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Christian Community Is Like The Christian's Sanctification. It Is A Gift Of God Which We Cannot Claim. Only God Knows The Real State Of Our Fellowship, Of Our Sanctification. What May Appear Weak And Trifling To Us May Be Great And Glorious To God. Just As The Christian Should Not Be Constantly Feeling His Spiritual Pulse, So, Too, The Christian Community Has Not Been Given To Us By God For Us To Be Constantly Taking Its Temperature.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Christian Community Is Like

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Christian Community Is Like The Christian's Sanctification. It Is A Gift Of God Which We Cannot Claim. Only God Knows The Real State Of Our Fellowship, Of Our Sanctification. What May Appear Weak And Trifling To Us May Be Great And Glorious To God. Just As The Christian Should Not Be Constantly Feeling His Spiritual Pulse, So, Too, The Christian Community Has Not Been Given To Us By God For Us To Be Constantly Taking Its Temperature.

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Discipleship Never Consists In This Or That Specific Action: It Is Always A Decision, Either For Or Against Jesus Christ.

The World Upon Whom Grace Is Thrust As A Bargain Will Grow Tired Of It.

The Church Is The Church Only When It Exists For Others...not Dominating, But Helping And Serving. It Must Tell Men Of Every Calling What It Means To Live For Christ, To Exist For Others.

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.

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.

If Religion Is Onlya Garment Of Christianityand Even This Garment Has Looked Very Different At Different Timesthen What Is Religionless Christianity?

The Person Who’s In Love With Their Vision Of Community Will Destroy Community. But The Person Who Loves The People Around Them Will Create Community Everywhere They Go.

Grace At A Low Cost, Is In The Last Resort Simply A New Law, Which Brings Neither Help Nor Freedom.

Oh, Give Our Frightened Souls The Sure Salvation For Which, O Lord, You Taught Us To Prepare. And When This Cup You Give Is Filled To Brimming With Bitter Suffering, Hard To Understand, We Take It Thankfully And Without Trembling, Out Of So Good And So Beloved A Hand. Yet When Again In This Same World You Give Us The Joy We Had, The Brightness Of Your Sun, We Shall Remember All The Days We Lived Through, And Our Whole Life Shall Then Be Yours Alone.

Struggling Against The Legalism Of Simple Obedience, We End By Setting Up The Most Dangerous Law Of All, The Law Of The World And The Law Of Grace. In Our Effort To Combat Legalism We Land Ourselves In The Worst Kind Of Legalism. The Only Way Of Overcoming This Legalism Is By Real Obedience To Christ When He Calls Us To Follow Him; For In Jesus The Law Is At Once Fulfilled And Cancelled.

If You Reject God's Commanding Word, You Will Not Receive God's Gracious Word.

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.

The Fearful Danger Of The Present Time Is That Above The Cry For Authority, We Forget That Man Stands Alone Before The Ultimate Authority, And That Anyone Who Lays Violent Hands On Man Here, Is Infringing Eternal Laws, And Taking Upon Himself Superhuman Authority, Which Will Eventually Crush Him.

Man No Longer Lives In The Beginning--he Has Lost The Beginning. Now He Finds He Is In The Middle, Knowing Neither The End Nor The Beginning, And Yet Knowing That He Is In The Middle, Coming From The Beginning And Going Towards The End. He Sees That His Life Is Determined By These Two Facets, Of Which He Knows Only That He Does Not Know Them

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.

Not Until One Person Desires To Keep His Own Bread For Himself Does Hunger Ensue.

Jesus Himself Did Not Try To Convert The Two Thieves On The Cross; He Waited Until One Of Them Turned To Him.

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

It Matters Little What Form Of Prayer We Adopt Or How Many Words We Use. What Matters Is The Faith Which Lays Hold On God, Knowing That He Knows Our Needs Before We Even Ask Him. That Is What Gives Christian Prayer Its Boundless Confidence And Its Joyous Certainty.

Man Has Learned To Cope With All Questions Of Importance Without Recourse To God As A Working Hypothesis.

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

A Prison Cell, In Which One Waits, Hopes...and Is Completely Dependent On The Fact That The Door Of Freedom Has To Be Opened From The Outside, Is Not A Bad Picture Of Advent.

It Is The Task Of Youth Not To Reshape The Church, But Rather To Listen To The Word Of God.

Sanctification Means That The Christians Have Been Judged Already, And That They Are Being Preserved Until The Coming Of Christ And Are Ever Advancing Towards It.

The Limitation Of The Ethical Phenomenon To Its Place And Time Does Not Imply Its Rejection But, On The Contrary, Its Validation. One Does Not Use Canons To Shoot Sparrows.

Because I Am A Christian, Therefore, Every Day In Which I Do Not Penetrate More Deeply Into The Knowledge Of God's Word In Holy Scripture Is A Lost Day For Me. I Can Only Move Forward With Certainty Upon The Firm Ground Of The Word Of God. And, As A Christian, I Learn To Know The Holy Scriptures In No Other Way Than By Hearing The Word Preached And By Prayerful Meditation.

A Christian Fellowship Lives And Exists By The Intercession Of Its Members For One Another, Or It Collapses. I Can No Longer Condemn Or Hate A Brother For Whom I Pray, No Matter How Much Trouble He Causes Me. His Face, That Hitherto May Have Been Strange And Intolerable To Me, Is Transformed In Intercession Into The Countenance Of A Brother For Whom Christ Died, The Face Of A Forgiven Sinner.

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.

It Is Not In Our Life That God's Help And Presence Must Still Be Proved, But Rather God's Presence And Help Have Been Demonstrated For Us In The Life Of Jesus Christ. It Is In Fact More Important For Us To Know What God Did To Israel, To His Son Jesus Christ, Than To Seek What God Intends For Us Today.

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

It Is A Dangerous Error, Surely Very Widespread Among Christians, To Think That The Heart Can Pray By Itself.

Costly Grace Is The Gospel Which Must Be Sought Again And Again, The Gift Which Must Be Asked For, The Door At Which A Man Must Knock.

In Me There Is Darkness, But With You There Is Light; I Am Lonely, But You Do Not Leave Me; I Am Feeble In Heart, But With You There Is Help; I Am Restless, But With You There Is Peace. In Me There Is Bitterness, But With You There Is Patience; I Do Not Understand Your Ways, But You Know The Way For Me.” “lord Jesus Christ, You Were Poor And In Distress, A Captive And Forsaken As I Am. You Know All Man’s Troubles; You Abide With Me When All Men Fail Me; You Remember And Seek Me; It Is Your Will That I Should Know You And Turn To You. Lord, I Hear Your Call And Follow; Help Me.

A Community Of Jesus Which Seeks To Hide Itself Has Ceased To Follow Him.

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.

Christianity Means Community Through Jesus Christ And In Jesus Christ. No Christian Community Is More Or Less Than This. Whether It Is A Brief, Single Encounter Or The Daily Fellowship Of Years, Christian Community Is Only This. We Belong To One Another Only Through And In Jesus Christ.

To Deny Oneself Is To Be Aware Only Of Christ And No More Of Self, To See Only Him Who Goes Before And No More The Road Which Is Too Hard For Us. Once More, All That Self-denial Can Say Is, 'he Leads The Way, Keep Close To Him.'

I Believe That Nothing That Happens To Me Is Meaningless And That It Is Good For Us All That It Should Be So, Even If It Runs Counter To Our Own Wishes. As I See It, I'm Here For Some Purpose, And I Only Hope I May Fulfill It.

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

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.

We Have Become So Accustomed To The Idea Of Divine Love And Of God's Coming At Christmas That We No Longer Feel The Shiver Of Fear That God's Coming Should Arouse In Us. We Are Indifferent To The Message, Taking Only The Pleasant And Agreeable Out Of It And Forgetting The Serious Aspect, That The God Of The World Draws Near To The People Of Our Little Earth And Lays Claim To Us. The Coming Of God Is Truly Not Only Glad Tidings, But First Of All Frightening News For Everyone Who Has A Conscience.

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

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

Fulfilled Life Is Possible In Spite Of Unfulfilled Wishes.

May God In His Mercy Lead Us Through These Times; But Above All, May He Lead Us To Himself.

There Is Nothing That Can Replace The Absence Of Someone Dear To Us, And One Should Not Even Attempt To Do So. One Must Simply Hold Out And Endure It. At First That Sounds Very Hard, But At The Same Time It Is Also A Great Comfort. For To The Extent The Emptiness Truly Remains Unfilled One Remains Connected To The Other Person Through It. It Is Wrong To Say That God Fills The Emptiness. God In No Way Fills It But Much More Leaves It Precisely Unfilled And Thus Helps Us Preserve -- Even In Pain -- The Authentic Relationship.

It Is Worse For A Liar To Tell The Truth Than For A Lover Of Truth To Lie.... There Is A Truth Which Is Of Satan. Its Essence Is That Under The Semblance Of Truth It Denies Everything That Is Real. It Lives Upon Hatred Of The Real World Which Is Created And Loved By God.

Nothing Is So At Odds With Prayer As Vanity.

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.

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.

Only What Is Essential Must Be Said.

The Deep Meaning Of The Cross Of Christ Is That There Is No Suffering On Earth That Is Not Borne By God.

Nothing Can Be More Cruel Than The Leniency Which Abandons Others To Their Sin. Nothing Can Be More Compassionate Than The Severe Reprimand Which Calls Another Christian In One’s Community Back From The Path Of Sin.

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

The Kingdom Is To Be In The Midst Of Your Enemies

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.

In The Gospels The Very First Step A Man Must Take Is An Act Which Radically Affects His Whole Existence.

A Righteous Person Is One Who Lives For The Next Generation.

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

I Need The Christ That Is In You, And You Need The Christ That Is In Me.

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.

God Can Make A New Beginning With People Whenever God Pleases, But Not People With God. Therefore, People Cannot Make A New Beginning At All; They Can Only Pray For One. Where People Are On Their Own And Live By Their Own Devices, There Is Only The Old, The Past.

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 A Man Has Truly Experienced The Mercy Of God In His Life He Will Henceforth Aspire Only To Serve.

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.

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

Inspirational Marriage

Marriage Problems

He Who Loves Community Destroys Community; He Who Loves The Brethren Builds Community.

Every Call Of Christ Leads Into Death.

One Act Of Obedience Is Better Than One Hundred Sermons.

Christian Inspirational

Christian Community Is Like The Christian's Sanctification. It Is A Gift Of God Which We Cannot Claim. Only God Knows The Real State Of Our Fellowship, Of Our Sanctification. What May Appear Weak And Trifling To Us May Be Great And Glorious To God. Just As The Christian Should Not Be Constantly Feeling His Spiritual Pulse, So, Too, The Christian Community Has Not Been Given To Us By God For Us To Be Constantly Taking Its Temperature.

The First Service That One Owes To Others In The Fellowship Consists Of Listening To Them. Just As Love Of God Begins With Listening To His Word, So The Beginning Of Love For Our Brothers And Sisters Is Learning To Listen To Them.

Fellowship With God

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

Obedience To God

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.

Death Reveals That The World Is Not As It Should Be But That It Stands In Need Of Redemption. Christ Alone Is The Conquering Of Death.

Anyone Who Thinks That His Time Is Too Valuable To Spend Keeping Quiet Will Eventually Have No Time For God And His Brother, But Only For Himself And For His Own Follies.

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.

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 Celebration Of Advent Is Possible Only To Those Who Are Troubled In Soul, Who Know Themselves To Be Poor And Imperfect, And Who Look Forward To Something Greater To Come.

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.

Comfort The Troubled, And Trouble The Comfortable.

Every Wedding Must Be An Occasion Of Joy That Human Beings Can Do Such Great Things, That They Have Been Given Such Immense Freedom And Power To Take The Helm In Their Life's Journey.

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

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.

Desires Repeatedly Mastered For The Sake Of Present Duty Make Us Richer. Lack Of Desire Is Poverty.

In A Word, Live Together In The Forgiveness Of Your Sins, For Without It No Human Fellowship, Least Of All A Marriage, Can Survive. Don't Insist On Your Rights, Don't Blame Each Other, Don't Judge Or Condemn Each Other, Don't Find Fault With Each Other, But Accept Each Other As You Are, And Forgive Each Other Every Day From The Bottom Of Your Hearts.

True Prayer Is Done In Secret, But This Does Not Rule Out The Fellowship Of Prayer Altogether, However Clearly We May Be Aware Of Its Dangers. In The Last Resort It Is Immaterial Whether We Pray In The Open Street Or In The Secrecy Of Our Chambers, Whether Briefly Or Lenghtily, In The Litany Of The Church, Or With The Sigh Of One Who Knows Not What He Should Pray For. True Prayer Does Not Depend Either On The Individual Or The Whole Body Of The Faithful, But Solely Upon The Knowledge That Our Heavenly Father Knows Our Needs.

We Must Be Ready To Allow Ourselves To Be Interrupted By God.....we Must Not.....assume That Our Schedule Is Our Own To Manage, But Allow It To Be Arranged By God.

I Believe That God Both Wills And Is Able To Bring Good Out Of Everything, Even The Worst... I Believe That Even Our Mistakes And Wrongdoing Are Not Fruitless.

Whenever The Psalter Is Abandoned, An Incomparable Treasure Is Lost To The Christian Church. With Its Recovery Will Come Unexpected Power.

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

If We Are To Pray Aright, Perhaps It Is Quite Necessary That We Pray Contrary To Our Own Heart. Not What We Want To Pray Is Important, But What God Wants Us To Pray. The Richness Of The Word Of God Ought To Determine Our Prayer, Not The Poverty Of Our Heart.

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.

Every Sermon Must Contain A Certain Shot Of Heresy.

Christianity Stands Or Falls With Its Revolutionary Protest Against Violence, Arbitrariness And Pride Of Power And With Its Plea For The Weak. Christians Are Doing Too Little To Make These Points Clear Rather Than Too Much. Christendom Adjusts Itself Far Too Easily To The Worship Of Power. Christians Should Give More Offense, Shock The World Far More, Than They Are Doing Now. Christian Should Take A Stronger Stand In Favor Of The Weak Rather Than Considering First The Possible Right Of The Strong.

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

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.

A Christian Fellowship Lives And Exists By The Intercession Of Its Members For One Another, Or It Collapses.

The Ultimate Test Of A Moral Society Is The Kind Of World That It Leaves To Its Children.

It Is Infinitely Easier To Suffer In Obedience To A Human Command Than To Accept Suffering As Free, Responsible Men.

The Right Way To Requite Evil, According To Jesus, Is Not To Resist It. This Saying Of Christ Removes The Church From The Sphere Of Politics And Law.

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

Valuable Things

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

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.

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

The Disciple Simply Burns His Boats And Goes Ahead. He Is Called Out... The Old Life Is Left Behind, And Completely Surrendered. The Disciple Is Dragged Out Of His Relative Security Into A Life Of Absolute Insecurity... Out Of The Realm Of The Finite...into The Realm Of Infinite Possibilities.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Telling The Truth ... Is Not Solely A Matter Of Moral Character; It Is Also A Matter Of Correct Appreciation Of Real Situations And Of Serious Reflection Upon Them.

How Wrong It Is To Use God As A Stop-gap For The Incompleteness Of Our Knowledge. . . . We Are To Find God In What We Know, Not In What We Don't Know; God Wants Us To Realize His Presence, Not In Unsolved Problems But In Those That Are Solved. . . . God Is No Stop-gap; He Must Be Recognized As The Center Of Life, Not When We Are At The End Of Our Resources.

We Are Torn Out Of Our Own Existence And Set Down In The Midst Of The Holy History Of God On Earth. There God Dealt With Us, And There He Still Deals With Us, Our Needs And Our Sins, In Judgment And Grace.

We Ought Not To Be In Too Much Of A Hurry Here To Speak Piously Of God's Will And Guidance. It Is Obvious, And It Should Not Be Ignored, That It Is Your Own Very Human Wills That Are At Work Here, Celebrating Their Triumph; The Course That You Are Taking At The Outset Is One That You Have Chosen For Yourselves.

Loving God Means Rejoicing In God, Being Eager To Think Of And Pray To God. It Means Being Glad To Be In God's Presence And To Be With God Alone. It Means Not Grieving God, But Rejoicing In God Simply Because It Is God Who Is Involved, And Because We Are Permitted To Know And Have God, And To Speak With And Live With God.

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

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.

Why Do Christians Sing When They Are Together? The Reason Is, Quite Simply, Because In Singing Together It Is Possible For Them To Speak And Pray The Same Word At The Same Time; In Other Words, Because Here They Can Unite In The Word.

To Be Sure, God Shall Call You, And Us, Only At The Hour That God Has Chosen. Until That Hour, Which Lies In God's Hand Alone, We Shall Be Protected Even In The Greatest Danger; And From Our Gratitude For Such Protection Ever New Readiness Surely Arises For The Final Call

The Lord Confers Great Honor On His Servants When He Brings Them Suffering.

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

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 Deceit, The Lie Of The Devil Consists Of This, That He Wishes To Make Man Believe That He Can Live Without God's Word.

Originally Man Was Made In The Image Of God, But Now His Likeness To God Is A Stolen One. As The Image Of God Man Draws His Life Entirely From His Origin In God, But The Man Who Has Become Like God Has Forgotten How He Was At His Origin And Has Made Himself His Own Creator And Judge.

Absolute Seriousness Is Never Without A Dash Of Humor.

It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich!

My Past Life Is Abundantly Full Of God's Mercy, And, Above All Sin, Stands The Forgiving Love Of The Crucified.

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.

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.

The Proclamation Of Grace Has Its Limits. Grace May Not Be Proclaimed To Anyone Who Does Not Recognize Or Distinguish Or Desire It... The World Upon Whom Grace Is Thrust As A Bargain Will Grow Tired Of It, And It Will Not Only Trample Upon The Holy, But Also Will Tear Apart Those Who Force It On Them.

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.

Only The Suffering God Can Help.

While We Exert Ourselves To Grow Beyond Our Humanity, To Leave The Human Behind Us, God Becomes Human; And We Must Recognize That God Wills That We Be Human, Real Human Beings. While We Distinguish Between Pious And Godless, Good And Evil, Noble And Base, God Loves Real People Without Distinction.

What We Shall Need Is Not Geniuses, Or Cynics, Or Misanthropes, Or Clever Tacticians, But Plain, Honest, Straghtforward Men.

Time Lost Is Time Not Filled, Time Left Empty.

The Word Of Cheap Grace Has Been The Ruin Of More Christians Than Any Commandment Of Works.

There Is No Worse Sin Than Unbelief Toward The Gospel.

The Pursuit Of Purity Is Not About The Suppression Of Lust, But About The Reorientation Of One's Life To A Larger Goal.

There Is A Wrong Way Of Staying In The World And A Wrong Way Of Fleeing From It. In Both Cases We Are Fashioning Ourselves According To The World.

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.

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.

God Does Not Love Some Ideal Person, But Rather Human Beings Just As We Are, Not Some Ideal World, But Rather The Real World.

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.

Only He Who Believes Is Obedient And Only He Who Is Obedient Believes.

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

The Incarnation Is The Ultimate Reason Why The Service Of God Cannot Be Divorced From The Service Of Man.

There Remains An Experience Of Incomparable Value . . . To See The Great Events Of World History From Below; From The Perspective Of The Outcast, The Suspects, The Maltreated, The Powerless, The Oppressed, The Reviled ---- In Short, From The Perspective Of Those Who Suffer . . . To Look With New Eyes On Matters Great And Small.

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

Christian Marriage Is Marked By Discipline And Self-denial...c Hristianity Does Not Therefore Depreciate Marriage, It Sanctifies It.

Cheap Grace Is The Deadly Enemy Of Our Church. We Are Fighting Today For Costly Grace.

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

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.

The Gift Of Christ Is Not The Christian Religion, But The Grace And Love Of God Which Culminate In The Cross.

But The Christian Also Knows That He Not Only Cannot And Dare Not Be Anxious, But That There Is No Need For Him To Be So. Neither Anxiety Now Work Can Secure His Daily Bread, For Bread Is The Gift Of The Father.

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.

By His Willingly Renouncing Self-defence, The Christian Affirms His Absolute Adherence To Jesus, And His Freedom From The Tyranny Of His Own Ego. The Exclusiveness Of This Adherence Is The Only Power Which Can Overcome Evil.

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.

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.

Advent Creates People, New People.

Discipleship Is Not Limited To What You Can Comprehend – It Must Transcend All Comprehension. Plunge Into The Deep Waters Beyond Your Own Comprehension, And I Will Help You To Comprehend Even As I Do. Bewilderment Is The True Comprehension. Not To Know Where You Are Going Is The True Knowledge. My Comprehension Transcends Yours.

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

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.

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 Exclusion Of The Weak And Insignificant, The Seemingly Useless People, From A Christian Community May Actually Mean The Exclusion Of Christ; In The Poor Brother Christ Is Knocking At The Door.

The Church Has An Unconditional Obligation To The Victims Of Any Ordering Society, Even If They Do Not Belong To The Christian Community.

Waiting Is An Art That Our Impatient Age Has Forgotten. It Wants To Break Open The Ripe Fruit When It Has Hardly Finished Planting The Shoot. But All Too Often The Greedy Eyes Are Only Deceived; The Fruit That Seemed So Precious Is Still Green On The Inside, And Disrespected Hands Ungratefully Toss Aside What Has So Disappointed Them.

The Church Knows Nothing Of A Sacredness Of War. The Church Which Prays'our Father'asks God Only For Peace.

The Best-informed Man Is Not Necessarily The Wisest. Indeed There Is A Danger That Precisely In The Multiplicity Of His Knowledge He Will Lose Sight Of What Is Essential.

The Entire Day Receives Order And Discipline When It Acquires Unity. This Unity Must Be Sought And Found In Morning Prayer. The Morning Prayer Determines The Day.

The Biggest Mistake You Can Make In Your Life Is To Be Always Afraid Of Making A Mistake.

Making Mistakes

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

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?

It Is Only Because He Became Like Us That We Can Become Like Him.

Spiritual Wisdom

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.

God Turns Toward The Very Places From Which Humans Turn Away.

Only The Man Who Follows The Command Of Jesus Single-mindedly, And Unresistingly Lets His Yoke Rest Upon Him, Finds His Burden Easy, And Under Its Gentle Pressure Receives The Power To Persevere In The Right Way. The Command Of Jesus Is Hard, Unutterably Hard, For Those Who Try To Resist It. But For Those Who Willingly Submit, The Yoke Is Easy, And The Burden Is Light.

There Is Meaning In Every Journey That Is Unknown To The Traveler.

Time Is The Most Precious Gift In Our Possession, For It Is The Most Irrevocable. This Is What Makes It So Disturbing To Look Back Upon The Time Which We Have Lost. Time Lost Is Time When We Have Not Lived A Full Human Life, Time Unenriched By Experience, Creative Endeavor, Enjoyment, And Suffering. Time Lost Is Time Not Filled, Time Left Empty.

The More Isolated A Person Is, The More Destructive Will Be The Power Of Sin Over Him, And The More Deeply He Becomes Involved In It, The More Disastrous Is His Isolation.

... 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.

The Christian Needs Another Christian Who Speaks God's Word To Him. He Needs Him Again And Again When He Becomes Uncertain And Discouraged, For By Himself He Cannot Help Himself Without Belying The Truth.

Possessions Are Not God's Blessing And Goodness, But The Opportunities Of Service Which He Entrusts To Us.

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

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

Our Community With One Another Consists Solely In What Christ Has Done To Each Of Us.

...and Then, Just When Everything Is Bearing Down On Us To Such An Extent That We Can Scarcely Withstand It, The Christmas Message Comes To Tell Us That All Our Ideas Are Wrong, And That What We Take To Be Evil And Dark Is Really Good And Light Because It Comes From God. Our Eyes Are At Fault, That Is All.

Each Morning Is A New Beginning Of Our Life. Each Day Is A Finished Whole. The Present Day Marks The Boundary Of Our Cares And Concerns. It Is Long Enough To Find God Or Lose Him, To Keep Faith Or Fall Into Disgrace.

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.

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.

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

Your Life As A Christian Should Make Non Believers Question Their Disbelief In God.

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.

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

A Home Is A Kingdom Of It's Own In The Midst Of The World, A Stronghold Amid Life's Storms And Stresses, A Refuge, Even A Sanctuary.

What We Are In Ourselves, And What We Owe To Others Makes Us A Complete Whole.

In Recent Years We Have Seen A Great Deal Of Bravery And Self-sacrifice, But Civil Courage Hardly Anywhere, Even Among Ourselves.

Neighbourliness Is Not A Quality In Other People, It Is Simply Their Claim On Ourselves.

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.

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

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Ritchie Blackmore

Pliny The Elder

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