“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Jesus, from Matthew 5:4
Sunday I said that if you don’t feel bad (mourn) about your sins, you’ll have an extremely hard time receiving forgiveness from God. You have to move from remorse to repentance to restoration.
I found a story that really illustrates that concept, but I was unable to use it in my message, so I pass it on here. It’s taken from Kent Hughes book, The Sermon on the Mount. Hughes found the story in the Chicago Sun-Times. The article compared “the equally reprehensible sins of Congressmen Daniel Crane and Gerald Studds.” Crane, a Christian, was censured by the House for inappropriate sexual relations with a 17-year-old female page, and Studds was similarly censured for inappropriate sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page. The newspaper observed:
“Being censured is the only thing [they] have in common. The nation got a glimmer of their philosophical differences when Crane admitted tearfully to his district, then the full House, that he “broke the laws of God and man,” casting a vote for his own censure, facing the house [as the vote was tallied].
Studds, in contrast, acknowledged he was gay in a speech to the house, defended the relationship with the page as “mutual and voluntary.” He noted that he had abided by the age of consent, and said the relationship didn’t warrant the “attention or action” of the House. Studds voted “present” on the censure and turned his back on the House as the speaker read the verdict.”
The newspaper reporter went on to contrast the differing attitudes and worldviews of both these men, without excusing either one of them for their sin:
“But there’s one consolation for Crane. His . . . philosophy teaches that there is one thing worse than sin. That is denial of sin, which makes forgiveness impossible.”
Hughes notes that the saddest thing in life is “not a sorrowing heart, but a heart that is incapable of grief over sin, for it is without grace. Without poverty of spirit no one enters the kingdom of God.”
There is such a thing as good mourning. Mourning is healthy, when it leads to repentance.

Pastor Mike