Adoration and Action

"There is something profoundly hypocritical about praising God for God's might deeds of salvation and cooperating at the same time with the demons of destruction, whether by neglecting to do good or by actively doing evil. Only those who help the Jews may sing the Gregorian chant, Dietrich Bonhoeffer rightly said, in the context of Nazi Germany...Without action in the world, the adoration of God is empty and hypocritical, and degenerates into irresponsible and godless quietism."

Miroslav Volf, "Reflections on a Christian Way of Being-in-the-World," in Worship: Adoration and Action, 211. 

Waking Up To Christ

"When a man really gives up trying to make something of himself-a saint, or converted sinner, or a churchman, a righteous or unrighteous man,....when in the fullness of tasks, questions, success or ill-happenings, experiences or perplexities, a man throws himself into the arms of God...only then he wakes up to Christ"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

First, I have been pretty lax in posting this summer. I'm hoping that will change as I get into more of a routine with the school year. On another note, I love this line from Bonhoeffer and am thankful for such a great reminder this morning. So often, we turn the Christian life into making something of oneself. For me, being in seminary, and working in full time ministry, "making myself" in these capacities is often the criteria for which I determine my identity and life. This inevitably leads to a roller coaster of emotional and spiritual highs and lows. When I am doing well at these or am "making something of myself", I feel good. When circumstances aren't as favorable, I'm a wreck. It leaves me feeling like nothing I do is enough. It leaves me feeling like a spiritual orphan, who is tirelessly running on a treadmill in order to earn his Father's approval. My worth depends on my performance.

The gospel offers us rest from this tireless spiritual treadmill. The gospel offers us a peace that surpasses understanding. In the gospel, we have a secure identity as a child of God. We no longer have to earn approval, because in Christ, we are already approved. Our significance no longer depends on our performance, because Christ performed for us. This is freedom. Yet, I am not free to disobey, but am rather freed in order to delight in my Heavenly Father and serve him. This is true life! And as Bonhoeffer says, we only come awake to this life when we finally give up on trying to make something  of our self, and throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the arms of God. 

The Cross and Confession

"It is none other than Jesus Christ who openly suffered the shameful death of a sinner in our place, who was not ashamed to be crucified for us as an evildoer. And it is nothing else but our community with Jesus Christ that leads us to the disgraceful dying that comes in confession, so that we may truly share in this cross. The cross of Jesus Christ shatters all pride."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together

The Power of Confession

"In confession there takes place a breakthrough to community. Sin wants to be alone with people. It takes them away from the community. The more lonely people become, the more destructive the power of sin over them. The more deeply they become entangled in it, the more unholy is their loneliness. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of what is left unsaid sin poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen in the midst of a pious community. In confession, the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and closed isolation of the heart. Sin must be brought into the light. What is unspoken is said openly and confessed. All that is secret and hidden comes to light. It is a hard struggle until the sin crosses one’s lips in confession. But God breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron (Ps. 107:16) Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of another Christian, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders, giving up all evil, giving the sinner’s heart to God and finding the forgiveness of all one’s sin in the community of Jesus Christ and other Christians. Sin that has been spoken and confessed has lost all of its power. It has been revealed and judged as sin. It can no longer tear apart the community."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together

....

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7 ESV

Grace--> Discipleship

"Happy are they who know that discipleship simply means the life which springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship. Happy are they who have become Christians in this sense of the word. For them the word of grace has proved a fount of mercy"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship pg. 56)

Power of the Word

My senior pastor, Josh Moody, once said in a sermon that a bible-preaching church is "like a piece of apple pie with whipped cream on top." I love this simile not merely because apple pie is my favorite dessert (especially from Grand Lux Cafe), but because bible-preaching churches are becoming more and more of a rarity. I strongly believe in a pulpit that simply preaches Christ-crucified from scripture every week with the confidence that God will give faith. There is no burden to persuade and no burden of life and death, but rather, a joy in knowing God is sovereign in calling His children to faith by the preaching and hearing of His Word.

The following quote comes from The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer...

"The Word of God seeks a Church to take unto itself. It has its being in the Church. It enters the Church by its own self-initiated movement. It is wrong to suppose that there is so to speak a Word on the one hand and a Church on the other, and that it is the task of the preacher to take that Word into his hands and move it so as to bring it into the Church and apply it to the Church's needs. On the contrary, the Word moves of its own accord, and all the preacher has to do is to assist that movement and try to put no obstacles in its path. The Word comes forth to take men to itself; the apostles knew that and it was the burden of their message. They had seen the Word of God for themselves, they had seen how it came and took flesh, and in this flesh the whole human race. Now the burden of their testimony was simply this - the Word of God had become flesh, it had come to take sinners to itself, to forgive and to sanctify. It is this same Word which now makes its entry into the Church. This Word makes flesh, this Word which already bears the whole human race, can no longer exist without the humanity it has assumed. Furthermore, when this Word comes, the Holy Spirit comes, showing to Christians, both individually and corporately, the gifts of the incarnate Christ to man. He produces faith in his hearers, that they may discern in the preaching the entry of Jesus Christ. He opens their eyes to see Christ coming into their midst in the power of his Body to tell us that he has received us and will receive us again to-day."