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by Dennis Wheeler
"REPENT! REPENT! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" yelled the lunatic on the street corner.
While I was a student at Ohio State University I distinctly recall this unkept, scruffy looking man standing on the street corner of Broad & High streets and yelling "Repent!" and preaching as loudly as he could...all the while shaking his huge Bible in the air. My friends and I would cross the street to avoid him and usually laugh at him and agree that he was just 'one sandwich shy of a good picnic!'
How easily we forget though that the phrase 'Repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand!" was first proclaimed by a scruffy, unkept, homeless man in the wilderness of Judea. I'm pretty sure that John the Baptist did not look like a model out of the GQ magazine nor was he polished in his speech. Many saw him as odd - an outcast that lived in the wild and lived on a diet consisting of bugs!
But he wasn't a lunatic or a madman - he was laying the groundwork for the ministry of Jesus Christ. Without repentance - the complete change of heart and mind away from sin and toward God - the people would not have been ready for the new life that Christ came to offer.
You know - in our comfortable society in 2005, it is so easy to overlook this call to turn from our sin. We desperately need to be reminded of the words of this backwoods prophet..."Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" (Matthew 3:2 - NLT)
Do you have some sin in your life that you are trying to hide from God? Why not 'REPENT'? Lay it all down at the foot of the cross and leave it there!
So, instead of laughing at or avoiding the scruffy preacher on the street corner - - I'll think I'll join him in boldly proclaiming..."Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near!"
"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from
Choking can be Hazardous to Your Eternal Health
Read Article »He serves as the Senior Pastor with southwest Virginia church... a loving church family in Abingdon.
He and his wife Sharon have been married for over 27 years and are the proud parents of two beautiful daughters, one son-in-law, and two precious grandchildren, the second arrived arrived on the scene in September 2004!!
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