Sunday, September 14, 2008

Bon-who?? Bonhoeffer.

This blog has many times become a source of distraction and procrastination from my wonderful homework.

And so it begins.

Break time=Blog time.

As I pretend to sound a bit intellectual, don't worry it is just a farce. I just got done reading some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community". Bonhoeffer has become one of the many theologians I have come to admire throughout my time here at Sterling. If you don't know much about him he was part of a plot to assassinate Hitler but then was killed by the Gestapo near the end of WWII. With his death came the discovery of his many writings from the underground seminary he ran during the Nazi years in Germany.
I read on his thoughts on Community and the Word. Yes, the Word.

He writes this, "...Christian is dependent on the Word of God spoken to him. He is pointed outward, to the Word that comes to him. The Christian lives wholly by the truth of God's Word in Jesus Christ...He is alert as possible to this Word. Because he daily hungers and thirts for righteousness, he daily desires the redeeming Word. And it can come only from outside. In himself he is destitute and dead. Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness" (22)

Wow. Pause. Think about that. Let it ruminate.

Is he saying we are dead without the Word?
Is he saying we can't do this thing called life without the Word?
Is he saying we have to have help?

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.

Comforting yet overwhelming.

I didn't get into the Word yesterday like I have for about the last 3 months. What was the effect? I found myself uglier than ever before. Annoying. Impatient. Jealous.
And I couldn't figure out why.
Duh.
I didn't get in the Word.
I was trying to do it on my own.
Big Mistake.


I was just really challenged and convicted by Bonhoeffer. His boldness, his trust, and his love for God and the Word.

Well I need to get back to the H-dub.

One last thing. He wrote of how we HUNGER and THIRST for the Word. Well my good friend Leah and I have a slight obsession with the Hillsong song called, "You'll Come". There is a line in there that says, "Flood our thirsty hearts". Cool huh? We sing it over and over again for our hall here at school. It is a great prayer. Check it out.