The Hungry Disciple

This life makes us heavy-headed. Our wonderful gift of intelligence, marred by the knowledge of good and evil, suffers from TMI.  Too much information.  We can't help it. Life happens. Our brains are full of rabbit holes and like Alice we just can't stop ourselves from falling into the wanderland of thoughts-what ifs, how can, I could, I can't, maybe, if only, how come, I'll just, I know, I can't figure it out, I know what's going on here......until our head begins to droop and sag under the weight of all the stuff on our mind. When our head is hanging we can't see correctly. Our view is distorted and the signpost to peace and life in The Spirit is out of sight. All we can see is the intersection of disoriented and bewildered; unclear and perplexed; confused and unsure-we're just plain lost. When our head is weighted down we are in a perfect postition to look right into our heart. A hanging head is a Divine change in perspective!  L

 When most people think of the Biblical word confession they think of confession of sin to a Priest or to God with regret, remorse and guilt.  In our world confession is admitting to something we've done wrong, like a criminal confessing to a crime. In our world confession leads to punishment, and unfortunately in Christ's Church confession is often linked to punishment, whether it is saying 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers or being left in the state of having unforgiven sin. It is a rare believer who doesn't worry that unconfessed sin will bring punishment and possibly exclusion from forgiveness by God. Some fear that unconfessed, and therefore unforgiven sin, will doom them to hell itself because I John 1:9 says, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". This verse has been understood and taught in the negative-that we are not cleansed from unrighteousness unless all of our sin