DAILY DIFFERENCE DEVOTION 04/22/2010: REPENT

REPENT

'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 'Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5 NASB)

Some of the most hated words of scripture are these: REPENT, or REPENTANCE.  Try and have an intellectual discussion about these; see how far you get.  Why?  We are blinded by our thinking, as if God’s Word supports our wrong thoughts we think are right.  To change the way we think about a thing may sound ridiculous to us.  But it is the very thing the Lord Jesus Christ asks for us to do.  How often really (be honest), is our minds totally concentrated on the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ? I heard one brother from church say, “if we focused on Jesus Christ as much as we do our texting on cell phones; imagine where we would be!!!”   Don’t you ever wonder what Enoch was doing daily walking with God? (Genesis 5:22-24).  He probably had a repentant mind about things he was thinking.

Repent was the next admonition the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the Ephesians about in this text above.  The Greek work for repent in the text is used to mean a change for the better.  Christ Jesus was speaking to them to not just forsake sin only, but to change their whole mind and apprehensions towards it.  Jesus Christ desired the Ephesians to be sorrowful and change their religious ways unto an awesome devotion and worship of Him.  Once they remembered their falling point, now they were to turn from it.  They were to look at Him in the way the once looked at Christ, and look at their former living differently.

So, are we to do the same?  Oh yes, we must turn from our cares for the things of this world.  We must repent from the worship of the god of our own mind: truly this is a dangerous god to toy with.  We must come to understand we cannot beat sin; we have the Lord Jesus Christ who can.  Our thinking is not the final authority, although we would like it to be it is not.  We can think we are serving Jesus Christ, and be wrong about that.  The church at Ephesus was doing commendable works, but Jesus Christ still called them to repent.  I’ll end with a quote from a rapper who puts it perfectly; “REPENT from your slop, before breathing just STOP!!!”

Some Scriptures references: Genesis 5:22-24, Jeremiah 18:8-10, Ezekiel 14:6, 33:1-20, Matthew 3:8, Luke 13:1-9, Romans 2:4, 12:1-2, 2 Peter 3:9