Tag Archive | repentance

Celebrate & Rejoice

Jan11

I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’ ”
Luke 15:7‭, ‬10‭, ‬32 NASB

🌹Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we respond as the angels in heaven over people’s repentance? Or are we apathetic, disinterested or take for granted the change God makes in repentant people? Shouldn’t we rejoice, come beside and encourage in the faith, and thank God for His grace and work in each other?

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

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Grace & Compassion

Jul22

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.
Isaiah 30:18 NASB

The Lord God of all creation, Sovereign God, full of grace and compassion is patient. He desires to show compassion and give grace. Do you long for Him?

Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Lord, We have waited for You eagerly; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls. At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26:8‭-‬9 NASB

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 NASB

For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off.
Isaiah 48:9 NASB

Great love has God for you. He is a just God, patient God, longing to bless with salvation. Restore fellowship with you. Walk with you, abide in you.

How will you respond?

🌹And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him.
Isaiah 8:17 NASB

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Are You Willing?

Jul21

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Since you have rejected this word And have put your trust in oppression and guile, and have relied on them, Therefore this iniquity will be to you Like a breach about to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose collapse comes suddenly in an instant, For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing,
Isaiah 30:12‭-‬13‭, ‬15 NASB

Could these words of the prophet Isaiah be relevant today? The Word of God is relevant for every generation, past, present and future.
Are we any different than generations past, ignoring the word of God, even God Himself? God is patient but He will not wait forever.

🌹The time is now.“In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” Are you willing?

P.S. Go to God right now. Don’t wait. Confess and turn to Him. Find fellow believers to grow with, learn from, be encouraged by. Trust in the Lord.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Proclaim

Jun9

One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.
Psalms 145:4 NASB

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments,
Psalms 78:6‭-‬7 NASB

It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
Isaiah 38:19 NASB

And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come.
Psalms 71:18 NASB

Praising and proclaiming Jesus Christ is a life long endeavor that passes from generation to generation. Could the condition of our world be as it is because we have failed to proclaim the wonderful works of God, His strength, His power? Have we failed because we have not put our own confidence in God, following His commandments in obedience?

A daily, continual (minute by minute) walk with God naturally causes a desire to praise God and declare His mighty works. It starts with you and your relationship with Jesus Christ. To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to proclaim Him.

🌹Don’t know Jesus? Seek someone who is a Christian, a church, God Himself to know. God said if you seek you will find.

🌹Professing Christian with nothing to proclaim? Repent before the Lord today. Turn and walk with God and He will give you opportunities to proclaim His name!

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Week of Prayer Day 4

May5

‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—
I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and
I will remember the land.
Leviticus 26:40‭-‬42 NASB

🌹 Oh God, turn the hearts of Your people back to You so You may bless our nation with Your righteousness. Forgive us our unfaithfulness and acts of hostility toward You and Your word. As we humble ourselves before You,  remember Your covenant through Jesus, our Savior, and forgive us.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Now Is The Time

Jan14

But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Acts 3:6‭-‬10 NASB

And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
Acts 3:16 NASB

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
Acts 3:19‭-‬20 NASB

🌹 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
Romans 13:11 NASB

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Witness

Jan12

When they had brought them (the apostles), they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Acts 5:27‭-‬32 NASB

The apostles had witnessed the life of Jesus. They walked with Him, talked with Him, experienced Him and knew He was the Son of God sent to redeem. They were “witnesses of these things”.

But God . . . “has given to those who obey Him the Holy Spirit” who is a witness of these things.

Do you have the Holy Spirit residing in you? Then you are a witness to Jesus’s redemptive power.

🌹What are you doing with the Witness residing in you?

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

The Holiness in Me

Oct2

Do I have any holiness in me?

For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.'”
Leviticus 11:45 NASB

We are to be holy as God is holy. So how does that happen? Can I just be holy because God is holy?

In the Old Testament Holy God resided in the temple. In the Holy of Holies. It was a sanctified, cleansed, holy area of the temple.

In the New Testament we are the temple where the Holy God resides now. In the heart where God has cleansed us by the blood of Christ, is sanctifying us everyday, where holiness, His holiness resides.

How can you receive this holiness?

Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38 NASB

A repentant heart baptized in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin is the necessary step to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1:8 NASB

And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:22 NASB

and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Ephesians 4:24 NASB

🌹 Jesus is the holiness in me.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

From the Very Beginning

Sep25

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.                                      Genesis 1:2‭-‬5 NASB

“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”

From the very beginning of creation, there was light. The expanse was nothing but darkness, nothingness, void until light was brought into the darkness. At this point light and darkness are separated. From Day 1 of creation, DAY 1, light and darkness are separated.

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.                                                    John 11:9 NASB

God’s intent from the very beginning of His creation was for mankind to walk in the light. When man chose to walk in darkness, the darkness of sin, judgment came. Departure from the Garden of Eden. Working harder to make a living. Pain in childbirth.

But God. . . Out of His abounding love and abundant grace, Jesus, the Light of the world came.

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”                                           John 8:12 NASB

God created the light and separated the darkness from the light. Jesus came as the Light to mankind to separate the light from the darkness. We don’t have to stumble around in the dark. We can walk in the light. The choice is ours.

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.                                       1 John 1:7 NASB

🌹 Are you walking in the Light?

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Do Not Fear

Aug26

Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord. We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven; We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned.
Lamentations 3:40‭-‬42 NASB

“We lift up our heart and hands toward God in heaven;”. Do we? With repentant hearts or with raging fists?

Nothing happens without the approval and working of the Lord God. He did not make all of creation, including people, and then not involve Himself in His creation. As you look around what do you see? Are we looking for pardon yet living our lives as if our Creator has no say or part in where we go, what we do? If so, we need to “examine and probe our ways”. When we do we will find that we need to return to the Lord.

God is patient not wanting anyone to perish but He is also holy and just and will not allow us to continue in disobedience to Him.

Now is the time to seek the Lord with repentant hearts, turning to Him, crying out to God who can redeem you and give you peace even when the rebellious world around you is falling apart.

You have heard my voice, “Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help.” You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!” O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life.
Lamentations 3:56‭-‬58 NASB

🌹Are you experiencing peace, content in the Lord or are you walking with and looking like the world around you?

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon