Why Repent?

A guest on the “Christians Together” website, 24/10/08. 09:40 said:

“Many of us have succumbed to the values, world views, life-styles, ambitions, aspirations, priorities and fashions of the prevailing secular culture. Kids’ education, cars, holidays, kitchens, houses, careers, entertainment, recreational pursuits, etc. etc. absorb so much of the mental, physical and financial resources of God’s people, that they have little left to give into the work of the Kingdom.
“These “things” have become false gods.”

Rev. Richard Buxton (Ealing Christian Centre)

Some of the areas I believe we are grieving God as a nation are:-

• Rejecting our Christian heritage

• Rejecting our laws that were based on Biblical standards and replacing them with laws directly opposed to Biblical principles

• Failing to uphold the value of the conventional family life and failing to raise our children with proper loving discipline

• The church being too ready to compromise with the world and to be influenced by its ways rather than taking a stand for Biblical principles and preaching them clearly and unapologetically

• A readiness to mock all the great institutions of our nation.

Paula Watson (Christian Party, Manager.)

“Repentance means turn around; it’s a turn of our faith towards what is good which is God, in order to put the ‘Great’ back into Great Britain.”

Daniel Nessim (ChosenPeopleMinistries, Director)

“Repentance – teshuvah in the Hebrew – is a turning to even more than a turning from. Teshuvah is a positive act, turning to positive beliefs and actions that please God, satisfy his holiness, and bring light into the world. As a rabbi once said: when we turn to God, we will find that we are children of the King, and live accordingly.”

Anthony Busk (Christian Watch)

GOD’S TWIN ROOTS OF REPENTANCE

There is firstly repentance that is a vital component within salvation and ongoing sanctification. This is manifested in a deep sense of a person’s sinfulness before a holy God, the need for a Saviour to wipe away personal guilt, and the embracing in love of Christ as their sin-bearing God. Christians who have replaced the God of creation to worship the gods of plastic, metal, assets and pagan practices must repent in order to experience mercy, and for judgement to be lifted (Isaiah 30v18). The call for Christians to repent is an internal church matter.

This is quite distinct from the common grace of God with His demand for individual or national repentance. It is illustrated by the metropolis of Ninevah, which turned away from behaviour that disintegrates society and avoided catastrophic judgement. This contrasts with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah who refused to change despite the testimony of Lot, and were eventually annihilated. The moral law is good, which God laid down for government and business to follow. This was not only to bring prosperity and a high level of cultural trust, but teaching the distinction between right and wrong ethical practice becomes itself a means of grace for the sinner to recognise his or her need of a Saviour (Galatians 3v23-25).
Calls for the country to reform, and for sinners to repent and be reconciled with God through Christ are matters for the March of Repentance, but particularly the former.

Pastor David Prichard (Meet Jesus Here Ministries)

“We have a book about about a Jew, written by Jews, who through incarnation has fulfilled Jewish prophecies and is coming to rule and reign, not in London, Paris or New York but in Jerusalem. The Church must stand by the Jewish people.”

Rev.Jonathan Campbell (New Buildings)

“Why repent?”

“Because our sins are committed against such a good God, a God who allowed His Son to take our hell on the cross”.
 www.sermonaudio.com/newbuildings

Minister Joe Wright
Back in January of 1996, the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to offer the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives. This is the prayer he offered:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, “Woe to those who call evil good.” But that’s what we’ve done.

We’ve lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We’ve exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We’ve neglected the

needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of
expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”