ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Tuesday March 21, 2017

“The evidence of repentence”

"Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?" - Ezekiel 18:31

True Repentance

The Nature of repentance – cont (2)

Under the ministry of the prophets, the people were called to a true repentance – to return in a spiritual and moral sense to God. This call to repentance focused attention on the covenant which God had made with them. They were a people who stood in breach (broken relationship) of God’s provision for them. To the covenant, and to God in the covenant they must return.

In the Old Testament, three things provided evidence that genuine repentance had taken place. (1) a new trust in the Lord – in quietness and entrust shall be a strength, said Isaiah 30:15. (2) of this the first fruits would be obedience, a measure of which had formerly been seen in Jeremiah’s day; you recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name – Jeremiah 34:15. (3) that obedience was specifically manifested in a rejection of ungodliness in their return to the ways of the covenant. Man should turn from his wicked ways (Jeremiah 26:3; 36:3).

This was a truth for the whole nation to hear, but it was also something for each individual, as Ezekiel made so powerfully plain (Ezekiel 3:19; 18:21, 23, 27; 33:12, 14, 19). If a man turns from his wicked ways, he will discover that repentance leads to life (Ezekiel 18:21 – 23). It is very interesting to notice that the basis of which Ezekiel makes these appeals: make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 18:31). It is not only in the teaching of Jesus that the great prerequisite faith and repentance is the new birth.

This Day in Christian History:

March 21, 1748 - AMAZING GRACE CONVERTED JOHN NEWTON “THE 10TH (that is, in the present style, the 21st) of March is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass wholly unnoticed since the year 1748: on that day the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.” John Newton wrote these words about fifteen years after his terrifying brush with death.

Memory Verse:

Pea hae homou loto, ‘o ‘ikai ko homou kofu, pea mou foki kia Sihova ko homou ‘Otua; he ko e Angalelei ia mo e ‘Alo‘ofa, Tuai-ki-he-houhau, pea Fonu-‘i-he-kelesi, pea ‘oku ne momou ‘i he kovi. – Sioeli 2:13

So rend your heart, and not your garments;

Return to the Lord your God,

For He is gracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm. – Joel 2:13

Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)

Week 12 – Deuteronomy 15-18; Psalm 115; Luke 7