Repent!

My favourate (yes, my only) illustration of repentance is, I think, stolen from Charlie Skreene.

Charlie was leading the youth group at the end of a busy and pressurised term. He put the Star Wars video on and told the yuffs to look out for what Christian doctrine was illustrated by the film.

The furtile minded youth group came up with all sorts of amazing suggestions: isn't The Force a bit like the Holy Spirit and isn't there a great battle going on between good and evil in our world too, Skywalker is a sort of Saviour-figure?

Then Charlie showed a section again: our heros are running down a tunnel, they see a whole load of ray-gun slinging baddies coming the other way and they turn and leg it in the opposite direction. Simple: Repentance. Turn around and go the other way or you're heading for disaster.