To Begin Again

Hear about the man who had a sick mule?
 

He called the veterinarian, come on over and visit the mule.

 

The vet came and after examining the mule in the barn, the vet said: “You give him one of these here white pills. This is an amazing miracle medication. When you give this mule this white pill, he will get well. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. BUT, if that doesn’t work, and I am almost positive it will, I have this little red pill. You give that to him, and that will cure everything."

Two weeks later the vet saw the farmer and said, “How’s your mule?”

The farmer said, “Doc, you would not believe it. I gave him that little white pill and that mule jumped off the floor, and knocked down the barn door. The mule jumped over three fences, knocked my fourth fence down and took to running off in the fields. Why, I would have never have caught up to him if I hadn’t had the presence of mind to take that little red pill myself.

Isn't That What We Want?

When we feel we have turned away from God, when we have not followed the will of our Lord, Jesus Christ, when we have tramped down the very grace that God has given us by decided, consciously to commit a sin, when we know it is a sin, and we are filled with such guilt that it overwhelms us , what do we do? We look for a quick fix.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were just some pill that would put us back into the good graces of God? If we could just take some miraculous pill that would cleanse us and make us completely whole we wouldn’t need anything or anyone. And we wouldn’t have to worry about anything we might do in the future. We certainly would not need forgiveness from anything and guilt would be nonexistent so there would be no need for repentance.

What does it mean to repent?
            To change one’s mind,
                        A re-orientation of personality,
                                    A coming to one’s senses,
                                                A change of the heart, will, conduct,
                                                            A driving away of the self.

So that,
   We can truly cast aside all the weight that holds us down…
So that,
   We can lay down before God all our personal hopes and dreams that come for egoism
So that,
   We can hear Christ speaking to us and become new persons in Christ Jesus.
So that,

   We can say: I do not want anything to get in the way of you using me Jesus. I do not want to be a hindrance of your kingdom being present within me. So I will repent - for the kingdom of heaven is near.

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