Return to me
with all your heart.
Not with torn garments,
careful words
or borrowed sorrow.
Rend your hearts.
Israel had returned from exile
but had not returned to God.
The old sins remained,
deep in the soil,
deep in the people,
the ancient fracture of the garden
running through every kingdom
we build for ourselves.
And still God lets them stand.
Still he tolerates
our empires,
our violence,
our hunger for control.
But not forever.
The Day of the Lord is coming.
A day when God will say
that evil is evil,
that injustice will not endure,
that sin will not be permitted
to consume the earth without end.
The locusts gather like an army.
The army advances like a plague.
The land trembles.
God is sovereign.
God is not absent.
God is not indifferent.
So gather the people.
Let the priests weep
between the altar and the portico.
Let everyone come honestly
before God.
Repentance is more
than saying sorry.
It is a life
brought back into alignment
with the One
who made us.
Years later,
a boy entered a church on a dare.
He invented sins,
mocked confession,
laughed at grace.
The priest did not argue.
He sent the boy to the cross
and told him to say three times,
‘Jesus Christ,
you died for me,
and I do not care.’
Once.
Twice.
But the third time
the words would not come.
Before the crucified Christ,
mockery gave way to encounter.
The heart tore open.
For it is easy to say sorry
without coming face-to-face with God.
It is easy to speak of repentance
without looking upon the one
who bore the Day of the Lord for us.
There is one way to peace:
through the power of the cross.
The judgement of God
falls upon sin.
The mercy of God
opens a way home.
And afterward, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit
on all people.
Sons and daughters will prophesy.
Old men will dream dreams.
Young men will see visions.
The Spirit will fall
without regard for age,
status,
gender
or rank.
The Day is coming,
but everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord
will be saved.
This does not mean
every trial will disappear.
It means we are heard.
We do not speak
into an empty sky.
We come before Almighty God,
the God who judges sin,
the God who pities his people,
the God who pours out his Spirit,
the God who meets us at the cross.
Return to him.
Not merely with words.
Return with your heart.
Original message by Lou Fortier
The Bridge Church Macquarie Park NSW
26 July 2026
The Afterword 
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