Home > Work > I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions
1 " Nevertheless, it is the free grace of the resurrected One that now also goes after the individual, overcomes the doubter, and creates in him the Easter faith. "
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer , I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions
2 " Things are much simpler here than we like. Not that we do not know God’s commandments, but that we do not do them—and then gradually, as a consequence of such disobedience, we no longer know what is right—that is our predicament. "
3 " it is God himself, the Lord and Creator of all things, who is so small here, who is hidden here in the corner, who enters into the plainness of the world, who meets us in the helplessness and defenselessness of a child, and wants to be with us. "
4 " Jesus himself had called and chosen Judas! That is the real mystery, for Jesus knew from the beginning who would betray him. "
5 " The throne of God in the world is not on human thrones, but in human depths, in the manger. Standing around his throne there are no flattering vassals but dark, unknown, questionable figures who cannot get their fill of this miracle and want to live entirely by the mercy of God. "
6 " We are not to forget but to overcome. That happens through gratitude. We are not supposed to solve the unsolved puzzle of the past and fall into tortuous brooding, but to let even the incomprehensible stand and return it peacefully to God’s hand. This happens through humility. “He has done everything well. "
7 " Not the way to God but the way of God to humanity: that is the sum of Christianity. "
8 " Who comes to the light? “Those who do what is true” (John 3:21)! What does this mean? Truth is supposed to happen; it is not only to be thought or willed, but to be done. Truth arises through action that is the opposite of pretense and darkness, which give rise to evil. "
9 " God’s word to me—new every day—in the infinite riches of interpretation. "
10 " Not enslaved to principles but bound by love for God, they have become free from the problems and conflicts of ethical decision. They are no longer weighed down by them. They belong completely and solely to God and God’s will. "
11 " For Jesus what is at stake is not the exhibition and realization of new ethical ideals, and not some kind of goodness of his own, but solely God’s love for human beings. Therefore, he can enter into their guilt; he can let himself be burdened with their guilt. "
12 " I believe that God is better honored when we know and use and love the life he has given us in all its worth and therefore also strongly and honestly feel pain when life’s worth is damaged or lost (some like to complain about this as the weakness and sensitivity of ordinary existence) than when we are impassive regarding life’s worth and hence also impassive against its pain. Job’s statement, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21b), includes this, rather than excluding it, as is seen clearly enough from his teeth-gritting speeches and their divine justification (Job 42:7–9) compared to the false, premature, pious surrender of his friends. "
13 " Perception, knowledge, and truth without love are nothing. They are not truth, for truth is God, and God is love. Therefore, truth without love is a lie. "
14 " If God loved the world, the whole fallen creation, then he gave us no preference over others. He loved my worst enemy no less than he loved me. Jesus Christ died for his and our enemies. "
15 " the gift of Christ is not the Christian religion but the grace and love of God, which culminate in the cross. "
16 " THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH The unity of the church will consistnot in organizations,not in dogmas,not in liturgies,not in pious hearts,but in the word of God,in the voice of Jesus Christ. "