Quotes about Confession

The confessing church of American Ragamuffins needs to join Magdalene and Peter in witnessing that Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands.

The confession of John the apostle that God is love is the fundamental meaning of the holy and adorable Trinity. Put bluntly, God is sheer Being-in-Love and there was never a time when God was not love. The foundation of the furious longing of God is the Father who is the originating Lover, the Son who is the full self-expression of that Love, and the Spirit who is the original and inexhaustible activity of that Love, drawing the created universe into itself.

Love is not based on the willingness to listen, to understand problems of others, or to tolerate their otherness. Love is based on the mutuality of the confession of our total self to each other.

it is precisely in this continuous process of confession and forgiveness that we are liberated from our isolation and encounter the possibility of a new disarmed way of living. Christians are peacemakers not when they apply some special skill to reconcile people with one another but when, by the confession of their brokenness, they form a community through which God's unlimited forgiveness is revealed to the world.

All addictions make us slaves, but each time we confess openly our dependencies and express our trust that God can truly set us free, the source of our suffering becomes the source of our hope.

The more we come to the painful confession of our loneliness, hostilities and illusions, the more we are able to see solitude, hospitality and prayer as part of the vision of our life.

But once I am able to truly confess my most profound dependence on others and on God, I can come in touch with my true self and real community can develop.

Often I have the impression that priests and ministers are the least confessing people in the Christian community

When our friend says, "If my friends found out how I really feel, if I would show my real self, then they would no longer love me but hate me" — he speaks about a real possibility. It is very risky to be honest, because someone just might not respond with love, but take us by our weak spot and turn it against ourselves. Our confession might destroy us.

Nothing that you confess... can make me love you any less.

We would all worship better, sing better, fellowship better, give better, evangelize better, share better, and behave much better if we were first humbling ourselves, confessing our sins, asking God's Spirit to fill us, and submitting ourselves to Him in prayer.

Praying with an unrepentant heart. The psalmist realized, "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer" (Psalm 66:18—19 NIV). Clinging to sin and stiff-arming God makes God stiff-arm us. If you hold on to sin and refuse to confess it, you cannot take full hold on God.