Jesus' First Message

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Matthew 4:17

Fred lifted the heavy ring of ancient keys and tried another, but the rusty gate held fast. Jorge pointed to a shiny new key marked Gate. “Why don’t you try that one?” Fred chuckled. “Nah, I think one of these’ll do it. This is the way I open everything. This gate is rusted shut and that key looks too new.” Thirty minutes passed while Fred struggled with the gate until finally Jorge jerked the set of keys from Fred's hand, grabbed the shiny silver one and jammed it into the lock. With a loud click, the gate opened. Fred’s eyes widened, then he shook his head. “Wow. I didn’t think it would be that simple."

We are like Fred when it comes to entering the kingdom of God. We can't imagine it is that simple, so we continue through our ring of keys, trying to open the door into God’s presence with Excuses, Justifications, Denials, or Bargains. God offers us the only key that will open the door. It’s called Repentance and it was the first sermon Jesus preached. Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of direction. We must agree with God about how bad our sin is and purpose to work with Him to change it. We cannot enter the presence of a holy God while defending the very things He hates. 

Defended Sin is a rusty key that keeps us away from God's presence, blessing, and favor. Defended Sin won’t unlock anything but regrets; Repented Sin opens the door to forgiveness and restoration. Repentance prepares us for becoming all God created us to be.

A Christian is a person who constantly prepares for the next season by living in a state of ongoing repentance.

The Prayers God Doesn't Want

If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, 

even his prayer is an abomination. 

Proverbs 28:9

Wait! What? You mean there are some prayers God doesn’t want? 

According to scripture, yes. Prayer is a universally accepted idea, but we want to set our own rules for it. The majority of adults claim that they pray, but is God listening to those prayers? Scripture commands us to pray, but there are some guidelines for those prayers. For example, will God honor the prayer of a man who flings himself off a skyscraper with the words: “God, keep me safe?” Or would God honor the prayer of a murderer asking for nice weather for his next kill? Obviously, God does not welcome every prayer, but we want to think that He always hears ours. But does He? How do we know? Fortunately, He’s spelled it out pretty clearly for us.

God is all about the heart, because the heart determines our actions. We may say, “I don’t believe in stealing,” but we slip a twenty out of our employer’s cash register. We lied. We do believe in stealing. We may say, “I don’t believe in having sex outside marriage,” but our significant other is moving in next week. We lied. We do believe we can do whatever we want. Actions are our hearts on display. We may say we love God, but our actions indicate whether or not we are lying (1 Jn. 2:4). So, when we continually defy God’s clear commands, He doesn’t want to hear our requests. They disgust Him. He’s not fooled by our lying lips; he sees our hearts. When we’ve become our own gods, He knows it and He does not listen to idol worshipers.

Are you turning your ear away from hearing God’s law? The only prayer He wants to hear is repentance. 

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Reboot Your Life

Create in me a clean heart, O God; 

and renew a right spirit within me.  

Psalm 51:10

“This stupid computer keeps freezing up!” Andy shouted and kicked away from his desk, throwing his hands into the air. “I hate computers! Now I have to call the geek squad again.” 

Dan set his coffee cup carefully on the edge of the desk and peered at his co-worker’s screen. “Restart it,” he suggested. 

Andy frowned. “Nah, that won’t work. I probably need to throw this away and buy a new one.” 

Dan shrugged. “It’s your money, but I’d restart it. Sometimes it just needs a fresh start and it will work like new.” 

Andy frowned at his co-worker, but did as he suggested. In moments, his computer was working perfectly. 

Dan tried not to look smug as he picked up his cup. “Yep. Thought so. Just needed a fresh start. Wish I could reboot like that.”

Psalm 51:10 tells us that we can. Our lives get a reboot when we confess our sin and turn away from it. Like computers, our lives collect garbage that weighs us down and freezes our relationship with God. Sometimes the past seems overwhelming and we feel stuck in a sea of bad decisions. We have no way to free ourselves, so we give up, assuming we are worthless. But God doesn’t give up on us. Like Dan, He suggests, “Restart it.” We restart our lives when we bring our mess to Him and agree to obey Him. He erases the stains on our hearts and replaces despair with hope. He renews our thinking and helps us move on.

Does your life need a reboot? Confess your sin to God and agree to do things His way. He gives fresh starts.

Prayer: Father, I feel like that computer. I feel frozen by my past and current sins. But your word says you can free me and make me new. I surrender it all to you now. Take this sin from me, cleanse my heart, and renew me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Excuses, Excuses!

“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”  Revelation 2:5

Imagine being scolded by Jesus! The church at Ephesus was doing a lot of things right, but something crucial was missing. They were no longer doing good things because they loved Him, they were doing right for wrong reasons. They had slacked off on their relationship with Him, and substituted religious duty. They weren’t trying to sin, but their motives for doing good had become self-centered. Because their behavior was beyond reproach, they made excuses for their coldness. But they were only fooling themselves. They were not fooling God. So Jesus gave them a wake-up call, and His wake-up call applies to us, too. 

Some of their excuses may have sounded like these: “We haven’t been to church in several weeks, ‘cuz our kids have sports.” “I’ll start giving again after I get my bills paid off and our vacations paid for.” “We’d love to serve, but we’re just gone so much on the weekends.” Sound familiar? We didn’t invent spiritual excuses; Ephesus beat us to it. Jesus warned the Ephesians that if they did not repent of their mixed-up priorities, He would cancel all the blessing and fruitfulness He wanted to give them. He warns us too. When we ignore Him, He misses us. Misses our fellowship, our passion, and our love. Without that heart connection, we are only serving ourselves and are no longer beacons of light in the darkness; we become the darkness.

If you heard this warning from Jesus, what might He be referring to? 

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Running Out of Time

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6

“I’ll get my life straight when I’m old,” Juan boasted. “I’ve got plenty of livin’ to do before then!”

“I know I should get right with God,” Emilie confessed. “But that means I’d have to change some things, and I’m not ready.”

“Yeah, I’ll get serious about spiritual things one day,” said Pat. “But I’m so busy right now at work, I just don’t have time.”

These people are all making a huge and costly assumption. They are assuming that God will work within their timetables and that when they have decided they are ready for Him, He will come running. But the Bible tells us that the opposite happens. Jesus said that no one can come to Him unless the Father first draws him (John 6:44). He means that our hearts have no desire to repent, to change, or to know God unless the Holy Spirit has first prepared us. So God commands us to seek Him while we can, because that option may not always be available. To seek Him means we first acknowledge that He exists. Second, we agree that He is who His word says He is and that we need Him. Then we ask Him to reveal truth to our hearts and we act upon whatever truth we have been given. We seek God when a hunger has begun gnawing within our souls for something that this world cannot offer. That hunger was placed there by God Himself to cause us to seek Him. And because His character is so vast, we can seek Him all our lives and never come to the end of all He is and all He wants to reveal to us.

Are you seeking the Lord while He may be found?

Regret, Remorse, or Repentance

Godly sorrow brings repentance…and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 2 Cor. 7:10

There are three responses we can make in dealing with past mistakes: regret, remorse, or repentance. Although similar, they produce completely different results. Consider this illustration: A man has struggled with pornography addiction for years. After every indulgence, he berates himself for his weakness. He calls himself every name he can think of and sets his heart to self-loathing mode in an effort to show God he is sorry. That is remorse. The next time he gives in, he remembers the stricken look on his wife's face when she found the pornographic material on his phone and computer. His stomach fills with acid and he shuts his eyes to try to blot out the memory. If only he hadn't done it...but it's too late now. That is regret.

One night as he prepares to click on the link that will pull him back into his private nightmare, he has a vision of Jesus gazing back at him from the screen. His eyes are filled with compassion, but His white robe is stained and bloody, smeared with filth. In his arms he carries the photos and movies the man has been watching. "I paid for this with my life," Jesus says. “Go and sin no more." The vision is gone as quickly as it came and now all the man sees is the triple-X link on his computer screen. In fury, he slams the lid and quickly dials a Christian friend to ask for help. No matter what it costs him, from now on he will do whatever it takes to forsake this evil. How could He put more of this filth on the Son of God? That is repentance.

Two men betrayed Jesus on the night he was crucified. Judas felt remorse and his life ended. Peter repented and his life was transformed. Repentance is the doorway into God’s presence and into the victory waiting for you.

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Time to Turn Around

“Repent” is a Bible word meaning a change of mind that results in a change of action. Imagine that you are driving west and halfway to your destination, you remember that you left your wallet at home. You must have it for what you are about to do. So as soon as possible, you find a turnaround and head in the opposite direction. You were heading west, thinking everything was fine. But something changed. You gained sudden understanding that caused you to make an abrupt change and head east. There may be detours and flat tires, but you are still headed in the right direction. 

That is a picture of repentance. 

When we come to the understanding that God is holy and we are not, we realize we have a big problem. We cannot keep going the way we are going and end up where we want to be. We must repent. We must have a change of mind about who is right and who should run our lives. It used to be Self. But when we repent, we agree with God about our sin and His right to be in charge of our lives. That change of mind results in a change of action. We cannot repent and continue to follow the same sin path we were on before, just as you cannot go east and west at the same time. Repentance changes our direction.

God offers a full pardon to everyone who comes to Him in repentance (Luke 5:32). Have you repented of your sin and allowed God to change your direction?

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Is It Too Late?

 

Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud. Genesis 27:38 (NIV)

It was too late. The opportunity had passed and he missed it. He hadn’t thought he cared about his heritage back when he so casually threw it away. But now…Realization hit with a power punch, but it came too late. It was gone and he had no one to blame but himself.

Regret is painful. Remorse is worse. But often we mistake those emotions for repentance—and they are not the same. Remorse and regret make us feel bad, hate ourselves, hate others, and remind us continually that we are failures. They become fertilizer for self-loathing, which we often mistake for humility. But repentance is different. Repentance is the doorway to restoration. Repentance means we agree with God about our sin and we do a 180. We own what we’ve done and change our mind about doing it again. We accept the forgiveness of God, but we don’t take it for granted. Esau regretted what he’d done. He felt remorse over the consequences. But he never repented, so he could never be restored. Have you made the same mistake?

If you find yourself continually returning to the same sins, same patterns, same attitudes that have always defeated you, could it be that you have never repented? You feel bad about it, hate the pain it causes, hate yourself for doing it, but…you want to reserve the right to do it again if you want to. Isn’t it time you agreed with God about how awful that sin is and let go of it? Only through repentance can our innocence and our fellowship with God be restored.

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The Doorway

A single, narrow doorway draws excessive attention from the enemy of our souls. He throws his vile body in front of it and spares no expense to keep us away from it. Whatever it takes. Whatever lie works. Doesn't  matter as long as he keeps us away from this doorway that threatens his domain. When he succeeds, he gains a devastating weapon that he uses to beat us into submission. This weapon can make the most successful woman a slave to insecurity and render the strongest man a weakling. It's called Shame.
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Satan's only access to this weapon is our permission. The shame is ours, all right. We've earned it and we know it. All the pep talk in the world, all the hype and self-esteem boosters cannot break the deep conviction that we deserve these beatings. There is only one way to escape them and it is through that doorway. And Satan knows it.
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The door is called Repentance. We don't hear this word much anymore-- another of Satan's ideas. Instead we hear his screams: "Don't walk through that door! God understands. You're a good person. It was a long time ago. It was no big deal. You're over it."  We pause at the door, listen to his lies, and move on. What we don't hear is his cackling behind our backs as he picks up the weapon we just handed him. Shame. From now on he can torture us at will, squelch any attempts of ours to embrace love, joy, and peace. Shame convinces us that we will forever remain on God's B List.

But when we kick him aside and charge through that doorway, we find a different welcome than the one Satan told us we'd find. In desperation, we drag sin's filthy carcass to the foot of the cross and we look up. We see our shame piled high on His bloodied shoulders. We listen to the Voice coming from between clenched teeth. "It...is...finished ." And we believe Him. It's paid for. All of it. Repentance means we stop making excuses, stop blaming, and fully own the gravity of our sin... Yes, that sin too. The dark one. The one Satan reminds us of anytime we start to think we have value and purpose.
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Because 'it is finished' and because we walked through that doorway, we can stand tall, forgiven, and whole. And we choose to live on this side of the doorway because we know what waits on the other side. He has nothing we want. He can keep that shame and choke on it. It belongs with him. Shame has no power on this side of the door.
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Who's Your Nathan?

Sometimes we get too big for our britches!

Even those whose hearts belong to God can get off track to the point where God cannot reach them. He dials; nobody answers. But another wonderful thing about God is that He doesn't quit trying.

David was called "a man after God's own heart." He was God's hand-picked king and spoke with Him face-to-face. David wrote many of the inspired Psalms and was a mouthpiece for God Himself.

But he got too big for his britches.

He turned a stubborn face against the Lord and followed lust instead. One lust led to another until David had innocent blood on his hands. But still he refused to hear God.

So God came at him another way. He used the prophet Nathan. Only when confronted with God's words from another person would David listen.

God does that with us, too. Even when we have heard from God, we know His voice, and we follow Him, we can get off track. We get too big for our britches. We start following our own ideas, lusts, opinions, and desires. We start thinking for ourselves rather than seeking God's thoughts. And we get off into the ditch.

Sometimes even then, we turn our stubborn faces away and keep trying to make it right our own way. But God doesn't give up. He keeps trying. And sometimes he uses other people.

Has God sent a Nathan to you? Has someone spoken God's words right into the middle of your sin? Some people get angry at the Nathan who dared point out their error. 

One thing David did right when shown his sin was that he repented. On the spot. He allowed God's truth to penetrate and demolish the tower of cards he had built and he turned it around. He fully owned what he had done and stopped it. That's called repentance. David repented before the Lord and humbly took the discipline he deserved.

You have a choice when your Nathan confronts you. You can stiffen up in self-righteous anger, or you can follow the righteous example of a man after God's own heart. You can repent, accept the discipline you deserve, and move on to be everything God wants you to be.

Keep an eye out for your Nathans. God sent them.
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The Secret in the Jar

The woman who broke her alabaster jar of expensive perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus is only identified in the Bible as an "immoral woman." But this was not the only immoral woman in town. This was not the only woman with an alabaster jar. How many others had heard about the famous Rabbi who may actually be the promised Messiah? How many hearts had skipped a beat as anxious hands clutched their own jars more tightly? Had there been others lurking In the shadows, hiding in the alleys?
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Only one thing set this woman apart from every other needy heart in town: she went in. She dared to shoulder her way through the disapproving frowns and all the way to Jesus. She had no way of knowing how she would be received. He could reject her gift. He could reject her. But with this plan, there was no going back. She brought everything she had and cashed it in.
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No one else was willing to take the risk. Fear, shame, or self-loathing was a stronger god. Others kept their alabaster jars tucked safely away, assuring themselves it was not enough. He wouldn't want what they had--- broken promises, failures, the angry shouts of a past they could not silence. So they kept a tight grip on their jars and watched as others found hope and freedom. They watched an immoral woman go in to Jesus and emerge as the pure Bride of Christ. She was minus the jar, but would forever carry the fragrance of its contents poured out.
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Here's the secret of the jar....it's your safety net. You may loathe its contents. It may smell horrid to you; that's why you refuse to break it. You cannot image Someone like Jesus would want such a thing. But the fragrance only comes when it is offered. It will continue to reek, held captive in your hands. Poured out on the feet of Jesus, it becomes a sweet fragrance fit for a King.
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The Zealot

 A shocking little story in Numbers 25 gives us a glimpse into the mind of God. The Israelites were in big trouble for committing sexual sin and worshiping idols. They were doing exactly what God had warned them NOT to do, becoming like the pagans around them. God sent a horrible plague through the camp, which brought the whole nation before God in repentance. Right in the middle of their worship service, one guy swaggered through their meeting with a sleazy girl on his arm, headed to his tent to do exactly what the people of God were repenting for.
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Phinehas, great nephew of Moses, was horrified and did something about it. He followed the boldly-sinning pair to their tent and ran his spear through them both. Instead of condemning Phinehas for murder, God praised him for being "zealous with my zeal." God honored him and promised that blessings would follow for generations to come. He also stopped the plague he had sent upon the rest of the people.
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So what can we learn from this? The modern notion is that when God sent Jesus, He threw out the whole concept of holiness. Is that what the Bible teaches? Could it be that God is still pleased when we refuse to tolerate boldly sinning people who claim to belong to Him? If the God who never changes was pleased with Phinehas' zeal for God's honor, is he equally pleased when we use the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Eph. 6), to confront boldly-sinning church members?
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Seems like we might have this whole tolerance and passive-love thing upside down. We've developed the idea that God honors those who look the other way. We call it love. But the God of Love praised Phinehas for being "zealous with my zeal." What is God zealous about? The righteousness and holiness of His people. When we are zealous for righteousness and holiness--in our own lives as well as the lives of those who profess to be brothers and sisters--scripture is clear that we honor God and he is pleased to honor us.

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True Confessions

 To Whom It May Concern:
I am the person who robbed Central Bank and Trust back in '03. I stole over $100,000 and have been hiding out. I am sorry I did that, although the money is all spent. I hope the city can forgive me and I can come out of hiding. I have suffered enough, don't you think? Sincerely, A Former Robber
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What would you think if you read that in the classifieds? Is that a confession? Do you agree with his sentiments that everyone should drop the matter? Is it unfair if the ones he robbed don't think so?

Something similar to that is what many people call "asking God to forgive me." Guilt catches up with them. They've heard that God is loving and forgiving, so they bank on it. They sin big-time, then grovel in pseudo-confession. It goes something like this: 

"I'm sorry, God. 

I know what I did was wrong, but I did have reasons for doing it.  

(Fill in the blank with justifications here...) 

 Please forgive me, and I hope I don't do it again."  

(However, I know I probably will.)

They quote I John 1:9 and head back to their life, claiming forgiveness. Most of the time, they repeat the same sin or something worse. Sin. Guilt. Repeat. Is that what the Bible means when it says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us?

I don't think so.

Now envision this. The same bank robber shows up at the police station 10 years later. He walks boldly into the detective's office and turns himself in. "I'm the guy who robbed Central Bank in '03. I spent all the money and have nothing to show for it. I have no excuses for what I did and I'm ready to take whatever punishment you see fit to give me. I am truly sorry for all the harm I caused and I'll do whatever you think necessary to make it up to everyone I hurt." Then he holds out his wrists for the cuffs.

Now THAT'S a confession! The kind of confession that warms the heart of God is one like that. We come to him with no excuses. We own our sin and hate what we've done. We know we don't deserve a break and are willing to do whatever necessary to demonstrate repentance. If it involves consequences, so be it. If we must humble ourselves and ask forgiveness from others, we do it. If it involves a lifetime of restitution, so be it. That's what repentance looks like in the heart of one who is ready for the forgiveness of God. In fact, it is those consequences that help brand into our hearts just how awful our sin was. Consequences make it not worth repeating.

God's forgiveness is not cheap. It cost him the life of his only Son. He has promised that a "broken and contrite heart, He will not despise." Confession without repentance is a waste of effort. It is an insult to a holy God who paid for your cleansing with his blood. 

Are you caught on a treadmill of repeat sin? Chances are great that you are not repenting and your sin looms ever before you. If you want the total healing God promises, hold out your wrists and show him you mean it.
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Wash Time

 When my sons were young, shower time became a battlefield. I don't know what it is about cleanliness that strikes terror in the hearts of young males, but there you have it. The idea of a thorough washing  became synonymous with child abuse. 

Especially my youngest, Micah. At about age 9 or 10, he did everything possible to avoid a real bath. He would emerge after 30 seconds in the bathroom with four or five damp hair tendrils and clean clothes. His face had never seen the water and I doubted the rest of him had either.

He wasted more time trying to pretend he was taking a shower than if he had just gotten it over with. Consequently, his adolescent B.O. was noticeable. It was not until he suddenly realized that girls did not have "cooties" that the psuedo-showering ended and became instead hour-long, hot-water-draining marathons.

There is a parallel here with what the Bible calls the "washing of water by the Word." (Ephesians 5:26) Washing implies thoroughness. If you wash the dishes, you spend time with them, examining them for food scraps, and scrubbing them until nothing foul remains. If you wash the dog, you suds him up until that doggy smell lessens. And what God intends for his children is that we wash our hearts and minds with his Word until we no longer stink like the sinful world we've been wading through.

Unfortunately, the attitude of many professing believers is like that of my 10-year-old shower-hater. They know they have to read the Bible, so they trudge reluctantly to some devotional book or spend a hurried five minutes staring at the Bible, and feel like they've done their duty. Their hearts are barely damp and they reek of spiritual B.O., but they are the only ones who don't realize it.

Our minds are polluted. Our hearts are wicked. Our thoughts, desires, and motives are questionable at best. We do not have the tools to fix ourselves. A simple sprinkling of good advice is not sufficient to cleanse us from the inside out. We must have the washing of the Word of God to constantly purify what our flesh and the world dirties.

Are you settling for an occasional sprinkling of the Word? God wants to wash you. You won't get clean without it. 

And like they say, cleanliness is next to Godliness. Go ahead and run the hot water tank dry. There is plenty more!

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Can I Have It My Way?

Do you remember Burger King's popular slogan back in the day? "Have it your way" helped Burger King reach the pinnacle of business success and recognizably.

The idea of having a hamburger exactly the way you want it has spread like a grass fire in our culture. Self-determination is our national identity. Even shopping for a simple item has become a confusing maze. Every item has a hundred options: colors, flavors, sizes, low-fat, high-energy, super volume, extra-butter... We consider choice a right and expect it to apply to every situation.

Unfortunately, this also applies to seeking God. We assume we can pick and choose what we like about God or Christianity and leave the rest. Even modern evangelicalism has sunk into this mire of "have it your way."

Grace has become the buzzword of the new slew of evangelical preachers and has been spread thickly like mortar over every lifestyle. A chirpy little client of mine announced with confidence that she knew her live-in relationship with her boyfriend was not "the best," but was certain God understood and did not mind. "It's just the grace of God, you know!"

Really? Didn't the Apostle Paul deal with this very subject in the sixth chapter of Romans? How many professing Christians in our day have ever read it?

Since when did obedience to the stated standard of God become optional?

When we set ourselves up as the final authority on our own lives and morality, we have effectively removed God and replaced him with Self. We become our own gods.

And that is not biblical Christianity. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find any precedent that resembles this ideology. The pattern set by those who received Christ as Lord was to forsake sin, forsake worldly lust, and take up whatever cross was necessary to follow him. Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46)

Have you bought into this pseudo-Christian message? Have you decided that you can have God your way? It's not true. We come to him his way, or we don't come at all.

Repentance is the doorway to freedom. It's standing wide open. Be sure you walk through it.  

The Three R's

Many people don't realize there is a huge difference between regret and repentance. Consider this illustration.

A man's shortcut home every day takes him past a string of adult bookstores. Having struggled with moral issues in the past, his stomach tightens every time he has to drive by the seedy parking lots. Gaudy neon advertisements in the boarded-up windows seem to pull at him with magnetic force and he fears he will eventually give in.

And one day he does.

The next time his trip takes him down that street, guilt pours over him and he loudly berates himself for his weakness. He calls himself every kind of name he can think of and promises God he'll tithe a double portion this week to make up for it.

That's remorse.

One week later, the temptation is still there and now he pictures the stricken look on his wife's face when she found the pornographic material in his briefcase. His stomach fills with acid. Shame washes over him and he wishes there was some way he could take his decision back. If only he hadn't done it...but it's too late now.

That's regret.

One stormy night, as he signals the right turn that will take him past the bookstores, an image flashes into his mind. Jesus is gazing at him. And although his eyes are filled with compassion, his flowing white robe is stained and bloody, smeared with filth, and in his arms he carries the pile of porn the man had bought.

Horror strikes him as he sits at the stoplight and for a moment he forgets how to drive. Cars honk and zoom around him while he sits frozen behind the wheel.

"Neither do I condemn you," Jesus says and his voice fills the car. "Go and sin no more."

The vision is gone as quickly as it came and now the only sound is the rain pelting down on the car hood. The man slumps over the wheel, stricken with a grief so great he thinks he's having a heart attack.

He glances to the right, down the neon strip where temptation lurks. With deliberate motions, he jerks the steering wheel to the left and shoots through the intersection. No matter how much farther it is, from now on he'll take the long way home.

That is repentance.

Two men betrayed Jesus on the night he was crucified. Judas felt remorse and his life ended. Peter repented and his life was transformed.

Don't settle for remorse or regret for the sins you've committed. Neither will absolve you of guilt. Only repentance brings you under the forgiving grace of God and has the power to transform your life.
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