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The Church is the Church only when it exists for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Age: 39 †
Born: 1906
Born: February 4
Died: 1945
Died: April 8
Pastor
Philosopher
Poet
Resistance Fighter
Theologian
Breslau
Bonhoeffer
Live
Calling
Must
Exist
Mean
Church
Every
Christ
Men
Means
Helping
Dominating
Tell
Serving
Others
Exists

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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A Christian is someone who shares the sufferings of God in the world.
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Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.
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It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith.
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Human love has little regard for the truth. It makes the truth relative, since nothing, not even the truth, must come between it and the beloved person.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The child asks of the Father whom he knows. Thus, the essence of Christian prayer is not general adoration, but definite, concrete petition. The right way to approach God is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The right way to pray is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Possessions are not God's blessing and goodness, but the opportunities of service which he entrusts to us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Time is the most precious gift in our possession, for it is the most irrevocable. This is what makes it so disturbing to look back upon the time which we have lost. Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering. Time lost is time not filled, time left empty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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To be sure, God shall call you, and us, only at the hour that God has chosen. Until that hour, which lies in God's hand alone, we shall be protected even in the greatest danger and from our gratitude for such protection ever new readiness surely arises for the final call
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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After he has been following Christ for a long time, the disciple of Jesus will be asked, Lacked ye anything? and he will answer Nothing, Lord. How could he when he knows that despite hunger and nakedness, persecution and danger, the Lord is always at his side?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Only those who put tomorrow completely into God's hand and receive fully today what they need for their lives are really secure.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Only the suffering God can help.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Jesus' call to bear the cross places all who follow him in the community of the forgiveness of sins. Forgiving sins is the Christ-suffering required of his disciples. It is required of all Christians.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Once a man has truly experienced the mercy of God in his life he will henceforth aspire only to serve.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straghtforward men.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer