pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: repentance


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Faithful Prayer

Reading: Ephesians 1: 15-23

Verse 18: I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.

Today’s passage is about how Paul prays for others.  He is praying for a group of believers that he has heard of.  I think we all pray for a group of people.  While I most regularly pray for family and friends, I do add people to my daily prayers that I hear about at church.  At times, events in the community or in our wider world will draw my heart to be in prayer for those people or that situation.  So, like Paul, we too pray for people we do not know.  It is part of our role in the fellowship of all believers to pray for one another.  This all leads me to think about prayer.

The core of our daily prayer life focuses on the people and events that are close to our hearts.  Early each morning I pray for my extended family by name, for those I know battling cancer and illness, for those I know who have experienced recent loss, and for our church.  It is a pretty standard list.  It changes from time to time but remains pretty constant.  As I go for a walk, I also pray.  I pray for each pastor and their churches in our area.  I pray for our leaders – national, state, and local.  I pray for our police, highway patrol, EMTs, and firefighters and those who lead them.  I pray for the jail, both the inmates and the workers, as well as for the judicial staff across the street.  It is good to have a pattern of prayer to follow.  It is good to have a time set aside to pray.  It is good to have a regular list of folks to pray for.  It is good to be in prayer.  What and whom do you pray for each and every day?

Two other important areas of prayer that we need to consider are thanksgiving and confession.  It is important to take time each day to reflect on our blessings and to name them before God.  It acknowledges God as our provider and it reminds us of our need for His provision.  It helps us to be humble.  Another important area of prayer is our confession of sin.  We are sinful creatures so we are not usually in short supply of confessional material.  It is so important to daily bow before our Maker, to confess our sins, to seek His forgiveness, and to pledge repentance.  This act of prayer helps us stay in a right relationship with God.  How well do you offer thanks and practice confession?

Lord, may we ever bring our praise, our petitions, our thanksgiving, and our confessions to you.  You are faithful.  May we be as well.  Amen.


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Conflict Resolution

Reading: Matthew 18: 15-17

Verse 17: If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

Today’s passage deals with conflict resolution in the church.  Although the church is intended to be the loving body of Christ and to reflect His light out into the world, at times there is conflict in the church.  Sometimes the conflict involves just two people, but at times the conflict can involve larger groups of people.

Jesus chooses to address conflict resolution in the church because it does happen.  And it is no coincidence that this address follows the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew’s Gospel.  Perhaps Jesus addresses it so directly because He knows a second truth as well – when conflict arises most of us avoid it at almost any cost.  If we are hurt or offended or sinned against by another at church we would much rather “get over it” and avoid further conflict than go and talk with that person.  Yet Jesus tells us to do just that – go and talk with them.  Why?  Because unresolved conflict becomes a murmur always humming just below the surface.  It becomes a feeling that can pervade gatherings and can inhibit the church’s ability to function as the loving body of Christ.

Jesus also gives two more steps to try next to try and resolve the conflict.  If a one on one visit fails, Jesus says to go back with one or two other believers.  Bring someone wise and respected to navigate the waters of reconciliation.  He is not saying to make it three on one but to bring in others who will help both sides come to the table to find resolution.  The next step, should the second step also fail, is to bring it before the whole church.  Hopefully more heads will work together to find a solution that leads to repentance and forgiveness.

At each step the goal is always reconciliation and restoration.  In the end, “If he listens to you, you have won your brother over”.  This is the goal: to help one another along on our journey of faith.  We are called to hold one another accountable.  This is true love in the church – being open and honest and transparent and speaking the truth in  love as we all journey together, each seeking to grow in our faith.


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Repent of Ye Idols!

Reading: Acts 17: 29-31

Verse 29: We should not think the divine being is an image…

Paul tackles the prevalent religion of the local people in today’s passage: polytheism.  For many, many years the Athenians have worshipped many different gods.  Each god was limited, confined basically to its own area of expertise.  Paul takes the local faith head on when he states that we are God’s offspring.  His logic is that if we are created by God, then we should only worship the one true God and not any creation of our human hands.  For Paul, God is limitless.  All is under God’s control as God was and is the creator of all things.  This is in striking contrast to the popular stance on many gods held be the Athenians.  Paul goes on to proclaim God’s judgment on them and to call them to repentance.

On the surface level it is hard to imagine worshipping a god for this and another god for that and yet another god for this need or concern.  On the surface level, it runs so counter to basic understanding of God.  Yet if we delve in a little deeper, if we look a little more intently into the mirror, we realize that we too are more like the Athenians than we’d like to admit.  We shy away from calling them ‘gods’ but at times w definitely have lots of idols.  We might recoil at the idea of worshipping money or possessions or status or beauty, but when we get honest and get right down to it, anything we place above or before God becomes an idol we worship.

Like Paul called the Athenians, his words call us to repentance as well.  What are the things we chase after, the idols we worship?  Verse 31 reads, “for He has set a day…”.  Judgment will come.  Paul reminds us that God calls us to repent.  This day, may we look deep within, repent of all that draws our love away from God, and begin to live the lives we are called to – lives that love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.


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Offering All

Reading: Isaiah 55: 6-9

When we first moved to South Dakota, we lived five miles outside of a town of 150 people.  It was dark at night.  On those nights when the moon was but a sliver, the night sky was simply amazing.  In that remote location, on nights with a definite lack of man-made light and little lunar light, the stars were awesome.  To sit outside and stare at the sky filled me with the wonder of God.  To gaze up at the layers of stars that went on forever gave me a glimpse of the power and majesty of God.  Although His power and presence filled me, it was but a glimpse.  It gave me just a little peak into how high and powerful God’s ways are.

In realizing how big and powerful and majestic God is, I also realize how small I am.  This realization brings awareness of how much I need God and His Light and Love, made known to me in Jesus.  Yet as big as God is, He still knows me by name.  He formed me uniquely in my mother’s womb and He knows every hair on my head.  God hears each and every word of each and every prayer I lift up to Him.

This same God knows each sin and impure thought and … that I have.  This brings me to frequent times of repentance and committing again to strive for becoming more like Christ.  It leads me to examine what I am offering to God and what I am holding back.  Almost always I see that I am less that I could be, less than He calls me to be.  May I lay aside all within me that elevates self over God.  May I offer all of myself to the One who gave His all for me in His life and on the cross.


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What Should We Do?

Many people came out into the wilderness to see John the Baptist.  He preached a simple message of repentance.  He told people to get rid of the sin in their lives so that they were ready for the coming of the messiah.  Instead of looking within and searching their souls, many people asked John, “What should we do?”  His advice was pretty simple.

To the common person who asked, John said if you have two of something, to give to one who has none.  In doing so today we can clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, feed the hungry, and visit the orphan, widow, and prisoner.  Yes, this sharing includes our time and our presence.

To the tax collector, many of whom were know to overtax so that they could line  their own pockets, John said to collect only what is due.  For the business owner this means to charge a fair price and to pay a fair wage.  To the employee, to be content with your fair pay.

John’s advice to the soldier was to not extort or otherwise abuse one’s authority.  This advise extends to all in positions of authority – to the judges and other government officials, to teachers and parents, to caregivers and providers, and to all else who have authority over another.  In essence, John is saying to treat others with respect and dignity.

As we ask this same question, “What should we do?”, may we heed John’s advice.  May we lay aside the greed, the self-centeredness, the desire for power and may we pursue the things he championed – sharing, giving, treating others well, and offering of self to others.  What great ways to prepare ourselves for the coming of the messiah.

Scripture reference: Luke 3: 10-18


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Transform and Lead

John came to prepare the way for the Lord.  In the desert he preached a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  He came to bring a message that would transform people’s hearts and make them ready for Jesus.

The radical changes to the earth that Isaiah wrote about and Luke quotes are very dramatic – valleys are filled in, mountains laid low, and crooked paths made straight.  Powerful things that only God could do.  But John called for and calls today for us to undertake such radical transformations in our lives as well.

As we seek to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ this Advent season, what valleys or low spots in or lives do we need God to lift us out of?  What mountains or pedestals do we need to step down off of to allow humility in and God to be the one lifted up high?  What crooked paths do we sometimes walk that we need the Holy Spirit to turn us from and to walk alongside us on the narrow path?

We anticipate a time of celebration as we remember Christ’s birth.  We also need to be transformed by and made right with God.  May we allow God to transform us and to lead us in a life that knows His saving grace.  May we prepare Him room in our hearts.

Scripture reference: Luke 3: 3-6


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Deep, Wide, and Full

A song I like has these lyrics: “Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more; Where grace is found, is where You are.”  Sin is a constant battle in our lives.  But our reality as children of God is that His love is deeper than our sin could ever be.  When we allow sin to separate us from God, it is always us that keeps that separation.

We choose to be in a time of separation from God when we refuse to acknowledge or repent of our sins.  Sometimes we truly do not know we are sinning, especially when our faith is immature.  But as we grow, we come to see things as sin that we never did before.  In these times, the refiner’s fire is at work in our lives.

At other times our earthly side will rise up and will lead us into sin.  Usually we know we are headed down a road we should not be on, but turn away on our own.  If we call out to Jesus, He will turn us.  But sometimes we don’t call out.  Even then, forgiveness is still available when we turn, repent, and seek His grace.

There are times too when we just do not seek forgiveness.  Either we justify our own sin or we deem another is unworthy of our forgiveness.  Particularly in these times we need to remember that we will be judged according to how we judge others.  Forgiveness is a matter of the heart.  May our hearts be like God’s – deep, wide, and full of love!

Scripture reference: Mark 3: 22-30


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Preach Repentance and Forgiveness

In the midst of their fears and confusion it was hard for the disciples to accept that Jesus was amongst them.  It took a bit for it all to sink in past their fear, grief, and questions surely on their minds.  We too can have trouble seeing and hearing Jesus when we are in crisis mode.

Jesus shows the scars in His hands and eats some fish with them.  He unpacks the scriptures and teaches them.  It was probably explanations of passages they had heard and read before, but now there was a new meaning to these Old Testament words.

In those times or seasons when we are lost or struggling, we too can have a difficult time seeing Jesus.  If we are faithful and stay in the Word and spend time in prayer, Jesus will speak to us too.  That familiar passage will have new meaning to us.  Something special will happen during prayer or an unexpected answer will connect us back to Jesus.

Once we are plugged back in then we can return to the work of building the kingdom.  It was the call placed upon the disciples and it is the call placed upon us: preach repentance and forgiveness.

Scripture reference: Luke 24: 36b-48


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Ever Thankful

Our human nature naturally seeks what we perceive as best for us.  At times we may even rationalize and blur the lines for something we want.  It may be as simple as to win at a game or it may be as complex as attaining a position at work.

And then we realize the error of our ways.  The guilt – and not always in proportion to our sin – begins to set in.  We seek forgiveness – maybe from another, maybe from God, maybe from yourself, maybe from all three!  We try to ‘fix’ it if we can and try to restore our relationships and our reputation.  Maybe we even vow, “never again”.

At the point of repentance, God’s grace washes over us like a mighty river.  He washes away all of our iniquities and renews our soul.  His free gift is always there, always extended.  I am ever thankful for the price Jesus paid to wash away my sins.  Praise be to God for His amazing gift!

Scripture reference: Genesis 28: 10-19a