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In your distress, when all these things shall
have come upon you, you shall finally return to the LORD, your
God, and heed his voice. Since the LORD, your God, is a merciful
God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget the covenant
which under oath he made with your fathers. [Taken from DEUT 4:30-31]
"When all these things which I have set
before you, the blessings and the curses, are fulfilled in you,
and from among whatever nations the LORD, your God, may have
dispersed you, you ponder them in your heart: then, provided that
you and your children return to the LORD, your God, and heed his
voice with all your heart and all your soul, just as I now command
you, the LORD, your God, will change your lot; and taking pity on
you, he will again gather you from all the nations wherein he has
scattered you. Though you may have been driven to the farthest
corner of the world, even from there will the LORD, your God,
gather you; even from there will he bring you back. The LORD, your
God, will then bring you into the land which your fathers once
occupied, that you too may occupy it, and he will make you more
prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD, your God,
will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants,
that you may love the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all
your soul, and so may live. But all those curses the LORD, your
God, will assign to your enemies and the foes who persecuted you.
You, however, must again heed the LORD'S voice and carry out all
his commandments which I now enjoin on you. Then the LORD, your
God, will increase in more than goodly measure the returns from
all your labors, the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your
livestock, and the produce of your soil; for the LORD, your God,
will again take delight in your prosperity, even as he took
delight in your fathers', if only you heed the voice of the LORD,
your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written
in this book of the law, when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul." [Taken from DEUT 30:1-10]
From the day the ark came to rest in
Kiriath-jearim a long time-twenty years-elapsed, and the whole
Israelite population turned to the LORD. Samuel said to them:
"If you wish with your whole heart to return to the LORD, put
away your foreign gods and your Ashtaroth, devote yourselves to
the LORD, and worship him alone. Then he will deliver you from the
power of the Philistines." So the Israelites put away their
Baals and Ashtaroth, and worshiped the LORD alone. [Taken from
1SAM 7:2-4]
"When they sin against you (for there is no
man who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver
them to the enemy, so that their captors deport them to a hostile
land, far or near, may they repent in the land of their captivity
and be converted. If then they entreat you in the land of their
captors and say, 'We have sinned and done wrong; we have been
wicked'; if with their whole heart and soul they turn back to you
in the land of the enemies who took them captive, pray to you
toward the land you gave their fathers, the city you have chosen,
and the temple I have built in your honor, listen from your
heavenly dwelling. Forgive your people their sins and all the
offenses they have committed against you, and grant them mercy
before their captors, so that these will be merciful to them. For
they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of
Egypt, from the midst of an iron furnace." [Taken from 1KGS 8:46-51]
After the death of Jehoiada, the princes of
Judah came and paid homage to the king, and the king then listened
to them. They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their
fathers, and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols; and
because of this crime of theirs, wrath came upon Judah and
Jerusalem. Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to
the LORD, the people would not listen to their warnings. Then the
spirit of God possessed Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He
took his stand above the people and said to them: "God says,
'Why are you transgressing the LORD'S commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.'"
[Taken from 2CHRON 24:17-20]
Accordingly the couriers, with the letters
written by the king and his princes, traversed all Israel and
Judah, and at the king's command they said: "Israelites,
return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he
may return to you, the remnant left from the hands of the Assyrian
kings. Be not like your fathers and your brethren who proved
faithless to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he
delivered them over to desolation, as you yourselves now see. Be
not obstinate, as your fathers were; extend your hands to the LORD
and come to his sanctuary that he has consecrated forever, and
serve the LORD, your God, that he may turn away his burning anger
from you. For when you return to the LORD, your brethren and your
children will find mercy with their captors and return to this
land; for merciful and compassionate is the LORD, your God, and he
will not turn away his face from you if you return to him." [Taken
from 2CHRON 30:6-9]
I prayed: "O LORD, God of heaven, great and
awesome God, you who preserve your covenant of mercy toward those
who love you and keep your commandments, may your ear be
attentive, and your eyes open, to heed the prayer which I, your
servant, now offer in your presence day and night for your
servants the Israelites, confessing the sins which we of Israel
have committed against you, I and my father's house included.
Grievously have we offended you, not keeping the commandments, the
statutes, and the ordinances which you committed to your servant
Moses. But remember, I pray, the promise which you gave through
Moses, your servant, when you said: 'Should you prove faithless, I
will scatter you among the nations; but should you return to me
and carefully keep my commandments, even though your outcasts have
been driven to the farthest corner of the world, I will gather
them from there, and bring them back to the place which I have
chosen as the dwelling place for my name.' They are your servants,
your people, whom you freed by your great might and your strong
hand. O Lord, may your ear be attentive to my prayer and that of
all your willing servants who revere your name. Grant success to
your servant this day, and let him find favor with this
man"-for I was cupbearer to the king. [NEH 1:5-11]
The third tithe I gave to orphans and widows, and to converts who were living with the Israelites.
[Taken from TOBIT 1:8]
But God will again have mercy on them and bring
them back to the land of Israel. They shall rebuild the temple,
but it will not be like the first one, until the era when the
appointed times shall be completed. Afterward all of them shall
return from their exile, and they shall rebuild Jerusalem with
splendor. In her the temple of God shall also be rebuilt; yes, it
will be rebuilt for all generations to come, just as the prophets
of Israel said of her. All the nations of the world shall be
converted and shall offer God true worship; all shall abandon
their idols which have deceitfully led them into error, and shall
bless the God of the ages in righteousness. Because all the
Israelites who are to be saved in those days will truly be mindful
of God, they shall be gathered together and go to Jerusalem; in
security shall they dwell forever in the land of Abraham, which
will be given over to them. Those who sincerely love God shall
rejoice, but those who become guilty of sin shall completely
disappear from the land. [Taken from TOBIT 14:5-7]
If you return to the Almighty, you will be
restored; if you put iniquity far from your tent, and treat
raw gold like dust, and the fine gold of Ophir as pebbles
from the brook, then the Almighty himself shall be your
gold and your sparkling silver. For then you shall delight in
the Almighty and you shall lift up your face toward God. [JOB
22:23-26]
All the ends of the earth will worship and
turn to the LORD; All the families of nations will bow
low before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler
over the nations. [PS 22:28-29]
I will teach the wicked your ways, that sinners may return to you. [PS 51:15]
Rely not on your strength in following the
desires of your heart. Say not: "Who can prevail against
me?" for the LORD will exact the punishment. Say not:
"I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?" for the
LORD bides his time. Of forgiveness be not
overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not: "Great is
his mercy; my many sins he will forgive." For mercy and
anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath.
Delay not your conversion to the LORD, put it not off from
day to day; For suddenly his wrath flames forth; at the time
of vengeance, you will be destroyed. [SIRACH 5:2-9]
Return to the LORD and give up sin, pray to him and make your offenses few. Turn again to the Most High and away from sin,
hate intensely what he loathes [Taken from SIRACH 17:20-21]
How great the mercy of the LORD, his forgiveness
of those who return to him! [SIRACH 17:24]
Although the LORD shall smite Egypt severely, he shall heal them; they shall turn to the LORD and he shall be won over and heal them.
[Taken from ISA 19:22]
Remember this, O Jacob, you, O Israel, who
are my servant! I formed you to be a servant to me; O
Israel, by me you shall never be forgotten: I have brushed away
your offenses like a cloud, your sins like a
mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. Raise a glad
cry, you heavens: the LORD has done this; shout, you depths
of the earth. Break forth, you mountains, into song, you
forest, with all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed
Jacob, and shows his glory through Israel. [ISA 44:21-23]
Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the
earth, for I am God; there is no other! By myself I
swear, uttering my just decree and my unalterable
word: To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue
shall swear, Saying, "Only in the LORD are just deeds
and power. Before him in shame shall come all who vent
their anger against him. In the LORD shall be the vindication and
the glory of all the descendants of Israel."
[ISA 45:22-25]
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call
him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and
the wicked man his thoughts; Let him turn to the LORD for
mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. [ISA 55:6-7]
The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah:
See now what rebellious Israel has done! She has gone up every
high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the
harlot. And I thought, after she has done all this she will return
to me. But she did not return. Then, even though her traitor
sister Judah saw that for all the adulteries rebellious Israel had
committed, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce,
nevertheless her traitor sister Judah was not frightened; she too
went off and played the harlot. Eager to sin, she polluted the
land, committing adultery with stone and wood. With all this, the
traitor sister Judah did not return to me wholeheartedly, but
insincerely, says the LORD. [JER 3:6-10]
If you wish to return, O Israel, says the
LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things
out of my sight, and do not stray, Then you can swear,
"As the LORD lives," in truth, in judgment, and in
justice; Then shall the nations use his name in
blessing, and glory in him. [JER 4:1-2]
O LORD, do your eyes not look for
honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you
laid them low, but they refused correction; they set their
faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you. [JER
5:3]
Then the LORD said to me: What do you see,
Jeremiah? "Figs," I replied; "the good ones are
very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be
eaten." Thereupon this word of the LORD came to me: Thus says
the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, even so will I
regard with favor Judah's exiles whom I sent away from this place
into the land of the Chaldeans. I will look after them for their
good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to
tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out. I will give
them a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. They
shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return
to me with their whole heart. And like the figs that are bad, so
bad they cannot be eaten - yes, thus says the LORD - even so will I
treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of
Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the
land of Egypt. I will make them an object of horror to all the
kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a
curse, in all the places to which I will drive them. I will send
upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have
disappeared from the land which I gave them and their fathers. [JER
24:3-10]
Why should any living man complain, any
mortal, in the face of his sins? Let us search and examine our
ways that we may return to the LORD! Let us reach out our
hearts toward God in heaven! We have sinned and
rebelled; you have not forgiven us. You veiled yourself in
wrath and pursued us, you slew us and took no pity; You
wrapped yourself in a cloud which prayer could not pierce.
You have made us offscourings and refuse among the nations.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us; Terror
and the pit have been our lot, desolation and destruction; My
eyes run with streams of water over the downfall of the
daughter of my people. My eyes flow without ceasing, there is
no respite, Till the LORD from heaven looks down and sees. [LAM 3:39-50]
Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says
the Lord GOD: Return and be converted from your idols; turn
yourselves away from all your abominations. For if anyone of the
house of Israel or any alien resident in Israel is estranged from
me, and holds the memory of his idols in his heart and keeps the
occasion of his sin before him, yet asks a prophet to consult me
for him, I, the LORD, will be his answer in person. I will turn
against that man, and make of him an example and a byword. I will
cut him off from the midst of my people. Thus you shall know that
I am the LORD. As for the prophet, if he is beguiled into speaking
a word, I, the LORD, shall have beguiled that prophet; I will
stretch out my hand against him and root him out of my people
Israel. Each shall receive punishment for his sin, the inquirer
and the prophet shall be punished alike, so that the house of
Israel may no longer stray from me and may no longer be defiled by
all their sins. Thus they shall be my people, and I will be their
God, says the Lord GOD. [EZEK 14:6-11]
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel,
each one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Turn and be
converted from all your crimes, that they may be no cause of guilt
for you. Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and
make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you
die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of
anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. Return and live! [EZEK 18:30-32]
As for you, son of man, speak to the house of
Israel: You people say, "Our crimes and our sins weigh us
down; we are rotting away because of them. How can we
survive?" Answer them: As I live, says the Lord GOD, I swear
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in
the wicked man's conversion, that he may live. Turn, turn from
your evil ways! Why should you die, O house of Israel?
[EZEK 33:10-11]
I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden
from me; Now Ephraim has played the harlot, Israel is
defiled. Their deeds do not allow them to return to their
God; For the spirit of harlotry is in them, and they do not
recognize the LORD. [Taken from HOSEA 5:3-4]
In their affliction, they shall look for
me: "Come, let us return to the LORD, For it is he
who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he
will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on
the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.
Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD; as certain as
the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like
the light of day! He will come to us like the rain, like
spring rain that waters the earth." What can I do with you,
Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your piety is like a
morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away. [HOSEA
6:1-4]
The arrogance of Israel bears witness against him;
yet they do not return to the LORD, their God, nor seek him, for all that. [Taken from HOSEA 7:10]
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your
God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you
words, and return to the LORD... I will heal their
defection, I will love them freely; for my wrath is
turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he
shall blossom like the lily; He shall strike root like the
Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall
be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon
cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise
grain; They shall blossom like the vine, and his fame
shall be like the wine of Lebanon. [Taken from HOSEA 14:2-3,5-8]
The LORD raises his voice at the head of
his army; For immense indeed is his camp, yes, mighty,
and it does his bidding. For great is the day of the
LORD, and exceedingly terrible; who can bear it? Yet even
now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole
heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your
hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your
God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger,
rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. Perhaps he
will again relent and leave behind him a
blessing, Offerings and libations for the LORD, your
God. [JOEL 2:11-14]
I struck you in all the works of your hands with blight, searing wind, and hail,
yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. [HAG 2:17]
Say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return
to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the
LORD of hosts. Be not like your fathers whom the former prophets
warned: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Turn from your evil ways and
from your wicked deeds. But they would not listen or pay attention
to me, says the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? And the
prophets, can they live forever? But my words and my decrees,
which I entrusted to my servants the prophets, did not these
overtake your fathers? Then they repented and admitted: "The
LORD of hosts has treated us according to our ways and deeds, just
as he had determined he would." [Taken from ZECH 1:3-6]
Since the days of your fathers you have turned
aside from my statutes, and have not kept them. Return
to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of
hosts. Yet you say, "How must we return?" Dare a
man rob God? Yet you are robbing me! And you say, "How
do we rob you?" In tithes and in offerings! You are
indeed accursed, for you, the whole nation, rob me. Bring the
whole tithe into the storehouse, That there may be food
in my house, and try me in this, says the LORD of
hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of
heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure? For
your sake I will forbid the locust to destroy your crops; And
the vine in the field will not be barren, says the LORD of
hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will
be a delightful land, says the LORD of hosts.
[MAL 3:7-12]
The disciples approached him and said, "Why
do you speak to them in parables?" He said to them in reply,
"Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To
anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from
anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is
why I speak to them in parables, because 'they look but do not see
and hear but do not listen or understand.' Isaiah's prophecy is
fulfilled in them, which says: 'You shall indeed hear but not
understand you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the
heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their
eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their
heart and be converted, and I heal them.'" [Taken from
MT 13:10-15]
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and
when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as
yourselves." [Taken from MT 23:15]
And when he was alone, those present along with
the Twelve questioned him about the parables. He answered them,
"The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so
that 'they may look and see but not perceive, and hear
and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be
converted and be forgiven.'"
[MK 4:10-12]
Although he had performed so many signs in their
presence they did not believe in him, in order that the word which
Isaiah the prophet spoke might be fulfilled: "Lord,
who has believed our preaching, to whom has the might of the
Lord been revealed?" For this reason they could not believe,
because again Isaiah said: "He blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart, so that they might not see with their
eyes and understand with their heart and be
converted, and I would heal them." Isaiah said this
because he saw his glory and spoke about him. Nevertheless, many,
even among the authorities, believed in him, but because of the
Pharisees they did not acknowledge it openly in order not to be
expelled from the synagogue. For they preferred human praise to
the glory of God. [JN 12:37-43]
"The author of life you put to death, but God
raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. And by faith
in his name, this man, whom you see and know, his name has made
strong, and the faith that comes through it has given him this
perfect health, in the presence of all of you. Now I know,
brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders
did; but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced
beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah
would suffer. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins
may be wiped away, and that the Lord may grant you times of
refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you,
Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the times of universal
restoration of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy
prophets from of old. For Moses said: 'A prophet like me will the
Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off
from the people.' Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from
Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days. You are
the children of the prophets and of the covenant that God made
with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, 'In your offspring
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' For you first,
God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning
each of you from your evil ways." [Taken from ACTS 3:15-26]
As they were leaving, they invited them to speak
on these subjects the following sabbath. After the congregation
had dispersed, many Jews and worshipers who were converts to
Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged
them to remain faithful to the grace of God. [ACTS 13:42-43]
Some who had come down from Judea were
instructing the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised
according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved."
Because there arose no little dissension and debate by Paul and
Barnabas with them, it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some
of the others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and
presbyters about this question. They were sent on their journey by
the church, and passed through Phoenicia and Samaria telling of
the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the
brothers. [ACTS 15:1-3]
It is my judgment, therefore, that we ought to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to
God [Taken from ACTS 15:19]
"And so, King Agrippa, I was not
disobedient to the heavenly vision. On the contrary, first to
those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the whole
country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached the need to
repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of
repentance. That is why the Jews seized me (when I was) in the
temple and tried to kill me. But I have enjoyed God's help to this
very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike,
saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses
foretold, that the Messiah must suffer and that, as the first to
rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and
to the Gentiles." [Taken from ACTS 26:19-23]
Without reaching any agreement among themselves
they began to leave; then Paul made one final statement.
"Well did the Holy Spirit speak to your ancestors through the
prophet Isaiah, saying: 'Go to this people and say: You shall
indeed hear but not understand. You shall indeed look but
never see. Gross is the heart of this people; they will not
hear with their ears; they have closed their eyes, so
they may not see with their eyes and hear with their
ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I
heal them.' Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has
been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen." [Taken from
ACTS 28:25-28]
This saying is trustworthy: whoever aspires to
the office of bishop desires a noble task. Therefore, a bishop
must be irreproachable, married only once, temperate,
self-controlled, decent, hospitable, able to teach, not a
drunkard, not aggressive, but gentle, not contentious, not a lover
of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his
children under control with perfect dignity; for if a man does not
know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of the
church of God? He should not be a recent convert, so that he may
not become conceited and thus incur the devil's punishment. He
must also have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, the devil's trap.
[1TM 3:1-7] [Note: Religious offices indicated in the New
Testament are in their infancy and can be shown to be developing
even in Scripture. Within a short time, many religious offices in
the Church adopted Jesus' and Paul's recommended observance of celibacy
as a general rule.]
Also try:
repent
/ repentance [R4]
confess
/ confession of sins [C]
confessing
of sins / forgiveness [F10]
Confession
(Reconciliation / Penance) [S2]
God's
faithfulness [G]
atonement
for sin [A]
mercy
/ merciful [M3a]
refuge
[R1]
heal
/ healing [H4]
trust
in God / trust in the Lord [T13]
almsgiving
[A]
Sacraments
[S2]
love
/ love of God / loving / loved [L7a]
justice
[J5]
kingdom
/ kingdom of God [K2a]
destruction
of evil [D]
wicked
/ wickedness [E3a]
wrong
/ wrongdoing [W14]
enmity
with God [H10a]
sin
/ sins / sinned / sinful / sinner [S18a]
fear
of God / fear of the Lord [F7]
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