The Discipline of Confession is such a scary topic to discuss. I mean, think about the true depth of confession. Laying on the table all the junk of our lives. I sit here and wonder to myself if there is a statute of limitations on confession. Think about it, does there ever come a time when it's safe to confess. Confession to God is easy because we can lift up our prayers and sins at anytime and suffer no immediate effects. But what about loved ones, spouses, relatives?
You see, when we confess our sins to the Lord we are given forgiveness. Now, keep in mind that I believe there will still be consequences for our sin, but the consequences are often not as immediate or noticeable. But when we face the decision to confess sin to a loved one, the consequences could be dire. This is a quandary because there may be past un-confessed sin in your life that could potentially ruin a relationship. So the question becomes, do we confess, or do we hide? I have actually had to face this question myself when giving someone advice about revealing a portion of their life that might bring some sort of devastation to a loved one.
Thus, the reason I write. Tell me your thoughts on this subject. When it comes to confessing our past when our confession could potentially ruin a loving relationship, do we confess, or do we hide?
Randy
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Cross Training - The Inward Discipline of Confession
Ask anyone to define what they think confession means and I would dare say that most would connect confession to a deliberate action of sorrow for something they did wrong. Now, that sorrow could be because they hurt another human being, or that sorrow could be because they got caught, and if they got caught, then their deliberate action was probably coerced. Whatever the case may be, confession is never enjoyable. True confession leaves us vulnerable and transparent. No one every truly wants to say they're sorry.
The bible is filled with great passages concerning confession. One that truly reminds me of the power of confession comes from 1John 1:8-9 -- "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness."
This passage can be broken into 4-sections:
• Our Responsibility – “If we confess our sins…”
• God’s Promise – “He is faithful and just…”
• God’s Provision – “…to forgive us our sins and purify us…”
• Our Roadblock – “…from all unrighteousness.”
Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline says this about the topic of confession and why we are so apprehensive - "Confession is so difficult a Discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy."
This is so very true of our culture today when it comes to being transparent with others about our own weaknesses. Foster goes on, however, and makes, to me, a very unnerving statement - "But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinners we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God's love and to confess our need openly before our brothers and sisters." Zoinks!! Not sure that is the most healthy way to incorporate the discipline of confession into your life habits.
Confession within the hallowed walls of the church I believe is amazingly healthy when done within the context of trustworthy people. Maybe Foster meant for this to be the case, but he made it sound like the discipline of confession involved using a megaphone so your neighbor was aware of your sin. Not so healthy.
We are so blessed to know that our Savior listens to our pleas for forgiveness and redeems us when we confess our sin. We are doubly blessed when we can call a believing patriot into our lives that understands the power of confessing to one another. One of these blessings is the awareness we recieve in knowing that someone else struggles with sin just like we do.
Second, we become aware of the power of accountability. When a believing friend comes alongside us in the midst of our struggles what Solomon shared in Ecclesiastes 4:12 becomes that much more real - "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." A community of three - Myself / My Friend / The Holy Spirit. All three together in community assisting each individual in their search for forgiveness. Give it a try.
The bible is filled with great passages concerning confession. One that truly reminds me of the power of confession comes from 1John 1:8-9 -- "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness."
This passage can be broken into 4-sections:
• Our Responsibility – “If we confess our sins…”
• God’s Promise – “He is faithful and just…”
• God’s Provision – “…to forgive us our sins and purify us…”
• Our Roadblock – “…from all unrighteousness.”
Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline says this about the topic of confession and why we are so apprehensive - "Confession is so difficult a Discipline for us partly because we view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We come to feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We could not bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others. We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy."
This is so very true of our culture today when it comes to being transparent with others about our own weaknesses. Foster goes on, however, and makes, to me, a very unnerving statement - "But if we know that the people of God are first a fellowship of sinners we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God's love and to confess our need openly before our brothers and sisters." Zoinks!! Not sure that is the most healthy way to incorporate the discipline of confession into your life habits.
Confession within the hallowed walls of the church I believe is amazingly healthy when done within the context of trustworthy people. Maybe Foster meant for this to be the case, but he made it sound like the discipline of confession involved using a megaphone so your neighbor was aware of your sin. Not so healthy.
We are so blessed to know that our Savior listens to our pleas for forgiveness and redeems us when we confess our sin. We are doubly blessed when we can call a believing patriot into our lives that understands the power of confessing to one another. One of these blessings is the awareness we recieve in knowing that someone else struggles with sin just like we do.
Second, we become aware of the power of accountability. When a believing friend comes alongside us in the midst of our struggles what Solomon shared in Ecclesiastes 4:12 becomes that much more real - "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." A community of three - Myself / My Friend / The Holy Spirit. All three together in community assisting each individual in their search for forgiveness. Give it a try.
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Inward Discipline of Celebration / Worship
What an amazing discipline to study!!! That's all I have to say!! Actually, no it's not, but it should be. This discipline has been so "eye-opening" to me, both individually and from the experiences that have been shared with me of those within the body of Christ. All I can say is WOW!
This discipline is such a delicate one to target because in order to develop the discipline in our personal lives we must put our own personal celebration under a microscope and disect it and evaluate the pieces that hold it together. For me personally, what I see when I look into that microscope is a multitude of tiny particles, one that has a picture of ME, and another that has a picture of CHRIST, all connected together to look like a DNA double-helix. An erector set you might say, of what I have put together over the years to be the makeup of my celebration.
Obviously, I would hope that all of the pieces would reflect Christ in the double-helix, but the true reality of it is, no one really knows what that looks like, because our own celebration double-helix is so intertwined with our own personal experiences, and likes and dislikes of celebration. What eventually is contructed over time is really a mosaic that resembles confusion - no direction, no support, no target. True celebration in worship is the discipline of constantly pushing Christ forward in our worship partcipation and in our daily walk. You see, celebration in worship is more then our "Sunday morning" experience. It is the beginning and ending of our time with Christ. As we walk with him our worship becomes an expression of our journey with Him, sometimes to thank Him, sometimes to question Him. That is the ending. The beginning is Christ's reminder that he is journeying with us always.
Celebration with worship to me can be summarized in one word - partcipation. Christ has already taken on the task of partcipation as it relates to our personal lives, now our celebration with worship takes on the task of participation in Him, that's discipline. That discipline takes sweat and it moves us outside our comfortability into a new reality of who Christ is and what He demands of us.
There is no form or right way to worship and celebrate Jesus, but there is a right way to examine whether our celebration double-helix is "online" with who Christ is and what He has done for us. I think Isaiah 6 shares four simple truths of what we should experience in celebration - 1) The Goodness and Greatness of God; 2) The Promise of Redemption; 3) The Promise of Forgiveness; 4) The Call. Hopefully, as you examine the makeup of your own double-helix you will find it constructed with these truths.
Love to hear from you.
This discipline is such a delicate one to target because in order to develop the discipline in our personal lives we must put our own personal celebration under a microscope and disect it and evaluate the pieces that hold it together. For me personally, what I see when I look into that microscope is a multitude of tiny particles, one that has a picture of ME, and another that has a picture of CHRIST, all connected together to look like a DNA double-helix. An erector set you might say, of what I have put together over the years to be the makeup of my celebration.
Obviously, I would hope that all of the pieces would reflect Christ in the double-helix, but the true reality of it is, no one really knows what that looks like, because our own celebration double-helix is so intertwined with our own personal experiences, and likes and dislikes of celebration. What eventually is contructed over time is really a mosaic that resembles confusion - no direction, no support, no target. True celebration in worship is the discipline of constantly pushing Christ forward in our worship partcipation and in our daily walk. You see, celebration in worship is more then our "Sunday morning" experience. It is the beginning and ending of our time with Christ. As we walk with him our worship becomes an expression of our journey with Him, sometimes to thank Him, sometimes to question Him. That is the ending. The beginning is Christ's reminder that he is journeying with us always.
Celebration with worship to me can be summarized in one word - partcipation. Christ has already taken on the task of partcipation as it relates to our personal lives, now our celebration with worship takes on the task of participation in Him, that's discipline. That discipline takes sweat and it moves us outside our comfortability into a new reality of who Christ is and what He demands of us.
There is no form or right way to worship and celebrate Jesus, but there is a right way to examine whether our celebration double-helix is "online" with who Christ is and what He has done for us. I think Isaiah 6 shares four simple truths of what we should experience in celebration - 1) The Goodness and Greatness of God; 2) The Promise of Redemption; 3) The Promise of Forgiveness; 4) The Call. Hopefully, as you examine the makeup of your own double-helix you will find it constructed with these truths.
Love to hear from you.
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