From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew 4:17 NIV
Repent
A headline in BC stated that Santa Claus has repented. During the Christmas season back in 2012, the Abbotsford Police Department featured an attention-grabbing photo of a gun-wielding Santa Claus. In 2013, the penitent Abbotsford Police Department’s new card design featured a more penitent message. Police Department Chief Const. Bob Rich dressed as Santa, but this time, instead of being dressed as a member of a SWAT team, Mr. Claus is shown writing lines on the chalkboard as a stern-looking Mrs. Claus scrutinizes. “I will not play with guns. I will not play with guns….” Santa writes.
***
Secular counselors will tell you that true change is difficult if not impossible. Human beings, they say, become who they are through a mix of nature and nurture, and the path of their life is set early on. What this thinking fails to do is to put Jesus into the equation. When He steps into a person’s life and fills that life with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, everything changes. That 180 degree change starts with repentance – turning your back on all that represents sin and selfish control. It isn’t surprising that early on in His ministry, Jesus called those listening to repentance, picking up where his cousin, John the Baptist, left off. Listen to what he says in Matthew 4:17: “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” Jesus offered what John could not – He called people to repentance because with His arrival, the King of the Kingdom of Heaven had arrived. Jesus was about to change everything. He can change you.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley