Richard Foster on the Discipline of Confession

From 'Celebration of Discipline':

"The Bible views salvation as both an event and a process. To converted people Paul says, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling' (Phil. 2:12) … The Discipline of confession helps the believer to grow into 'mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ' (Eph. 4:13)."
p181

"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 on to the high road to heaven. Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy."
p181-2

"Bonhoeffer writes: 'A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person. As long as I am by myself in the confession of my sins everything remains in the dark, but in the presence of a brother the sin has to be brought into the light.'"
p184, Original quote: Bonhoeffer, Life Together

"It is the will to be delivered form sin that we seek from God as we prepare to make confession. We must desire to be conquered and ruled by God, or if we do not desire it, to desire to desire it. Such a desire is a gracious gift from God. The seeking of this gift is one of the preliminaries for confessing to a brother or sister."
p189

"These people are found by asking God to reveal them to us. They are also found by observing people to see who evidences a lively faith in God's power to forgive and exhibits the joy of the Lord in his or her heart. The key qualifications are spiritual maturity, wisdom, compassion, good common sense, the ability to keep a confidence, and a wholesome sense of humour."
p190

Settled Happiness

"C. S. Lewis said "The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God.""

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 166
Original quote: C. S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain, 115.

Ecstasy Just Beyond

"In the words of C. S. Lewis, "All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.""

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 37.
Original Quote: C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 118.

Without Signposts

"The safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
C. S. Lewis

Re-pent

I heard Rob Rufus a while back say a comment in one of his preaches, and the thought has stuck with me for quite a while. And it's this:

To repent is a very positive thing. The 'pent' part of the word means 'highest'. For example, a pent-house is the highest apartment in a building. So to re-pent means 'to go back to the highest way'. To me that's a very simple and positive concept. So often we think of it as getting on your knees, begging for mercy, hoping that we'll be spared from God's wrath!

This concept is re-inforced by a quote I just read by C.S. Lewis:

"[Repentance] is not something that God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose; it is simply a description of what going back is like."