How do you repent?

I was listening to a book on tape called Rescued. It is about a pastor and many church members who are on a couples cruise and videotaping everything. The pastor and several others go on a submarine and it crashes. They all die and the pastor returns from from death to tell his congregation about the judgement he went through.

Now during his judgement even though he was a pastor his name wasn't recorded in the The Book of Life. I don't want to ruin it for you but his final sermon was about repentance.

Just because we believe in God and go to church every Sunday, this does not guarantee our entrance into Heaven. We must repent of all of our sins. In order to repent we must truly understand what a sin is. It is my belief that most people do not really understand what sin is. All the churches now a days seem to bring God to us as a loving all forgiving God. He is but He has a vengeful side. His wrath is strong and he doesn't like sin. The problem is that we rationalize what we think sin is, or more importantly what it is not, but our rationalization does not convince God, only us. This rationale is what makes us, especially me, think that i can do something and it not be sinful. This will be our downfall.

So what is sin? Here is how the Catholic Church defines sin: Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight."122 Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods,"123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God."124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.

Wow, of all the people i know, i wonder how many can meet these requirements. I know i don't. A failure in genuine Love for God and neighbor. That is a lot to swallow. Something so simple could have such dire consequences for eternity.

What is a failure of Love for neighbor?
Gossip?
Judgement?
Not feeding a hungry person we meet, giving shelter to the homeless, clothing the needy?
Calling ethnic groups by racial names?
Not giving 10% of your first fruits tot he church?
Excessive drinking, gambling, eating?
Holding a grudge for something that happened a long time ago?
Avoiding someone on the street because of the way they look?
Not loaning a family member money or shelter when they need it?
Lust? Man this is tough one. If you see a beautiful women and in your mind think sexual thoughts about her, then you have lusted.
Pornography?
Dirty jokes that make fun of someone or their heritage?
Cheating on your spouse? This one is more than a sexual relationship with someone other than your spouse. The church teaches that if you are divorced for reasons other than sexual discrepancies, then you are committing adultery if you re-marry. Lustful thoughts are also cheating.

My thoughts above are but a mere mention of what would defy Love of neighbor. I would venture to say that salvation in is in the details. All the little things that we don't worry about is enough to drive that wedge between God and ourselves.

As you know this is Lent for us Catholics and i have been doing a lot of soul searching lately and i have come to the conclusion that i am not near as good a Catholic man as i thought i was or want to be. What i have to do now is repent. This is a lot harder than one thinks. You can't simply go to a Priest, confess and be done. You must truly feel sorrow for what you have done in your heart. You must first identify what sins you have committed. This is quite embarrassing for some of us.

I am on my way for my repentance. Some things i can never fix as i have lost the one i hurt and some things i can repair. This is a burden that i must bear but i hope that in our travels, if we meet you will help me to stay on the right path.

Peace

The theory if intelligence

This is as explained by Cliff to Norm

A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo; and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.'

Bail them out my ass

Hell, back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country and our banking system to the same nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling whiskey!"

Truth

The new Denny's breakfast

In honor of the mother of the octuplets, Denny's is offering a new breakfast special: Fourteen eggs, no sausage, and the guy next to you has to pay the bill!

Funny

An armed hooded robber bursts into the Texas Bank and forces> >>
the tellers to load a sack full of cash. On his way out the door with the loot a brave Texas customer grabs the hood and pulls it off revealing the robber's face. The robber shoots this brave Texan without hesitation! He then looks around the bank to see if anyone else has seen him. One of the tellers is looking straight at him and the robber shoots him also. Everyone else, by now is very scared and looking down at the floor. The Robber calls out, "Did anyone else see my face?" There are a few moments silence, and then an old man, while still looking down, tentatively raises his hand and says, "I think my wife may have caught a glimpse of you.

A difficult question

Today me and someone was talking about abortion. He said it was ok to perform an abortion if having the child would kill the mother. I am not too sure how i feel about that. His argument was that by aborting the child and saving the mother, the couple could have another chance at having a child. He also stated that he knew the mother was ok but didn't know the condition of the baby.

Using his logic i told him this story:

A woman has what she thought was a boil on her inner thigh. She goes to the doctor and he rushes her to the hospital. They consult a surgeon and determine that she has Necrotizing Fasciitis . They rush her into surgery and a few hours later the surgeon reports that he thinks he got it all out. The next day the nurse notices some reddening moving around her outer leg and up towards her spine. The surgeon takes her back into surgery and they start round two.

The woman is completely knocked out on pain meds and several antibiotics to kill the infection. She ends up in ICU on a ventilator and is fighting for her life. Her husband is having to make decisions based on a limited medical background and the decisions could be life or death.

The nurses notice more reddening on her and call the surgeon again. The surgeon meets with the husband and family and lays out the options. The options were simple, try surgery again and hope they get it or amputate the leg and know that they get it.

The children and family members want to amputate the leg but the husband doesn't. The husband has the final say so they are trying to convince him to let the surgeon amputate.
The husband claims to know his wife's wishes and that she would not want her leg removed. The family says that doesn't matter as long as she is still alive. She may be mad but she will be here with them.

This is a true story and did in fact take place. What would you have done? Would you amputate or not if you were the husband in this situation.