Repentance Is Not a Curse Word

Repentance is not a popular word in today’s culture. Not only is it avoided in social contexts, there are many churches that won’t talk about it either. 
Repentance doesn’t evoke good feelings and positive vibes. It brings people down and makes them feel bad. Sometimes feeling uncomfortable might just save your life. Isn’t it always that an abnormal pain in the body makes one realize that they might just have to go and see a doctor?
Rarely does somebody pull into Urgent Care while they are walking on sunshine. God has wired the very same mechanism within the spirit to alert a heart that there is poison in the midst of the soul. If we don’t acknowledge the sin head on, it just may very well do us in.
Repent means to make a conscious decision to change your direction. If you are trying to drive to Florida on Route 80 West, you might think that you are rocking down the highway in record time, but unless you turn your car around, you won’t be seeing Orlando anytime soon.
Pride is such a common occurrence. Correction is the necessity of perfection, but if we aren’t open to instruction, we will be shut out of the proper education.
Why is it so hard to admit that we have all blown it here on earth when it comes to conforming to the ranks of heaven? Why do we prefer playing charades rather than submitting to a thorough makeover of the mind?
If we aren’t teachable, then we become gullible to the fib that we are much better people than we really are. The Bible has declared in the Book of Romans that there is nobody righteous enough to make it without some divine assistance.
God has provided all the salvation we need in his Son Jesus. When we recognize our utter dependence upon the finished work of Christ upon that cross that he died on Calvary, we confess loud and clear that mankind is incapable of redeeming itself.
From the time we were little we have kept trying to prove that we can do it all by ourselves. The earlier we grow out of that phase, the sooner we will grow up into a spiritual maturity that knows that God works best within our weakness.
Humanity is just plain goofy on its own. The fact that God still reaches out to such a fickle crowd should be encouraging enough to run to the Lord in a tailspin. But there we go doing our own thing to try to capture a thrill and give meaning to our lives.
A few years back, “ABC Evening News” reported on an unusual work of modern art, a chair affixed to a shotgun. It was to be viewed by sitting in the chair and looking directly into the gun barrel.
The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at an undetermined moment within the next hundred years. The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to sit and stare into the shell’s path.
They all knew that the gun could go off at point-blank range at any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during their minute in the chair.
Yes, it was foolhardy, yet many people who wouldn’t dream of sitting in that chair live a lifetime gambling that they can get away with the sin they are stubbornly stuck within.
Awkwardly and in ridiculous fashion, they continue to ignore the risk until the inevitable self-destruction comes crashing down upon them like a piano pushed off the roof.
If only we would come clean and sign on the dotted line that we need a little heart surgery, the Holy Spirit would be allowed to remove the clogs and allow the life to flow through us all again.
If we want to be raised up, we need to fall down at the feet of Jesus. If we want to be set free, we must pledge dependence upon the Savior.
If we want to get to heaven, we must turn around and stop hiking on the highway to hell. Repentance is as simple as a U-turn. Repentance is an awakening from being stupid. Sin is ignorance in stereo.
A man walked into a convenience store, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and demanded all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided.
The man grabbed the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars. Our bulbs are just not that bright with the light that God provides.
Maybe today the smartest thing you can do is to practice your alphabet.
A:  Ask God to help you identify any inappropriate relationship with the world in your life.
B:  Be proactive in making sure that the wrong kinds of affections don’t steal the right kind of love.
C:   Commit your heart to the Lord anew, here and now. If on your journey, you don’t see Jesus at the end of the road you are walking, it is time to turn around and find the Lord so you may follow him. Your future depends upon it.
ED. NOTE: The author is senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Cape May Court House.