National Prayer Breakfast - Eric Metaxas

I loved the things that Eric Metaxas had to say yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast. The biographer of William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out how both men saw truths that others in their time did not see, and we celebrate them for it. Wilberforce saw Africans as human beings worthy of our love and respect in a time when they were sold as property, and fought for the end of the slave trade. Bonhoeffer similarly saw Jews as worthy of our love and respect in the midst of Nazi Germany, and ended up dying in a concentration camp himself as a result.

It's easy for us to see now where these two men were right and the prevailing culture was horribly wrong. If we lived in their day though, Metaxas points out that we should not be so sure of the clarity of vision that we would have had, for apart from God's intervention we are no better than anyone else.

Jesus opens our eyes to though to his ideas, which are different from our own. And so, while we are called to speak out and act on behalf of the powerless, at the same time Metaxas points out, we need to be careful in our attitude toward those who do not see things as we do.

Those of us who know the unborn to be human beings are commanded by God to love those who do not yet see that. We need to know that apart from God we would be on the other side of that divide, fighting for what we believe is right. We cannot demonize our enemies. Today if you believe abortion is wrong you must treat those on the other side with the love of Jesus.

The whole talk is well worth watching, but especially enjoyed the end of it, starting around 58 minutes.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

It is not yet Christmas. But it is also not the great final Advent, the final coming of Christ. Through all the Advents of our life that we celebrate goes the longing for the final Advent, where it says: "Behold, I make all things new."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.

Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Weekly Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Costly Grace

"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace...Such grace is costly because if calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'ye were bought at a price,' and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.  Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Cost of Discipleship

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

"It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed.  Therefore let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart.  Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with other Christian brethren."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Free Audiobooks From Christianaudio.com

Every month Christianaudio.com offers the download of an audio book or two for free. This month Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die are available. Click here to take advantage of this great offer.

(HT: Justin Taylor)