Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
The room was tense as we sat around folding tables in a small room at our church. One person had said something to hurt another person. We were there to make things right—to seek and grant forgiveness. Those are hard meetings, and on this day, forgiveness never came. The exchange was sharp; the emotions were high. After much discussion, prayer, and reading Scripture, one person got up and stormed out of the room. He never set foot in our church again.
Repentance is a word that doesn’t get a lot of positive press these days. We would like to blame it on the times we live in, but honestly, people have had trouble with repentance since Genesis 3. Today, let’s consider what action repentance requires.
A friend called my wife, Lori, to say she was troubled, and struggling to grasp any sense of order. She was watching the news, absorbing all that was going on in the world, and was overwhelmed. She saw the mayhem and divisiveness and reached out for encouragement.
Have you read your newsfeed today? Truth has stumbled in the public square again. Right is called wrong, and wrong is called right. We live in a mixed-up, belligerent, dark world. Know why? The world is populated by desperately sick people. That’s why Jesus came.
If we believe that people today are dealing with anxiety, feeling helpless and hopeless, if we believe the words of Isaiah, “justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares,” (Isaiah 59:14), if we believe that the darkness needs the Light, then we should not be taken aback if someone asks us what Jesus saved us from.
Today, we live in a world that is plagued by disinformation, misinformation, and contemptible behavior. Do you agree? A person says a seemingly innocent phrase. Someone else views the phrase as offensive and derogatory, even racist. Social media blows up. The person responsible apologizes profusely and retracts the statement. They are “cancelled” and labeled a pariah. We live in interesting times. But really, nothing has changed.