What is repentance? 1. Recognition - [Repentance is] an awareness of having defied God by embracing what He despises and despising what He adores. 2. Remorse - Repentance is never a pleasure. It always entails pain. It demands brokenness of heart (Ps. 51:17; Isa. 57:15). [It is not] out of fear of reprisal, rather than from a hatred of sin. 3. Request - We must ask God for forgiveness and for strength. 4. Repudiation - We must repudiate all sins in question and take active, practical steps to avoid anything that might provoke stumbling. 5. Reformation - There must be an overt determination to pursue purity, to do what pleases God (1 Thes. 1:9).
Sam Storms

CASTLES

Let them that would build castles in the air
Vault thither, without step or stair,
Instead of feet to climb, take wings to fly,
And think their turret’s top the sky.
But let me lay all my foundations deep.
And learn, before I run, to creep.
Who digs through rocks to lay his ground-works low
May in good time build high, and sure, though slow.

-CHRISTOPHER HARVEY.

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