#sinners

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

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

— Eric Hoffer

#insights #many #saint #sinners #stem

The church saves sinners, but science seeks to stop their manufacture. ↗

— Elbert Hubbard

#manufacture #saves #science #seeks #sinners

Heaven finds an ear when sinners find a tongue. ↗

— Francis Quarles

#find #finds #heaven #sinners #tongue

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners. ↗

— Soren Kierkegaard

#does #god #makes #more #nothing

By his disobedience of God's law, before man had exercised his power to bring children into the earth, not only Adam lost everything for himself, but his children were born as sinners, imperfect, and without the right to live. ↗

— Joseph Franklin Rutherford

#before #born #bring #children #disobedience

The major gossip columnists were more concerned with protecting the industry than with gunning down sinners. ↗

— Gloria Swanson

#concerned #down #gossip #gunning #industry

At best we are but clay, animated dust; but viewed as sinners, we are monsters indeed. Let it be published in heaven as a miracle that the Lord Jesus should set His heart's love upon people like us. ↗

— Alistair Begg

#dust #god #monster #sinners #theology

God can deliver you so well that some people won’t believe your testimony. ↗

— Shannon L. Alder

#adversity #battles #come-full-circle-in-life #life-challenges #life-missions