Inside Mesa

The front page of today’s East Valley Tribune carried stories on slaying suspects, chaos, deaths, complaints, war and rape. At the bottom of the page, ironically, an article on confession - but not what you might picture as typical.Reporter Art Martori writes about a church sponsored web site where one can log-in and e-confess sins. He starts out with a comedic approach, "Bless me, Web site, for I have sinned." The reality is, there is a real church, LifeChurch.tv, based in Mesa, that started the web site. It’s set up to anonymously log-in and enter your confessions. The article ends with a question asking if online confession brings absolution. A word easily defined in Webster’s Dictionary - a remission of sins as pronounced by a priest as in the sacrament of penance, to set free from. I didn’t find the word absolution in my expository dictionary of New Testament words, King James or Life Application Study Bible concordance. However, the term is defined in the Catholic Bible, the same as is in Webster’s Dictionary.My point as I think it through - many people journal. Perhaps praying for forgiveness as they write out their confessions, turning away from those sins, asking for God’s forgiveness and believing his gift of grace. In that regard I don’t see the difference in writing sins on paper, on-line, confessing out loud, or by a silent prayer. What is of importance is one’s attitude, sincerity of the confession, truly repenting, asking and knowing God’s forgiveness. A younger generation may find a web site the key to even begin acknowledging sin. The world has changed over many generations and thousands of years, including how people get to know God and the reason to confess sin. It doesn’t surprise me that technology can and is a way to reveal God, what sin and confession is, and how our lives can be changed. The Bible can be downloaded on your computer; is it still the Word of God? I think it is -it’s not the form but the content - just like confession.