Doug,

Those two lines from Ezekiel, that you referred to, have troubled me, and especially yesterday (before I read your letter):

Ezekiel 16:62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:

  63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

There are times that I have been very ashamed for things I have done.

However, yesterday, I didn't respond like Peter:

Luke 22:61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

  62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

As soon as the Lord looked upon Peter, he repented and wept bitterly.

Also, I didn't respond like David:

II Samuel 12:7a And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.

  12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

  13a And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD.

Psalm 51  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

  3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

  4a Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:

David immediately repented and wrote Psalm 51.

I confessed, but it wasn't until later that I wept.

I think that, yesterday, I was being more like Esau:

Hebrews 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

  17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

The wrong kind of repentance is not good:

II Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Even Judas repented, albeit the wrong way as well:

Matthew 27:3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

  4a Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.

He repented himself and went and confessed to the priest, like I used to do as a catholic.