I get really upset when I see church leaders screw up publicly, and compound their sin with dishonesty out of the fear of the consequences.
There have been no shortage of stories recently of megachurches being hit with a scandal, and giving half-confessions and applying just enough narrative spin to prevent the enterprise from being crippled.
There is no problem with hoping for mercy, and mercy is what David hoped for in the case of his son with Bathsheba dying during his seven-day fast 2 Sam But we have to be willing to receive the consequences of our actions when we sin.
To fight the consequences, or lie in order to soften the blow that is justly due to us, fails the test of Christian authenticity. There is a vast difference between anguish over consequences, and anguish over having turned far away from the Lord and hurting others in the process.
One might lead to behavior modification, the other leads to true, biblical repentance. In my lifetime, I have never been able to get away with half-confessing to transgressions, and still fully repent of them all. There is no escaping the issue of authenticity before God and others when you deal with sin, especially serious and hurtful sin.
This may be the hardest statement in this post regarding consequences and repentance: if you or I have royally messed up in some way, true biblical repentance means that we are so consumed by godly sorrow over our sin that are willing to accept the full measure of consequences.
Absolutely, pray for mercy, and the Lord may allow less consequences than we deserve. But we have to be willing to own our sin and accept all of what we deserve, just as David did. The entire psalm is below. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Your email address will not be published. He was a man who deeply respected God. But when he lost everything, he ripped his clothes, put on sackcloth, and dumped ashes on his body.
Later, his friends join him, they wept, tore their robes, and sprinkled dust on their heads Job This moment was marked with mourning. But later his friends assume Job must have sinned for God to smite him but Job denies any wrongdoing Jon Other examples of mourning in the Bible include King Ezra as he mourned over the sins of his people Ezra after they had married foreigners who served pagan gods.
God had set apart the Israelites to be holy people. In mourning for their sins, he turned to fasting , prayer, and put on sackcloth and ashes.
We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. Other mentions wearing sackcloth in the Bible include King Hezekiah Isaiah , King Ahab 1 Kings , Eliakim 2 Kings , the priests in Joel , the elders of Jerusalem, Lamentations , and the two witnesses in Revelation This includes when doing something that grieves his heart. Proverbs says plainly, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. You and I will no doubt mess up. We will make mistakes because we are human and fall prey to our circumstances, trials, and feelings.
It is in our weakest moments when the enemy will do his best to sabotage our best efforts or find a way to deceive us. Mourning or penitence, as in What I did to Julie's child was terrible, and I've been in sackcloth and ashes ever since.
This term refers to the ancient Hebrew custom of indicating humility before God by wearing a coarse cloth, normally used to make sacks, and dusting oneself with ashes. As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.
Warm milk mixed with a spoonful of fireplace ashes seemed to also be popular among 19th century England. Later that night, that same black-and-red banner would be seen again—in the column of marchers chanting for dead cops. It seems that this is the popular act to tear your clothes when you are mad, mourning, or repentance. If we used this act today to show our distress and mourning from our situations, this world would be pretty ugly and not a good sight to see.
The natural wearing of sackcloth and ashes, so that the Jews could prostrate themselves in grief. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email.
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