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Darkness does not win
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5, NIV) I have this text in mind as I read through the life of Bonhoeffer. Currently, I am searching out the opinions of those scholars who believed Bonhoeffer was only “assassin-adjacent,” so to speak, along with those…
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How to train pastors
I am fairly locked into the life of Bonhoeffer right now. I am working through a book, Bonhoeffer the Assassin? by Nation, Siegrist, and Umbel. I read Marsh’s biography of Bonhoeffer and recently finished Life Together by Bonhoeffer. We need his example in this day for our cultural Christianity.
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To know the WHY
One verse I come to over and over that still challenges me: He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel (Ps. 103:7, NIV)
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The healing place of Christmas
Peter Wehner’s piece for Christmas is beautiful. Jesus came through a family full of brokenness and dysfunction. That is significant for each of us and will hopefully move us past the perfect postcard pictures we’re flooded with in this season.
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Quiet, prophetic words
There are moments. They seem like accidents. At the time, they may seem obvious, but get just past that moment and not note it, there is sometimes regret at missing the opportunity to pay a little more attention.
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The place of joy
It hit me with the force of joy. Happiness is what we experience as we celebrate the achievements of the self — winning a prize. Joy is what we feel when we are encompassed by a presence that transcends the self. We create happiness, but are seized by joy — in my case by the sensation that I had just…
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Three activities I need to help me flourish
I have undoubtedly posted this before, but I sure need this reminder I found in a journal I am about to close out. It’s from Eugene Peterson’s book, Reversed Thunder, and speaks to how we can live in the political chaos of our time. Engage in worship Listen to the proclaimed Word Practice holy living These are needed reminders as…
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The image of God in others
“I can never know in advance how God’s image should appear in others. That image always takes on a completely new and unique form whose origin is found solely in God’s free and sovereign act of creation. To me that form may seem strange, even ungodly. But God creates every person in the image of God’s Son, the Crucified, and…
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Why Bonhoeffer matters
I need the reminders of Bonhoeffer’s life. I’ve read The Cost of Discipleship several times. I am grateful for Charles Marsh’s biography on Bonhoeffer to stir my thinking again. The newest Bonhoeffer movie was fraught with land mines because it somehow got associated with a certain biographer who has turned Bonhoeffer into the symbol of Christian Nationalism, but I had…
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The inconvenience of Advent
Fleming Rutledge is a gift to my soul. She writes: The season of Advent is like that. Judgment and mercy arrive at the same time. War and peace are announced by the same voice.
