Chapter 10 - Confession

Chapter 10 used 7 selected scripture passages to help us begin to understand the Biblical view of confession (with my personally assigned title for each passage):

I John 2: 1-14 (Talk the talk or walk the walk)
Hosea 1: 1-11 (The consequences of no confession)
Romans 10: 1-13 (Unconditional surrender)
Leviticus 26: 32-45 (Disobedience vs. confession)
Nehemiah 9: 1-3 (Formal, public confession)
Proverbs 28: 13 (Confession triggers mercy)
Jeremiah 3: 11-13 (God pleads for Israel’s confession)

The hymn for the week was "Just As I Am” by Charlotte Elliott. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Henri J. Nouwen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Richard J. Foster, Paul Tournier, George MacDonald (edited by C. S. Lewis), and Hannah Whitall Smith. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “…the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue. When the poor sin, they call it a sin; when they see holiness, they identify it as such.”
· “He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone.”
· “There are two dangers that a Christian community which practices confession must guard against. … First… it is not a good thing for one person to be the confessor for all the others. … Second… (the confessant) must guard against ever making a pious work of his confession. … Confession as a routine duty is spiritual death.”
· “We may trust God with our past as heartily as with our future.”
· “A sudden failure is no reason for being discouraged and giving up all as lost. Neither is the integrity of our doctrine touched by it. We are not preaching a state, but a walk. The highway of holiness is not a place, but a way.”
· “We can only walk in this path by looking continually unto Jesus...”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 10 not quoted) mean to you? I look forward to your responses.

John