Bonhoeffer
He lived in wartime Germany. In the midst of incredible evil he stood for God and was executed by the Nazi’s only days before the end of the war. Following is just a sample of his thinking for us to glean from.
Prayer “I have often thought that the Tauentzienstrasse (Berlin’s red-light district) would be an extremely fruitful field for church work. It’s 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.”
Preaching “Anything good must come from God, so even in a sermon that was poorly written and delivered, God might manifest himself and touch the congregation. Conversely in a sermon wonderfully written and delivered, God might refuse to manifest himself. The “success” of the sermon is utterly dependent on the God who breaks through and “grasps” us, or we cannot be grasped.”
“In 1932 Bonhoeffer told Hilderbrandt: “A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a fine red apple or offering a thirsty man a cool glass of water and then saying: Don you want it? At Fingenwalde he effectively said the same thing: We must be able to speak about our faith so that hands will be stretched out toward us faster than we can fill them… Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic…do not defend God’s Word, but testify to it…Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity!”
Death “Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.”
Faith “..requires faith, and may God grant it to us daily. I don’t mean the faith that flees the world, but the faith that endures in the world and loves and remains true to that world in spite of all the hardships it brings us. Our marriage must be a “yes” to God’s earth. I fear that Christians who venture to stand on earth on only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too.”
Strength “Who stands fast? he asked. Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life and answer to the question and call of God.”
