How Much More

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  2 Peter 3:8-9 NASB

Amid the world’s confusion, God’s hand moves, working out His unchanging plan and purpose. Jesus Christ is coming to earth again. It is Christ who is in control, and He will determine the outcome.  

We really believe the Bible’s teaching that Jesus came for ALL who seek Him including the broken, the messy, the sinner, the perpetually dependent and needy. We love singing about that truth, too. Mankind needs Jesus, it is time to choose are we with Him or against Him. 

As I walk this road of repentance I understand that the experience of praying with Holy Spirit, admitting my sin and folly will result in rebuke and/or conviction, but not condemnation, a grieved heart - yet confession with repentance, will change our perspective - our gaze - to a higher view of Christ. 

God responds to us in our weakness. Psalm 147 and Isaiah 55 are the first to come to mind, but if you or I devoted time every day to reading the Bible listening to he Word for more, we'd soon be wading through a steady, growing river of evidence that a broken heart over our sin is what the Lord desires and delights in.

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

My friends, it's so important for us to preach the Gospel to our own hearts and others as often as we can. We NEED to hear the humbling truth that we can't save ourselves, but we willbe FREED by surrendering to the One who has saved us! Jesus Christ! 

We often sing the song O Come To The Altar because it reminds us that we can approach Him boldly in all of our mess: 

Are you hurting and broken within?
Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin?
Jesus is calling.
Have you come to the end of yourself?
Do you thirst for a drink from the well?
Jesus is calling. 

We would be well served to take the time to look at our hearts and realize we need to come to the well to drink; to come to the end ourselves every single day and be completely dependent on God's grace!

Isaiah 1:18-20 NASB “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Once we have rightly seen ourselves in the place of need, along with those God puts on our path -  we then hear Holy Spirit’s invitation: come to the altar...

The act of humbling ourselves and confessing we need Jesus Christ to be our Saviour is vital in the life of the new and the seasoned believer! 

Oh broken, discouraged, needy, sin-struggling you...come to the altar; not the altar of the old covenant where goats and bulls and lambs without blemish were slain to make atonement for sin; not even necessarily to the altar front and center in the sanctuary of the local church; but come to THE altar; the cross where the sinless Lamb of God was slain once for all, and see the stains and power of sin be washed away!

Hebrews 9:11-14 NASB But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Only Jesus could live the life we could never live. Only He could suffer in our place and die the death we deserved. Only He could conquer death and raise us up with Him. May we never forget that forgiveness looks like this — like Him.