Day 167: To Repent is to Return to God

Today we read Isaiah 22-23 and Zephaniah 1-3. We read that repentance is not just saying, "I'm sorry," and moving forward. We read about two important concepts of justice for God's character and people. These are important to the concept of repentance and returning to God. This is an act of returning to who we really are to our real home our truest design. Some might think of themselves as broken and Christian history often gives a distorted at worst or incomplete more charitably version of who we are and what repentance means. If our design and the truest form of humanity begins in Genesis 1 and 2 and does not start in Genesis 3, we are being called to return to God's story, His design which includes Mishpat a Hebrew word for restorative justice which deals with order and may require retributive or distributive action or responses by God. Justice can also require Tzedakah a charitable, prodigal generous lifting up, to make right (eous), to right side. If we are to build a kingdom of Shalom where we identify in our connected sense of humanity, designed by God, then yes, we have paths, yes, God gave each of us a unique portion of His power and authority, called to use that image-bearing gift to be name-bearers, ambassadors, a kingdom of priests. From what we read, like we've read before and will read again, being put in the fire, in the lion's den, in the storm, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, is unavoidable, but we have Him and remember that even in calamity and disaster God will use those to purify to purge, He is with us in these moments, these seasons too, and we can be strengthen, renewed, restored, we can remember who God is, the story, and who we really are, whose we really are, and who we are meant to be in a kingdom of Shalom with no end, in a story that is still unfolding today. 

Credits

Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.