Thank you for joining this Fall 2022 Series! Please consider reading the first book of this study, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy | Eric Metaxas. The parallels with today’s struggle in the United States between politics and the church are alarmingly similar. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 in Germany, and as the subtitle indicates, he became a Pastor, Prophet, Spy and ultimately a Martyr. His Holy Spirit directed gifts as a Prophet and Pastor are astounding. At times, his message truly cut me to the chore, testing what I actually believe. Through this series, my prayer is you will be similarly challenged to consider your beliefs on certain topics and seek discerning wisdom from God and understand his view!
Bonhoeffer wrote and preached about the role of the church during the rise of Hitler. He saw the direction Hitler policies and practices were taking and unlike many of his peers at the time, he knew it wasn’t going to stop. Each step Hitler took, the church in Germany prayed and believed it would be the last. But it wasn’t and the steps are laid out nicely in the book. The German Christians were unable to look at the fruit of Hitler’s actions and see it was rotten. Like many today, we want to believe there is good in everyone and at some point it will come to the surface. This just is not true in some cases. If the fruit being produced is rotten, so is the producer! As we look around our world today, we need to discern the fruit being produced and stop expecting the situation in the United States to change without the church taking action.
The sentiment of inclusion has led to confusion in the church today. We need God’s discernment to identify truth from lies. The concept of truth being relative is just another lie to push Christians into a corner of silence. People may have varying perceptions on a situation or event, but the facts are still the facts. God’s Word is truth and give us the rock to stand on. The truth can be manipulated, but the lie is the manipulation and the truth is still the truth.
We need to recognize we are fighting the enemy, the devil, in a spiritual battle and he will use any trick possible to lead God’s people away. As Dietrich was quoted,
“It is far too easy for us to base our claims to God on our own Christian religiosity and our church commitment, and in so doing utterly to misunderstand and distort the Christian idea.” P. 84 of Deitrich Bonhoeffer
We need to stop distorting Christianity and dig into scripture to find our way back to God and the covenant He made with us, giving us this beautiful land! In some ways, some of that beauty has been lost. “Who Moved My Cheese?” tells the tale of four mice running through a maze to find cheese and one day, that cheese is gone. Each mouse has a unique attitude about the loss. In a light-hearted way, the tale draws a parallel to Christians reacting to the removal of God’s protective vale from our country. Some understand enough to repent and seek a return to God and His ways, while others are still in denial, believing God would not allow anything too terrible to happen to our country. Consider your view of the country’s current state and what you believe God would desire for us and the land.
Now more than ever we need God’s discernment. He provides knowledge and wisdom through the power of Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us. We need to seek that understanding and follow God’s lead for what to do with it. There was a day Bonhoeffer became a soldier. We need to choose to be soldiers in God’s almighty army and Ambassador’s for Christ and the message of the Gospel.
Warning Scriptures regarding falling away and forgetting God to remember:
“When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you – a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant – and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaver.”
Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (emphasis added)
“Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statures, which I am commanding you today.”
Deuteronomy 8:11
Discernment Scriptures:
“He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful; And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment,”
Ecclesiastes 8:5 NKJV
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 NKJV
“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know then, because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:13-14
Prelude to Next Week:
Next Week will include commentary from George Orwell’s books:
1984: George Orwell, Erich Fromm: 9780452262935 – Christianbook.com
Animal Farm: George Orwell, Russell Baker: 9780451526342 – Christianbook.com
And another text that has jumped off the bookshelf:
We join together in prayer. May God bless you and keep you in the week to come!
Amen.
Originally Published: 9/30/22, Updated: 10/7/22