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Zephaniah 2:1-3
Gather together, gather together, O shameful nation, before the appointed time arrives and that day sweeps on like chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s wrath comes upon you.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.
One night when I was a junior in college my roommate and I decided to walk across campus for a late night snack at the Student Union. We took a short cut through the main administration building, which was always open all night. As we walked down the long deserted hallway, my roommate suddenly and inexplicably leaped up and punched a ceiling tile. The tile split in half and fell to the floor. As I stared in shock he looked at me and said, “There! Bet you can’t do that!”
Knowing I was a better leaper than my roommate, I responded without thinking about what I was doing. I jumped up and punched out my own ceiling tile. We laughed as if what we had done was great fun – and continued on our mission for late night snacks.
The next morning we returned from class at about 10 am to find a note on our dorm room door that said the Dean of Students wanted to see us in his office. We assumed we were busted.
As we walked into his office the Dean looked up from behind his desk and said, “What in the world were the two of you doing in the administration building at midnight?”
We immediately repented on the spot. We blurted out something like, “We’re sorry we broke the tiles, it was a dumb thing to do, we’ll never do it again, please let us pay for the damage!”
When we finished the Dean responded with a surprised look on his face, “You guys did it!? Someone just told me they saw you in the building last night and I thought you might have seen who did it!”
When I look back on that story I smile at the foolishness of my youth. There’s something funny about a couple of guilt-ridden college kids confessing even before they were confronted with their deed! But I also see a picture of repentance. We knew we had done something wrong even before we were confronted with any evidence. We actually wanted and needed to confess before we walked into the Dean’s office. His question simply provided the opportunity for both confession and repentance.
“Repentance”, Biblically speaking, is both confession and commitment. Repentance begins with a sense of sorrow over one’s own sin and continues through the humility of confession and then a return to God.
And this is the invitation God provides his people in Zephaniah:
Gather together, gather together, O shameful nation, before the appointed time arrives and that day sweeps on like chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the Lord’s wrath comes upon you.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.
A couple of weeks ago Pastor Ali Kalkandelen from Turkey spoke of what he called “100% repentance.” I love that phrase! But it occurs to me that the only way we can be 100% repentant is to be 100% certain of God’s love and forgiveness.
God calls us to seek him in humility and repentance because he loves us. And because he loves us we can come to him in 100% repentance.
Are you 100% certain of God’s love for you?
Pastor Brian Coffey
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