turning

I have been reading from my red letter version of the bible this new year. So far so good for 2007. I have started in Matthew the first book of the New Testament. As I mentioned before I am wanting to spend the year looking into what Jesus said and mediating on it and applying it to my life. I am not just wanting to apply His principles. I know that I must let the Holy Spirit do it's work in transforming me. I am wanting as it says in John 3:30 - To become more like Him. He must increase .. I must decrease.

So my first blog on this matter has to do with "turning". Before I start with that I must mention that my daughter is now "turning" a car. She was able to get her Driver's permit here in the states on her first try this past week. For some of you you can remember it took me 6 tries in Spain to get my license so I am proud. We are now driving and learning to turn those corners.

So what it is about turning? What turned my head as I read Matthew 4:17 ? Jesus said Turn from your sins and turn to God because the kingdom of Heaven is near". I think this a major. It is huge. When I read the parables of Jesus. When I read about his heeling's, teachings, etc... it really motivates me but where it begins is here. It is in the turning away from our sins and turning to God.

So often we do try to move towards God but we are not willing to truly turn from our sins. I think about my own devotion life. I think about how much time do I really talk to the Lord in confession? When do I truly turn from my sin and turn to God. I do not usually have a problem with this when I make some major mistakes. It is the little ones that trip me up. I think it is interesting how in Matthew 5 we move to the sermon on the mount and He teaches about the law and the fulfillment of the Law and how often we can fall in the trap as they did in that day of feeling okay about keeping the 10 commandments when we take them literally. However, when you go to the deep intention, the deep heart issues of the commandments then sin can become apparent quite easily. For example we may not kill someone literally but in this sermon it addresses other ways to "kill" a person without using a weapon. We can sometimes do this with our words or hatred in our hearts. The hard thing about the sermon on the mount is that he list quite a few things that we may feel like on the surface we are okay but in the end and as intentions and motives are involved then it gets messy.

This is where I have to take a close inventory or evaluation in my life and if it is not measuring up and I have sin in my life that I have to confess it to Him and turn from it and turn towards Him. I think this is true initially when we become followers of Jesus but it is also true on a daily basis as we follow Him.

So in 2007 are you turning from your sin and turning toward God ?