January 4, 2010: The Journey 22

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Good Morning, and welcome to the very first day of the rest of your life. A new day, in a new week, in a New Year, but not a new decade. It is Monday and it really is the first day of the rest of your life and God has timed the message of today just perfect. Believe it or not I do not try and go ahead and put timing on God's work. I ask Him for a message and then I come to the computer and do what He asks/tells me to do. I have found that God is so much bigger and better since I learned to listen to Him and work hard to follow His rules. Let me explain that a bit, God was always big and good, I just did not take time to get all that involved, oftentimes just not paying one bit of attention to Him. And the more I grow in God, the more that gets opened up to me... and it is big, brothers and sisters, it is big.

Monday is the day we pray for our leaders, and all those who work hard to keep us safe and healthy. It is a big list... A lot of new leaders being installed into office today, please pray for them and pray they will follow the lead of God. And please pray for salvation for them first... Remember our military and pray for them and for our police and firefighters. Folks, yesterday morning when the wind was blowing and the temps were about 14, and that is not the wind chill, I heard those fire trucks heading out for a call... Do you know how cold that water is on a day like this? Warm these men and women with your prayers...

The Journey 22: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Matthew 3:1 - In those days John The Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.'" 4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. (NIV)

As we journey through the Bible I often ask you to put your feet in the shoes of those in the Bible. We took on the person of Adam and Eve, of Noah, and Mary and Joseph and the Donkey and we have been in the shoes of God and of course Jesus. Now today I am asking you to put your feet in those shoes of John the Baptist. Maybe of all those in the Bible this guy fits me best. Maybe because I picture John as a guy who more than likely never shaved or got a hair cut and dressed sort of out of style of the others. Now, as his eating habits, well if I was going to eat locust, can I please have mine with bacon, lettuce, tomato and some good, mayo on rye toast? Ok, I am getting silly on this... but picture this man coming out of the desert and calling out the word "REPENT". Now I wrote that big to start the message for I believe that John would have had a big voice, (as I do) and the message coming from that big voice I have said often, after I learned about it. But it took me a while...

What does it really mean to repent? Does it mean to just give up the sin for an hour or a day or a week? Or does it mean to try your very, very best to walk away from all sin? Yes, that is what it means. When you repent, you repent for all sin, not a sin. Gosh, did you notice that we are sinners, and we are sinners doing sins? We do not all each have one sin, we have enough of them to fill a tablet and of course some of us have sinned more than others. The neat thing is that regardless of how bad our sins were or still are, or how many we have done, Jesus went to the cross to clear us of them... and then we need to repent...

Dear brothers and sisters, one of the biggest things about being saved is repenting of our sins. Yes, Jesus went to the cross to save us from our sins, but we must repent... We are not on strings from God, we are not a Howdy Doody, being controlled by anyone, we are our own self. When we get in front of Jesus, when it is time to be judged, we cannot put it on someone else... I did not know, or I thought I repented. We must repent, we must turn and walk away from those sins, and folks, it is not always easy... it is not. Sometimes people will say it is easy to repent, and it should be, but Satan has many tools in his war chest but we have one that is bigger, we have Jesus. But we must stand strong with Jesus. I think today, being the very first day of the rest of our lives, we should start it out by first repenting of our sins, turning and walking away from them, and then by going to Jesus to be washed clean of those sins. So for our daily prayers I will let you alone with them, I would like to lead you in a prayer to repent and to confess our sins and start this year, this day, this very first day of the rest of your life, clean. Will you pray with me please, remember no one, no one can pray you into heaven except you. This is personal, it is between you and Jesus. We can help each other to get to His feet, but then it is between The Master, and His sheep (us). Are you ready to start the year with me?

Dear Father in Heaven, first Lord, thanks for another day, in another year, and today I want to start it right and keep it right. Not a new years dream, but a one-on-one commitment with You, dear Jesus. I will need help with this. First Lord, help me to repent, to turn and walk away from my sins, all of them, keeping none for me. So please get the evil ones off my back and out of my life. Then Lord Jesus, I ask that You forgive me and start me fresh. And one more request today, please, please help me to get nearer and nearer to You and to work for You more and more. That's it for now, Lord, just get me ready for heaven, and help me tell others... in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Now go forth, repenting of your sins and sharing your blessings and doing good for Jesus. It is the very first day of the rest of our lives, let's start off right and keep it that way... love ya, dan.