Bonhoeffer: 4. the ministry of helpfulness

Saturday, February 9, 2019
Meditation:
    And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
    —Matthew 5:40-42 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Seven principles for eradicating selfish ambition in the fellowship:
    4. The ministry of helpfulness

    Active helpfulness means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. There is a multitude of these things wherever people live together. Nobody is too good for the meanest service...
    We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps—reading the Bible. When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that not our way, but God’s way must be done.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 99 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:40-42; Isa. 58:6-7; Luke 10:29-37; Gal. 5:6; 6:9-10; Jas. 1:27; 4:14-15; 1 John 3:17-19
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, remove callous indifference from my heart.

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Bonhoeffer: 3. the ministry of listening

Friday, February 8, 2019
Meditation:
    He who has ears, let him hear.
    —Matthew 11:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Seven principles for eradicating selfish ambition in the fellowship:
    3. The ministry of listening

    The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them... Listening can be a greater service than speaking...
    One who cannot listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the point and be never really speaking to others... Anyone who thinks his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies...
    We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 98 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 11:15; Rom. 15:1-3; 1 Cor. 2:11-13; 2 Cor. 1:3-5; Gal. 6:2; Eph. 4:29; Col. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, open my ears to my neighbor.

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Bonhoeffer: 2. the ministry of meekness

Thursday, February 7, 2019
Meditation:
    Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
    —1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Seven principles for eradicating selfish ambition in the fellowship:
    2. The ministry of meekness

    He who would learn to serve must first learn to think little of himself...
    Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the end of its tether when Jesus forgave him... He will know that it is good for his own will to be broken in the encounter with his neighbour...
    But not only my neighbour’s will, but also his honor is more important than mine... The desire for one’s own honor hinders faith. One who seeks his own honor is no longer seeking God and his neighbour. What does it matter if I suffer injustice? Would I not have deserved even worse punishment from God, if He had not dealt with me according to His mercy?
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 96-97 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 9:19; Matt. 19:30; 20:25-28; 26:39; Mark 9:35; Luke 13:30; John 13:13-15; Rom. 15:2-3; Gal. 6:3; Phil. 2:4; Jas. 1:5;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep me from seeking my own vindication.

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Bonhoeffer: 1. the ministry of holding one's tongue

Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Meditation:
    The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
    —Luke 6:45 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Seven principles for eradicating selfish ambition in the fellowship:
    1. The ministry of holding one’s tongue

    Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words... Thus it must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him. This prohibition does not include the personal word of advice and guidance... But to speak about a brother is forbidden, even under the cloak of help and goodwill; for it is precisely in this guise that the spirit of hatred among brothers creeps in when it is seeking to create mischief.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 94 (see the book)
    See also Luke 6:45; Matt. 12:34-37; 2 Cor. 4:6-7; Phil. 1:15-17; 2:3; Col. 3:16; Jas. 3:14-16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, guard me from saying ill of my brother.

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Lewis: the only possibility left

Tuesday, February 5, 2019
    Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.”
    —Luke 12:8,9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the long run, the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is... a question: “What are you asking God to do?” To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that that is what He does.
    ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Problem of Pain, New York: Macmillan, 1944, p. 116 (see the book)
    See also Luke 12:8-9; Ps. 32:1-2; Matt. 12:31-32; Luke 17:15-18; Acts 2:37-38; Rom. 8:5-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You never forget Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chesterton; the teaching of morality

Monday, February 4, 2019
    Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189
Meditation:
    Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
    —3 John 11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I am quite prepared to promise the secularists secular education if they on their side will promise not to have moral instruction. Secular education seems to me intellectually clean and comprehensible. Moral instruction seems to me unclean, intolerable; I would destroy it with fire. Teaching the Old Testament by itself means teaching ancient Hebrew ethics, which are simple, barbaric, rudimentary, and, to a Christian, unsatisfying. Teaching moral instruction means teaching modern London, Birmingham and Boston ethics, which are not barbaric and rudimentary, but are corrupt, hysterical, and crawling with worms, and which are to a Christian, not unsatisfying but detestable. The old Jew who says that you must fight only for your tribe is inadequate; but the modern prig who says you must not ever fight for anything is substantially and specifically immoral. I know quite well, of course, that the non-religious ethics suggested for modern schools do not verbally assert such things; they only talk about peaceful reform, true Christianity, and the importance of Count Tolstoy. It is all a matter of tone and implication; but then, so is all teaching. Education is implication. It is not the things you say which children respect; when you say things, they very commonly laugh and do the opposite. It is the things you assume that really sink into them. It is the things you forget even to teach that they learn.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), in the Illustrated London News (1907), The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, v. XXVII, Ignatius Press, 1986, p. 382-383 (see the book)
    See also 3 John 1:11; Ps. 34:14; Amos 5:15; John 13:34; Rom. 12:9; 1 Thess. 5:21-22; 2 John 2:9-11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, show the world Your goodness. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thiselton: unveiling the revelation

Sunday, February 3, 2019
    Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865
Meditation:
    [The LORD your God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
    —Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Only by critical questioning can I tell whether I am reading into the text, not only my own presuppositions and questions, but also those of my own generation and even those of my own church and religious tradition. Evangelicals have been too afraid of the word “criticism,” when only by critical questioning can I sufficiently disengage myself from my own worldly or religious (even evangelical) tradition to ask: Is this what the Bible is really saying?
    ... Tony Thiselton (b. 1937), “Understanding God’s Word Today”, in The Lord Christ [1980], John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 104 (see the book)
    See also Deut. 8:3; Ps. 78:23-25; Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4; Rom. 3:4; 1 Cor. 10:3-4; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 2;16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I receive Your word as food for my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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