#sinner

Confession is a difficult Discipline for us because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners. We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin. We cannot 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. 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 needs openly before our brothers and sisters. We know we are not alone in our sin. The fear and pride that cling to us like barnacles cling to others also. We are sinners together. In acts of mutual confession we release the power that heals. Our humanity is no longer denied, but transformed. ↗

— Richard J. Foster

#sin #sinners #the-church #imagination

We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low. ↗

— Desmond Tutu

#god #heaven #his #low #may

They may call me a sinner, but I am at peace with myself. ↗

— Brigitte Bardot

#call #i #i am #may #me

Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. ↗

— Eric Hoffer

#insights #many #saint #sinners #stem

Thus united to them in the fellowship of life, he will both understand the things revealed to them by God and, thenceforth escaping the peril that threatens sinners in the judgment, will receive that which is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven. ↗

— Athanasius

#escaping #fellowship #god #heaven #judgment

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. ↗

— Jesus Christ

#come #doctor #healthy #i #need