"At last the time has come!"
[Jesus] announced.
"The Kingdom of God is near!
Turn from your sins
and believe this Good News!"
Mark 1:15 NLT
The first two actions in this verse belong to God -- 1) at last he brings his plans to fulfillment and 2) he draws nearer and nearer to each of us. The final two actions, however, belong to us.
Yesterday, I addressed "the easier" of the two. In actuality, a vitality of faith may or may not be easier than repentance, but to a new believer, it probably sounds easier. Belief sounds like intellectual assent -- "yes, I acknowledge God" -- but repentance demands that we do something. Indeed, it demands that we change (and most of us don't like change).
I very purposefully chose the New Living Translation for today's reading of this verse. In Matthew's version of this same first sermon, Jesus says, "Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near" (Mt 3:2 NLT).
Turn from your sins
and turn to God.
I love that translation of "repentence." And logically, repentence absolutely belongs before belief. We can't believe in God, before we turn to him. And we can't fully turn to him, until we've turned away from sin, darkness, and the ways of the world.
The problem is that most of us dabble. We dabble in faith; we dabble in sin. We dabble in the world; we dabble in church. And then we wonder why we lack power, purpose, focus, and direction.
Do you want something bigger and better? Go back to the first line, "At last [your] time has come."
This can be your time.
Turn away from the world and turn to God.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who's like an old record player
(I want to turn and turn and turn ... to him)
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