Three "thoughts" from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Greetings All!

     This week's "thoughts" (there are three of them) come once again from one of my favorite Christian authors - - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Writing prior to and during WWII, and martyred by the Nazi's just one month before the war ended, he looked around him at the church-going Germans who claimed the Christian faith, and somewhat of a watered-down allegiance to Christ, but at the very same time endorsed (or turned a blind eye) to the policies and activities of Hitler and the Nazis.

     It was in this context that he wrote the quotes below. They are not the musings of an unaffected observer, but the writings of a man who knew that by placing his commitment to Christ above all else, and being critical of Hitler and Nazi policies (even taking steps to oppose them for Jesus' sake) it might cost him his life -- as it eventually did.  In this sense he stands as an example of a man who sought to live consistently and fully for Jesus.  Enjoy

     “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.” 

     “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).”  (Life Together)

     “Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits... Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate…

     Costly grace (on the other hand) is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price which the merchant will sell all his goods to attain. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him…  Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

     It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”  (The Cost of Discipleship) 

     Cheap grace, we could say, is grace used to keep us from having to live as Jesus calls us to (it's grace used to excuse us from living the Christian life), whereas true grace (or as Bonhoeffer calls it, "costly grace") is grace we need, and must constantly rely upon, in order to even approach living as Jesus calls us to in this world.  Cheap grace is grace used to help us escape or excuse our Christian responsibility to seek to live out our faith in this fallen world that often opposes it, true grace is what we are forced to rely upon daily if we are ever to even approach living it out in this age.

     And lest we misunderstand, Bonhoeffer is not speaking of perfection in any sense of the word.  He is speaking of true faith, honesty and integrity.  A faith that truly seeks (by the grace God supplies) to live as Christ calls us to live in the Gospels -- which occasionally (no, often) puts us at odds with the values and priorities of this world.

     Which "grace" are you most familiar with?  The grace that empowers you to live out the difficult and impossible commands (humanly speaking) that Christ has laid before us, or the "grace" that let's you off the hook so you don't have to even try doing those things that are hard and stretch us far beyond our own human resources?  I ask because all of us (myself included) need to do an occasional self-evaluation, lest our cherishing of grace be for all the wrong reasons, and we learn to love it simply because we think it frees us from the need to listen to and obey Jesus (Matt. 7:21 / Luke 6:46). 

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

(If you are interested, the four session DVD documentary "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas is a powerful and inspirational summary of Bonhoeffer's life and death.)

Life Together - Christian community

Greetings to All,

My thought for this week comes mainly from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was martyred by the Nazi's one month before the end of World War II.  Though his most famous book was "The Cost of Discipleship" (where he warned people against adopting the unbiblical substitute for real grace which he called "cheap grace") this thought comes from ideas expressed in his book, "Life Together."  If you have never read it, it is well worth your time (and the price of the book)!   It's all about what is necessary for true Christian community to take place.  Enjoy.

     "Acknowledgement of sin in the presence of another brother is a safeguard against self-deception.  It is a curious fact that many people find it easier to confess their sins privately to a holy and sinless God than to openly confess them to an unholy and sinful brother.  If this is so, it should give us reason to pause and ask ourselves if we are really confessing our sins to God.  We must ask ourselves whether we have not been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God -- whether we have not, rather, been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution.

     Is this not perhaps the reason for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience?  Is it not to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness? When sin has been brought into the light, and confessed it can be forgiven.  Its power can be broken.  It can no longer hold the believer in bondage or tear the fellowship apart.  The sinner can honestly be a sinner and still enjoy the grace of God and the love of the brethren.  This is the moment where fellowship in Christ becomes a profound reality (when sin is openly confessed -- even the worst of sins -- and the love of our brethren continues to be extended to us in spite of it).

     Open confession of sin to another so crucifies one's pride that rarely ever occurs unless a person earnestly yearns to be rid of his sin.  By openly confessing his sin he breaks the habit of secretly cherishing, nurturing, or refusing to let it go.  He becomes accountable.  He gains the support of his praying brothers in his fight to overcome its life-polluting influences.  In essence, he begins to live the life of discipleship."

     Bonhoeffer makes a good point.  Why is it that believers are so unwilling to confess their sins to a fellow believer or believers (as the Bible encourages)? (James 5:16).  Not secretly, from behind a curtain, so we can continue to remain anonymous in our sin, but eye to eye in the presence of another who knows us and can keep us accountable.

     It's a question each believer honestly needs to ask him or herself: Why do I hesitate to confess my sins to another when Scripture encourages it?  Although some might justifiably suggest lack of confidentiality (which is a very real problem), many (most I've spoken with) struggle with the inner sense of embarrassment, shame, or exposure that often accompanies it.  And surely, as Bonhoeffer points out, it may even be that confessing to a close friend means we may have a pair of eyes keeping us accountable that were not even looking our way before.  In any case, our hesitancy to "confess our sins to one another" calls forth an earnest examination as to why we don't, or won't.

     Maybe Bonhoeffer is right. Maybe it is that we've been confessing them to ourselves and granting ourselves absolution.  Maybe it's because we want forgiveness but don't really want to give up our sin. Maybe it's confession without true repentance. For as Luther once rightly pointed out: "The truest repentance is to do so no more." If we really want to be done with sin, and not just receive forgiveness for sins we aren't sure we fully intend to give up (or worse yet, have no intention of giving up), then being silent and simply confessing it to God is the best way to go.

Just some food for thought.

In the service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

Three Prayers to Feed the Soul

Greetings All!

     I believe in spontaneous and heartfelt prayer.  I'm skeptical of pastors who only "pray" (or read) written prayers during a service of worship (as I witnessed every week in church in my childhood). It's not wrong if it's prayed in earnest and expresses what the heart craves, I simply prefer the more spontaneous type.
     Yet I must confess that God has also used written prayers to feed my soul.  Books like "C. H. Spurgeon's Prayers," or "Luther's Prayers," or "A Diary of Private Prayer" by John Baillee, "Prayers Ancient and Modern" (published in 1897!) and "Valley of Vision - A Collection of Puritan Prayers" by Arthur Bennett, have often been a great aid in my own prayer and devotional life.
     So today I offer you three prayers to consider. Two come from "Prayer's Ancient and Modern," and the third from, "Valley of Vision," by Arthur Bennett.  Enjoy.

"Father, calm the turbulence of our passions;

Quiet the throbbing of our hopes; 

Repress the waywardness of our wills; 

Direct the motions of our affections; 

and Sanctify the varied activities of our lives.

Be all in all to us; and may all things earthly, 

while we bend them to our growth in grace, 

and to the work of blessing, dwell lightly in our hearts -- so that we may readily, even joyfully, give up whatever you might ask.

May we seek first your kingdom and your righteousness; resting assured that then all things needful shall be added unto us.

Father, pardon our past ingratitude and disobedience; and purify us -- whether by your gentler or sterner dealings --till we have done your will on earth, and you take us into your own presence, with all the redeemed in heaven.

Amen."

Mary Carpenter

"O God our heavenly Father, renew in us the sense of Your gracious Presence,

and let it be a constant impulse within us to peace, truthfulness, and courage on our pilgrimage.

Let us hold You fast with a loving and adoring heart, and let our affections be so fixed on You, that unbroken communion in our hearts with You may accompany us in whatsoever we do, through life and in death.

Teach us to pray heartily;

To listen for Your voice within, 

And never to stifle it's warnings.

We bring our poor hearts as a sacrifice unto You, come and fill Your sanctuary...

O Thou who art Love, let Your divine Spirit flow like a river through our whole souls, 

And lead us in the right way till we pass, by a peaceful death, into the Land of Promise.

Amen."

Gerhard Tersteegen

"Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly, You have brought me to the Valley of Vision, 

where I live in the depths, but see You in the heights.  

Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Your glory.

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, 

that to be low is to be high, 

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive, 

that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells, and the deeper the well, the brighter Your stars shine.

Let me find Your light in my darkness, 

Your life in my death,

Your joy in my sorrow,

Your grace in my sin,

Your riches in my poverty,

Your glory in my valley.

Amen."

May the blessings of renewed communion with Christ be yours, Pastor Jeff

Is 99.9% Good Enough?

Greetings All,

Another week, another thought!

I found this one typed on a sheet of paper stuffed in the back of my Bible.  It had no reference to the author.  I believe it was written by Charles Swindoll, though I am not 100% sure -- just 90%, or 80%! Though it is somewhat appropriate that I should be unsure, since the 'thought' itself has to do with percentages.  How righteous (percentage-wise) do we need to be to be acceptable to God, and what percentage of our sins need to be forgiven in order to be saved. They are good questions to ask.

I obviously stuck it in my Bible because I felt it was helpful.  I hope you find it helpful as well.  After all, in answering such questions we discover the Gospel in a nutshell.  Enjoy.

Is 99.9% Good Enough?

"Ever tracked the consequences of, 'almost but not quite?'  Thanks to some fine research by Natalie Gabal, I awoke to a whole new awareness of what would happen if 99.9% were considered good enough.  If that were true, then this year alone (in the U.S.) 2,000,000 documents would be lost by the IRS; 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents every day; 291 pacemaker operations would be performed incorrectly; 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions would be written, and 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes would be shipped (to cite just a few examples).

Instead of applying this negatively to the practical side of life, I'd much rather compare it positively to the theological. Remember that forgotten word 'justification'? Remember what it means?  Justification is the sovereign act of God whereby He declares righteous the believing sinner while that person is still in a sinning state. Luther's famous phrase for it was: 'simul justus et peccator' ('at the same time just and sinner'). God doesn't make us righteous, He declares us righteous on the basis of another's righteousness -- the perfect righteousness of Jesus. 

How righteous does God declare us?  He declares us 100% righteous.  When you consider how sinful, how totally depraved humanity really is, that fact is all the more remarkable.  Stop and think.  Upon believing in Jesus Christ's substituionary death and bodily resurrection, the once lost sinner is instantly, unconditionally, and permanently 'declared 100% righteous.'  Anything less and we are not righteous... we're almost righteous.  

If we were declared only 99.9% righteous, some verses would have to be rewritten. Like Isaiah 1:18, which might then read: 'Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be light pink.'  Nonsense!  The promise of sins forgiven is all or nothing. Eighty percent won't cut it... or ninety percent... or 99 and 44/100ths percent... or 99.9%.  Let's face it, 0.1% is still sinful.  I mean, would you drink a gallon of water with only one tiny drop of strychnine in it?  Would you feel comfortable having a surgeon cut on you who was wearing almost-sterile
gloves?  Would you use a used needle with only 0.1 %  of the Hepatitis C virus in it?
     
When our Lord said, 'It is finished,' He meant 'finished.'  The colossal ransom for sin was fully paid.  He satisfied the Father's demand.  Unlike the earthly race for excellence, the universal race against sin had a finish line. 
Otherwise, when Jesus breathed His last breath, He would have said, 'It is almost finished.'  And we would have to keep working at it, adding something Christ didn't finish at the cross.  Let's never, ever, forget that God is into 'white as snow,' not light pink.  If Christ had paid only 99.9% of the debt of sin, not one of us would have a chance at heaven. "  
  
That's the Good News of God's grace. We don't have to be perfect (or even close) for God to accept us, or to be saved. For by faith in Christ, the perfection of Jesus can be credited to our account.  "But now a righteousness FROM GOD, apart from the law, has been made known. to which the Law and Prophets testify. This righteousness FROM GOD comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe" (Rom. 3:21-22). That righteousness from God is His own righteousness -- the rightousness of Jesus, received by faith in Jesus.  We are made right with God on the basis of another's righteousness --  the 100% pure righteousness of Jesus.  By means of it, and it alone, we can be declared righteous while still sinner, for Jesus sake.  Praise God. 

Have you trusted in Christ?

Have you placed all your faith and hope for salvation in Him?

You must. There is no other way to be saved. For even if you were to be 99.9% pure (which you could never be) that 0.1% of sin staining and polluting your record would exempt you from heaven. For the divine decree still stands: "The wages of sin is death..." even if that sin is only 0.1% of our life record. 

Or, put in practical terms, since the average lifespan in America is around 72 years, that seemingly insignificant 0.1% would equal a whopping 262 days of non-stop, 24/7 sinning.  With God it is 100% righteousness or nothing, and only Jesus made the grade. 

Yours in the hope of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff