Continuing last week, I read Richard Foster's Discipline of Confession this week. It begins with the words of Augustine of Hippo. “Confessing an evil act is the beginning of a good act.” I felt like I was hit with a frying pan while trying to fry an egg. The meaning hit me all at once.

  “The reason confession is such a difficult discipline for us is that we see the community of faith as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners,” he says. In other words, it reminds us that saints are sinners. If we see them as saints, we're likely to be disappointed, but if we see them as sinners, we'll likely see hope and grace. This is because the miracle and grace is that sinners are becoming more and more like Jesus every day.

  There are some memorable phrases about confession. 1) St. Alphonsus Liguori, “To make a good confession, three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, remorse, and a resolution not to sin.” 2) Douglas Steer on the examination of conscience, “When a soul comes before the eyes of God, it is by being still before the God of love that it becomes conscious of the things that have pierced it deeply and need to be forgiven, that it may correct them, and that it may love the God who constantly protects it.” There are little bells that ring in the heart every two or three pages. A good book like this is one to share with loved ones.

  What I especially remembered and prayed for was that a good confession requires a determination not to sin. Richard quotes John Wesley. “Give me a hundred evangelists who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and they alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.” Repentance and turning from sin are good in confession, but the prescription to abstain from sin shook me to the core because it is so obvious.

  Finally, the discipline of confession is beneficial because it puts an end to pretense. In Richard's words. “You have to be honest to confess, and you have to confess to be changed. “I pray to God for the grace to enable the church to reclaim this discipline of confession.” ”I make this confession seriously before the Lord first. And I would seriously encourage our churches to confess their sins to the Lord as soon as possible.