{"id":6776,"date":"2020-09-30T20:34:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T10:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6776"},"modified":"2020-09-30T20:34:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T10:34:37","slug":"repentance-and-confession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/repentance-and-confession\/","title":{"rendered":"Repentance and Confession"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Repentance and Confessions readings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Testament Passage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 John 1:5-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The Lord is faithful in his promises. He wants to bless us and is waiting for us to come to Him so he may purify and bless us. How can we then show him that we are willing to be purified?<\/li>
  2. When we go to our father of Confession. Do we go because we truly want purification or is it because we think we are obliged to as Orthodox Christians?<\/li>
  3. How often do we prepare for confession, making sure all our sins are poured our before our father of Confession and our Father in Heaven? \u00a0<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Old Testament Passage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Joel 2:12-27<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201c\u201cNow, therefore,\u201d\nsays the LORD, \u201cTurn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and\nwith mourning.\u201d So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD\nyour God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness;\nAnd He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave\na blessing behind Him\u2014 A grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your\nGod? Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly;\nGather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the\nchildren and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the\nbride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep\nbetween the porch and the altar; Let them say, \u201cSpare Your people, O LORD, And\ndo not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them.\nWhy should they say among the peoples, \u2018Where is their God?\u2019 \u201d Then the LORD\nwill be zealous for His land, And pity His people. The LORD will answer and say\nto His people, \u201cBehold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you\nwill be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the\nnations. \u201cBut I will remove far from you the northern army, And will drive him\naway into a barren and desolate land, With his face toward the eastern sea And\nhis back toward the western sea; His stench will come up, And his foul odor\nwill rise, Because he has done monstrous things.\u201d Fear not, O land; Be glad and\nrejoice, For the LORD has done marvelous things! Do not be afraid, you beasts\nof the field; For the open pastures are springing up, And the tree bears its\nfruit; The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you\nchildren of Zion, And rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the\nformer rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you\u2014 The\nformer rain, And the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall\nbe full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. \u201cSo I will\nrestore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling\nlocust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I\nsent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name\nof the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall\nnever be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I\nam the LORD your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to\nshame.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Should my repentance mainly be an outward or an inward endeavour? Is it primarily, a matter of changing ones actions or of quiet reflection and prayer with the Lord? <\/li>
    2. Joel tells us to \u201crend our heart\u201d first, thus do we repent with our hearts before our actions? How can I make the repentance of my heart the first step, allowing it to be a platform for a more outward repentance?<\/li>
    3. Is it wrong to do the outward actions (fasting, prostrations, and even confession) if I don\u2019t feel that my heart truly desires to repent?<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Repentance and Confessions readings New Testament Passage 1 John 1:5-10 \u201cThis is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice … Continue reading “Repentance and Confession”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[357],"tags":[284,88],"class_list":["post-6776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-groups","tag-confession","tag-repentance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6778,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6776\/revisions\/6778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}