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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
Helping
Dominating
Tell
Serving
Others
Exists
Live
Calling
Must
Exist
Mean
Church
Every
Christ
Men
Means

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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The limitation of the ethical phenomenon to its place and time does not imply its rejection but, on the contrary, its validation. One does not use canons to shoot sparrows.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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If you reject God's commanding word, you will not receive God's gracious word.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth.
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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Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it is a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Cheap grace is the idea that grace did it all for me so I do not need to change my lifestyle. The believer who accepts the idea of cheap grace thinks he can continue to live like the rest of the world. Instead of following Christ in a radical way, the Christian lost in cheap grace thinks he can simply enjoy the consolations of his grace.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Every call of Christ leads into death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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A person who loves community tends to destroy it. But a person who loves people creates community wherever he goes.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character of the Christian life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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We have learnt, rather too late, that action comes, not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead. He is called out... The old life is left behind, and completely surrendered. The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity... out of the realm of the finite...into the realm of infinite possibilities.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Jesus Christ has to suffer and be rejected... Suffering and being rejected are not the same.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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May God in His mercy lead us through these times but above all, may He lead us to Himself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don't believe, take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. … 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.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer