3:19 "Repent
therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send
Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until
the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of
all His holy prophets since the world began."
I have received several questions the past couple of days
related to my blogs "Deep Stuff" parts 1 and 2. This morning as I was
going over chapter 3 again and planning to move on to the next few verses God
brought two thing clearly to my attention.
First Peter is the one explaining this "deep
stuff". This is the same Peter who asked Jesus only a couple of weeks ago
before He returned to heaven "Are you going to set up your kingdom
now?" Two weeks and Peter has gone from confused and stuck in a false view
of Jesus' mission (inherited from generations of tradition) to clearly and
deeply exposing the sequence of events leading to His return. How is that possible?
That is a valid question that deserves an answer and ties in directly to the
second thing God made clear to me today.
The questions I have received all relate to the sequence of
events that follow repentance and conversion. Questions primarily about
forgiveness, how it works, and when exactly it occurs. Here is what He showed
me this morning: When a sinner came to the sanctuary seeking forgiveness they
confessed, offered the lamb and went home. Their part was finished. Repentance
and conversion is our choice. When we come to the realization that we need
Jesus and are a failure and a mess without Him our "work" is done.
The lamb was given to the priest. He took care of everything from that point
forward.
See God showed me that we are worried more about His part in
our salvation than we are about our part. We don't realize that once we hand
our heart to Him the rest is a guaranteed done deal.
Come back to Peter. In Acts 1 he asks Jesus the question that
reveals how messed up his understanding still is. Jesus does not even address
it. There is no seminar on how the future will unfold. Instead He just
basically says "Leave those details with Me. What you need to do is go to
Jerusalem and wait for My Spirit..."
Peter did what Jesus asked him to do. This is the evidence
that he has repented and is converted. His will is subject to the direction of
Jesus. By obeying and going and waiting look how much the Spirit has taught him
in just two weeks!
When we focus on what God is asking us to do the rest is
automatic. The only barrier between God and His plans for us is our will. Once
we agree to surrender His plan is unstoppable. Our sins will be blotted out.
The times of refreshing will come. Jesus will return. All things will be
restored.
Don't focus on and worry about the future. Be in sync with
Him today. The rest will take care of itself.
"Today if you hear His voice..."
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