A New Devotion - Reclaiming Repentance

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Matthew 3:7-12

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Reclaiming Repentance

I don’t think repentance is considered important now-a-days, even among Christians. You see, the whole idea that we should admit that we’ve made a mistake and alter our course, well, that’s just not what the great people in our world do, now is it. I mean, instead of having the courage to take responsibility and the humility to change, we’re shown that it’s better to deny responsibility and to find someone else to blame. And if this is what we choose to do, there’s no reason to do anything different, much less better. Man, we can just plow ahead. And if we’re able to find enough folks to accuse or enough lies to tell or enough distractions to construct, then we can keep the chickens from coming home to roost almost indefinitely, that is until we can’t. And when we can’t, when the accusations and lies and distractions don’t work any more, I’ll tell you, at that point the consequences can and will bury us. In other words, we might understand exactly what a tree might feel as it’s being cut down and thrown into the fire.

And I think that’s the reason we desperately need to reclaim repentance, but not just for ourselves. You see, I believe we should be building a society in which arrogance is condemned and humility is rewarded; I’m talking about the kind of country where people are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, including their mistakes, and I’ll tell you why. When that happens, people will feel free to change, to alter course when necessary, in other words, to grow into something better than they are right now. You see, I believe this is what reclaiming repentance is all about.