Good Morning Friends,
Well, we are into Lent and have been reading a lot of Old Testament scripture on obedience and repentance. And it should begin to soak in that there is nothing that can separate us from the power of God’s forgiveness and redemptive grace except ourselves. So, we need to not be a stumbling block on our own recovery. For friends, we need to believe that if we seek the Lord, we will receive the power to begin anew and maximize our potential in life.
The problem is that our culture has forgotten how to seek forgiveness and how to nurture a penitent heart that would allow us to get close enough to God to ask for help. We have heard it said that love is not having to say we are sorry. And love is certainly not envious and yet we miss something in rejecting all sorrow. We wonder if there is anything we can do to accommodate the Holy Spirit’s work of convicting us of sin and leading us into truth without shaming us to avoid the issue of our false loves altogether. It makes us wonder with a deeper consideration. Why Is It So Hard To Repent?
Scripture: Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 1:10, 16-20 (NRSV)
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Matthew 23:1-12 (NRSV)
This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NRSV)
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers. “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother’s child. These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver. Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
Psalm 50: 8-23 (NRSV)
Message: Well, whatever your sin, and I am pretty sure you have not given up on sinning completely, it is not half as bad, (not that you can rank sin), as the sins in these places called Sodom and Gomorrah. Impenitent sin, inhospitality does not even begin to represent the dehumanizing acts of abuse these cities’ residents desired on the holy visitors of Lot. No wonder Abraham was concerned. No wonder God, and forgive my anthropomorphization, got angry. This place once described as being like Eden was about to be consumed by its own sin. At this point Lot, who had chosen this land over all of Israel, was probably wondering what happened to this place that had such great potential but turned out so rotten. That Lot’s neighbors were intent on gang raping his guests and that Lot offered his virgin daughters as an alternative tells us just how depraved this culture had become. The reality is that the wealth of the area had turned people into their worst selves. They were rich, unconcerned, and self-centered. Sound familiar? The thing is that it was hard for them to repent for the same reasons it is hard for us. We do not want our weakness exposed. We do not want our brokenness scorned. We would rather fear people instead of God. Here the love of independence opposes the authority of God. Here in arrogance, we want to be as God. And we even fail to believe that God’s goodness, kindness, and steadfast love toward us can help us overcome our situations. All this, that can be summarized as pride, for it is what makes repentance so hard. But make no mistake, repentance is a much better than judgement. Repentance empowers us to become better. Billy Graham spent a whole career preaching on repentance. He thought it that important and maybe this Lent we should too.
And So, when it comes to discipleship and repentance, we should be more concerned about the orientation of our hearts and lives than about our outward appearances. We have a choice, and it is between humility and hypocrisy. Jesus’ complaint against the Pharisees was that their motivation was not service, but, being seen as pious. On balance, the Christian experience needs to focus on service to others. As Saint Francis of Assisi was credited with saying, we are to preach the Gospel to all the world and only, if necessary, use words. The only true antidote for our sin is grace which is designed to be manifested in our response to love God and one another. So, the orientation of our lives toward God is a far greater indicator of the true discipleship of which Jesus speaks. The true measure of our faithfulness is found not in the words we speak or the doctrines we accept but in the orientation of our heart expressed in the actions and behaviors we choose that glorify God.
Pray we learn from Jesus how to reason things out spiritually. Pray we realize that no matter how dark it gets there is still hope for mercy and room for redemption. Pray we consider sins impact on our souls. Pray we realize that we owe God complete obedience. Pray we consider God’s goodness. Pray we think about God as our redeemer. Pray we practice what we preach so revival and spiritual awakening might occur.
Pray we get a glimpse of God in our acts of repentance so we might move forward. Pray we experience the beauty of repentance and choose to never look back on our sin. Pray we leave our sin at the foot of the cross and in that experience discover the power of repentance that prompts a life of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 