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Certainly one must try everything, but only to become more certain what God's way is.

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
Become
Certain
Everything
Must
Trying
Way
Certainly

More quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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The heart clings to collected treasure. Stored-up possessions get between me and God. Where my treasure is, there is my trust, my security, my comfort, my God. Treasure means idolatry.
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
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A father acts on behalf of his children by working, providing, intervening, struggling, and suffering for them. In so doing, he really stands in their place. He is not an isolated individual, but incorporates the selves of several people in his own self.
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 deep meaning of the cross of Christ is that there is no suffering on earth that is not borne by God.
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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It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith.
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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A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The fearful danger of the present time is that above the cry for authority, we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority, and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here, is infringing eternal laws, and taking upon himself superhuman authority, which will eventually crush him.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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To endure the cross is not tragedy it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
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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It seems to me more important actually to share someones distress than to use smooth words about it.
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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Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try to find anything.....It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap he does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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The restoration of the church must surely depend on a new kind of monasticism, which has nothing in common with the old but a life of uncompromising discipleship, following Christ according to the sermon on the mount. I believe the time has come to gather people together to do this.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Anything I cannot thank God for for the sake of Christ, I may not thank God for at all to do so would be sin. ... We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the Mediator for whose sake alone they are given to us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the pants. An unsmiling expectation that if we mean all these wonderful things we talk about and sing about, then let’s see something to prove it.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer