Return to Me.

     "Yet even now," declares the Lord, "Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments." Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness  and relenting of evil.
                       Joel 2:12-13 NASB

     We are living in a day when the heavens are shut up and we lack rain (2 Chronicles 1:13). The presence of God is largely absent from our assemblies. So much of our worship is lip service, our hearts are far away from God (Mark 7:6-8). We see our young people growing up and leaving the things of God. We have no power in our witness. We have no victory in our lives over sin. The church looks more and more like the world as time marches on.
     I do not mean to seem harsh or judgmental. Just look around! It's true! We see a powerless, self centered, worldly form of Christianity being proclaimed that cannot deliver a soul from sin (2Timothy 3:5). It is a Christianity that caters to the fleshly desires of men. Prosperity and happiness are proclaimed from pulpits instead of holiness and self denial for the sake of Christ.
     We teach others to come as they are, add Jesus to their lives, and He will someday take them to heaven. We fail to tell them that He demands all of us! He wants absolute control of our lives. It is all or nothing in God's economy (Mark 8:34-35, Luke 14:33, John 12:24-26).
     Repentance is something that is no longer taught. Some change what it means to repent, others teach that it has no bearing upon salvation. Yet the scriptures consistently show that repentance is a turning from sin to God. It means we change our course! We turn from rebellion to submission. There can be no salvation without it. The New Testament consistently shows this to be true. John the Baptist proclaimed a baptism of repentance to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus (Matt 3:1-2, Mark 1:4-5, Luke 3:3-14, John 1:23). Jesus preached it (Matt 4:17). Peter preached a message of repentance from sin (Acts 2:38, 3:19-20, 5:29-32, 8:22).  Paul's theme in Romans 6 is that of dying to sin. It is a change of course. We are to stop presenting ourselves to sin, and instead present ourselves to God as slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:11-14). Paul states in Titus 2:11-12 that God's grace instructs us to deny ungodliness, and instead live upright, godly lives.  It is repentance that leads one to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
     In Revelation, Jesus stressed the need for five of the seven churches addressed, to repent. That is what we need today! We need to turn from our selfish wayward ways. We need to turn from our compromise of the truth. We need to repent of lukewarmness, dead orthodoxy, lack of passion, our unconcern for the lost, our loss of zeal for the glory of God!
     If we humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from our wicked ways, God will hear us, and forgive us and bring healing to our land once again (2Chron 7:14). We must be sincere. We must be contrite, broken. When we are serious about God. when we mean business with Him, He will mean business with us. That is what it means to seek Him with the whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13). We seek Him, we desire Him. We understand our sin has grieved Him and separated us from His presence. We are broken over this, we confess, we repent, we seek Him, His presence once again.
     It is time to return to the Lord! We cannot go on without Him. We live in a dry weary land, we need Him to rain down righteousness upon us once again (Hosea 10:12).  We need the times of refreshing once again (Acts 3:19-20).