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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.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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In Me There Is

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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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.

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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 Messengers Of Jesus Will Be Hated To The End Of Time. They Will Be Blamed For All The Division Which Rend Cities And Homes. Jesus And His Disciples Will Be Condemned On All Sides For Undermining Family Life, And For Leading The Nation Astray; They Will Be Called Crazy Fanatics And Disturbers Of The Peace. The Disciples Will Be Sorely Tempted To Desert Their Lord. But The End Is Also Near, And They Must Hold On And Persevere Until It Comes. Only He Will Be Blessed Who Remains Loyal To Jesus And His Word Until The End.

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.

As Brother Stands By Brother In Distress, Binding Up His Wounds And Soothing His Pain, So Let Us Show Our Love Towards Our Enemy. There Is No Deeper Distress To Be Found In The World, No Pain More Bitter Than Our Enemy's. Nowhere Is Service More Necessary Or More Blessed Than When We Serve Our Enemies.

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.

Every Sermon Must Contain A Certain Shot Of Heresy.

Silence In The Face Of Evil Is Evil Itself.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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

Man Seeks, In His Manhood, Not Orders, Not Laws And Peremptory Dogmas, But Counsel From One Who Is Earnest In Goodness And Faithful In Friendship, Making Man Free.

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

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.

The Child Asks Of The Father Whom He Knows. Thus, The Essence Of Christian Prayer Is Not General Adoration, But Definite, Concrete Petition. The Right Way To Approach God Is To Stretch Out Our Hands And Ask Of One Who We Know Has The Heart Of A Father.

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 Normal Life We Hardly Realize How Much More We Receive Than We Give, And Life Cannot Be Rich Without Such Gratitude. It Is So Easy To Overestimate The Importance Of Our Own Achievements Compared With What We Owe To The Help Of Others.

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

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

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

The Earthly Form Of Christ Is The Form That Died On The Cross. The Image Of God Is The Image Of Christ Crucified. It Is To This Image That The Life Of The Disciples Must Be Conformed; In Other Words, They Must Be Conformed To His Death (phil 3.10, Rom 6.4) The Christian Life Is A Life Of Crucifixion (gal 2.19) In Baptism The Form Of Christ's Death Is Impressed Upon His Own. They Are Dead To The Flesh And To Sin, They Are Dead To The World, And The World Is Dead To Them (gal 6.14). Anybody Living In The Strength Of Christ's Baptism Lives In The Strength Of Christ's Death.

Every Call Of Christ Leads Into Death.

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.

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.

Desires To Which We Cling Closely Can Easily Prevent Us From Being What We Ought To Be And Can Be; And On The Other Hand, Desires Repeatedly Mastered For The Sake Of Present Duty Make Us Richer.lack Of Desire Is Poverty.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

We Are To Find God In What We Know, Not In What We Don't Know.

Unsolved Problems

Death Is The Supreme Festival On The Road To Freedom.

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.

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

Ultimate Seriousness In Not Without A Dose Of Humor.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Church Is Not A Religious Community Of Worshippers Of Christ But Is Christ Himself Who Has Taken Form Among People.

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 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 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.

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.

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

That Fact That Jesus Christ Died Is More Important Than That Fact That I Will Die.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

We Have Grown So Accustomed To The Idea Of Divine Love...that We No Longer Sense The Awe That God's Coming Should Awaken In Us.

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.

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.

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.

There Is No Worse Sin Than Unbelief Toward The Gospel.

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

Valuable Things

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Only Those Who Put Tomorrow Completely Into God's Hand And Receive Fully Today What They Need For Their Lives Are Really Secure.

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

Inspirational Marriage

Marriage Problems

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

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.

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.

The Early Morning Belongs To The Church Of The Risen Christ. At The Break Of Light It Remembers The Morning On Which Death And Sin Lay Prostrate In Defeat And New Life And Salvation Were Given To Mankind

In The First Place, The Church Can Ask The State Whether Its Actions Are Legitimate And In Accordance With Its Character As State, I.e., It Can Throw The State Back On Its Responsibilities. Secondly, It Can Aid The Victims Of State Action. The Church Has An Unconditional Obligation To The Victims Of Any Ordering Of Society, Even If They Do Not Belong To The Christian Community. The Third Possibility Is Not Just To Bandage The Victims Under The Wheel, But To Put A Spoke In The Wheel Itself.

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.

It Is Remarkable How I Am Never Quite Clear About The Motives For Any Of My Decisions. Is That A Sign Of Confusion Or Inner Dishonesty Or Is It A Sign That We Are Guided Without Our Knowing Or Is It Both ...the Reasons One Gives For An Action To Others And To One's Self Are Certainly Inadequate. One Can Give A Reason For Everything. In The Last Resort One Acts From A Level Which Remains Hidden From Us. So One Can Only Ask God To Judge Us And To Forgive Us.... At The End Of The Day I Can Only Ask God To Give A Merciful Judgement On Today And All Its Decisions. It Is Now In His Hand.

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

Who Am I? This Or The Other? Am I One Person Today And Tomorrow Another? Am I Both At Once? A Hypocrite Before Others, And Before Myself A Contemptible Woebegone Weakling? Or Is Something Within Me Still Like A Beaten Army Fleeing In Disorder From A Victory Already Achieved? Who Am I? They Mock Me, These Lonely Questions Of Mine. Whoever I Am, Thou Knowest, O God, I Am Thine!

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.

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

Gratitude Changes The Pangs Of Memory Into A Tranquil Joy.

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

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

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.

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

The Kingdom Is To Be In The Midst Of Your Enemies

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Unless He Obeys, A Man Cannot Believe.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Time Lost Is Time Not Filled, Time Left Empty.

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.

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.

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

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

Prayer Is The Supreme Instance Of The Hidden Character Of The Christian Life.

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.

The Preaching Of Grace Can Only Be Protected By The Preaching Of Repentance.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

As Long As We Let The Word Of God Be Our Only Armor, We Can Look Confidently Into The Future.

Judging Others Makes Us Blind, Whereas Love Is Illuminating. By Judging Others We Blind Ourselves To Our Own Evil And To The Grace Which Others Are Just As Entitled To As We Are.

Judging Yourself

Innumerable Times A Whole Christian Community Has Broken Down Because It Had Sprung From A Wish Dream… Every Human Wish Dream That Is Injected Into The Christian Community Is A Hindrance To Genuine Community And Must Be Banished If Genuine Community Is To Survive. He Who Loves His Dream Of A Community More Than The Christian Community Itself Becomes A Destroyer Of The Latter, Even Though His Personal Intentions May Be Ever So Honest And Earnest And Sacrificial.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

It Is A Blessed Thing To Know That No Power On Earth, No Temptation, No Human Frailty Can Dissolve What God Holds Together.

The Essence Of Optimism Is That It Takes No Account Of The Present, But It Is A Source Of Inspiration, Of Vitality And Hope Where Others Have Resigned; It Enables A Man To Hold His Head High, To Claim The Future For Himself And Not To Abandon It To His Enemy.

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

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.

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

Christian Community

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

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

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

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

When We Come To A Clearer And More Sober Estimate Of Our Own Limitations And Responsibilities, That Makes It Possible More Genuinely To Love Our Neighbor.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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.

Fulfilled Life Is Possible In Spite Of Unfulfilled Wishes.

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.

Humanly Speaking, It Is Possible To Understand The Sermon On The Mount In A Thousand Different Ways. But Jesus Knows Only One Possibility: Simple Surrender And Obedience - Not Interpreting Or Applying It, But Doing And Obeying It. That Is The Only Way To Hear His Words. He Does Not Mean For Us To Discuss It As An Ideal. He Really Means For Us To Get On With It.

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

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.

Intercessory Prayer Is The Purifying Bath Into Which The Individual And The Community Must Enter Every Day.

We Must Learn To Regard People Less In Light Of What They Do Or Omit To Do, And More In The Light Of What They Suffer.

Joy Draws Its Nourishment From Quietness And From The Unfathomable.

Cheap Grace Is Grace Without Discipleship.

Christian Discipleship

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.

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.

Jesus Is No Draughtsman Of Political Blueprints, He Is The One Who Vanquished Evil Through Suffering. It Looked As Though Evil Had Triumphed On The Cross, But The Real Victory Belonged To Jesus.

Will Not The Very Moment Of Great Disillusionment With My Brother Or Sister Be Incomparably Wholesome For Me Becuase It So Thoroughly Teaches Me That Both Of Us Can Never Live By Our Own Words And Deeds, But Only By That One Word And Deed That Really Binds Us Together, The Forgiveness Of Sins In Jesus Christ? The Bright Day Of Christian Community Dawns Wherever The Early Morning Mists Of Dreamy Visions Are Lifting

Nothing Is So At Odds With Prayer As Vanity.

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.

It Seems To Me More Important Actually To Share Someones Distress Than To Use Smooth Words About It.

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

One Act Of Obedience Is Better Than One Hundred Sermons.

Christian Inspirational

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.

Jesus' Call To Bear The Cross Places All Who Follow Him In The Community Of The Forgiveness Of Sins. Forgiving Sins Is The Christ-suffering Required Of His Disciples. It Is Required Of All Christians.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Christian Must Treat His Enemy As A Brother, And Requite His Hostility With Love. His Behavior Must Be Determined Not By The Way Others Treat Him, But By The Treatment He Himself Receives From Jesus; It Has Only One Source, And That Is The Will Of Jesus.

Cheap Grace Is The Grace We Bestow On Ourselves. Cheap Grace Is The Preaching Of Forgiveness Without Requiring Repentance, Baptism Without Church Discipline, Communion Without Confession.... Cheap Grace Is Grace Without Discipleship, Grace Without The Cross, Grace Without Jesus Christ, Living And Incarnate.

God Is Not Free From Human Beings But For Them.

Jesus Is The Only Significance. Beside Jesus Nothing Has Any Significance. He Alone Matters.

If You Set Out To Seek Freedom, Then Learn Above All Things To Govern Your Soul And Your Senses . . . Only Through Discipline May A Man Learn To Be Free.

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

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.

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

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.

In Jesus, The Service Of God And The Service Of The Least Of The Brethren Were One.

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

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