Perceptions #200215

"A Word Not Heard"

by Douglas F. Parsons

There is a word that has been dropped from our vocabulary. In many churches and in many sermons the word "repent" is seldom used. Yet, that word is mentioned 969 times in the Bible. The earliest message of the apostles was a call to repentance. The first question asked in the history of evangelism, when Peter finished his Pentecost sermon, was, "What shall we do?" And Peter's reply was clear and emphatic: "Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."

Why have we silenced that message today? Many people become members of churches today like joining country clubs. Repentance is not a real need. It is assumed. Repentance means literally, "getting a new mind." It means, "make a right, about face, in your way of living. "It is to turn toward God and his way, and away from sin, from self-will and from self-indulgence. Rufus Jones tells about the traveler on foot in Switzerland asking a man how far it was to Zurich. The man answered, "If you keep on the way you are headed, it will be about 24 hours and 24 miles. If you turn right about face, it will be about four." His direction was wrong. Getting a right direction is what repentance is all about.

Some may be headed in the wrong direction in the way you think about yourself, your possessions, your marriage, about other people, and no amount of cleverness can ever set your feet right. It takes change. It takes repentance.

Repentance is hard because we keep looking in the other direction. The boy, proposing to the girl, said to her, "Darling, I am not wealthy, and I don't have a yacht and a convertible like Jerome Green, But sweetheart, I love you and want to marry you." The girl thought for a moment and then replied, "And I love you, too, but tell me a little more about Jerome Green." All the time we profess our love for God, we still want to keep the door open for inquiry about some very un-godlike things.

You see, then, that it is important to believe in repentance as a change of direction that will bring us home again. Let REPENTANCE be heard!

top of page    previous article    Perceptions Index