CHOOSING REPENTANCE – Part 1 of 3

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a season the Church sets aside for reflection, humility, and renewed dependence on God. When the ashes are placed on our foreheads, as will be done today in many churches around the globe, we’re reminded of two profound truths: our human frailty and God’s endless mercy. The ashes don’t shame us -- they invite us to honesty. They call us to repent -- to turn FROM the sinful patterns that pull us away from God and to return TO the One who welcomes us with grace.

CHOOSING REPENTANCE – Part 1 of 3

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”  (Acts 3:19 NIV)

Many years ago, the following note in the thief’s handwriting was found in a stolen Trans Am returned by police to its owner in Los Angeles: “Your CB is in the trunk. The radio is out because I couldn’t stop my friend from taking it (insurance will cover radio). I’m sorry it had to be your car, but I was looking for one and the car lot left the key in and unattended. Your left back tire loses a little air at times. Your brake light comes on a lot and sometimes stays on when you drive (check your brakes.) I hope this didn’t put you out for me taking your car. I would have preferred a dealer’s car. But this was all that was available. Sorry (needs gas).”

Everyone -- including car thieves -- at one time or another faces moral failure. How do we deal with such failure? We have a choice. We can choose to ignore it or we can repent. Repentance is an attitude that chooses to confront sin rather than ignore it. And such an attitude choice is absolutely vital to our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Unfortunately, most of us have a limited view of repentance. We tend to think of repentance only in terms of salvation. The word repent conjures up images of some scraggly street preacher announcing the end of the world via a sandwich board. Yet, an examination of Scripture reveals that repentance is an attitude that is more characteristic of Christians than of non-Christians. It is not just a one-time action that ensures heaven after we die.  Instead, repentance is an attitude that confronts and deals with failure in every area of life. Martin Luther understood this truth. The first of the Ninety-five Theses he nailed to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517 read, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘repent,’ He willed that the entire life of believers be one of repentance.” 

-- Adapted from “Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life” (1992) by Robert Jeffress

#6309

EYES OF COMPASSION

“When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, ‘Why are your faces downcast today?’”  (Genesis 40:6-7 ESV)

Joseph’s suffering gave him eyes of compassion.

In the midst of the storm, do you read the faces of people around you the way Joseph did? Most people wear on their faces what is going on inside of them.

Do you look for friends, coworkers, people who serve you, or children in your life, and notice if their faces are downcast? It is a paradox: Self-preoccupation is actually self-defeating and produces loneliness.

Joseph expressed his heart to his fellow prisoners in a single question: “Why are your faces downcast today?”

Someone noticed them. Someone cared about their lives. Words can do this. Every word you speak boosts someone’s hope a bit, or kills it just a little…

Here’s a little test: During the stormy periods in your life, how often have you expressed genuine concern for others when you have had nothing to gain? 

-- John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat”

#6308

ARE YOU OKAY WITH THIS?

The Prophet Jeremiah wrote of good King Josiah, “‘He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know Me?’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 22:16)

United Nations health and food organizations calculate that twenty-five thousand people throughout the developing world die every day from starvation and malnutrition.  Are you okay with this?  There are a hundred thirty thousand children up for adoption at any given time in the United States, and millions more children worldwide are without families.  Are you okay with this?  A child dies from drinking contaminated water every twenty-one seconds.  Are you okay with this?  That question can be and must be asked of all suffering and every injustice.  Are you okay with this?

Most of us are okay with it.  And we’re okay with it simply because it’s an issue without a name or a face.  We’ve never held someone who is starving to death.  No one in our family has needlessly died from contaminated water.  We don’t know anybody who has been kidnapped and sold into slavery.  And none of our family members sleeps on the streets.  But once the issue has a name and a face, it changes everything, doesn’t it?  God knows each of those names.  God knows each of those faces.  And it breaks His heart.

So let me ask the question again: Are you okay with this?

If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, you cannot be okay with suffering or injustice or starvation.  Why?  Because His heart is in you.  And His heart beats for the suffering, the victim, the poor, and the needy.  If you are a Christ follower, then you have been drafted into an army of compassion that knows no enemy but those things that break the heart of God.  And it’s not okay to not do something about that.  

-- Mark Batterson in “PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity” (2009)

#6307

A VALENTINE’S DAY REMINDER

“We love because He first loved us.”  (1 John 4:19 NIV)

Valentine’s Day has a way of stirring up all kinds of emotions. For some, it’s a day of celebration and connection. For others, it highlights loneliness, loss, or longing. But beneath all the cards, flowers, and heart‑shaped everything lies a deeper truth: love didn’t begin with us. It began with God.

Before you ever loved someone… Before anyone ever loved you… Before you succeeded, failed, rejoiced, or wept… God loved you first.

His love is not fragile or fickle. It doesn’t depend on your performance or your perfection. It doesn’t fade with time or shift with circumstances. It is steady, initiating, pursuing, and unchanging.

Valentine’s Day reminds us that human love, beautiful as it is, can only ever be a reflection of a greater love. The cross is the truest Valentine ever given: God saying, “I choose you. I want you. I love you enough to give everything for you.”

And because God loved us first, we are free to love others without fear. Free to forgive. Free to serve. Free to show kindness. Free to love even when it’s hard, because we’re not drawing from our own limited quantity -- we’re drawing from God’s endless supply. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™

#6306

A PASSION FOR EXCELLENCE

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10 NIV)

The push for power has come to shove. And most of us are either pushing or being pushed.

I might point out the difference between a passion for excellence and a passion for power. The desire for excellence is a gift from God, much needed in society. It is characterized by respect for quality and a yearning to use God’s gifts in a way that pleases Him.

There are certain things you can do that no one else can. Perhaps it is parenting, or constructing houses, or encouraging the discouraged. There are things that only you can do, and you are alive to do them. In the great orchestra that we call life, you have an instrument and a song, you owe it to God to play them both sublimely.

But there is a canyon of difference between doing your best to glorify God and doing whatever it takes to glorify yourself. The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish. 

-- Max Lucado in “The Applause of Heaven”

#6305