First confession tomorrow. Help please?

[Mary of Bethany]

Hi, I hope you don't mind an opinion from someone who would not be considered to be Catholic or Orthodox or even Protestant.
I live in an area where being Protestant is the norm and therefore that is what I deal with.
However, I am one of those people who were saved with prior knowledge from men who God is.
I don't see my self as anything other than Christian.
Confession is a wonderful thing in my opinion.
If I may offer some advice and please forgive me if I am being too forward.

The idea in this "Confession" event is this.
That you will stand before Christ and listen to the Holy Spirit in you and you will be "looking" for the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in your life that needs to be repented of.
Now the Priest should be full of the Spirit and therefore (in my opinion) he should help to draw out the strongholds in you.
Therfore my advice is to enter into this after prayer. "Lord, where am I wrong.Lord, reveal to me that which is not of You."
Go into this with an open heart and let the Spirit work. He will show you the area or areas in you that need to be dealt with.

Jn 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
This is one of the great works of the Holy Spirit. You see a man can't know that he is wrong until the Spirit reveals it to him.
And the way confession should work is that a man comes before his God appointed shepard, I used the terms "God-appointed shepard" so to cross all denominational lines, and the Holy Spirit works through the shepard and the individual to expose the sin present.
This act shines Light and in the Light dark things are exposed.

So I would suggest entering into this with an open heart and prayer to God. If His Spirit is in you, then He will reveal what you need to confess.
And this is important, because sometimes we can confess sins with our mouth but our heart is far from Him.

Mt 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But the Holy Spirit is Him which searches the heart.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Like someone said earlier, bring some tissues. Repentance always comes with tears. Praise God.

Hi, and welcome to TAW!

I really like the point you make about the prayer and open heart that is needed for confession. There are many, many times that I don't feel aware of my sins (Lord, have mercy on me!) and it is only by prayer and the desire to be made aware of those sins as much as I can bear it, that brings me to my knees in confession. The Lord already knows my sins, it is only pride that keeps me from seeing and confessing them.

Mary

 

[Knee V]

The Lord already knows my sins

That's an excellent point. When we're at confession we're not doing God a favor by letting him in on some secret. He already knows what we've done. But by admitting them and confessing them to God, we're given the opportunity to begin to be healed.

 

[saved_for_life]

Aside from his view that a father confessor can be anyone, and his general non-denominationalist perspective (something he announced as a qualifier at the start of his post) I don't see much that is wrong with what he wrote.

His words about the need for a prayerful, searching, and God-centric self-examination are spot on.

And his desire for discipleship (and his finding of no such opportunity among the branches of Western Christianity) appears sincere.

Saved - I don't know if, in your search, you encountered an Orthodox parish; but it sounds like you were seeking to be discipled after you encountered God. Far from being "come to church and tithe," what Orthodoxy ought to (and generally does) say is "come to church, recieve the life of Christ in the sacraments and laying on of hands, and hear the words of life."

We are a discipleship-centric organization. That's why it cannot be just anyone who does confession for us (we don't cross denominational lines), though certainly we believe that confessors (those who hear confessions) are God-appointed. In essence, though, the father-confessor doesn't recieve the confession. He just witnesses it on behalf of the Church; all confession is to God alone (as all sin is against God first and foremost).

I do not know your current situation, but don't give up on the search for a community in which to be rooted and discipled. The witness of Scripture and the history of the Church is clear: the Church is not an optional part of Christianity; we are not saved alone - we are saved into a communion of love (and that requires community), into the community that is Christ's body and which is the pillar and ground of the Truth. And like Christ's human body, this is not a body of spirit only - it is a real, physical body (a real, physical community).

Given your intentions and the good spirit in which you came here, I don't mean to come across as proselytizing, but I honestly think that Orthodoxy may offer something that you are seeking. Forgive me if I overstep.

In Christ,
Macarius

Thank you for your understanding and I greatly appreciate your comments. Perhaps my greatest wrong in my posts were out of this view.
Are you guys Christian? I am Christian.
Therefore we are brothers and sisters. Are we not brothers and sisters because I happened to grow up and experience something different than you did.
Is is not the same Lord who is over all?
Can't God work in someone when there is nobody else to teach him? I have studied the Orthodox (Ancient Ways) and find Truth there. And I have studied Catholic ways and find Truth there, and of course being surrounded by Protestants I have studied Protestant ways and found Truth there.

I was told to leave the church I was Baptistized in because the Spirit of the Lord came on me and I broke down.
I remember being on my hands and knees outside this church, speaking these words, "We should all be as one".

Therfore I was just trying to relate to this poster my own experiences of Confession.
In the lack of a man to help guide me through Confession, the Lord has guided me Himself.
I hope others see that my second post told the poster how much he was blessed to have a man to help him.

Jn 5:7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
And I had no man to help me into the water so I may be healed, but the Lord came to me.

Jn 5:8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

Jn 5:9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

And in the absence of a man, the Lord Himself is making me whole. And this process involves Confession.

I am sorry if I offended anyone here, but something all of you and everyone else must realize. We are all One, one in Him.

Thank you for your understanding. I was just trying to share my understanding of Confession to a brother. The Lord already knows our sins, why should we be afraid to confess them to a man.

I seek to be wide open before the Lord and before my fellow man, whatever is in me that is not of Him, may I be cleansed from it.

BTW, sorry poster to turn your post into something different.

 

[saved_for_life]

Macarius and Saved,

I must apologize for my post. Please forgive me. After reading Macarius' post and rereading what Saved had written, I realized that I judged another's intention without listening carefully.

Please forgive me.

In Christ,
Antony

P.S. Saved...Welcome to TAW. We really are glad you're here.

Thank you, I was just trying to tell the poster to let the Lord search his heart. Confession is a very "deep" time. A time of opening your heart totally to the Lord.
It is a shame that Protestants don't have a similar activity.
Protestants make the claim that they only have to confess to Jesus Himself, which is true. But the problem is that they don't do it. Most of them seek to hide their sins and grieve the Holy Spirit.
We are all One in Him, I accept you as a brother. Do you accept me as a brother, even though I am not in your membership? I am a Christian and I know the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am not Orthodox or Catholic or Baptist or Pentecostal or Methodist or Mormon. I am a Christian, I am indeed a brand plucked out of the fire. Saved by the Mercy and Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine my struggles with trying to tell Protestants of the need of Confession? Part of the problem with them is that they think that because Jesus took the Cross, then He paid the way and they can just do what they always did.
And this isn't the Truth. Jesus died so we can be free and in Confession we find our chains of Opression and offer them to Him so He can break them.
And this is only a work of the Holy Spirit, because man's nature tells him that he is Ok and doing fine.
However in Confession, the secrets of the heart are laid bare.

Ps 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

Ps 139:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
　
Praise God that because (like I said in my previous post) that I have and did not have a man to help me into the water.
That He has searched my heart, He has and is trying me and He knows my thoughts.
And I have thoughts that are not of Him and I know it, I know it because He leads me into Confession and I "feel" the Holy Spirit searching me and bringing to the surface the things that are not of God.
He sees the wicked ways in me, then He will lead me in the way everlasting.
He reveals these wicked ways, then I repent of them and I am cleansed of them.

1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We are all One, One in Him.

 

[Michael G]

Gosh, first confessions are so hard. It's sure tough when you're not used to it, as I wasn't.

Your first confession is relatively easy compared to later ones, if you are truely growing in faith. It is once you get in tune with your soul and with the really subtle sins that underlie the rest of your sins and your pet sins (that every one of us has) that confession can get really challenging and gut wrenching.

 

[Ariadne_GR]

To the original poster - How was your first confession?

 

[Michael G]

Thank you for your understanding and I greatly appreciate your comments. Perhaps my greatest wrong in my posts were out of this view.
Are you guys Christian? I am Christian.
Therefore we are brothers and sisters. Are we not brothers and sisters because I happened to grow up and experience something different than you did.
Is is not the same Lord who is over all?
Can't God work in someone when there is nobody else to teach him? I have studied the Orthodox (Ancient Ways) and find Truth there. And I have studied Catholic ways and find Truth there, and of course being surrounded by Protestants I have studied Protestant ways and found Truth there.

I was told to leave the church I was Baptistized in because the Spirit of the Lord came on me and I broke down.
I remember being on my hands and knees outside this church, speaking these words, "We should all be as one".

Therfore I was just trying to relate to this poster my own experiences of Confession.
In the lack of a man to help guide me through Confession, the Lord has guided me Himself.
I hope others see that my second post told the poster how much he was blessed to have a man to help him.

Jn 5:7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
And I had no man to help me into the water so I may be healed, but the Lord came to me.

Jn 5:8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

Jn 5:9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

And in the absence of a man, the Lord Himself is making me whole. And this process involves Confession.

I am sorry if I offended anyone here, but something all of you and everyone else must realize. We are all One, one in Him.

Thank you for your understanding. I was just trying to share my understanding of Confession to a brother. The Lord already knows our sins, why should we be afraid to confess them to a man.

I seek to be wide open before the Lord and before my fellow man, whatever is in me that is not of Him, may I be cleansed from it.

BTW, sorry poster to turn your post into something different.

One question for you. The scripture that you quote. Where does it come from? Who gave us the bible? Under whose authority was it canonized and who decided what books belong in it and what do not?

 

[saved_for_life]

Michael, I would be very happy to discuss your question with you, but not here. My comments have already "Hi-jacked" this post enough. Send me an e-mail or something if you really want the answer.

To the orginal blogger, by this time your Confession must have happened. I pray that you experienced the Cleansing Power of the Lord during it.

I am very sorry that my presense here may have diverted your post.

One day brother, this separation of the Body of Christ will not exist. The words I gave about Confession can't be disqualified just because they came from someone outside of the "Church".
What grieves me is that by my presence here, which was intended to support and encourage you, was turned into something else.

I will say no more because it will be turned once again. I just hope in your Confession that you experienced the Lord and once it was over you breathed clean air because your burdens were lifted.

 

[Michael G]

Mods, can you separate my question to Saved For Life off into it's own thread? You can put it in St. Justin's if need be...

 

[E.C.]

I have an appointment with my priest for my first (Orthodox) confession tomorrow. I brought it up to him this past Sunday with the thought that first confession is AFTER chrismation. Obviously, I was wrong lol! I want to know what to expect. I am used to Roman Catholic confession but I have no clue what to expect at an Orthodox confession. What do I say/do? What will the priest say generally?
Thanks and God's peace on us all!

Relax. Every priest has their own thing. My first Orthodox confession was in the priest's office, which doubled as the sacristy, and was conveniently located next to the altar. He closed the door said, "Okay this is how Confession in the Orthodox Church works and take as much time as needed". I said some things, he asked questions and then went down the 10 Commandments.

 

[LinuxLurker01]

It might be a bit late for this, and I'm not sure if anyone's said it already, but remember this also -- the priest has heard everything. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Nothing you say is going to make his jaw drop or shock him, so say what's on your mind without fear of his reaction. Most priests I've talked to say they usually do not remember what people tell them in confession because it's always the same old things.