Repent or Perish

The Lord seeks the humble and contrite heart, which He will not despise.  Repentance includes the church as well as the nation.  I believe as the church goes, the nation will follow.  If the church is vibrant and moving in the Spirit it will affect the people and the nation.  This nation was founded on freedom of religion but little by little it is losing its freedoms, what happened, did the Lord fail or did man fail?  Did we get proud and puffed up and start replacing the Word of God with man’s ideas and programs thinking we know more than God or did we just neglect the real truth and trade it for a lie?  

God’s Word says that is what the heathen did in Romans 1:24-25, “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Many are praying for a great revival to break forth from the Lord and that is a good thing and the Lord knows we need one, a real, Spirit filled one that will not only affect the church but also the world, one that has lasting effects, not one that dissipates in a short period of time.  It seems like all the revivals I have read about ended because man got in the way.  Has the church allowed itself to be conformed to the world instead of being transformed, is that the problem?

God‘s Word says this in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

It also says this in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

‘I will dwell in them

And walk among them.

I will be their God,

And they shall be My people.’

Therefore

‘Come out from among them

And be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean,

And I will receive you.’

‘I will be a Father to you,

And you shall be My sons and daughters,

Says the Lord Almighty.’”

The church is to separate itself from the world’s sins and iniquities and expose them and not conform to them.  Marriage to a non- believer was strictly forbidden as well as a partnership in a business affair.  We are to be in the world but not of the world.   Separating ourselves from the world and its sinful influences means we will have to draw closer to the Lord, studying and praying consistently and be willing to repent when we sin and take it very seriously.  

If you want to see the world changed and our land healed, every true believer has a responsibility and that is to sincerely repent.  If you think because we live in the day of grace, as some refer to it, that we don’t need to repent and confess our sins, this is what God’s Word says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus spoke these words to the people in the days He walked the earth in Luke 13:1-5, “There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.’”

Here Jesus called the people to repent He also said this when He started His ministry in Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  Jesus started His ministry with the same words that John the Baptist used. This message is the same for today and is the key for revival and seeing our land healed.  

God’s Word says this in 2 Chronicles 7:11-14, “Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

And just like there were consequences for sin in that day, there are consequences for sin in our day.  This message is not meant to be a condemning message but one to encourage all of us to repent and not to take sin lightly and to call it what it is, sin, and to deal with it accordingly. Something to think about, God bless and have a super day!!