Repentance

God often works thematically in my life. In His infinite wisdom and with extreme patience, He teaches me from His Word over and over on a particular theme, while at the same time uses books that I am reading and sermons to which I am listening to speak to that same theme. I love the way God does that work in my life. I think that is how I learn best, total immersion. Well, the present theme in my life is repentance. I am not exactly sure when my Heavenly Father raised this theme in my life. I originally thought it was in August, but the more I ponder, I think it was earlier, like maybe late May or early June. I was reading in the book of Judges and the following passage really opened my eyes to God's feeling toward sin.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.
(Judges 2:11-15)

I think this is when God began to teach me about repentance. So here is some of the stuff God has taught me about repentance.
1. Repentance is a turn/return to God which involves mind, heart, will, body, and spirit.
2. Repentance and faith are two aspects of one event/action called conversion.
3. Jesus called people to repent.
4. Repentance is what God commands all men everywhere to do.
5. The first sermon preached after Pentecost called for repentance.
6. Initial faith/repentance are necessary for salvation, continued faith/repentance are a
characteristic of conversion.
7. Repentance produces fruit.
8. Repentance is glossed over way to often.
The last two are the gleanings about repentance that I have most impacted me. Repentance produces fruit, in other words, others can see the change and are impacted by the attitude of humility and submission to God's purposes in words and actions. Repentance is glossed over way to often (especially in my own life) I will confess to my accountability partners that I ignored prayer, didn't do anything to share the Gospel with someone, or let my mind dwell on lustful thoughts and then say, I need to do better next week. No! what I need to do is repent!

So, Thursday night I am teaching at BASIC, I am pretty sure we will be looking at what the Bible has to say about repentance.