Psalms 146 – 150; Nehemiah 13:1-22; Psalm 92; Nehemiah 13:23-31; Joel

Repentance is far, far more than feeling sorry about something you have done. Repentance is more than admitting the wrong or vowing to never do it again. Repentance is a changing of your thing about your actions and how they affect God and your covenant relationship with Him. Repentance is a turning away from sin and turning back to God. Repentance, born of godly sorrow, occurs in the core of our being – the heart – and is a change from within.

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?'” Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. “I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things!

Joel 2:12-21

God consistently responds to repentance with forgiveness. He is longsuffering and desire that everyone turn back to Him. Our sin hurts Him, and He knows how devastatingly sin hurts people.

After their exile in Babylon, Yahweh sought a true, inward change in the Hebrew people. Judgment was coming on all who would not repent. But, before the judgment came, God would send Himself to earth to call men to salvation.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Acts 17:30-31

Messiah was coming to call people to God, but they would have to repent – they would have to change their total way of thinking about God, sin and redemption. Jesus would come and then he would die. In the most amazing turn of events, the One who died rose from the dead. What would happen next?

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.

Joel 2:28-32

God’s final call to mankind is to look to The Messiah and listen to The Counselor. The Son, The Spirit and The Father are all God, but each call out to people. What must we do? Repent. Totally change you way of thinking about God, sin and salvation. That change of thinking necessarily involves your thinking about who Jesus is and what He has done for you. That change of thinking necessarily incorporates the miraculous workings of the Spirit of God in proving the truth and worth of the message of Jesus.

God has called upon us to repent. Who, then will be saved? Those who call upon the Lord. Is this simply voicing His name or saying you believe? Like repentance, calling upon the name of the Lord goes much more deeply. Humbly we change our thinking on a fundamental level. In anticipation of forgiveness, we confess our heart-felt faith that Jesus is Messiah and we relinquish the lordship over our own spirit. In a state of spiritual “death” we are obediently buried with Him in baptism – not as a work of merit, but in a hope-fuel, faith-filled commitment to God that He will fulfill His promise to save.

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Acts 22:16

So, in obedience to His call, with all of our being we call upon the God who calls us, asking Him to do as He said He would. He will.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!