Saturday October 27, 2012

What do you need to repent of? Write it down and confess it to a mature Christian today?

 

Read Amos 5:18-20;  Zephaniah 1:14-16;  Revelation 6:12-17

 

Darkness can be quite frightening. Anyone with children know just how scary it can be for many. But it pales into insignificance when we compare it to the dreadful Day of the Lord. Amos reminds us that this day is so terrible it’s like a man fleeing from a lion only to meet a bear! Zephaniah calls it a day of distress and trouble.  Revelation shows us it’s a day where the sun and moon cease to shine - miserable darkness in which no one can stand. The Feast of Trumpets reminded the Israelites of the coming judgement because it began in darkness, when the moon was almost completely dark.

 

Ancient Jewish tradition tells us that the resurrection of the righteous and unrighteous (Daniel 12:1-2) will occur on the Day of the Blowing of Trumpets. The Messiah will return with a trumpet blast (Zechariah 9:14) and the “...Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

 

At that time all the nations will be judged and the righteous in Christ will enter eternal life in the new heaven/earth that the Lord has created. Unfortunately, the unrighteous will be sent away to eternal punishment.  Those who have rejected God will be eternally rejected by God on that terrible day.

 

Rabbi Eliezer, an ancient Rabbi,  understood well what the Feast of Trumpets meant. He would tell his disciples, ‘Repent one day before you die’. When the disciples replied to him, ‘But no man knows the day of his death’ he would reply, ‘All the more reason to repent today’.

 

Prayer:

Use today’s reading and notes to write down ideas for your prayers.

 

Adoration:

 

Confession:

Thanks:

 

Supplication:

¥ Pray for tomorrow’s service that God would prepare each person to be in His presence and that He would grant repentance and a growing knowledge of His forgiveness for those who need it. Pray that holiness would be at the top of each of our agendas.

¥ Pray that God would bring blessing and growth to our evening service both internally and externally. Pray that we would see more people coming along and that we’d see conversions as we take the message of life out into the streets and by ways.