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

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The first call which every Christian experiences is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The future of modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God. These few will greatly enjoy the divine inspiration and will be prepared to stand for the dignity of Man and true freedom and to keep the Law of God, even of it means martyrdom or death.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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It is a blessed thing to know that no power on earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds together.
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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God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God, knowing that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty.
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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Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Man seeks, in his manhood, not orders, not laws and peremptory dogmas, but counsel from one who is earnest in goodness and faithful in friendship, making man free.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light it remembers the morning on which death and sin lay prostrate in defeat and new life and salvation were given to mankind
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The way to misuse our possessions is to use them as an insurance against the morrow. Anxiety is always directed to the morrow, whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used only for to-day.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The Church is her true self only when she exists for humanity. As a fresh start, she should give away all her endowments to the poor and needy. The clergy should live solely on the freewill offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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It is not in our life that God's help and presence must still be proved, but rather God's presence and help have been demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ. It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to his Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events and we lay hold of a great hope.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer