Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
It’s interesting how much and how often God is misunderstood. Since He is infinite and we are not, it’s impossible for any human being to know and understand Him completely, but there’s a big difference between limited knowledge and wrong “knowledge.” God sent His Son not only to die for our sins, but also to help straighten out some of the many misconceptions we have about Him. Even so, many of those misconceptions are very stubborn, because they are rooted in our sinful nature. These first chapters of Romans might seem like they are talking about a mean, fierce God, but this verse points out that His character is actually loving and kind; it is our stupid rebellion that brings His wrath upon us. When we don’t get “zapped” instantly for doing something wrong, we start to think it was OK after all, as this verse points out. God wants us to repent, not be destroyed!
I’ve been given a message on repentance for tomorrow. In preparing for it, it’s been interesting to see how very many Scriptures there are on the subject, and in preparing for the service, it’s been interesting to see how few songs there are on the subject. We like to avoid the subject, even though God says it’s a life-or-death matter! I have preached on repentance far too little, which goes along with my insufficient focus on Jesus Christ, but God has very graciously pointed those things out to me recently, to allow me to repent of my failures. I’ve got to follow through, and not think it’s OK just because I haven’t been zapped for it up until now. I really have no idea how many blessings I have missed because of my failures! I need to be quick to obey, whatever the Lord is telling me to do, whether it’s to change or whether it’s to hang in there and stay the course.
Father, once again I’m confronted with the gap between my head knowledge and my heart knowledge, my follow-through on the things I know. That too is an area for repentance! I am up against what You had James write: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” (James 4:17) Help me follow through with all You tell me and show me, so that I may be fully useful and pleasing to You, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!
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Here is a vision and some things that the Lord has shown me on the subject of repentance. You are so right that this is a subject that is not preached much today.
“If my people”, Some Additional Things.
In a post I posted a few days ago I posted regarding the need for repentance and quoted such scriptures as 2 Chronicles 7:14. However, as I was going through my journal I found a vision from June of 2009 that the Lord had given me that I think fits here as part of the original, ” If My People” posting. In this vision I saw 2 groups of people facing one another. The people were in lines opposite one another. Each person in each line were holding signs and on the signs were accusations and insults accusing and insulting the people on the opposing side. In addition to holding the signs, the people on each side were yelling insulting remarks and making accusations. While they were doing this, what they did not see was that the country around them was being destroyed by the ravages of sin, freedoms were being taken away but neither side could see it because they were too distracted by being focused on insulting and accusing one another.
To revisit 2 Chronicles 7:14, it says If My people( a unified body of believers not splinter groups of warring factions) shall humble themselves. I remember hearing the Lord say on July 4th of 2009 while I was watching the fireworks, ” this is the last year you will celebrate as a united nation” It was shortly after that, that I had a dream and in the dream I saw the United states as a puzzle much like you would have seen when you were a kid and your parents bought you a puzzle of the United States so that you could learn your geography. Only in this dream I saw puzzle pieces, representing states, disappearing from the puzzle board leaving gaps in the puzzle. In other words, the puzzle that showed a united nation now showed states missing. I also saw an angel with a drawn sword standing over the United States and he was near the east coast where Washington D.C.is.
Getting back to the people accusing and insulting one another what got the attention of Isaiah the prophet was the death of King Uzziah. In Isaiah 6:1 it is that Isaiah saw the Lord in the year King Uzziah died. He saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of His robe filled the temple. Thus it would seem that it was the tragedy of King Uzziah’s death that caused Isaiah to look upward and, “see the Lord” After his upward gaze seeing the Lord, he says, “woe is me”, here Isaiah sees his own sin and was humbled in the presence of a Holy and Righteous God. The closer one gets to the Lord, the more of His holiness we behold and the more of our sinfulness we see. If you look at the chapters preceding this one, Isaiah’s pet phrase seemed to be, “woe to you”.
Isa_3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
Isa_3:11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Isa_5:8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Isa_5:11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
Isa_5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
Isa_5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isa_5:21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Isa_5:22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
After seeing the Lord in the splendor of His holiness, Isaiah says, “woe is me”.
We all need a “woe is me” revelation or we will never get past our own self-righteous religious attitudes which condemn one another and ultimately destroy one another while the world around us is being destroyed.
After this revelation the Lord was able to say, “Whom shall I send and Who will go for us” , to which Isaiah responds, “here am I, send me”.
What is it going to take for us to see the Lord? How bad do things have to get before we see the Lord? 911 was a brief moment were it seemed that we saw the Lord, however, it did not last and things seem to be back as they had been before.
Jesus said that all would know that we were His disciples by the Love we had one for another. If we are going to be used by the Lord to minister to a lost and dying world, we need to see the Lord, have our, “woe is me moment” and then say, here am I , send me.