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Bonhoffer
Last year I read his explication of abused grace in "The Cost of Disipleship". It took me a while to get used to his writeing style since they(his books) are translated from german. Anyway, I am reading ,"Life Together" about christian fellowship. Although the whole book should be read by all, this excerpt I wanted to share:
"In the christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things recieves the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experiance that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small( and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully recieve from Him the little things? If we do not give thanks daily for the christian fellowship in which we have been placed,even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ. ... Christian brotherhood is not an ideal wich we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recoginze that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it." Wow, guilty as charged. I will change. I want to take the time now to thank God for the wonderful fellowship that I have been given in my sisters and brothers and my home church of CFC. I am blessed beyond reason. jen at 1/26/2006 09:22:00 AM 18 comments
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Who I am in the flesh...++++ My name is Jennifer,Jenny,Jen,Momma. Hello! I turned 30 years old July 22 of 2003. Got Married to Michael (Todd) in October of 1993. We have three children, Jacob born July 31,1997, Emily born October 23,1998 and Isaac born May 23, 2000. Born again October 1992 at Christian Fellowship Church in Evansville IN.; still members there. I am a homeschooling mom,. I love to have a project to complete. My hobby is body building and would like to some day be in a competition. For those who have read John Trent's books...I am a Lion,with some Otter,very little Retriever and almost no Beaver. For those who are not familiar with animal personality's ....I am very driven and always thinking ahead,have lots of friends,not as compassionate as I should be and disorganized. |