Bonhoeffer

Today I have finished reading Bonhoeffer, a book unlike any other. Before I began I knew virtually nothing about him, but upon finishing I feel as if he was a close friend, a dear brother to me. Though I knew what the outcome of the end of the book (and his life) would be – his execution in a concentration camp - the nearer I got to the end I kept on hoping maybe there is a way he would live, maybe, maybe… But unfortunately it is now 66 years to late to do anything about the outcome. What a wonderful book to stir up some thoughts, dig further into ones own Christian living.
None could deny the kind of man Bonhoeffer was, even the concentration camp doctor writing about his last moments on earth said: “I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” I have to say Bonhoeffer pushes me to become a better Christian and to live a more Christ centered life, I didn’t think I needed a wake up call and I didn’t think this is the book to give me it but I got it. I wish on the day I die I can mutter those same words are were Bonhoeffer’s last 
“this is the end…for me the beginning of life.”

“The church has only one alter, the alter of the Almighty… before which all creatures must kneel. Whoever seeks something other than this must keep away, he cannot join us in the house of God… The church has only one pulpit, and from that pulpit faith in God will be preached, and no other faith, and no other will than the will of God, however well intentioned.”

—	Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Where books are burned, they will, in the end, burn people, too.”

—	Heinrich Heine

“I gave in, and admitted that God was God.”

—	C.S. Lewis

Two Kinds Of People

Listening to a song today I came across these lyrics 
“there are just two kinds of people, ones who say your just not able and the one’s who change the world”.
Makes me think of the person I was, I am and hope to become. I was always told by teachers and others I would never be able to achieve much… and here I am 4th year pre-med ready to graduate. Yet now I still limit myself with a mentality that oh that’s to hard, or oh I am not able to at this point in my life, but if anything after dwelling on those lyrics I see how wrong I am. Life should be taken by the horns - we might not be able to do the task but God won’t let us fail, He never does… and if we do, well all we did was prepare our self better for what is still to come. Nothing is ever lost, no experience wasted, no such thing as a dumb or hopeless dream… with God.

- Dear God, help us realize our dependence on You always and the mighty strength you give us that yet even though we don’t even know how we will or how we will be able to, we would do grand things. Help us dream big - the impossible, and have no doubt that we can (and will) achieve it. But never, never may we lose our dependence on You.

The Aware and the Unaware

“

I believe that the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware.

When somebody is aware of that love, the same love that the Father has for Jesus, that person is just spontaneously grateful. Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy. We’re not joyful and then become grateful, we’re grateful and that makes us joyful.

”

—	Brennan Manning