Background Image

...

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.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Discovered Later, And

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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.

There Is No Worse Sin Than Unbelief Toward The Gospel.

Advent Creates People, New People.

The Cross Is God's Truth About Us, And Therefore It Is The Only Power Thatcanmakeustruthful.whenwe Know The Cross We Are No Longer Afraid Of The Truth.

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

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.

A Person Who Loves Community Tends To Destroy It. But A Person Who Loves People Creates Community Wherever He Goes.

Only He Who Gives Thanks For The Little Things Receives The Big Things.

The Cross Is Not The Terrible End To An Otherwise God-fearing And Happy Life, But It Meets Us At The Beginning Of Our Communion With Christ. When Christ Calls A Man, He Bids Him Come And Die.

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.

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

Obedience To God

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

And We Simply Cannot Be Constant With The Fact That God’s Cause Is Not Always The Successful One, That We Really Could Be “unsuccessful”; And Yet Be On The Right Road. But This Is Where We Find Out Whether We Have Begun In Faith Or In A Burst Of Enthusiasm.

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.

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.

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.

Do Not Try To Make The Bible Relevant. Its Relevance Is Axiomatic.

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.

God Wants To See Human Beings, Not Ghosts Who Shun The World. . . . Our Marriage Must Be A 'yes' To God's Earth. It Must Strengthen Our Resolve To Do And Accomplish Something On Earth. I Fear That Christians Who Venture To Stand On Earth On Only One Leg Will Stand In Heaven On Only One Leg Too.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Judging Others Makes Us Blind, Whereas Love Is Illuminating.

Judging Yourself

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.

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.

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 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

You Can Only Learn What Obedience Is By Obeying

The Restoration Of The Church Must Surely Depend On A New Kind Of Monasticism, Which Has Nothing In Common With The Old But A Life Of Uncompromising Discipleship, Following Christ According To The Sermon On The Mount. I Believe The Time Has Come To Gather People Together To Do This.

Following Christ

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.

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.

If We Look More Closely, We See That Any Violent Display Of Power, Whether Political Or Religious, Produces An Outburst Of Folly In A Large Part Of Mankind; Indeed, This Seems Actually To Be A Psychological And Sociological Law: The Power Of Some Needs The Folly Of Others. It Is Not That Certain Human Capacities, Intellectual Capacities For Instance, Become Stunted Of Destroyed, But Rather That The Upsurge Of Power Makes Such An Overwhelming Impression That Men Are Deprived Of Their Independent Judgment, And...give Up Trying To Assess The New State Of Affairs For Themselves.

Those Who Love Their Dream Of A Christian Community More Than The Christian Community Itself Become Destroyers Of That Christian Community Even Though Their Personal Intentions May Be Ever So Honest, Earnest, And Sacrificial.

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

There Is No Way To Peace Along The Way Of Safety. For Peace Must Be Dared. It Is Itself The Great Venture And Can Never Be Safe. Peace Is The Opposite Of Security. To Demand Guarantees Is To Want To Protect Oneself. Peace Means Giving Oneself Completely To God's Commandment. Wanting No Security, But In Faith And Obedience Laying The Destiny Of The Nations In The Hand Of Almighty God. Not Trying To Direct It For Selfish Purposes. Battles Are Won Not With Weapons, But With God. They Are Won When The Way Leads To The Cross.

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

The Church Is Only The Church When It Exists For Others. To Make A Start, It Should Give Away All Its Property To Those In Need. The Clergy Must Live Solely On The Free-will Offerings Of Their Congregations, Or Possibly Engage In Some Secular Calling. The Church Must Share In The Secular Problems Of Ordinary Human Life, Not Dominating, But Helping And Serving. It Must Tell Men Of Every Calling What It Means To Live In Christ, To Exist For Others.

The First Call Which Every Christian Experiences Is The Call To Abandon The Attachments Of This World.

How Would You Expect To Find Community While You Intentionally Withdraw From It At Some Point? The Disobedient Cannot Believe; Only The Obedient Believe.

If There Is No Element Of Asceticism In Our Lives, If We Give Free Rein To The Desires Of The Flesh (taking Care Of Course To Keep Within The Limits Of What Seems Permissible To The World), We Shall Find It Hard To Train For The Service Of Christ. When The Flesh Is Satisfied It Is Hard To Pray With Cheerfulness Or To Devote Oneself To A Life Of Service Which Calls For Much Self-renunciation.

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

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

After He Has Been Following Christ For A Long Time, The Disciple Of Jesus Will Be Asked, "lacked Ye Anything?" And He Will Answer "nothing, Lord." How Could He When He Knows That Despite Hunger And Nakedness, Persecution And Danger, The Lord Is Always At His Side?

Following Christ

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.

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.

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.

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.

It Is The Characteristic Excellence Of The Strong Man That He Can Bring Momentous Issues To The Fore And Make A Decision About Them. The Weak Are Always Forced To Decide Between Alternatives They Have Not Chosen Themselves.

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.

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

If We Want To Read And To Pray The Prayers Of The Bible And Especially The Psalms, Therefore, We Must Not Ask First What They Have To Do With Us, But What They Have To Do With Jesus Christ...it Does Not Depend, Therefore, On Whether The Psalms Express Adequately That Which We Feel At A Given Moment In Our Heart. 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 Christian Life Is Participation In The Encounter Of Christ With The World.

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

One Act Of Obedience Is Better Than One Hundred Sermons.

Christian Inspirational

Just As God's Love Entered The World, Thereby Submitting To The Misunderstanding And Ambiguity That Characterize Everything Worldly, So Also Christian Love Does Not Exist Anywhere But In The Worldly, In An Infinite Variety Of Concrete Worldly Action, And Subject To Misunderstanding And Condemnation. Every Attempt To Portray A Christianity Of 'pure' Love Purged Of Worldly 'impurities' Is A False Purism And Perfectionism That Scorns God's Becoming Human And Falls Prey To The Fate Of All Ideologies. God Was Not Too Pure To Enter The World.

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

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

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

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.

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

And If We Ask How Are We To Know Where Our Hearts Are, The Answer Is Just As Simple - Everything Which Hinders Us From Loving God Above All Things And Acts As A Barrier Between Ourselves And Our Obedience To Jesus Is Our Treasure, And The Place Where Our Heart Is.

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.

The Great Masquerade Of Evil Has Played Havoc With All Our Ethical Concepts. For Evil To Appear Disguised As Light, Charity, Historical Necessity, Or Social Justice Is Quite Bewildering To Anyone Brought Up On Our Traditional Ethical Concepts, While For The Christian Who Bases His Life On The Bible, It Merely Confirms The Fundamental Wickedness Of Evil.

...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.

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.

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

The Love For Our Enemies Takes Us Along The Way Of The Cross And Into Fellowship With The Crucified. The More We Are Driven Along This Road, The More Certain Is The Victory Of Love Over The Enemy's Hatred. For Then It Is Not The Disciple's Own Love, But The Love Of Jesus Christ Alone, Who For The Sake Of His Enemies Went To The Cross And Prayed For Them As He Hung There.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The First Service That One Owes To Others Consists In Listening To Them.

Every Sermon Must Contain A Certain Shot Of Heresy.

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.

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

Death 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.

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.

Time Is Lost When We Have Not Lived A Full Human Life, Time Unenriched By Experience, Creative Endeavor, Enjoyment, And Suffering.

Not To Speak Is To Speak. Not To Act Is To Act.

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?

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

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.

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

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

Time Lost Is Time Not Filled, Time Left Empty.

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

To Endure The Cross Is Not Tragedy; It Is The Suffering Which Is The Fruit Of An Exclusive Allegiance To Jesus Christ.

While It Is Good That We Seek To Know The Holy One, It Is Probably Not So Good To Presume That We Ever Complete The Task.

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.

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

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

It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich!

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 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.

Christian Brotherhood Is Not An Ideal Which We Must Realize; It Is Rather A Reality Created By God In Christ In Which We May Participate.

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.

A God Who Let Us Prove His Existence Would Be An Idol.

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

The Test Of The Morality Of A Society Is What It Does For Its Children.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I Can No Longer Condemn Or Hate A Brother For Whom I Pray, No Matter How Much Trouble He Causes Me.

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

Let Him Who Cannot Be Alone Beware Of Community. Let Him Who Is Not In Community Beware Of Being Alone.

Christian Community

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

We Do God’s Work For Our Brothers And Sisters When We Learn To Listen To Them. So Often Christians, Especially Preachers, Think That Their Only Service Is Always To Have To 'offer' Something When They Are Together With Other People. They Forget That Listening Can Be A Greater Service Than Speaking. Many People Seek A Sympathetic Ear And Do Not Find It Among Christians, Because These Christians Are Talking Even When They Should Be Listening.

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.

Christian Love Draws No Distinction Between One Enemy And Another, Except That The More Bitter Our Enemy's Hatred, The Greater His Need Of Love. Be His Enmity Political Or Religious, He Has Nothing To Expect From A Follower Of Jesus But Unqualified Love. In Such Love There Is Not Inner Discord Between The Private Person And Official Capacity. In Both We Are Disciples Of Christ, Or We Are Not Christians At All.

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.

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

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

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.

Ultimate Seriousness In Not Without A Dose Of Humor.

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.

We Have Learnt, Rather Too Late, That Action Comes, Not From Thought, But From A Readiness For Responsibility.

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 .

We Are Silent At The Beginning Of The Day Because God Should Have The First Word, And We Are Silent Before Going To Sleep Because The Last Word Also Belongs To God.

One's Task Is Not To Turn The World Upside Down, But To Do What Is Necessary At The Given Place And With A Due Consideration Of Reality.

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.

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

Unless He Obeys, A Man Cannot Believe.

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.

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.

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

He Who Fears The Face Of God Does Not Fear The Face Of Man. He Who Fears The Face Of Man Does Not Fear The Face Of God.

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.

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

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

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.

Only The Believer Obeys — Obedience Follows Faith, The Way Good Fruit Comes From A Good Tree. Only The Obedient Believe.

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.

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

There Are Only Two Places Where The Powerful And Great In This World Lose Their Courage, Tremble In The Depths Of Their Souls, And Become Truly Afraid. These Are The Manger And The Cross Of Jesus Christ....no Priest, No Theologian Stood At The Cradle Of Bethlehem. And Yet, All Christian Theology Finds Its Beginnings In The Miracle Of Miracles, That God Became Human.

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

Joy Draws Its Nourishment From Quietness And From The Unfathomable.

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.

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

Every Christian Must Be Fully Christian By Bringing God Into His Whole Life, Not Merely Into Some Spiritual Realm.

Who Among Us Will Celebrate Christmas Correctly? Whoever Finally Lays Down All Power, L Honor, All Reputation, All Vanity, All Arrogance, All Individualism Beside The Manger; Whoever Remains Lowly And Lets God Alone Be High; Whoever Looks At The Child In The Manger And Sees The Glory Of God Precisely In His Lowliness.

Cheap Grace Is The Idea That "grace" Did It All For Me So I Do Not Need To Change My Lifestyle. The Believer Who Accepts The Idea Of "cheap Grace" Thinks He Can Continue To Live Like The Rest Of The World. Instead Of Following Christ In A Radical Way, The Christian Lost In Cheap Grace Thinks He Can Simply Enjoy The Consolations Of His Grace.

Following Christ

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

Discipleship Is Not An Offer That Man Makes To Christ.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Spiritual Wisdom

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.

...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.

Absolute Seriousness Is Never Without A Dash Of Humor.

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

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.

The Psalter Is The Great School Of Prayer.

The Richness Of God’s Word Ought To Determine Our Prayer, Not The Poverty Of Our Heart.

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.

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

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

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.

There Is No Way To Peace Along The Way To Safety. For Peace Must Be Dared. It Is The Great Venture.

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

Temptations Which Accompany The Working Day Will Be Conquered On The Basis Of The Morning Breakthrough To God. Decisions, Demanded By Work, Become Easier And Simpler Where They Are Made Not In The Fear Of Men, But Only In The Sight Of God. He Wants To Give Us Today The Power Which We Need For Our Work.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

If Any Man Would Come After Me, Let Him Deny Himself." The Disciple Must Say To Himself The Same Words Peter Said Of Christ When He Denied Him: "i Know Not This Man." Self-denial Is Never Just A Series Of Isolated Acts Of Mortification Or Asceticism. It Is Not Suicide, For There Is An Element Of Self-will Even In That. 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.

Salvation Is Free, But Discipleship Will Cost You Your Life

Disciples Will Not Be Weakened By Suffering, Worn Down, And Embittered Until They Are Broken. Instead, They Bear Suffering, By The Power Of Him Who Supports Them. The Disciples Bear The Suffering Laid On Them Only By The Power Of Him Who Bears All Suffering On The Cross. As Bearers Of Suffering, They Stand In Communion With The Crucified.

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.

We Must Be Ready To Allow Ourselves To Be Interrupted By God, Who Will Thwart Our Plans And Frustrate Our Ways Time And Again, Even Daily, By Sending People Across Our Path With Their Demands And Requests. We Can, Then, Pass Them By, Preoccupied With Our Important Daily Tasks, Just As The Priest-perhaps Reading The Bible-passed By The Man Who Had Fallen Among Robbers. When We Do That, We Pass By The Visible Sign Of The Cross Raised In Our Lives To Show Us That God’s Way, And Not Our Own, Is What Counts.

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

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

Trending Author

Augusten Burroughs

Category