Posts Tagged ‘ repentance ’

Change isn’t easy

December 11, 2009
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Can Ethiopians change their skin  or  leopards their spots? Jeremiah 13:23

Change doesn’t come easy. Some have given in to the devilish idea that a person cannot change. What one is is destined and there is no power to change.

People in Jeremiah’s day felt the same way. We have little or no power to change the direction of our lives and we should just accept the way we are and make the best of it. What a defeatist attitude. Human beings become like a dog with instincts or a lemming that cannot help but rush into the nearest ocean and drown.

“Choose you this day whom you will serve” says Joshua to his people. He understood that men were created with the freedom to choose. What we choose, we are accountable for the choices we make. Accountability makes no sense when there is no choice.

We often complain of living powerless, of living by the expectations of others and being prevented by external circumstances from making real change. “Since I was a child I have felt” (You fill in the rest). I was born with Ethiopian skin and I cannot change. I have the spots of a leopard and I have no hope of change. Look again at the verse from Jeremiah. Can Ethiopians change their skin or leopards their spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (NRSV)

We are not passive victims of life. We do make choices. We do have the power to change the major directions of our lives. We struggle and we fight and we make better choices then the outcome will be better.

How a Prodigal Comes Home

June 20, 2009
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When he came to his senses, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Luke 15

The road back to the Father’s house is long and hard.  It is filled with doubt and despair.  It depresses and decomposes.  It works on every part of the human creation.

Physical, spiritual and emotional reconditioning requires one to address each area.  When one leaves the Father’s house and goes into a far country. He is “aching for a breaking”.  He may not end up feeding hogs but the pigpen will await.  Living away from the Father’s house is not that easy.  Some can drift for years and not reach the bottom. The time will come when all must face the ordeal of the Father’s house.  What will is be then?

Rejuvenating one’s spiritual life involves at least these two things: 1) returning to God’s primary desire for my life, 2) listening for God.  The prodigal remembered the father and listened for him.  He followed that still small voice all the way from the pigpen to the Father’s house.

Sin can black out the Fathers’ will in our lives. Many can live with little or no attention to their true spiritual nature.  The soul can be starving to death and the rest of the human creation seems to work okay.  However, nothing will totally satisfy until we find our connection with the Father.

The man who knows his sins is greater than one who raises a dead man by his prayer. He who sighs and grieves within himself for an hour is greater than the one who teaches the entire universe.  He who follows Christ, alone and contrite, is greater than one who enjoys the favor of crowds in churches. - St. Isaac the Syrian

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