TWO GREAT WORDS TO EMBRACE

Conviction and repentance are two words I’ve come to love. Together they make possible new beginnings, fresh starts, reconciliation, growth and maturity, and a life pleasing to God.

Conviction is God's love reaching. It is often used to describe strongly held beliefs.  I like its other meaning, the act of proving or declaring one guilty of an offence.  The reason I like it is conviction as such is a gift from God, an act of God’s grace.  It is God's love whispering that we are drifting away from him.  God pricks or tweaks the conscience he built into us to recognize when we are guilty of moral shortfall.  He helps us see when we are off track and moving in a direction in conflict with God’s Way.  

In the Gospel of John (16) referencing the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers, Jesus states that he will send a Helper who will do two things: (1) “He will convict the world of sin” (v. 8); (2) He will guide you into all truth.” (v. 13).  This is good news.  It means that the Holy Spirit is interested in us enough to talk to us about our disobedience and sin, and then guide us in the way of Jesus, because we seem to be going in the wrong direction.  The Holy Spirit is a divine GPS keeping us on the right path.  But conviction only works if we are willing to follow His guidance and direction.  This means repentance.

Repentance is our reaching back.  It naturally follows conviction. The Holy Spirit calls us to repent.  Repentance is how we get back on track and proceed to follow Christ walking with him in the same direction.  Repentance is an act of the will in which we say, “You're right, Lord.  I'm wrong. Forgive my disobedience.  I will follow you, Lord.”  It is often expressed as a 180 degree turn, but it is more.  It is a surrender of our will and an embrace of God’s will.  It is a change of heart as much as a change of life’s direction.

Conviction and repentance go together even in the little things.  Conviction is that nagging feeling that something is wrong, or knowing fully well that we’re not on the course God intended.  Repentance is confessing our sin, that we have drifted off course from the Way God desires.  Any pilot knows that if she drifts just 2 degrees off course in flight, and the longer that continues, it guarantees she will not arrive at a place originally intended.  A serious adjustment is necessary.

Some of the little things that can push us 2 degrees off course into sin include tiny lies, gossip, false witness, disrespecting others, holding on to grudges, bitterness, unresolved anger, neglecting the needs and suffering of others, choosing not to help another because it is inconvenient, having a divided heart, and not honouring God with thanks and praise for the grace He provides.  These are just a few, but day after day they add up and call for recognizing these little things that shape the clay of our lives into something other than the likeness of Christ.

Conviction is God’s grace helping us to see ourselves for whom we are becoming, someone other than whom he has in mind.  That’s a good thing.  All God’s grace calls for our response.  Repentance, the 180 degree, heartfelt turn, is our only realistic response to God’s grace.  That’s a good thing too.  God’s grace and our response, then more grace and our response is how we let the Potter shape the clay of our lives into his likeness, holiness.  Glory be to God!

If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us

our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

WHAT TO DO ABOUT HUMANITY’S HORRID CONDITION

Are you like me, disturbed by the overwhelmingly horrid conditions of humanity and a seeming inability and collective unwillingness to do something about it?  By horrid conditions I mean the gross economic injustice and organized crime masquerading as democratic governments.  I mean the rape, murder, oppression, and genocide of whole populations by despots and war Lords.  I mean the violent, vicious dehumanization of vulnerable peoples in the contexts of civil war in places of the global south.  I mean the insidious, toxic global profit of drug cartels, arms dealers, and global human sex trafficking with the participation of every day citizens as consumers of drugs, guns, and sex.  I mean the self-serving demonization of people in the political opposition.  I also mean the benign neglect and callous indifference of most of the world who look the other way and pretend that they don’t see the sin that daily washes over the world.

I don’t mean to diminish the global humanitarian concern and compassion we see in organizations like The Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision and others who reflect largely a Christian response.  They bring hope and healing to millions.  But the magnitude of sin in the world far outstrips the relatively small measure of compassion offered in Jesus name.  This is the case in part because the response of more than two billion people in the world, who self-identify as Christians, is either to do nothing or to respond with token charity.  In this country it is seen as enough to drop a donation into a Salvation Army kettle at Christmas or send World Vision a twenty-five dollar gift as long as one receives a charitable tax benefit.  While such collective efforts adds up and makes possible organized acts of compassion, is it really enough to counter the long established sin-based roots of the world’s suffering?  Clearly not!

Where does one even begin?  There is only one answer.  The world cries for a complete about face, a radical change in direction, a global movement of repentance and forgiveness.  Until there is a worldwide acknowledgement of sins of commission and omission, there will be no solution to the world’s greatest problems.  The world’s daily papers, evening news, talk radio programs, and internet communications give testimony to the disobedience and willful sin that characterizes humanity’s existence.  

2 Chronicles 2:14

The answer is global revival, repentance, redemption, and restoration.  The world needs a complete washing away of sin and a complete 180 degree turn to Christ.  Only the love of Christ can restore the world to a place of loving kindness, mercy, and justice. That may not occur until Christ comes again, but in the mean time the first response of all sincere followers of Christ must be prayer.  All revivals in history began with prayer.  Prayer is our first response.  Prayer seeks God’s intervention, guidance and wisdom.  In prayer we seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.  We plead for the Holy Spirit to come into the world.  We petition God to occasion a great salvation, and to give us a love in the likeness of his love for the world.  Where does it begin.  I see now that it begins with me.

Here I am, Lord.  It is I Lord?  I have heard You calling in the night.

I will pray, Lord.  You will hear me.  I will hold your people in my heart.*

*Words adapted from J. Gowans and J. Larson’s “Here am I Lord.” SASB 482

PRIORITY AND REPENTANCE AS A WAY OF LIFE

                       Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness

                       And all these things will be added to you.  Matthew 6:33

The New Year is a time for new resolutions and a reordering of priorities.  The Christian life is all about a priority, not priorities.  Our only real priority in life is to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.  Our daily response is repentance as God continues to restore us to his likeness. When we embrace Christ as our only priority, it occasions repentance as a way of life on the way to holiness.  Repentance as a way of life?  How can that be?  The idea of repentance is a 180 degree turn.  We turn not only from sin, but from all the other priorities, distractions and attractions before us.  We turn not from the terrible, but from the 1,000 good things that call to us.  We turn to the one thing that is most excellent knowing that everything else follows.  Even the most mature saint walking in holiness exercises repentance daily.

One of my living heroes of the faith is a friend in whom the Holy Spirit resides.  I admire him so much.  One day I asked him a semi-ridiculous question.   “Do you ever sin?”  He laughed and said.  “I sin daily.  When I was young, I struggled with sins of commission.  Now, at the end of each day I think about the day and confess my sins of omission.  I think about opportunities I missed to be loving, kind, and Christ like.”  I then said, “So, what do you do about that?”  He replied, “Right away I repent, ask forgiveness, and for the Lord’s help and guidance going forward.  Then I get on with life.”  Repentance for the mature Christian is the continual turning toward and faithful following of Christ.  Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.  And for a living saint like my friend, it is nearer and nearer each day.  The Kingdom of God is within you.  Make that your sole priority.

Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7