A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner.
Dietrich BonhoefferJust as our love for God begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them.
Dietrich BonhoefferYour life as a Christian should make non believers question their disbelief in God.
Dietrich BonhoefferDeath is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.
Dietrich BonhoefferChristian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature.
Dietrich BonhoefferMan no longer lives in the beginning--he has lost the beginning. Now he finds he is in the middle, knowing neither the end nor the beginning, and yet knowing that he is in the middle, coming from the beginning and going towards the end. He sees that his life is determined by these two facets, of which he knows only that he does not know them
Dietrich Bonhoeffer