The Good News of Repentance and Change is Here”

CXCIV
The Good News is Here
(10/17)

The time is fulfilled, the realm of God is near, repent and believe the good news. (Mark1:14-15)

These brief words introduce Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus is telling the world that now is the day of salvation and wholeness. It’s time to change your life and trust that God is going to do something important and good in your life.

We need good news these days! Of course, we need good news every day. We need to know that COVID is temporary and God is everlasting. We need to know that trouble won’t last forever and that God will have the final world and it is love.

Hearing good news may mean letting go of the old news. That’s what it means to repent. Repentance is an act of turning around, making a U-turn, and heading in the right direction. While we connect repentance primarily with our narrowly understood spiritual and ethical lives, and this is important, repentance also relates to any behavior that needs amendment and any new route you take that will change your life and the world for the best. Changing your life can mean diet, conversation, exercising, questioning your previous assumptions, and letting go of past burdens and limitations as well as commitment to prayer, meditation, service, and care for others.

For John the Baptist and Jesus, repentance was relational and social as well as individual. Grounded in the prophetic tradition, they knew that repentance was aimed at our political leaders as well as our political involvement. Do our lives embody God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven? Do we speak good news to the oppressed and liberate the captives? (Luke 4:18-19) Does our circle of love go beyond our kin?

There is good news. God is with you. Think of an issue that bothers you or that you need to address in your life. Take it to God in prayer, and then open to the answers you may receive.
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Let us listen to “Holy, Holy, Holy” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qCmtUhiKcA
Thank you, Loving God, for good news in this challenging time. Help me to let of the past, open to the future, and follow your path of healing. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Bruce Epperly is a Cape Cod pastor, professor, and author of over 50 books including, PROPHETIC HEALING: HOWARD THURMAN’S MYSTICAL VISION, GOD ONLINE: A MYSTIC’S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET, HOPE BEYOND PANDEMIC, AND PROCESS THEOLOGY AND POLITICS.