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Christ Became Our Brother In Order To Help Us. Through Him Our Brother Has Become Christ For Us In The Power And Authority Of The Commission Christ Has Given Him. Our Brother Stands Before Us The Sign Of The Truth And The Grace Of God. He Has Been Given To Us To Help Us. He Hears The Confession Of Our Sins In Christ's Stead And He Forgives Our Sins In Christ's Name. He Keeps The Secret Of Our Confession As God Keeps It. When I Go To My Brother To Confess, I Am Going To God.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Christ Became Our Brother

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Christ Became Our Brother In Order To Help Us. Through Him Our Brother Has Become Christ For Us In The Power And Authority Of The Commission Christ Has Given Him. Our Brother Stands Before Us The Sign Of The Truth And The Grace Of God. He Has Been Given To Us To Help Us. He Hears The Confession Of Our Sins In Christ's Stead And He Forgives Our Sins In Christ's Name. He Keeps The Secret Of Our Confession As God Keeps It. When I Go To My Brother To Confess, I Am Going To God.

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The Responsible Person Seeks To Make His Whole Life A Response To The Question And Call Of God.

If The Heart Is Devoted To The Mirage Of The World, To The Creature Instead Of The Creator, The Disciple Is Lost... However Urgently Jesus May Call Us, His Call Fails To Find Access To Our Hearts... For They Have Already Been Given To Another.

Pain Is A Holy Angel Who Shows Us Treasures That Would Otherwise Remain Forever Hidden; Through Him Men And Women Have Become Greater Than Through All The Joys Of The World. It Must Be So And I Tell Myself This In My Present Situation Over And Over Again. The Pain Of Suffering And Of Longing, Which Can Often Be Felt Even Physically, Must Be There, And We Cannot And Need Not Talk It Away. But It Needs To Be Overcome Every Time, And Thus There Is An Even Holier Angel Than The One Of Pain; That Is, The One Of Joy In God.

The Lord Stands Above The New Day, For God Has Made It. All Restlessness, All Worry, And Anxiety Flee Before Him.

Being A Christan Is Less About Cautiously Avoiding Sin Than About Courageously And Actively Doing God's Will.

Battles Are Won, Not With Weapons, But With God. They Are Won Where The Way Leads To The Cross.

Many Christians Are Unthinkably Horrified When A Real Sinner Is Suddenly Discovered Among The Righteous. So We Remain Alone With Our Sin, Living In Lies And Hypocrisy...he Who Is Alone With His Sins Is Utterly Alone.

The Church ... Is Not Just To Bandage The Victims Under The Wheel, But To Put A Spoke In The Wheel Itself.

Fruit Is Always The Miraculous, The Created; It Is Never The Result Of Willing, But Always A Growth. The Fruit Of The Spirit Is A Gift Of God, And Only He Can Produce It. They Who Bear It Know As Little About It As The Tree Knows Of Its Fruit. They Know Only The Power Of Him On Whom Their Life Depends

Fruits Of The Spirit

The Devil Doesn't Fill Us With Hatred For God, But With Forgetfulness Of God.

It Is Only By Living Completely In This World That One Learns To Have Faith.

Costly Grace Is The Treasure Hidden In The Field; For The Sake Of It A Man Will Gladly Go And Sell All He Has. It Is The Pearl Of Great Price To By Which The Merchant Will Sell All His Goods.

Faith Without Works Is Not Faith At All, But A Simple Lack Of Obedience To God.

Obedience To God

Sometimes We Just Need A Firm Kick In The Pants. An Unsmiling Expectation That If We Mean All These Wonderful Things We Talk About And Sing About, Then Let’s See Something To Prove It.

Wherever It Pleases God To Put Man In This World, The Christian Must Be Ready For Martyrdom And Death. It Is Only In This Way That Man Learns Faith.

Discipleship Means Adherence To Christ And, Because Christ Is The Object Of That Adherence, It Must Take The Form Of Discipleship. An Abstract Theology, A Doctrinal System, A General Religious Knowledge Of The Subject Of Grace Or The Forgiveness Of Sins, Render Discipleship Superfluous, And In Fact Exclude Any Idea Of Discipleship Whatsoever, And Are Essentially Inimical To The Whole Conception Of Following Christ....christianity Without The Living Christ Is Inevitably Christianity Without Discipleship, And Christianity Without Discipleship Is Always Christianity Without Christ.

Following Christ

The Life Of Discipleship Is Not The Hero-worship We Would Pay To A Good Master, But Obedience To The Son Of God.

The Fact That We Do Not Speak It But Sing It Only Expresses The Fact That Our Spoken Words Are Inadequate To Express What We Want To Say, That The Burden Of Our Song Goes Far Beyond All Human Words.

The Only Man Who Has The Right To Say That He Is Justified By Grace Alone Is The Man Who Has Left All To Follow Christ. Such A Man Knows That The Call To Discipleship Is A Gift Of Grace, And That The Call Is Inseparable From The Grace. But Those Who Try To Use This Grace As A Dispensation From Following Christ Are Simply Deceiving Themselves.

Following Christ

The 'polymath' Had Already Died Out By The Close Of The Eighteenth Century, And In The Following Century Intensive Education Replaced Extensive, So That By The End Of It The Specialist Had Evolved. The Consequence Is That Today Everyone Is A Mere Technician, Even The Artist.

Who Stands Firm? Only The One For Whom The Final Standard Is Not His Reason, His Principles, His Conscience, His Freedom, His Virtue, But Who Is Ready To Sacrifice All These, When In Faith And Sole Allegiance To God He Is Called To Obedient And Responsible Action: The Responsible Person, Whose Life Will Be Nothing But An Answer To God's Question And Call.

The More Genuine And The Deeper Our Community Becomes, The More Will Everything Else Between Us Recede, The More Clearly And Purely Will Jesus Christ And His Work Become The One And Only Thing That Is Vital Between Us.

Every Call Of Christ Leads Into Death.

It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich!

The Church Is Her True Self Only When She Exists For Humanity.

The World Exercises Dominion By Force And Christ And Christians Conquer By Service.

If You Board The Wrong Train, It Is No Use Running Along The Corridor In The Other Direction.

Jesus' Commandment Never Wishes To Destroy Life, But Rather To Preserve, Strengthen, And Heal Life.

As God Adds His 'yes' To Your 'yes,' As He Confirms Your Will With His Will, And As He Allows You, And Approves Of, Your Triumph And Rejoicing And Pride, He Makes You At The Same Time Instruments Of His Will And Purpose Both For Yourselves And For Others. In His Unfathomable Condescension God Does Add His 'yes' To Yours; But By Doing So, He Creates Out Of Your Love Something Quite New - The Holy Estate Of Matrimony.

The Christian Life Is Participation In The Encounter Of Christ With The World.

Help Must Come From The Outside, And It Has Come And Comes Daily And Answers In The Word Of Jesus Christ.

Do Not Worry! Earthly Goods Deceive The Human Heart Into Believing That They Give It Security And Freedom From Worry. But In Truth, They Are What Cause Anxiety. The Heart Which Clings To Goods Receives With Them The Choking Burden Of Worry. Worry Collects Treasures, And Treasures Produce More Worries. We Desire To Secure Our Lives With Earthly Goods; We Want Our Worrying To Make Us Worry-free, But The Truth Is The Opposite. The Chains Which Bind Us To Earthly Goods, The Clutches Which Hold The Goods Tight, Are Themselves Worries.

Where Is Love More Glorified Than Where She Dwells In The Midst Of Her Enemies?

How Can God Entrust Great Things To One Who Will Not Thankfully Receive From Him The Little Things?

Christian Thanksgiving

God Is Not Free From Human Beings But For Them.

God Does Not Give Us Everything We Want, But He Does Fulfill His Promises.

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Spiritual Wisdom

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Who Can Really Be Faithful In Great Things If He Has Not Learned To Be Faithful In The Things Of Daily Life?

When Christ Calls A Man, He Bids Him Come And Die.

The Consciousness Of Being Borne Up By A Spiritual Tradition That Goes Back For Centuries Gives One A Feeling Of Confidence And Security In The Face Of All Passing Strains And Stresses.

We Are Not To Simply Bandage The Wounds Of Victims Beneath The Wheels Of Injustice, We Are To Drive A Spoke Into The Wheel Itself.

In Jesus Christ We Have Been Chosen From Eternity, Accepted In Time, And United For Eternity.

The Way To Misuse Our Possessions Is To Use Them As An Insurance Against The Morrow. Anxiety Is Always Directed To The Morrow, Whereas Goods Are In The Strictest Sense Meant To Be Used Only For To-day.

Silence In The Face Of Evil Is Evil Itself.

Only The Suffering God Can Help.

Politics Are Not The Task Of A Christian.

Blessed Are They That Hunger And Thirst After Righteousness: For They Shall Be Filled. Not Only Do The Followers Of Jesus Renounce Their Rights, They Renounce Their Own Righteousness Too. They Get No Praise For Their Achievements Or Sacrifices. They Cannot Have Righteous– Ness Except By Hungering And Thirsting For It (this Applies Equally To Their Own Righteousness And To The Righteousness Of God On Earth ), Always They Look Forward To The Future Righteousness Of God, But They Cannot Establish It For Themselves. Those Who Follow Jesus Grow Hungry And Thirsty On The Way.

Every Christian Community Must Realize That Not Only Do The Weak Need The Strong, But Also That The Strong Cannot Exist Without The Weak. The Elimination Of The Weak Is The Death Of Fellowship.

It Is From God That Parents Receive Their Children, And It Is To God That They Should Lead Them.

I Can Never Know Beforehand How God’s Image Should Appear In Others. That Image Always Manifests A Completely New And Unique Form That Comes Solely From God’s Free And Sovereign Creation. To Me The Sight May Seem Strange, Even Ungodly. But God Creates Every Man In The Likeness Of His Son, The Crucified. After All, Even That Image Certainly Looked Strange And Ungodly To Me Before I Grasped It.

Time Is The Most Valuable Thing That We Have, Because It Is The Most Irrevocable.

Valuable Things

Only In Jesus Are We Able To Pray, And With Him We Also Know That We Shall Be Heard.

The Future Of Modern Society Depends Much More On The Quiet Heroism Of The Very Few Who Are Inspired By God. These Few Will Greatly Enjoy The Divine Inspiration And Will Be Prepared To Stand For The Dignity Of Man And True Freedom And To Keep The Law Of God, Even Of It Means Martyrdom Or Death.

The Essence Of Chastity Is Not The Suppression Of Lust, But The Total Orientation Of One's Life Towards A Goal. Without Such A Goal, Chastity Is Bound To Become Ridiculous. Chastity Is The Sine Qua Non Of Lucidity And Concentration.

Political Action Means Taking On Responsibility. This Cannot Happen Without Power. Power Is To Serve Responsibility.

Good Friday And Easter Free Us To Think About Other Things Far Beyond Our Own Personal Fate, About The Ultimate Meaning Of All Life, Suffering, And Events; And We Lay Hold Of A Great Hope.

There Is Not A Place To Which The Christian Can Withdraw From The World, Whether It Be Outwardly Or In The Sphere Of The Inner Life. Any Attempt To Escape From The World Must Sooner Or Later Be Paid For With A Sinful Surrender To The World.

Christianity Means Community Through Jesus Christ And In Jesus Christ. No Christian Community Is More Or Less Than This.

Salvation Is Free, But Discipleship Will Cost You Your Life

It Is Not Your Love That Sustains The Marriage, But From Now On, The Marriage That Sustains Your Love.

Inspirational Marriage

Marriage Problems

Many People Are Looking For An Ear That Will Listen. They Do Not Find It Among Christians, Because These Christians Are Talking Where They Should Be Listening.

As Christ Bore And Received Us As Sinners So We In His Fellowship May Bear And Receive Sinners Into The Fellowship Of Christ Through The Forgiving Of Sins.

The More Deeply We Grow Into The Psalms And The More Often We Pray Them As Our Own, The More Simple And Rich Will Our Prayer Become.

In The New Testament Our Enemies Are Those Who Harbor Hostility Against Us, Not Those Against Whom We Cherish Hostility, For Jesus Refuses To Reckon With Such A Possibility.

When People Are Deeply Affected By The Word, They Tell It To Other People.

Just As Our Love For God Begins With Listening To God's Word, The Beginning Of Love For Other Christians Is Learning To Listen To Them.

In A World Where Success Is The Measure And Justification Of All Things The Figure Of Him Who Was Sentenced And Crucified Remains A Stranger And Is At Best The Object Of Pity. The World Will Allow Itself To Be Subdued Only By Success. It Is Not Ideas Or Opinions Which Decide, But Deeds. Success Alone Justifies Wrongs Done With A Frankness And Off-handedness Which No Other Earthly Power Could Permit Itself, History Appeals In Its Own Cause To The Dictum That The End Justifies The Means The Figure Of The Crucified Invalidates All Thought Which Takes Success For Its Standard.

God Has Willed That We Should Seek And Find God's Living Word In The Testimony Of Other Christians, In The Mouths Of Human Beings.

Christianity Preaches The Infinite Worth Of That Which Is Seemingly Worthless And The Infinite Worthlessness Of That Which Is Seemingly So Valued.

But They All Stood Beneath The Cross, Enemies And Believers, Doubters And Cowards, Revilers And Devoted Followers. His Prayer, In That Hour, And His Forgiveness, Was Meant For Them All, And For All Their Sins. The Mercy And Love Of God Are At Work Even In The Midst Of His Enemies. It Is The Same Jesus Christ, Who Of His Grace Calls Us To Follow Him, And Whose Grace Saves The Murderer Who Mocks Him On The Cross In His Last Hour.

The Deceit, The Lie Of The Devil Consists Of This, That He Wishes To Make Man Believe That He Can Live Without God's Word. Thus He Dangles Before Man's Fantasy A Kingdom Of Faith, Of Power, And Of Peace, Into Which Only He Can Enter Who Consents To The Temptations; And Conceals From Men That He, As The Devil, Is The Most Unfortunate And Unhappy Of Beings, Since He Is Finally And Eternally Rejected By God.

When All Is Said And Done, The Life Of Faith Is Nothing If Not An Unending Struggle Of The Spirit With Every Available Weapon Against The Flesh.

It Is The Nature, And The Advantage, Of Strong People That They Can Raise The Crucial Questions And Form A Clear Opinion About Them.

It Is The Fellowship Of The Cross To Experience The Burden Of The Other. If One Does Not Experience It, The Fellowship He Belongs To Is Not Christian. If Any Member Refuses To Bear That Burden, He Denies The Law Of Christ.

The Church Must Share In The Secular Problems Of Ordinary Human Life, Not Dominating, But Helping And Serving.

Where God Tears Great Gaps We Should Not Try To Fill Them With Human Words.

Prayer Does Not Mean Simply To Pour Out One's Heart. It Means Rather To Find The Way To God And To Speak With Him, Whether The Heart Is Full Or Empty.

We Are So Afraid Of Silence That We Chase Ourselves From One Event To The Next In Order Not To Have To Spend A Moment Alone With Ourselves, In Order Not To Have To Look At Ourselves In The Mirror.

Christianity Without Discipleship Is Always Christianity Without Christ.

Following Christ

Often We Combat Our Evil Thoughts Most Effectively If We Absolutely Refuse To Allow Them To Be Expressed In Words.

The Psalter Is The Prayer Book Of Jesus Christ In The Truest Sense Of The Word. He Prayed The Psalter And Now It Has Become His Prayer For All Time...we Understand How The Psalter Can Be Prayer To God And Yet God's Own Word, Precisely Because Here We Encounter The Praying Christ...because Those Who Pray The Psalms Are Joining In With The Prayer Of Jesus Christ, Their Prayer Reaches The Ears Of God. Christ Has Become Their Intercessor.

God Is Not A God Of The Emotions But The God Of Truth.

It Is Not Simply To Be Taken For Granted That The Christian Has The Privilege Of Living Among Other Christians. Jesus Christ Lived In The Midst Of His Enemies. … So The Christian, Too, Belongs Not In The Seclusion Of A Cloistered Life But In The Thick Of Foes. There Is His Commission, His Work.

Nothing Can Fill The Gap When We Are Away From Those We Love, And It Would Be Wrong To Try To Find Anything.....it Is Nonsense To Say That God Fills The Gap; He Does Not Fill It, But Keeps It Empty So That Our Communion With Another May Be Kept Alive, Even At The Cost Of Pain.

The Physical Presence Of Other Christians Is A Source Of Incomparable Joy And Strength To The Believer.

Fulfilled Life Is Possible In Spite Of Unfulfilled Wishes.

When One Person Is Struck By The Word, He Speaks It To Others. God Has Willed That We Should Seek And Find His Living Word In The Witness Of A Brother, In The Mouth Of Man. Therefore, The Christian Needs Another Christian Who Speaks God’s Word To Him. The Christ In His Own Heart Is Weaker Than The Christ In The Word Of His Brother; His Own Heart Is Uncertain, His Brother’s Is Sure.

A Pastor Should Never Complain About His Congregation, Certainly Never To Other People, But Also Not To God. A Congregation Has Not Been Entrusted To Him In Order That He Should Become Its Accuser Before God And Men.

... There Are Not Two Realities, But Only One Reality, And That Is The Reality Of God, Which Has Become Manifest In The Christ Event/redemption And Creation.

Earthly Possessions Dazzle Our Eyes And Delude Us Into Thinking That They Can Provide Security And Freedom From Anxiety. Yet All The Time They Are The Very Source Of Anxiety.

Security And Freedom

Before Jesus Leads His Disciples Into Suffering, Humiliation, Disgrace, And Disdain, He Summons Them And Shows Himself To Them As The Lord In God's Glory.

Where A People Prays, There Is The Church; And Where The Church Is; There Is Never Loneliness.

The Will Of God, To Which The Law Gives Expression, Is That Men Should Defeat Their Enemies By Loving Them.

The Heart Clings To Collected Treasure. Stored-up Possessions Get Between Me And God. Where My Treasure Is, There Is My Trust, My Security, My Comfort, My God. Treasure Means Idolatry.

Anything I Cannot Thank God For For The Sake Of Christ, I May Not Thank God For At All; To Do So Would Be Sin. ... We Cannot Rightly Acknowledge The Gifts Of God Unless We Acknowledge The Mediator For Whose Sake Alone They Are Given To Us.

The Only Man Who Has The Right To Say That He Is Justified By Grace Alone Is The Man Who Has Left All To Follow Christ.

A Pastor Who Does Not Pray Daily For His Congregation Is Not A Pastor.

Gratitude Changes The Pangs Of Memory Into A Tranquil Joy.

And After Death Something New Begins, Over Which All The Powers Of The World Of Death Can Have No More Control.

Love, In The Sense Of Spontaneous, Unreflective Action, Spells The Death Of The Old Man.

No Sacrifice Which A Lover Would Make For His Beloved Is Too Great For Us To Make For Our Enemy.

Any Honours That Come Our Way Are Only Stolen From Him To Whom Alone They Really Belong, The Lord Who Sent Us.

Wherever There Are Sinners, The Weak, The Sorrowful, The Poor In The World, That Is Where God Goes.

The Church Is Her True Self Only When She Exists For Humanity. As A Fresh Start, She Should Give Away All Her Endowments To The Poor And Needy. The Clergy Should Live Solely On The Freewill Offerings Of Their Congregations, Or Possibly Engage In Some Secular Calling.

One Who Loves His Community Destroys Community; One Who Loves Its Members Builds Community.

...gratitude Transforms The Torment Of Memory Of Good Things Now Gone Into Silent Joy. One Bears What Was Lovely In The Past Not As A Thorn But As A Precious Gift Deep Within, A Hidden Treasure Of Which One Can Always Be Certain.

Not Hero Worship, But Intimacy With Christ.

God Honors Some With Great Suffering And Grants Them The Grace Of Martyrdom, While Other Are Not Tempted Beyond Their Strength. But In Every Case It Is One Cross.

If I Sit Next To A Madman As He Drives A Car Into A Group Of Innocent Bystanders, I Can't, As A Christian, Simply Wait For The Catastrophe, Then Comfort The Wounded And Bury The Dead. I Must Try To Wrestle The Steering Wheel Out Of The Hands Of The Driver.

If Our Christianity Has Ceased To Be Serious About Discipleship, If We Have Watered Down The Gospel Into Emotional Uplift Which Makes No Costly Demands And Which Fails To Distinguish Between Natural And Christian Existence, Then We Cannot Help Regarding The Cross As An Ordinary Everyday Calamity, As One Of The Trials And Tribulations Of Life. We Have Then Forgotten That The Cross Means Rejection And Shame As Well As Suffering .

Still More Pathetic Is The Total Collapse Of Moral Fanaticism. Fanatics Think That Their Single-minded Principles Qualify Them To Do Battle With The Powers Of Evil; But Like A Bull They Rush At The Red Cloak Instead Of The Person Who Is Holding It; He Exhausts Himself And Is Beaten. He Gets Entangled In Non-essentials And Falls Into The Trap Set By Cleverer People.

But Discipleship Never Consists In This Or That Specific Action: It Is Always A Decision, Either For Or Against Jesus Christ...christ Speaks To Us Exactly As He Spoke To Them. It Was Not As Though They First Recognized Him As The Christ And Then Received His Command. They Believed His Word And Command And Recognized Him As The Christ--in That Order.

Human Love Has Little Regard For The Truth. It Makes The Truth Relative, Since Nothing, Not Even The Truth, Must Come Between It And The Beloved Person.

Not Everyone Can Wait: Neither The Sated Nor The Satisfied Nor Those Without Respect Can Wait. The Only Ones Who Can Wait Are People Who Carry Restlessness Around With Them.

Only Those Who Obey Can Believe, And Only Those Who Believe Can Obey.

I Saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, Before Taking Off His Prison Garb, Kneeling On The Floor Praying Fervently To His God. I Was Most Deeply Moved By The Way This Lovable Man Prayed, So Devout And So Certain That God Heard His Prayer. At The Place Of Execution, He Again Said A Prayer And Then Climbed The Steps To The Gallows, Brave And Composed. His Death Ensued In A Few Seconds. In The Almost 50 Years That I Have Worked As A Doctor, I Have Hardly Ever Seen A Man Die So Entirely Submissive To The Will Of God.

So The Christian, Too, Belongs Not In The Seclusion Of A Cloistered Life But In The Thick Of Foes. There Is His Commission, His Work.

On Sunday 8 April 1945, He Had Just Finished Conducting A Service Of Worship At Schoenberg, When Two Soldiers Came Took Him Away. As He Left, He Said To Another Prisoner, This Is The End - But For Me, The Beginning - Of Life. He Was Hanged The Next Day, Less Than A Week Before The Allies Reached The Camp.

In Ordinary Life We Hardly Realize That We Receive A Great Deal More Than We Give, And That It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich.

Cheap Grace Is Grace Without Discipleship, Grace Without The Cross, Grace Without Jesus Christ, Living And Incarnate.

Consequently There Is A Need For Spiritual Vitality. What Protection Is There Against The Danger Of Organisation? Man Is Once More Faced With The Problem Of Himself. He Can Cope With Every Danger Except The Danger Of Human Nature Itself. In The Last Resort It All Turns Upon Man.

The Question Of Why Evil Exists Is Not A Theological Question, For It Assumes That It Is Possible To Go Behind The Existence Forced Upon Us As Sinners. If We Could Answer It Then We Would Not Be Sinners. We Could Make Something Else Responsible...the Theological Question Does Not Arise About The Origin Of Evil But About The Real Overcoming Of Evil On The Cross; It Ask For The Forgiveness Of Guilt, For The Reconciliation Of The Fallen World

Jesus Christ Has To Suffer And Be Rejected... Suffering And Being Rejected Are Not The Same.

We Should Find God In What We Do Know, Not In What We Don't; Not In Outstanding Problems, But In Those We Have Already Solved.

If You Do A Good Job For Others, You Heal Yourself At The Same Time, Because A Dose Of Joy Is A Spiritual Cure.

The Wars Of Israel Were The Only 'holy Wars' In History... There Can Be No More Wars Of Faith. The Only Way To Overcome Our Enemy Is By Loving Him.

Once Again, Jesus Calls Those Who Follow Him To Share His Passion.

Death Is The Supreme Festival On The Road To Freedom.

Must The Christian Go Around Looking For A Cross To Bear, Seeking To Suffer? No, Insisted Bonhoeffer. Opportunities For Bearing Crosses Will Occur Along Life's Way And All That Is Required Is The Willingness To Act When The Time Comes. The Needs Of The Neighbor, Especially Those Of The Weak And Downtrodden, The Victimized And The Persecuted, The Ill And The Lonely, Will Become Abundantly Evident.

The Time Is Short. Eternity Is Long. It Is The Time Of Decision.

A Love That Left People Alone In Their Guilt Would Not Have Real People As Its Object. So, In Vicarious Responsibility For People, And In His Love For Real Human Beings, Jesus Becomes The One Burdened By Guilt.

I Discovered Later, And I'm Still Discovering Right Up To This Moment, That Is It Only By Living Completely In This World That One Learns To Have Faith. By This-worldliness I Mean Living Unreservedly In Life's Duties, Problems, Successes And Failures. In So Doing We Throw Ourselves Completely Into The Arms Of God, Taking Seriously, Not Our Own Sufferings, But Those Of God In The World. That, I Think, Is Faith.

No One Should Be Surprised At The Difficulty Of Faith, If There Is Some Part Of His Life Where He Is Consciously Resisting Or Disobeying The Commandment Of Jesus. Is There Some Part Of Your Life Which You Are Refusing To Surrender At His Behest, Some Sinful Passion, Maybe, Or Some Animosity, Some Hope, Perhaps Your Ambition Or Your Reason? ... How Can You Hope To Enter Into Communion With Him When At Some Point In Your Life You Are Running Away From Him?

Jesus Calls Men, Not To A New Religion, But To Life.

Judgement Is The Forbidden Objectivization Of The Other Person Which Destroys Single-minded Love. I Am Not Forbidden To Have My Own Thoughts About The Other Person, To Realize His Shortcomings, But Only To The Extent That It Offers To Me An Occasion For Forgiveness And Unconditional Love, As Jesus Proves To Me.

Unconditional Love

Advent Creates People, New People.

No One Has Yet Believed In God And The Kingdom Of Heaven, No One Has Heard About His Realm Of The Resurrected, And Not Been Homesick From That Hour, Waiting And Looking Forward Joyfully To Being Released From Bodily Existencedeath Is Hell And Night And Cold, If It Is Not Transformed By Our Faith. But That Is Just What Is So Marvelous, That We Can Transform Death.

Christians Have Forgotten That The Ministry Of Listening Has Been Committed To Them By Him Who Is Himself The Great Listener And Whose Work They Should Share. We Should Listen With The Ears Of God That We May Speak The Word Of God.

Then Fear Will Grow Pale And Fade Away, And You Will Be Free, Through Your Faith In Our Strong And Living Savior, Jesus Christ.

We Must Be Ready To Allow Ourselves To Be Interrupted By God.

All Are Called To Be What In The Reality Of God They Are Already.

So Many People Come To Church With A Genuine Desire To Hear What We Have To Say, Yet They Are Always Going Back Home With The Uncomfortable Feeling That We Are Making It Too Difficult For Them To Come To Jesus.

Uncomfortable Feeling

Right Speech Comes Out Of Silence And Right Silence Comes Out Of Speech.

One Cannot Simply Read The Bible, Like Other Books. One Must Be Prepared Really To Enquire Of It. Only Thus Will It Reveal Itself. Only If We Expect From It The Ultimate Answer, Shall We Receive It. That Is Because In The Bible God Speaks To Us. And One Cannot Simply Think About God In One’s Own Strength, One Has To Inquire Of Him. Only If We Seek Him, Will He Answer Us.

It Is God's Earth Out Of Which Man Is Taken. From It He Has His Body. His Body Belongs To His Essential Being. Man's Body Is Not His Prison, His Shell His Exterior, But Man Himself. Man Does Not "have" A Body; He Does Not "have" A Soul; Rather He "is" Body And Soul. Man In The Beginning Is Really His Body. He Is One. He Is His Body, As Christ Is Completely His Body, As The Church Is The Body Of Christ

Principles Are Only Tools In The Hands Of God; They Will Soon Be Thrown Away When They Are No Longer Useful.

Thinking In Terms Of Two Realms Understands The Paired Concepts Worldy-christia N, Natural-superna Tural, Profane-sacred, Rational-revela Tions, As Ultimate Static Opposites...and Fails To Recognize The Original Unity Of These Opposites In The Christ-reality.

Let Him Who Cannot Be Alone Beware Of Community... Let Him Who Is Not In Community Beware Of Being Alone... Each By Itself Has Profound Perils And Pitfalls. One Who Wants Fellowship Without Solitude Plunges Into The Void Of Words And Feelings, And The One Who Seeks Solitude Without Fellowship Perishes In The Abyss Of Vanity, Self-infatuation And Despair.

Self-justification And Judging Others Go Together, As Justification By Grace And Serving Others Go Together.

The Beginning Of Love For The Brethren Is Learning To Listen To Them.

Bless Them That Persecute You.' If Our Enemy Cannot Put Up With Us Any Longer And Takes To Cursing Us, Our Immediate Reaction Must Be To Lift Up Our Hands And Bless Him. Our Enemies Are The Blessed Of The Lord. Their Curse Can Do Us No Harm. May Their Poverty Be Enriched With All The Riches Of God, With The Blessing Of Him Whom They Seek To Oppose In Vain. We Are Ready To Endure Their Curses So Long As They Redound To Their Blessing.

There Is No Kindness More Cruel Than The Kindness Which Consigns Another Person To Their Sin.

What Is The "extraordinary"? It Is The Love Of Jesus Christ Himself, Love That Goes To The Cross In Suffering Obedience.

Human Love Is Directed To The Other Person For His Own Sake, Spiritual Love Loves Him For Christ's Sake. Therefore, Human Love Seeks Direct Contact With The Other Person; It Loves Him Not As A Free Person But As One Whom It Binds To Itself.

God's Truth Judges Created Things Out Of Love, And Satan's Truth Judges Them Out Of Envy And Hatred.

God Comes Into The Very Midst Of Evil And Of Death, And Judges The Evil In Us And In The World. And By Judging Us, He Cleanses And Sanctifies Us, Comes To Us With His Grace And Love. He Makes Us Happy As Only Children Can Be Happy.

When You Read The Bible, You Must Think That Here And Now, God Is Speaking With Me

God Has Reserved To Himself The Right To Determine The End Of Life, Because He Alone Knows The Goal To Which It Is His Will To Lead It. It Is For Him Alone To Justify A Life Or To Cast It Away.

It Is Very Easy To Overestimate The Importance Of Our Own Achievements In Comparison With What We Owe Others.

If Christ Has Been Given Us, If We Are Called To His Discipleship We Are Given All Things, Literally _all_ Things. He Will See To It That They Are Added Unto Us. If We Follow Jesus And Look Only To His Righteousness, We Are In His Hands And Under The Protection Of Him And His Father. And If We Are In Communion With The Father, Nought Can Harm Us. God Will Help Us In The Hour Of Need, And He Knows Our Needs.

The Followers Of Christ Have Been Called To Peace. . . . And They Must Not Only Have Peace But Make It. And To That End They Renounce All Violence And Tumult. In The Cause Of Christ Nothing Is To Be Gained By Such Methods . . . . His Disciples Keep The Peace By Choosing To Endure Suffering Themselves Rather Than Inflict It On Others. They Maintain Fellowship Where Others Would Break It Off. They Renounce Hatred And Wrong. In So Doing They Overcome Evil With Good, And Establish The Peace Of God In The Midst Of A World Of War And Hate.

We Pray For The Big Things And Forget To Give Thanks For The Ordinary, Small (and Yet Really Not Small) Gifts.

The Essence Of Grace, We Suppose, Is That The Account Has Been Paid In Advance; And, Because It Has Been Paid, Everything Can Be Had For Nothing.

If Any Want To Become My Followers," Jesus Says. Following Him Is Not Something That Is Self-evident, Even Among The Disciples. No One Can Be Forced, No One Can Be Expected To Follow Him. ... "if Any Want To Follow Me, They Must Deny Themselves ... And Take Up Their Cross.

If You Want My Goodness To Stay With You Then Serve Your Neighbour, For In Him God Comes To You Himself; Such A Man Sees In His Neighbour The Material And Spiritual Need He Is Called To Meet.

Thus The Call To Follow Christ Always Means A Call To Share The Work Of Forgiving Men Their Sins. Forgiveness Is The Christlike Suffering Which It Is The Christian's Duty To Bear.

When A Man Really Gives Up Trying To Make Something Out Of Himself - A Saint, Or A Converted Sinner, Or A Churchman (a So-called Clerical Somebody), A Righteous Or Unrighteous Man,...and Throws Himself Into The Arms Of God...then He Wakes With Christ In Gethsemane. That Is Faith, That Is Metanoia And It Is Thus That He Becomes A Man And Christian.

What Is Happiness And Unhappiness? It Depends So Little On The Circumstances; It Depends Really Only On What Happens Inside A Person. I Am Grateful For Every Day And That Makes Me Happy.

If You Believe, Take The First Step, It Leads To Jesus Christ. If You Don't Believe, Take The First Step All The Same, For You Are Bidden To Take It.

Certainly One Must Try Everything, But Only To Become More Certain What God's Way Is.

Through Our Daily Meals He Is Calling Us To Rejoice, To Keep Holiday In The Midst Of Our Working Day.

Earthly Goods Are Given To Be Used, Not To Be Collected.... Hoarding Is Idolatry.

If My Sinfulness Appears To Me To Be In Any Way Smaller Or Less Detestable In Comparison With The Sins Of Others, I Am Still Not Recognizing My Sinfulness At All. ... How Can I Possibly Serve Another Person In Unfeigned Humility If I Seriously Regard His Sinfulness As Worse Than My Own?

Faith Is Only Real When There Is Obedience, Never Without It, And Faith Only Becomes Faith In The Act Of Obedience.

We Must Be Ready To Allow Ourselves To Be Interrupted By God. God Will Be Constantly Crossing Our Paths And Canceling Our Plans By Sending Us People With Claims And Petitions.

Jesus Says That Every Christian Has His Own Cross Waiting For Him, A Cross Destined And Appointed By God. Each Must Endure His Allotted Share Of Suffering And Rejection. But Each Has A Different Share: Some God Deems Worthy Of The Highest Form Of Suffering, And Gives Them The Grace Of Martyrdom, While Others He Does Not Allow To Be Tempted Above That Which They Are Able To Bear. But It Is The One And The Same Cross In Every Case.

It Is Grace, Nothing But Grace, That We Are Allowed To Live In Community With Christian Brethren.

Being Free Means "being Free For The Other," Because The Other Has Bound Me To Him. Only In Relationship With The Other Am I Free

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