Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Leviticus 10-12
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 1:15
Jesus: It’s time! The kingdom of God is near! Seek forgiveness, change your actions, and believe this good news!
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
It’s time! It was true when Jesus first came to earth in the likeness of sinful man to tell us the good news about redemption. It is still true today. It is time! But time for what? That is the question people seem to miss as we go about our busy days.
I saw an article the other day about a new clock developed in a crowd funded firm that will be interesting if it takes root. The premise of the company is that we have changed the way we measure almost everything in our society except time. All our instruments have become more exact, measured in different ways and by different methods, but time is stuck in seconds, minutes, and hours. We watched the hands on the clock spin around every day monotonously the same way for centuries.
This company decided to take a new view of time. The clock has a single hand that takes twenty-four hours to sweep around the dial and that is only for those that must have some link back to the old way of telling time. The real time keeper is a band of yellow light that moves across the face the clock as the face changes from blue during the day to purple at night. Sounds like the sun moving across the sky during the daylight hours and the moon transiting the sky at night, doesn’t it?
The premise of the company is we need to stop being so bound by the ticks the sweep by on the timepiece on our wrist and wall and start enjoying each day. We need to breathe a little and not let time enslave us. It is time we not be slaves to time.
It sounds good, but how do you stop a world driven by calendars and clocks? My last position in the Army certainly required good time management when every day was packed with meeting from 7 am to 6 pm with no breaks in between. Plus social events, inboxes, email, church, and family. The calendar was overflowing every day of the week from before sunup to after sundown. But that pace seems to be more and more common these days for the up and coming, the entrepreneurs, and those struggling to get by. Everyone is busier than they should be.
It’s time! But that’s not what Jesus is talking about, is it? He had a very simple but very important message tied to the clock. It’s time to do three things He says. Seek forgiveness, change your actions, and believe this good news.
The first, seek forgiveness, requires us to first recognize we are sinners, apart from God, in violation of His laws, disobedient and unworthy of His grace. Until we see ourselves in light of His holiness and understand just how sinful we are compared to Him, not someone else, but Him, we will not seek forgiveness. We might be sorry we get caught at something, but we won’t seek real forgiveness. Seeking forgiveness takes more than just saying I’m sorry. It means contrition. It means repentance, which leads to Jesus’ second point.
Change your actions. You can’t remain in God’s favor doing the sinful things you’ve always done. Repentance means turning away from the evil and turning toward God. It means turning your back on the past and turning toward a different future. It means letting go of those things you wanted before and grabbing hold of God and the things He has in store for you. Repentance is so much more than just crying a few tears and saying I’m sorry. It means, as Jesus says, changing your actions.
The third thing Jesus tells us to do is believe this good news. What news is that? The kingdom of God is near. So often we think we must die and move on the the next life before we can experience heaven, the kingdom of God. But we don’t. Jesus tells us the kingdom of heaven is near. In fact, when He came to earth, the kingdom of heaven came to earth. It is where He is. We can enjoy a piece of heaven here, in this place, right now.
How is this possible in the middle of all the evil around us? Where Jesus is, heaven is. If He lives in you, heaven is in you. We can experience the peace and joy of heaven even in the middle of all the evil that takes place around us. We are not dependent on the external circumstance we face for the peace and joy we have in our lives. It comes from within and when Jesus is Lord of our lives, He brings that peace. He gives joy. He makes heaven possible for us now, in this place, when we put our trust in Him.
It is time! The kingdom of heaven is near. Seek forgiveness, change your actions, and believe this good news!
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.