Background Image

...

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.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Must The Christian Go

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God Cannot Endure That Unfestive, Mirthless Attitude Of Ours In Which We Eat Our Bread In Sorrow, With Pretentious, Busy Haste, Or Even With Shame. Through Our Daily Meals He Is Calling Us To Rejoice, To Keep Holiday In The Midst Of Our Working Day.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Unless He Obeys, A Man Cannot Believe.

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

Valuable Things

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Salvation Is Free, But Discipleship Will Cost You Your Life

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Time Lost Is Time Not Filled, Time Left Empty.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Spiritual Wisdom

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

Every Sermon Must Contain A Certain Shot Of Heresy.

Every Call Of Christ Leads Into Death.

One Act Of Obedience Is Better Than One Hundred Sermons.

Christian Inspirational

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.

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.

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.

Love Asks Nothing In Return, But Seeks Those Who Need It. And Who Needs Our Love More Than Those Who Are Consumed With Hatred And Are Utterly Devoid Of Love.

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

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

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

Obedience To God

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Advent Creates People, New People.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Making Mistakes

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Absolute Seriousness Is Never Without A Dash Of Humor.

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

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

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.

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.

Judging Others Makes Us Blind, Whereas Love Is Illuminating.

Judging Yourself

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich!

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.

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.

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

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

The 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.

Only What Is Essential Must Be Said.

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.

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

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.

It Is The Voice Of The Church That Is Heard In Singing Together. It Is Not You That Sings, It Is The Church That Is Singing, And You, As A Member Of The Church, May Share In Its Song.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Unsolved Problems

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

When Our Will Wholeheartedly Enters Into The Prayer Of Christ, Then We Pray Correctly.

Joy Draws Its Nourishment From Quietness And From The Unfathomable.

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

Christianity Without The Living Christ Is Inevitably Christianity Without Discipleship, And Christianity Without Discipleship Is Always Christianity Without Christ.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Discipleship Is Not An Offer That Man Makes To Christ.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Inspirational Marriage

Marriage Problems

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

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

Gratitude Changes The Pangs Of Memory Into A Tranquil Joy.

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.

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.

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 Way To Peace Along The Way To Safety. For Peace Must Be Dared. It Is The Great Venture.

The Future And The Hope For The Middle Class Church Lies In The Renewal Of Its Lifeblood, Which Is Only Possible If The Church Succeeds In Winning The Working Class.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Trending Author

Category