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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

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Man No Longer Lives

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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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

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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.

The Church Is The Church Only When It Exists For Others.

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.

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

Valuable Things

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.

Christianity Without Discipleship Is Always Christianity Without Christ.

Following Christ

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 .

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.

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.

...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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Every Word Of Holy Scripture Was A Love Letter From God Directed Very Personally To Us And He Asked Us Whether We Loved Jesus.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Mark Of Solitude Is Silence, As Speech Is The Mark Of Community. Silence And Speech Have The Same Inner Correspondence And Difference As Do Solitude And Community. One Does Not Exist Without The Other. Right Speech Comes Out Of Silence, And Right Silence Comes Out Of Speech.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Absolute Seriousness Is Never Without A Dash Of Humor.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich!

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

Inspirational Marriage

Marriage Problems

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Silence In The Face Of Evil Is Evil Itself.

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 Kingdom Is To Be In The Midst Of Your Enemies

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

Following Christ

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

With An Abstract Idea It Is Possible To Enter Into A Relation Of Formal Knowledge, To Become Enthusiastic About It, And Perhaps Even To Put It Into Practice; But It Can Never Be Followed In Personal Obedience. Christianity Without The Living Christ Is Inevitably Christianity Without Discipleship, And Christianity Without Discipleship Is Always Christianity Without Christ.

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.

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 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.

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

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

... 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.

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

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.

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. But On The Other Hand, Knowledge Of An Apparently Trivial Detail Quite Often Makes It Possible To See Into The Depth Of Things. And So The Wise Man Will Seek To Acquire The Best Possible Knowledge About Events, But Always Without Becoming Dependent Upon This Knowledge. To Recognize The Significant In The Factual Is Wisdom.

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.

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

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.

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.

Destruction Of The Embryo In The Mother's Womb Is A Violation Of The Right To Live Which God Has Bestowed Upon This Nascent Life.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 Much Easier For Me To Imagine A Praying Murderer, A Praying Prostitute, Than A Vain Person Praying. Nothing Is So At Odds With Prayer As Vanity.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

If Jesus Christ Is Not True God, How Could He Help Us? If He Is Not True Man, How Could He Help Us?

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

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

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

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

Unconditional Love

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.

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

You Can Only Learn What Obedience Is By Obeying

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.

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

Obedience To God

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

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

God Is Not Free From Human Beings But For Them.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Whenever Christ Calls Us, His Call Leads Us To Death.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Ultimate Seriousness In Not Without A Dose Of Humor.

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

A King Who Dies On The Cross Must Be The King Of A Rather Strange Kingdom.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Following Christ

Salvation Is Free, But Discipleship Will Cost You Your Life

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?

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.

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 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 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.

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

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

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

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.

There Remains An Experience Of Incomparable Value.

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

Judging Others Makes Us Blind, Whereas Love Is Illuminating.

Judging Yourself

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

Monastic Life Thus Became A Living Protest Against The Secularization Of Christianity, Against The Cheapening Of Grace.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

God Is In The Manger, Wealth In Poverty, Light In Darkness, Succor In Abandonment. No Evil Can Befall Us; Whatever Men May Do To Us, They Cannot But Serve The God Who Is Secretly Revealed As Love And Rules The World And Our Lives.

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

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.

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

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

A Father Acts On Behalf Of His Children By Working, Providing, Intervening, Struggling, And Suffering For Them. In So Doing, He Really Stands In Their Place. He Is Not An Isolated Individual, But Incorporates The Selves Of Several People In His Own Self.

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.

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

The 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.

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

A Christian Is Someone Who Shares The Sufferings Of God In The World.

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.

The Right Way To Pray Is To Stretch Out Our Hands And Ask Of One Who We Know Has The Heart Of A Father.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Cheap Grace Is Grace Without Discipleship.

Christian Discipleship

Nothing Is So At Odds With Prayer As Vanity.

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.

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

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.

Destruction Of The Embryo In The Mother's Womb Is A Violation Of The Right To Live Which God Has Bestowed Upon This Nascent Life. To Raise The Question Whether We Are Here Concerned Already With A Human Being Or Not Is Merely To Confuse The Issue. The Simple Fact Is That God Certainly Intended To Create A Human Being And That This Nascent Human Being Has Been Deliberately Deprived Of His Life. And That Is Nothing But Murder.

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.

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.

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

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