Through the Bible - Ezekiel 35-36, 1 Peter 5
Good morning,
In preparation for Thanksgiving, today's devotional will touch on repentance. I recently quoted Abraham Lincoln, when he called for a national day of prayer he stated " We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God"
It was not only a call for prayer it was for repentance. Yesterday I read the following verse in Joel 2:
Joel 2:12 That is why the Lord says,
"Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Don't tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead."
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. NLT
"Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13 Don't tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead."
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. NLT
The prophet challenges the people not to tear their garments (as was the custom) as an outward show of repentance, he was asking for repentance, a change of heart in the people. To do so they needed to feel the pain and sorrow for letting things get out of hand as they did. An outward show is not wrong, but it must be accompanied by a change inside, a change of heart, a heart after God.
For today's verse we'll go to 1 John 1:
1 John 1:8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. NLT
In response to the "VOTD" recently where I quoted Lamentations 3:23 that God's mercies are "new every morning" a friend wrote, "One of the "evangelical fallacies" if you will that we have recently dealt with in men's group is the date of salvation. While we may point back to a day when we know that we gave (returned) our life to Christ, we need to approach each day as the Old Testament does in that each day God is saving us. Each day is a day of salvation. Salvation is an ongoing yet fresh each day revelation of Father God to His children. Indeed, His mercies are new every morning and we can rejoice that this is a day that the Lord has made because His saving work is fresh for us each day."
Yesterday's "Tabletalk" devotional on these verses echoed this sentiment when it stated, "We are accustomed to thinking of conversion only as a one time event that initiates our walk with Christ. Yet while there is a decisive moment of rebirth, the entire Christian life is one of conversion from beginning to end. Christians must turn from sin and to Jesus every day of their lives.".
In today's Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 36 we read these verses that should give us incentive to "turn back" to return to the Lord. He will remove the deadness from our hearts and make us "living stones" as we read yesterday.
Ezek 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. NKJV
A heart that is alive in Christ is one that can truly be thankful. What is the condition of your heart?
Pray for the heart of our nation.
In Christ,
Living in the Light
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. NLT
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