This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 32

Reflections

In one long glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God.
~ John Grisham, The Testament

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
~ George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), 1819-1880, English Novelist & Poet

Sin is the human tendency not just to lurch and stumble and screw up by accident. Sin is our active inclination to break stuff, ‘stuff’ here including promises, relationships we care about, and our own well being.
~ Francis Spufford, English author, teacher

We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.
~ Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), English author and literary critic

Malcolm Muggeridge talks about the dark little dungeon of my own ego. That is sin, a twist of self-centeredness that has us imprisoned. But God’s order is that we love him with all our being, and then that we love our neighbor and put ourselves last. Sin is the reversal of the order.
~ John Stott (1921-2011), English clergyman & author

God is so faithful. He says, ‘If you bring me your sin, if you uncover it before me, I will cover it. I will do the very thing that you’re trying to do in your own strength and power.’
~ Juan Sánchez, Pastor & Author

And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Not only was the sin itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it; the virus of its guilt was put away, and that at once, so soon as the acknowledgment was made. God’s pardons are deep and thorough: the knife of mercy cuts at the roots of the ill weed of sin.
~ Charles Spurgeon, 1834-1892, Pastor