32. Guilt

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22.

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do. > Voltaire.

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. > Harper Lee.

Remorse: beholding heaven and feeling hell. > George Moore.

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another. > Jean Paul Richter.

If his conditions are met, God is bound by his Word to forgive any man or any woman of any sin because of Christ. > Billy Graham.

The only tyrant in this world is the still voice within. > Mahatma Gandhi.

If we are sinners forgiven, we ought to behave as forgiven, welcomed home, crowned with wonderful love in Christ, and so cheer and encourage all about us, who often go heavily because we reflect our gloom upon them instead of our grateful love, hope, confidence. > Father Congreve.

Remorse is the pain of sin. > Theodore Parker.

It is about as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everyone else. In order to break the circuit we need somebody before whom we can put aside the disguise, trusting that when he sees us for what we fully are, he won’t run away screaming with, if nothing worse, laughter. > Fredrick Buechner.

See also John 9:39-41; Romans 7:15-25; James 2:8-10.