We have now begun the season of Lent, as we begin to make our way to Holy Week and Easter and we are reflecting on a number of themes this season. At our celebrations we are exploring how we can build ‘Everyday Altars,’ we are providing links to helpful resources for our daily devotions and we are picking a theme each weekend in our Saturday Contact. This weekend we are looking at the theme of Repentance.

As we confess our sins and receive His forgiveness, we begin to unravel the layers of our heart and what it actually beats for. To get past the symptoms and into the root cause, just as you can take a paracetamol to treat your headache, without it actually getting to the issue. This is the journey of repentance, because to repent is much more than just forsaking sins. When the early followers of Jesus heard, “repent and believe” it was inviting them into an entirely new way of living. 

As New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out in his book, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions: “In our world, telling people to repent and believe is likely to be heard as a summons to give up personal sins and accept a body of dogma or a scheme of religious salvation. This is a classic occasion where we have to unlearn our normal readings (including our faith readings) of first-century texts. As we see in Josephus [first century Jewish historian], the phrase means, basically, 

“Give up your agendas and trust me for mine.” 

When we give up our agenda and embrace His, we adopt a new mindset and a new way of thinking. This begins to shape our behaviours and actions, which in turn, leads to sins in our lives no longer having the power they once did. Repentance is coming under a new authority, the Kings authority, and aligning your life to His ways, His thoughts, and His heart. 

This week is all about changing mindsets. Turning and choosing paths that lead to life and not making decisions that lead to spiritual death. It is about how we stop repeating our same mistakes and falling in the same places.

I love this poem called “An Autobiography in Five Chapters” by Portia Nelson. 

Chapter 1 

 I walk down the street. 

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. 

I fall in. 

I am lost… 

I am hopeless. 

It isn’t my fault. 

It takes forever to find a way out. 

Chapter 2 

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in again. I can’t believe I’m in the same place. But it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. 

Chapter 3 

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in… it’s a habit My eyes are open; I know where I am; It is my fault. I get out immediately. 

Chapter 4 

I walk down the same street. 

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. 

I walk around it. 

 Chapter 5 

I walk down another street. 

Finally:

As I close, can I encourage you this weekend to spend some time with the Holy Spirit asking what are the patterns, habits, mindsets, agenda’s you have that are not His. What are the roads that you keep walking down that are bringing you spiritual death? How did you get there? Where did it start? Name them and ask Him to show you the root of them, not just the actions or sins. They could be rooted in false beliefs about God or lies you are believing about yourself. Repent of them in the name of Jesus, one by one. Then ask for His agenda, His truth, and for Him to reveal His heart for you.