
]
B-R-A-V-O!!! That was quite some sermon:thumbsup: And I am not so naive that I do not believe that there were numerous other sayings of Christ that were not recorded in print

Please do not patronize me by grouping me along with those who you have decided are spiritually ignorant! It seems to me though that Jesus would have made a stipulation about the NEED to visit a priest for confession of and forgiveness of sins! Otherwise, we have to believe that what someone says 2009 years later, are the words of Christ! Do you also believe like some that I know, that you cannot be friends with God, or have a personal relationship with Jesus? Or is it too much of a stretch to believe that even if you sin after being saved, that God will allow you to come back(we all sin, okay?)
It was not intended to be a sermon.
I don’t group you with anybody, nor have I decided there are people that are spiritually ignorant.
“Someone” said it 2009 years later? The Church has been saying it for 2009 years!
Confession did not start in 2009. Even the reformers went to confession after having separated from the Church. So the idea of not going to confession is the one that you can brand as “brand new”. Don’t 39,000+ evangelical denominations tell you something is really wrong with evangelism? If any man can separate from his church and start a new one, where will it end? It’s estimated that by the year 2025 there will be over 60,000 evangelical denominations (World Christian Database, a Protestant publication). Each of them preaching a different gospel, while at the same time claiming that the Holy Spirit is guiding them. Does the Holy Spirit guide all these churches to different and opposing truths?
The Church (not the Bible) is the BODY OF CHRIST, therefore, yes, I have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Him. And just like any relationship, this one is a two way relationship. How can you be sure that Jesus correspond your friendship when you don’t believe His WORDS, given to you by those HE SENT YOU? These are things you should really think about. When we sin and do not confess our sins to a Priest the relationship with Jesus is tarnished.
Someone said: the best of the Protestants (their Pastors) are converting to Catholicism, while the worst of Catholics are converting to Protestantism.
Many Pastors have converted after they embarked in a mission to prove the Catholic Church wrong. The more they studied and investigated the Bible, history, early Christian life, etc., the more they were confronted with the fact they were on the wrong side of Christianity. One of them, Cardinal John Newman, a convert to Catholicism from the Anglican Church, said it best: “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Today many radical anti-Catholic Pastors are following in Cardinal Newman’s footsteps.
If you are saved you cannot sin, because by then you’ll be in God’s presence. To put in baseball terms, you don’t score a run by reaching third base. Right now we are, at best, at third base. We haven’t come Home yet. Many will go past third while most are seating in the bench and when they realize the game is over, not to mention those in the seats of the stadium.
Our Church has been preaching for 2000 years confession of the sins to a priest. No Protestant denomination has been preaching for more than 500 years. And as Casey Stengel used to say, “you can look it up.”
God bless you