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True Confession and Repentance:
True confession is not the mere mental assent that we
have done wrong, for even a thief will admit he’s done
wrong in the bragging of his accomplishments. No,
confession means seeing and agreeing with God how our
sins have harmed us and others. It is pouring out our
shame and deep sorrow to the Lord over our misdeeds.
It is repenting of our evil ways, turning around and
doing what’s right and good, and it’s seeking
reconciliation with others and our God.
This is repentance the leads to life, whereas the
thief’s boasting leads only to further alienation
from God. As the Bible says, “Godly sorrow brings
repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no
regret, but worldly sorrow brings death”
(1Corinthians 7.10).
“Aunt Bessie’s Pickled Beets!” 2 Corinthians 7:2-13 Key verse(s): 10:“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
The worst part of doing wrong is being found out. We’ve all been caught doing wrong in life; especially when we reflect back on our childhoods. And there are many things about doing wrong that are hurtful. First and foremost is the pain and suffering that we bring to others in our wrong-doing. This is the impact of wrong-doing that reverberates. Wrong has a way of broadcasting and spreading out, making a little mistake into a much bigger one. Take a lie for example. What started out as a fib can easily become the initiator of all manner of hurt, none of which was our intention in the first place. Certainly the effect of our wrong-doing on others is preeminent in our concern for doing right. But, there are other consequences attached to our wrongful behavior; not the least of which is the regret that becomes our lot when we are discovered in our sins.
I really hate the feeling of regret. There is simply something grinding and gnawing about it. Regret has a way of packaging itself so that it stays fresh for a very long time. Just when you think that you have put it away for good in some safe place where it can slowly but surely dissipate into the farthest and deepest reaches of your consciousness, some little reminder of the deed that spawned the regret in the first place creeps into your life. And that’s when regret pops up. It’s the jar of Aunt Bessie’s pickled beets that you pushed to the back of the fruit cellar shelf in hopes that in the darkness it could be forgotten that, despite the accumulation of years of dust and perhaps a little rust around the rim, stares back at you fresh and beckoning to be opened. Unless you empty the contents and wash the jar, Aunt Bessie’s face will always be popping up in the cellar no matter how many times you push it to the back of the shelf. You can’t live with regret no matter how hard you try. It will never be tamed or transformed because, like pickled beets, regret always tastes and looks the same. You can’t “salt” it or tincture it to make it more palatable. Pickled beets will always taste pickled.
“In 1904 William Borden, heir to the Borden Dairy Estate, graduated from a Chicago high school a millionaire. His parents gave him a trip around the world. Traveling through Asia, the Middle East and Europe gave Borden a burden for the world’s hurting people. Writing home, he said, ‘I’m going to give my life to prepare for the mission field.’ When he made this decision, he wrote in the back of his Bible two words: No Reserves. Turning down high paying job offers after graduation from Yale University, he entered two more words in his Bible: No Retreats. Completing studies at Princeton Seminary, Borden sailed for China to work with Muslims, stopping first at Egypt for some preparation. While there he was stricken with cerebral meningitis and died within a month. A waste, you say! Not in God’s plan. In his Bible underneath the words No Reserves and No Retreats, he had written the words No Regrets. (Daily Bread, December 31, 1988.)
There is only one way to deal with regret. You need to remove it from your life completely. Aunt Bessie’s pickled beets are always going to be there unless, of course, you eat them, wash the jar and return it with thanks to Aunt Bessie. Regrets don’t go away unless you decide in the first place that there is simply no room for them among the provisions in your heart. You may not like pickled beets but one thing you can be sure of, the beets marinated in that pickling solution are suspended in a state of freshness that will preserve them for a very long time. It is not likely that they will self-destruct any time soon requiring you to dispose of them with a clean conscience. No, Aunt Bessie pickled them for a reason. She wanted them preserved as a memorial to her garden and she had every intention of insuring that their survival would even exceed her’s. You might as well eat them and get it over with.
A BONE OR A STEAK?
Which is better, a bone or a steak?
Think of it this way. It’s easy to give a dog a bone, but it’s almost impossible to take a bone away from a dog. Even our little Schnauzer, Betsy, the world’s friendliest dog, will growl at me if I try to take a bone away from her.
But there’s an easy to way to take a bone away from a dog. All you have to do is offer a juicy steak to them. When you do that, the dog will evaluate and choose. In every case, they’ll give up the bone and take the steak.
The same is true of our relationships. If you’re single and dating someone who is an unbeliever, you might think it’s pretty good--but it’s a bone, and God has a steak for you, a relationship with Him. If you’re thinking about entering in to a business partnership with an unbeliever, it may look like a tasty bone, but your Heavenly Dad has a steak for you, a dynamic relationship with Him. We all desire someone’s presence, intimacy, and someone to care for us, but if we settle for having those needs met by someone other than God, we’re settling for the bone when God has something so much better for us!
(From a sermon by David Dykes, Radioactive Relationships, 8/12/2010)
ON REGRET
John Greenleaf Whittier, one of our most astute poets, wrote:
For of all the sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: 'It might have been.'
That is what Regret is all about. The world is full of people who Regret having thoughtlessly chosen the wrong path. Life is a series of forks in the road; it is a series of Decisions, some more important than others. But the Choices are...
JAIL-TIME REPENTANCE
I want to share with you a small auto-biographical story that I believe illustrates the type of repentant heart needed to continue in getting rid of guilt.
She had always been a good girl so finding herself in this place was unimaginable to her. How was she going to survive this? She came into the facility only an hour ago and was locked in a single room with six other women. As she looked around she became more and more frightened. This isn’t where she belonged. Her mother never taught her how to survive in jail. How could the judge have sentenced her to time in this place? Did he really feel that a non-violent, first time offense deserved this? Here she was though, for six long months. She started counting the days the minute that she walked in the doors.
She longed to be free again, wanting to hold her children in her arms. Everything she had ever done, she did for them. She never imagined in her wildest dreams that they would have to come visit her here. She made up her mind to stay to herself. She wouldn’t even go to most meals, only enough to survive on. She listened to the other women talk about their lives. It appeared to her that they didn’t mind being there so much. In fact, they came back time and again. The food was terrible, you didn’t have any privacy, you were at risk to get diseases and you couldn’t even wear your own clothes. Why do they keep coming back for more?
She vowed to herself that she would get out of there as soon as possible. Once she did, she would never go back. She would rather die than to be back in that place.
She was put in the work release program and found it much easier to deal with since she could get out into the real world for a few hours a day. When she came back to the "facility" she slept and did her job cleaning the bathrooms. This earned her early time out. She also took classes which earned early time out and she earned every single day she could on good behavior.
She was given another hearing in front of the judge. If it worked out, she would be free to go home that day. Four months into her sentence. She was about to go over the edge if she didn’t get out soon. All of her family showed up to that hearing. The judge listened carefully as she spoke of her experience in jail. She told him about how she had originally felt she didn’t belong there because those people had serious problems. She didn’t drink much and she didn’t do drugs. She certainly didn’t sell her body for money.
She told him how she came to the realization that although she didn’t do any of those things she had another kind of problem. That problem was that she couldn’t tell her kids no. She had gotten herself into financial troubles because of it and only saw one way out...to steal money. She revealed to him that she was so sorry for what she had done wrong. She had learned her lesson and repented for it long ago. He would never find her in his courtroom again if he would just let her go home to her family today.
The judge believed her. He let her go home that day with her family. She had never felt so free in all her life as when she packed up her things and walked out of that jail. She wanted to shout it out to the world. She never went back to that place. She lived the rest of her life free of crime and thankful for a second chance.
You see, true repentance means that you will go the opposite way of the problem or sin or temptation. If you have a problem with gambling, never driving by a casino again is part of repentance. If you have a difficult marriage situation, keeping yourself from tempting situations with others is part of repentance.
(Source: http://www.helium.com/items/663197-short-stories-repentance From a sermon by Troy Borst, Stop Feeling Guilty, 8/17/2011)
John Wesley and a preacher-friend of plain habits were once invited to dinner where the host’s daughter, noted for her beauty, had been profoundly impressed by Wesley’s preaching. During a pause in the meal, Wesley’s friend took the young woman’s hand and called attention to the sparkling rings she wore. “What do you think of this, sir, for a Methodist hand?” The girl turned crimson. Wesley likewise was embarrassed, for his aversion to jewelry was only too well known. But with a benevolent smile, he simply said, “The hand is very beautiful.” Wesley’s remark both cooled th...
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