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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.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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We Ought Not To

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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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.

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We Must Be Ready To Allow Ourselves To Be Interrupted By God. God Will Be Constantly Crossing Our Paths And Canceling Our Plans By Sending Us People With Claims And Petitions.

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.

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

Inspirational Marriage

Marriage Problems

So The Fool, As Distinct From The Scoundrel, Is Completely Self- Satisfied; In Fact, He Can Easily Become Dangerous, As It Does Not Take Much To Make Him Aggressive. A Fool Must Therefore Be Treated More Cautiously Than A Scoundrel.

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

It Is Only With Gratitude That Life Becomes Rich!

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

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.

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

Do Not Worry! Earthly Goods Deceive The Human Heart Into Believing That They Give It Security And Freedom From Worry. But In Truth, They Are What Cause Anxiety. The Heart Which Clings To Goods Receives With Them The Choking Burden Of Worry. Worry Collects Treasures, And Treasures Produce More Worries. We Desire To Secure Our Lives With Earthly Goods; We Want Our Worrying To Make Us Worry-free, But The Truth Is The Opposite. The Chains Which Bind Us To Earthly Goods, The Clutches Which Hold The Goods Tight, Are Themselves Worries.

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.

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

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

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

Christian Community

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.

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.

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

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.

Salvation Is Free, But Discipleship Will Cost You Your Life

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 Cross Is Suffering With Christ.

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

Silence In The Face Of Evil Is Evil Itself.

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

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

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.

Time Lost Is Time Not Filled, Time Left Empty.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Kingdom Is To Be In The Midst Of Your Enemies

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

Nothing Can Fill The Gap When We Are Away From Those We Love, And It Would Be Wrong To Try To Find Anything.....it Is Nonsense To Say That God Fills The Gap; He Does Not Fill It, But Keeps It Empty So That Our Communion With Another May Be Kept Alive, Even At The Cost Of Pain.

Who Is Pure In Heart? Only Those Who Have Surrendered Their Hearts Completely To Jesus That He May Reign In Them Alone. Only Those Whose Hearts Are Undefiled By Their Own Evil--and By Their Own Virtues Too. The Pure In Heart Have A Child-like Simplicity Like Adam Before The Fall, Innocent Alike Of Good And Evil: Their Hearts Are Not Ruled By Their Conscience, But By The Will Of Jesus.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Comfort The Troubled, And Trouble The Comfortable.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Cheap Grace Is Grace Without Discipleship.

Christian Discipleship

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

There Is No Worse Sin Than Unbelief Toward The Gospel.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Not Hero Worship, But Intimacy With Christ.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Unless He Obeys, A Man Cannot Believe.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Politics Are Not The Task Of A Christian.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

God Is Not Free From Human Beings But For Them.

A Pastor Should Never Complain About His Congregation, Certainly Never To Other People, But Also Not To God. A Congregation Has Not Been Entrusted To Him In Order That He Should Become Its Accuser Before God And Men.

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

Valuable Things

Human Love Has Little Regard For The Truth. It Makes The Truth Relative, Since Nothing, Not Even The Truth, Must Come Between It And The Beloved Person.

To Recognize The Significant In The Factual Is Wisdom.

Only The Suffering God Can Help.

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

Unsolved Problems

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

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.

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

It Is God's Earth Out Of Which Man Is Taken. From It He Has His Body. His Body Belongs To His Essential Being. Man's Body Is Not His Prison, His Shell His Exterior, But Man Himself. Man Does Not "have" A Body; He Does Not "have" A Soul; Rather He "is" Body And Soul. Man In The Beginning Is Really His Body. He Is One. He Is His Body, As Christ Is Completely His Body, As The Church Is The Body Of Christ

God Loves Human Beings. God Loves The World. Not An Ideal Human, But Human Beings As They Are; Not An Ideal World, But The Real World. What We Find Repulsive In Their Opposition To God, What We Shrink Back From With Pain And Hostility, Namely, Real Human Beings, The Real World, This Is For God The Ground Of Unfathomable Love.

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.

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.

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

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

Jesus Says That Every Christian Has His Own Cross Waiting For Him, A Cross Destined And Appointed By God. Each Must Endure His Allotted Share Of Suffering And Rejection. But Each Has A Different Share: Some God Deems Worthy Of The Highest Form Of Suffering, And Gives Them The Grace Of Martyrdom, While Others He Does Not Allow To Be Tempted Above That Which They Are Able To Bear. But It Is The One And The Same Cross In Every Case.

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

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

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

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

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Thinking In Terms Of Two Realms Understands The Paired Concepts Worldy-christia N, Natural-superna Tural, Profane-sacred, Rational-revela Tions, As Ultimate Static Opposites...and Fails To Recognize The Original Unity Of These Opposites In The Christ-reality.

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.

Death Is The Supreme Festival On The Road To Freedom.

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

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

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.

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.

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

If Any Man Would Come After Me, Let Him Deny Himself." The Disciple Must Say To Himself The Same Words Peter Said Of Christ When He Denied Him: "i Know Not This Man." Self-denial Is Never Just A Series Of Isolated Acts Of Mortification Or Asceticism. It Is Not Suicide, For There Is An Element Of Self-will Even In That. To Deny Oneself Is To Be Aware Only Of Christ And No More Of Self, To See Only Him Who Goes Before And No More The Road Which Is Too Hard For Us. Once More, All That Self Denial Can Say Is: "he Leads The Way, Keep Close To Him.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

When All Is Said And Done, The Life Of Faith Is Nothing If Not An Unending Struggle Of The Spirit With Every Available Weapon Against The Flesh.

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

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

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

Ultimate Seriousness In Not Without A Dose Of Humor.

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.

Things Do Exist That Are Worth Standing Up For Without Compromise. To Me It Seems That Peace And Social Justice Are Such Things, As Is Christ Himself.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Discipleship Is Not An Offer That Man Makes To Christ.

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.

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

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

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.

Advent Creates People, New People.

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.

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.

We Are Separated From One Another By An Unbridgeable Gulf Of Otherness And Strangeness Which Resists All Our Attempts To Overcome It By Means Of Natural Association Or Emotional Or Spiritual Union. There Is No Way From One Person To Another. However Loving And Sympathetic We Try To Be, However Sound Our Psychology However Frank And Open Our Behaviour We Cannot Penetrate The Incognito Of The Other Man, For There Are No Direct Relationships, Not Even Between Soul And Soul. Christ Stands Between Us, And We Can Only Get Into Touch With Our Neighbors Through Him.

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.

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

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.

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

Obedience To God

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