Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a special podcast series simply entitled, Be Not Afraid, God's Word in

Uncertain Times. And we'll try to post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures

so that we can listen in on what God is trying to say to us in these days.

Why in the world is the church so hung up on repentance?

That's the question that came into my mind this morning as I was reading the scriptures.

The first reading, which is from the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 3 in the Gospel,

which is from Luke chapter 24.

This word, repent or repentance, is in the gospel, which is from Luke chapter 24, this word, repent or repentance,

is in the speech that Peter makes to the crowds who are amazed and astounded over the healing

of the man who had formerly been crippled by the power of Jesus' name. And that word is on the

lips of Jesus in the upper room on Easter Sunday.

I mean, like here's this extraordinary event that's just happened.

Crippled man, suddenly able to walk.

Jesus risen from the dead, and it seems like this huge downer of a word, repent.

Well, repent isn't a condemnation kind of a word.

I mean, I think when I was young, I heard that word and I thought it meant something like,

you idiots, you're doing it all wrong.

But that's not what this word means at all.

The word is actually from a Greek word which has its roots, meaning change the way you think.

...