The Lost Art of Repentance - Part I: The Story

Many times i've heard the saying that repentance means turning around and going in the opposite direction. That repentance is more than just something you say, it's something you do. To some extent i have agreed with that sentiment, to some extent it has always seemed a little too simplified. Kind of like explaining how to drive as; turning the key, starting it up, and driving. At the same time it seems like repentance is something neglected in today's church. It used to be an important part of a Christian's life, and now it's relegated to the "let's not make waves" so we don't lose people dustbin. It just doesn't fit the current "feel good" church mentality. Unfortunately, as a result we have been losing our purpose, perspective, and power as Christians. So, if repentance is not turning around and going in the opposite direction, and it is a concept that we need to be effective Christians, then what is it? Great question! I'm glad you asked.

The Bible is full of situations where real people either repented, or needed to. To name just a few, there was King David, Moses, the people of Israel (on numerous occasions), Pharisees, early church leaders, etc. However, it's a situation i came across at the end of the book of Judges that really caught my eye. Understand, this is a time when there was no king in Israel and everyone did right in his own eyes. A man goes to regain is unfaithful concubine from her father's house. The details are not important enough to cover here, but let's just say he has a hard time leaving his father-in-law's house. Finally he leaves late one day and on the way home he has to stay in Gibea (a town in the land of Benjamin). So he goes to the town square where an elderly man finally gives him lodging. During the night the townspeople surround this elderly man's house and demand that the strangers be sent out to them so they could molest and rape them. Finally to prevent them from breaking in and dragging everyone out, the concubine is sent out. The people of the town all rape and beat her until she crawls back to the doorstep and dies. It sounds like Sodom and Gomorrah doesn't it?

The husband takes her body back home, chops it into 12 pieces and sends 1 piece to each tribe with an explanation of what happened. The people are horrified! It is too much to bear. So the people prepare for war. Eleven tribes come together to face against this town to destroy it. Only Benjamin stood with Gibea. Together it was 400,000 swordsmen from the 11 tribes against 26,700 soldiers from Benjamin and Gibea. So, the 11 tribes went to Bethel and sought God's counsel on who should go up first. Through that counsel God told them Judah (the eldest and the one who held the most responsibility for the other tribes). So Judah led the other Israelites in battle against Benjamin and the Gibeons, and 22,000 Israelites were cut down that day! God brought judgment down on Israel that day. The 11 tribes reconvened and returned to Bethel where they inquired of the Lord once more. They spent the day mourning before the Lord, and at the end of the day they asked God "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?" God answered, "Go up against them." So on the next day, they came up again, and 18,000 more were cut down! So all of the people returned to Bethel, mourned before the Lord, fasted until evening, sacrificed burnt offerings & fellowship offerings, and inquired of the Lord. God told them to go up once again, and He would deliver them into their hands. They went up the next day with a strategy similar to that of Israel against AI in the book of Joshua, and they defeated the people of Gibea and Benjamin. They chased them down and destroyed them to the point that the tribe of Benjamin was almost extinct. There's a whole lot more to this story. To find out the rest read Judges 19-21 in your Bible.

So what does all of this mean, and how does it relate to "The Lost Art of Repentance"? Unfortunately, i don't have time to get into that, so you will have to wait for part II.

Loss & Redemption

Mephibosheth was a man of honor now discarded and destroyed. He had little left in life. His grandfather, a former king (Saul), and his father had both died in battle when he was a child. He had both of his feet crushed when his nurse, while carrying him, fell and crushed them beneath her body.

He was hiding out in the country for fear of retribution towards him for how badly his grandfather had treated the man who became king in his place. He had gone from heir to a kingdom and the inheritor of vast tracts of land, to a destitute, lost, deformed young man with no hope of a real future.

Yet hope still prevailed! The present king, whom his grandfather had treated so badly, was a God fearing man who remembered not the cruelty of his grandfather, but the honor and love of his father (Jonathan). This new king (David) searched out Mephibosheth, the young man so discarded and destroyed, and gave him honor once again. Instead of killing him and destroying all that he had, as was traditionally done and to some extent expected, the king returned to Mephibosheth the lands his grandfather had once owned. He was also given the servants needed to care for that land as well as himself, and all that he personally had need of was provided for directly from the table of the king.

It is a beautiful story of hope, love, kindness, and redemption (II Samuel 9). If only it had ended there. Unfortunately, the story goes on. The new king ends up having some trouble of his own when his own son attempts to usurp him from the throne. David flees the city of David and is on the run from his own son, Absolom who is trying to make himself king in his fathers place. So how does Mephibosheth respond? He abandons David, the man who had shown him so much kindness and mercy. Why? Because what he has isn't good enough. He thinks that by abandoning David and joining with Absolom somehow he will regain the kingdom of his grandfather Saul (II Samuel 16). In the end though, the coup fails, David returns, and all that Mephibosheth has gained is instead given to his head servant, Ziba, who had proven himself faithful.

It is a sad story which too often parallels our own lives. We were lost, the children of sin. Yet the true king comes and redeems us of our own wrongdoings, and gives us a new life. It's a life that we had been meant to have. Some of us embrace that life; that new hope and love in faithfulness. Others of us return to the anger, hatred, and selfishness of the past. We see it as "our right" to try to take back what was "ours". As if it had not been lost in the first place because of just that kind of selfish attitude. We need to let go of the past and our own selfish ambitions and embrace the God that gave us our redemption. He is the God of mercy that will forgive. He is the only God that can bring us new life. The only God of faith, hope, and true love.

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Hope Springs Eternal

I handled a face to face confrontation very poorly. Instead of my giving logical and appropriate responses to what was said, much of it was unclear and emotion driven. Some of what was said to me took me so completely off guard that i couldn't even come close to expressing or explaining what was what because i just couldn't process the issues at all. Afterwards, there were a ton of issues that i knew i had totally destroyed, points (as in key issues not winning scores) that were lost, and important factors completely overlooked on both sides. (THAT is why i prefer the written word with time to process over face to face every time.) Overall, the most clear, honest, and properly formed response i was able to give was an apology, and a prayer under my breath that we both walked away with more learned than lost.


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What God in the Spiritual Armor Means for Us

The other day i was thinking about how the presence of the trinity in the Spiritual Armor and the Spiritual Gifts parallel one another, and how there are so many connections that exist that we never see or understand.

As i was thinking about how the Holy Spirit is/= the Spirit of truth. He is the girdle of truth that protects the softest parts of our bodies. As a part of the spiritual armor he covers our stomach, intestinal area, and lower sexual organs. He covers the areas that are our appetites. Our two most natural and common appetites are nourishment and sexuality. Seen in obesity, drunkenness, and sexual problems. They are the weakest parts of our physical bodies, and also the most easily corrupted, hurt, and damaged parts of our lives.

The breastplate of righteousness is/= the righteousness of Christ. As armor, the breastplate covers our heart and lungs. It covers the areas of our body that control everything else. The lungs process the oxygen that we take in. They feed the blood (our life essence) that feeds the rest of the body. The heart pumps that blood throughout our body and is considered by many cultures to the the center of who we are. The righteousness of Christ covers this. It covers and protects who we are as a person. It covers how our daily lives come together and who we are in relationship with the father. It covers our actions and everyday lives. It is our lifeblood.

The helmet of salvation is/= our salvation. Salvation belongs to our God. It is the rebuilding of that relationship between us and God that was lost with the fall of man. As such, it is that salvation that covers our minds. It covers our thoughts and views. More than that, it covers what we believe, accept, and reject. When we are taught. When we learn & understand something, it all comes into and is filtered through our minds.

The enemy attempts to attack us at each of these different areas of our lives. He attacks our appetites. He attacks our actions and who we are as people. And, he attacks our thoughts and beliefs that give us a vision and a purpose. On the flip side it also means that when we struggle and continually have problems in any one of these areas of our lives, it means that that is the part of God, of the trinity that we do not have a grasp of or that we have let go of. We need to get a hold onto that again.

When we struggle with our appetites we need to seek out and better understand who and what the Spirit of truth is. We need to seek the Spirit of truth in our lives. When we struggle with our actions and who we are as people, we need to seek to reach and better understand our role with Christ. We need to seek Him and His vision for us. When we lose a grasp of what we believe, and when our faith, hope, and love are failing, that is when we are losing a grasp of who our Father is. That is when we need to seek Him the most. Thus understanding the spiritual armor becomes a role in who we are.

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The Other Side

I think i'm beginning to understand things on a completely different level. I don't really like my job a whole lot. I basically work the job to pay the bills and have the insurance so that i can come home, spend some time with my family, work with the youth, etc. Last night, however, i began to see a little better how the other side lives. All my life i have spent in a Christian environment. My family growing up was involved in the church. I was always involved in the church. That continued on into my high-school and college years. There was a time that i rebelled and "turned away" from God, but i knew better. I knew that that was not going to work. My relationship and connection to God were too strong for a time of rebellion to really stick. It's like when you get really mad at the best friend you have had for years. You argue, you fight, but you are too heavily invested in each other that a stupid fight really can't destroy what you have built over the decades. So i have done the party scene, and the drama, and everything related to that before.

Last night however opened my eyes a little bit more. My work had a big celebration. We had reached a significant milestone that had taken a great deal of work and dedication by most everyone to achieve. So with a limited budget the management team put together a celebration. There was karaoke, hor d' ovures (i don't know how to spell it), and a pay bar. So my wife and i went. I'm never really that comfortable at these kinds of parties, but it was a chance to get away without the little ones which is nice sometimes. So the festivities began. Most everyone was drinking, hanging out and talking, and either singing or making a fool of themselves, or just watching it all.

I began to realize, "This is their life". So many of my co-workers work so that they can pay the bills and on the weekend get together with other coworkers and/or friends, go out to the bar and do exactly what everyone was doing last night. Get drunk, make fools of themselves, and complain about something or other. Others, instead of drinking, spend their weekends watching sports, getting lost in movies, whatever. This is the highlight of their week! There is no passion. There is no purpose. There is no direction or real desire... other than getting their weekend fix. It's no wonder everyone is always so miserable. Couple relationships have no solid foundation as a result they fall apart on a whim. Work, well work is just work. Depression is rampant. A big part of it is that for my coworkers, there is no real purpose other than to simply escape on the weekends. Where there is no vision the people perish. Where there is no purpose, there is no hope. There is only depression, escapism, and/or addiction.

I think i'm starting to understand a little bit better...

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What do We do When it All Falls Apart?

Our lives are filled with so much frustration and difficulty sometimes. Most of the time it is of our making, but not always. The question becomes, what do we do with them? When our world starts to fall apart, what do we do? How do we handle it?

The job that i currently have to pay the bills is one dealing with people. It is a job in which i talk to random people, help them with their problems, and bring them to a solution that hopefully involves the inclusion of some of our products. I talked to a gentleman yesterday who wanted one of our products to help him remain in touch with a family member in a correctional facility. When he was brought over to me he was in high spirits. He was ready to tell the world that i and the last person that he talked to were the best things since baked cake. I spent a little bit of time talking to him about his situation in order to find the best solution. I got things cleared up as much as i could on our end and began to tell him what he needed to do from the other end of the problem to get it fully resolved. As soon as he found out that i wasn't going to be able to just solve his problems for him right then and there, he fell apart. Suddenly i was the enemy and how dare i say what i say. The conversation went from a pleasant conversation on philosophy and relationship to anger, yelling, and threatening in a matter of moments. I could not have found a better example of severe bipolar or manic depressive behaviors if i had made it up. Now, that's not to say that this guy was severely bipolar or manic depressive, but that was certainly how he was acting. Either way, it took a while but i was able to, through the yelling and threatening, help him understand step-by-step what he needed to do next to get the problem solved.

The whole situation got me thinking about how we react to our problems. When our difficulties become more than we can handle, what do we do? Do we bear up the burden; strapping it to our backs like another bag on a camel? Do we spread it around to everyone around us like a capsized bowl of soup? Do we shrug it off as one would a well meaning remark from an in-law who has no idea what they're talking about? One of the nice things about God is that we can give it to Him. When our lives seem like they are falling apart, we're not in it alone. He can take those troubles and frustrations and in their place, put a peace that is beyond understanding. He puts a strength that is beyond comprehension, and a hope that goes beyond any circumstance. We certainly can't do it alone. Thankfully, we don't have to.

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