I recently found the new House of Heroes cd, The End is Not the End streaming online at Absolute Punk.net (you can also find it at Relevant’s The Drop). A complete review will be coming soon.

However, I did want to touch on one aspect that hit me good. Their second to last (technically third to last, as there is a “secret song” at the end of the last track) song, Voices, vividly describes the haunting of innocent voices that have been disgraced by the singer. Essentially the core of the song is summed up in this quote:

In a graceless world / I was graceless / …how can God show mercy? / I was merciless to them?

This is recounted through cries of regrets of deeds done and not done in life.  Injustice was introduced to the world around. The main crux, the sin that the singer so regrets, is the constant murder required of him while fighting in a brutal war.

Then, after all this lament, a speaker comes in with these profound words:

Your greatest sin is not the abortion you’ve asked forgiveness for
or the adultery or whatever it is you did in your life in your past that you’re ashamed of
that keeps hounding you.

Your greatest sin is not that.
Your greatest sin is not believing God’s Word when God says you’re forgiven!
Your greatest sin is unbelief!

You want to repent of something, friend?
Stop repenting of sins you’ve already repented of
and repent of your unbelief.

Wow. How often do I beat myself up over something that I know I am ashamed of, that I have asked forgiveness for? This is a continuing attack even after I have been forgiven. God has forgiven me, and that is that. Don’t continue to crucify Christ over again by beating myself up over and over again in an attempts to suffer through my own purgatory.

P.S. If you are interested in where that sermon is from, I scoured the internat and finally stumbled upon it among some sermon notes. It is a sermon by Rich Nathan at Vineyard Church of Columbus (Ohio), called The Triumph of the Cross. Clicking that link will take you to the mp3 of that sermon, and that section above is located about 3/4 the way in.