A Repentant Heart

Message Scripture Verse: Colossians 2:11...In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the 'sins of the flesh', by the circumcision of Christ...'

Deuteronomy 30:6...'God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.'

Of late, a burden has been on my heart. God has been little by little, systematically, taken out of places He once dwelt by covenant and faith. The Bible scriptures are being twisted out of context. Many Christians sit in comfy pews while the world prepares for judgment. Many church committees have nothing to report when it comes to yearly salvations and concern for a lost and dying world. The world sees it but we like our comfort zone. Many feel it is all right to ignore God's call much less know that He is calling in the first place. We've been unaware, asleep, and God calls us more than ever to awaken .

For the 'Watchmen on the walls', for today's prophets, like Jeremiah, we love, watch, warn, and grieve.

I heard a quote the other day, not sure who originally said it, but it rang true...'As the church goes, so does the world.' Matthew 5:l3, l4-16 says...'You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the 'light' of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives 'light' to all who are in the house. Let your 'light' so shine before men, that they may see your 'good (godly) works and glorify your Father in heaven.

What then is a 'circumcised heart'? In the scriptures, a circumcised heart refers to a 'repentant heart'. For example in Deuteronomy l0:l6, Moses commanded the people, “Circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.”

The Prophet Jeremiah tells Israel to 'repent from all evil deeds, saying...”Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart (Jeremiah 4:4) Paul contrasts a circumcised person who does not keep the commandments against an uncircumcised Gentle who does keep the commandments. He says that the latter demonstrates a circumcision which is of the heart, and by the Spirit. (Romans 2:29).

I will put My law (instructions) in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. This refers to the abolition of the evil inclination and the desire of hearts to do by nature what is proper to do in the eyes of the Lord.

Also, by the prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel also describes how God will purify...,circumcise hearts.

Let's look at Ezekiel 36: 24-28...'For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land...I will give you a new heart of stone from your flesh and give you a 'heart of flesh' I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and ordinances..(.not by the ways, rules, and ordinances of a lost and dying world).

In this scripture, the Lord is talking about the nation of Israel but let's take it one step further.

The Lord at our rebirth, we were, so to speak, taken from the nations. He took our hearts of stone and gave us 'a heart of flesh. And, His will, by the Holy Spirit living within you, causes you to walk in His statues and ordinances, and not by the laws and ordinances of this present age.

Paul explained that we who have become partakers of Christ have already begun to enter the new covenant and the circumcision of the heart. He said In Colossians 2:ll..'In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

Folks, the Lord is right at the door. The word I'm most concerned about isn't by our works but by our passion.

As we are Christ's ambassadors, what has a lost and dying world seen through our witness?

Do they see a humble person who has died to self and now lives by the Spirit of God who has indeed circumcised our hearts and His love and life live through us daily? Or, do we more or less still act like the world and think the Lord is all right with it?

Peter said it so well in Acts 5:27-32...'But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, 'to give repentance' to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And 'we are witnesses' to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who 'obey Him'.

As we go through each day, minute by minute, let us ask ourselves, 'What would Jesus do?”

For it isn't sacrifice that the Lord is seeking...but maturity in Him.

It is our prayer that the church awaken to the very nature of our Lord Jesus living through us day by day, setting the example of Christ through a circumcised heart. Amen and Amen.

Footnotes: All scriptures taken from The Jeremiah Study Bible, NKJV, or...

Messianic Jewish Family Bible..Tree of Life Version

http://shaliach.net/ac/12all/index.php?action=social&c=38913e1d6a7...