FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4
Scripture: Mark 1:1-4

Mark 1:1-4 says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You. ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” John demanded people change the way they thought as a preparation for Christ. Metanoia is the Greek Word for the process of changing our thinking. Me-tan-oy-ah simply means to change our mind or to do an about face. Why change our mind? Because sin is forgiven, it is remitted with all records being completely extinguished. What is available is the complete cleansing of the conscience from dead works in order to fully and powerfully serve the Living God. John Calvin pointed to the double derivation of repentance; from the Hebrew which means conversion or turning again and the Greek meaning a change of mind and purpose. The word ‘purpose’ is important. Turning away from the self-focused purpose that produced the sin, completely eradicates it from our consciousness through Christ’s Blood. Then we are privileged to celebrate communion and the complete victory, of eradicating the past and the surrender to God’s original purpose which started at creation! It should not surprise us, though, that we have to contend for these gifts that are provided for us. Metanoia is an important part of the cleansing of the conscience. It is turning from the lifestyle that produced the violation to start with, as well as cleansing us of the aftermath. We choose to walk in the Spirit and therefore we do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. A conscience, once cleansed, stays that way by following the Holy Spirit pursuing God’s eternal purposes!