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There is an amazing story in Leadership magazine, going back to the Spring 1998 issue. This was sent in by a Pastor Merv Budd from London, Ontario, in Canada, and is entitled “No Statute of Limitations for Forgiveness.” A kid named Chris Carrier, living in Coral Gables, Florida, was abducted, taken from his family when he was ten years old. His attacker burned him with cigarettes, stabbed him a number of times — get this, with an ice pick — and then shot him in the head and dumped him in the Everglades. Apparently the kidnapper was angry with the Carrier family for some reason, and took it out on this helpless child. After all this abuse, this evil man left the boy to die in the swamps of Florida.

Well, Chris didn’t die. Somehow he survived, even though he ended up blind in one eye.

Now let’s skip ahead, because that was 24 years ago. Just recently an aging ex-convict, David McAllister, confessed to the crime. The statute of limitations was long past, so he couldn’t be arrested and re-tried. But guess who showed up to visit him? That’s right. Chris Carrier was now a Christian pastor, serving God at Granada Presbyterian Church. Hearing that McAllister had confessed his sin, Chris went to visit him in the North Miami Beach nursing home where this tired, pathetic ex-con is living out his last days. In fact, he visited his attacker many times, reading the Bible to him, praying with him. Eventually David McAllister’s confession led to a full-fledged CONVERSION, and Chris’ attacker is now a member of God’s family. True story.

In the magazine Christian Reader, the January/February 1998 issue, Chris tells us all why he accepted this 24-year-old confession:

“While many people can’t understand how I could forgive David McAllister, from my point of view I couldn’t not forgive him. If I’d chosen to hate him all these years, or spent my life looking for revenge, then I wouldn’t be the man I am today, the man my wife and children love, the man God has helped me to be.”

Well, friend, THAT is one amazing story. And Chris Carrier is one amazing Christian. But this takes us back to the theme from last time: a 24-year-long odyssey of confession. It took this tired old convict more than two decades before he was ready to raise his hand and admit his great sin.

What about that? I shared a quote from my friend Marvin Moore, who edits the wonderful magazine, Signs of the Times, in our last program. Even a Christian, he writes, might go through a long period of time where he or she simply IS NOT able to confess yet. Because of fear. Or pride. Do Christians struggle with pride? Sure we do. And I likened that hard, hard confession to a dive from the highest board. Maybe you’re not ready yet. And God accepts you as you tremblingly tiptoe toward the steps leading up to that high dive.

“If you were struggling with a bad temper, do you think you would be in a saved condition during the transformation process?” he asks. “Of course. Rest assured, you are also in a saved condition during the time it takes to get rid of the pride that is keeping you from confessing.”

But the two points are these: God is with you as you inch toward those diving-board steps. And friend, it’s also His will that you GET to those steps. Marvin confesses his own experience where it took him YEARS to confess to a certain person he had wronged. He just couldn’t do it, even though he was a born-again believer. But eventually the Lord brought him to the point where he called that person, and said, “I’ve got to drive over and see you.” It was a good 200-mile drive, but you know, by the time he got to the person’s address, Marvin was actually LOOKING FORWARD to confessing. The Lord had worked that miracle in his heart.

There’s a great Bible verse that talks about edging our way painfully over to the diving board. It’s a terrible moment for you; your face is flushed with shame. Your carefully constructed ego-castle is about to come crashing down. Can you possibly dive off the high dive, and say to this person, “I was wrong. I’m sorry”?

Here’s the verse, found in Psalm 34:18:

“The Lord is CLOSE to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Is that a good description of “Confession Time”? It’s right on, isn’t it? “Brokenhearted.” “Crushed in spirit.” But notice: the Lord is CLOSE to you at that very moment! When you go to confess, Jesus wraps His mighty arm around you and actually gets CLOSER to you right then! Marvin Moore found this to be true during that 200-mile drive into his enemy’s territory.

Here’s that same verse in the Living Bible:

“The Lord is close to those whose hearts are breaking; He RESCUES those who are humbly sorry for their sins.”

Friend, I believe it’s a universal truth that God ALWAYS helps us when we do something that is His will. I like the very plain way this paraphrase, The Clear Word, expresses God’s promise of Proverbs 28:13:

“He who confesses and makes things right WILL receive mercy.” “He gets another chance,” says the Living Bible.

So friend, maybe today you’re in a holding pattern regarding confession. The Holy Spirit might have just recently brought to your mind a long-ago issue you had forgotten. There’s someone you need to confess to . . . and you only just now realize it. Thank God for His promise that He accepts you while you grow into readiness for this tough moment. And thank Him as well for this incredible guarantee that He’s ESPECIALLY close while you travel through this particular fire. But please . . . do begin to move toward that ladder. What a wonderful thing it will be when you complete the dive and emerge in joy on the other side of the pool.

We’ve been dangling this fictional story about Major B. J. Honeycutt and his unconfessed sin for about a week now; let’s get back to it, shall we? Here a faithful husband strays for one evening. It wasn’t deliberate; it wasn’t planned. But it certainly WAS a sin, a betrayal. He’s about to write to Peg and pour out the whole ugly story when Alan Alda, playing Hawkeye Pierce, advises against it. “Look, Beej,” he says. “You love your wife. Don’t HURT her, don’t damage your relationship, with this pain. You made a mistake; learn from it and move on.”

Friend, is this biblical counsel? Over and over, we’ve read that the Bible tells us TO confess to someone we’ve wronged. James 5:16:

“Therefore confess your sins TO EACH OTHER.”

One of our Bible commentaries shares this very straightforward directive:

“Wrong deeds secretly done are to be confessed to God alone. Sins that involve others ARE to be confessed ALSO to those who have suffered injury.”

And we mentioned yesterday the words of Jesus Christ Himself, there in the Sermon on the Mount: “LEAVE your gift at the altar and GO, be reconciled to your brother.”

So this seems very clear. Not easy; not fun . . . but clear. And we shouldn’t look for a loophole. However, let me return just once more to this insightful book, The Crisis of the End Time, and Marvin Moore’s study on the topic of confession.

“It is not enough,” he writes, “to confess sin in general.”

I’ve heard confessions like those — and sometimes even indulged in them. “If I offended anyone, I’m sorry.” That sort of thing. And until I took the word “if” out of there, that confession wasn’t much good. But Marvin goes on:

“[Again,] it is not enough to confess sin in general. An exception might be when your confession would reveal confidential information about someone else or when the individual to whom you need to confess is emotionally incapable of handling the information.” Then Marvin adds this: “It’s usually best, in such a situation, to seek the advice of a pastor or Christian friend whose judgment you trust before going to the person you have wronged.”

I can think of some VERY delicate situations in areas where I’ve pastored, but let’s stay right there in “The Swamp” with B. J. Honeycutt and Hawkeye Pierce and Major Winchester. There’s a wife back home who is blissfully in love with her husband. The hope of his soon return from Korea is all that sustains Peg and the children. Letters and photos going back and forth across the Pacific Ocean bind their hearts together. And now this man she loves, and who loves her just as ardently, has made a ghastly mistake. His heart is aching as he remembers how, the night before, he betrayed his beloved Peggy.

What will a letter of confession do? Well, friend, I don’t know the answer to that question. Is their love strong enough to endure? Can she bear up under this heartbreaking news coming all the way from Korea in a faded, blue air-mail letter that was mailed three weeks earlier? She can’t phone; anything she writes to him back will take another month. And Hawkeye Pierce says, “Don’t mail that letter. At least not NOW. Don’t HURT your wife by confessing.”

Friend, I don’t know the answer. Maybe B. J. should talk it over with Father Mulcahy. For sure he should get down on his knees and do two things: confess fully to God . . . and THEN ask for humble wisdom on what to do with that letter.

That’s Honeycutt’s decision and not yours or mine. But friend, isn’t it wonderful news that God accepts us and embraces us even in these moments of agonizing decision? I already borrowed a story from Leadership; and here’s a quote from the Spring 1999 issue, offered up by Pastor Victor Alfsen:

“God can do wonders with a broken heart . . . IF you give HIM all the pieces.”