Be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:19
What would it take to get people to wake up and be zealous/earnest about what is right and repent? Would it take a natural disaster the size of Noah’s flood? Would a tsunami make us aware that this world is not our home? Would an invasion of our country so shock us that we would get involved in our spiritual nature and repent and turn our live over to a higher power?
The verse above calls for immediate repentance and a constant and continuous zeal for the Lord. The purpose of the Lord is to save. Jesus died to bring it about. God is concerned that we turn away from sin and turn to him. Paul describes it this way in I Thessalonians 1:9 how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
As a church we could add a lot of zeal to our lives and begin making more of a difference in our community. It is a little like the church that caught fire on Sunday night and the little community came out to observe. One old fellow who had never darkened the door of the church was there watching. One friend said to him, “Well, Bill, I never thought that you would come to church” His reply was cutting: “I never saw the church on fire before.”
We believe that we should light a candle and not just curse the darkness. Many are living in this community and have no knowledge of God. They can’t tell you the different between Abraham and George Washington. Our world is like Nineveh of old who cannot tell their right hand from their left (Jonah 4:11)
We need zeal for Jesus to tell our family, our friends and our neighbors that in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)