A great number of people 'turned to the Lord' (Acts 11:21). This is 'repentance', responding to the warning 'Turn around - you are going the wrong way!' Repentance is the opposite of blaming; it is 'owning' my sinfulness rather than off-loading the blame somewhere else. Sigmund Freud, more than any other modern psychologist, has changed our understanding of ourselves at this point. He has located many of our personality disorders in the early experiences of infancy. These, he said, were repressed into our subconscious and come back later to haunt us. Now this may be true, but it may also distort our perpective and cause us to have a 'blame-oriented' approach to life. Scientific sanction is given to a tendency as old as our history - attacking the problem of evil by laying the blame on someone else. The biblical prophets tried to steer us away from externalizing our problems and saying 'out there' to internalizing them and admitting 'in here'.

Jesus' first public words were about repentance, as were his last, when he commissioned his followers to take his message of salvation to all peoples: 'There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me' (Luke 24: 47).

Repentance involves a change of mind (conviction); Jesus illustrated this in the story of the two sons (Matthew 21:28,29). We must also be sorry for our sins (contrition; Psalm 38:18). Then, there is confession: in Jesus' famous story the prodigal went to his father and said 'I have sinned both against heaven and you' (Luke 15:18,21). A fourth element in true repentance is forsaking our sin (Isaiah 55:7), - 'owning then disowning' our sins. To refuse to repent is worse than the sin for which one ought to repent. Or, in the grim words of Samuel Davies, 'The question is not, shall I repent? For that is beyond a doubt. The question is, shall I repent now, when it may save me; or shall I put it off to the eternal world when my repentance shall be my punishment?'

'Believing' plus 'repentance' equals conversion. Although we begin the Christian way through a conversion, there will certainly be many 'conversions' along the Christian way as well. These transitions or 'movements' happen when we are renewed, turned around, see things differently (with God's gift of in-sight). As Henri Nouwen says in his book Reaching Out there will be movements from loneliness to solitude, hostility to hospitality, illusion to prayer. The essence of all conversion, however, is the movement from sinfulness to forgiveness, from alienation to belonging: and then from territoriality (my space - keep out) to hospitality (my space - you're welcome).

Converted people are holy people. They are saved, yes, but they want to be 'more saved'! Billy Graham, who has probably spoken to more people face to face than anyone else, is still preaching the gospel 50 years after his first sermon. He does not keep any of his speaking fees or royalties from his books. From the very beginning of his career, says the evangelist 'I was frightened - I still am - that I would do something to dishonour the Lord.' That's holiness! If your church's brand of Christianity is turning out truly converted - changed - people, it's a live church!

Discuss: W.E.Sangster, in his booklet 'How Much Are You Saved?' says the Bible sometimes talks about conversion as 'being saved' (Acts 2:47). One of his tests: 'You are 'saved' if your concern for a world of needy persons translates into action. Is it possible to be saved and selfish? 'God loved the world' - how much do we love the world (of people)?