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Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community / Quotes
"Christian community means community through and in Jesus Christ. On this presupposition rests everything that the Scriptures provide in the way of directions and precepts for the communal life of Christians."
“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. 'The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared' (Luther).”"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 most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows
infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives
beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight,
ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is.
Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it
does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that
man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness.
Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I
can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can
dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and
yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when
I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to
confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as
if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging
and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.”
"For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and
oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold
of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and
distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light...
“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 more thankfully we daily receive what is given to
us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from
day to day as God pleases.”
“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.”
link to Bonhoffer living water pages
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