept coming to mind during today's episode, perhaps that means that you should share this episode with them. Maybe there was a story shared or quote or a scripture verse that they really really need to hear. So go ahead and share this podcast. May God bless you, especially if you are struggling with hope to carry on and with the strength to keep going when things get tough. Remember to walk with Christ and He will help you bear the burden. And above all else, remember God loves you.