#ene

Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy and sinless, He is a just judge of evil and the enemy of all disobedience. But a brother is sinful as we are. He knows from his own experience the dark night of secret sin. Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution...Who can give us the certainty that, in the confession and the forgiveness of our sins, we are not dealing with ourselves but with the living God? God gives us this certainty through our brother. Our brother breaks the circle of self-deception. A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person. ↗

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

#forgiveness #jesus #prayer #sin #spiritual-friendship

[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear. ↗

— Emma Donoghue

#caring #children #cuteness #hypocrisy #kids

I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate. ↗

— Agatha Christie

#humour #hypocrisy #thoughts #hypocrisy

We are preaching hope, standing on the bones of the past. ↗

— John Rucyahana

#faith #forgiveness #genocide #hope #rwanda

Most people in America, when they are exposed to the Christian faith, are not being transformed. They take one step into the door, and the journey ends. They are not being allowed, encouraged, or equipped to love or to think like Christ. Yet in many ways a focus on spiritual formation fits what a new generation is really seeking. Transformation is a process, a journey, not a one-time decision. ↗

— David Kinnaman

#regeneration #transformation #faith

It was one of those moments—which sometimes occur only at the interval of years—when a man's moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind's eye. Not improbably, he had never before viewed himself as he did now. ↗

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

#self #self-awareness #faith

In any war, there are calms between storms. There will be days when we lose faith. Days when our allies turn against us...but the day will never come that we forsake this planet and its people. ↗

— Optimus Prime

#epicness #inspirational #faith

The opponent strikes you on your cheek, and you strike him on the heart by your amazing spiritual audacity in turning the other cheek. You wrest the offensive from him by refusing to take his weapons, by keeping your own, and by striking him in his conscience from a higher level. He hits you physically, and you hit him spiritually. ↗

— E. Stanley Jones

#forgiveness #love #forgiveness

Maybe the best thing we can do for our spouses is give them permission to forgive themselves. ↗

— Justin Davis

#faith #forgiveness #marriage #faith

...I committed a sin the day I refused you - I discovered metal inside me where my heart should be - forgive me, Love, for acting on principles... ↗

— John Geddes

#love #refusal #repentance #selfishness #sin