will discover our own suffering. It could be chronic pain or a terminal illness, losing a loved one, battling depression, or simply a gnawing sense of being unfulfilled.
We need to understand that God uses these experiences to draw us closer to him. Have you noticed that we experience the most growth when times are difficult? When circumstances are easy, we have no reason to rely fully on the Lord. In the Psalms we see how David handled suffering. Psalm 10 begins with a cry of desperation: “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?”(v. 1). But by the end of the same chapter, David comes to rely on his knowledge of God’s character. May our own trials be times of honestly seeking the Lord. (JG)
You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and you listen to their cry, Defending the fatherless and the oppressed, In order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
November 5
After exploring the subjects of discipline, action, and suffering, Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to the final and ultimate step toward freedom death itself.
Throughout this devotional are stories of miraculous survival and answered prayers. However, we know that many prayers, from our human perspective, were not answered. During World War II thousands of soldiers and sailors paid the ultimate price and did not return home. Bonhoeffer here speaks for these brave men and women, revealing the ultimate survival that was theirs as Christians: eternal life with their Lord and Savior. Only a Christian can face death with this joyful hope. We know what waits for us. And only when we part with this temporary dwelling place of earth can we enjoy our homecoming reunion with the Lord and all his saints who have gone before us.
The apostle Paul eagerly anticipated meeting Jesus again face to face: “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). And yet, he did not allow himself to dwell on that heavenly future so much that he neglected his earthly tasks: “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it”(2 Corinthians 5:9). We should also anticipate death with confidence, knowing it is the passage to heaven; and yet continue in the good works God has given us to do here on Earth until he calls us home. (JG)
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
November 6
Before he was executed, Dietrich Bonhoeffer voiced criticism of the German Lutheran Church for its compromises with the Nazi government:
The church must confess that she has witnessed the lawless application of brutal force, the physical and spiritual suffering of countless innocent people, oppression, hatred, and murder, and that she has not raised her voice on behalf of the victims and has not found ways to hasten to their air… By her own silence she has rendered herself guilty because of her unwillingness to suffer for what she knows is right.463
James Dobson has used this quote to point to the present day church’s passivity on the issue of abortion.464 I am not qualified to comment on the validity of this criticism. Many individual Christians and churches have worked diligently in this area, especially to give viable choices other than abortion to troubled expectant mothers. I am very much in favor of this approach on the personal level. I am not so certain of what is appropriate on the political level. I believe churches and Christian groups are on dangerous ground when they seek power through the political process, no matter how worthy the cause. We certainly make our primary duty of bringing Christ’s message to the world more difficult for ourselves if we are perceived as trying to coerce others in matters of conscience. Our Founding Fathers wisely preempted this issue as they wrote the Constitution. Christians should be thankful for this freedom of conscience and for the freedom to use persuasion in changing the conscience of others.
This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.
November 7
Joe Graser was serving with Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe when he learned that his younger brother, Don, back in Ohio, had been inducted into the Army. He wrote a heartfelt letter to his brother giving him advice on being a soldier and a man:
As Mom always said you are judged by the company you keep, so don’t be to [sic] hasty at first with whom you run around with, wait a while then pick out a buddy or so… you will see it’s very easy to give your religion up, while in the service, since no one is there to remind you about it, but always live the way you were brought up, over two years ago when I came in Mom told me, to be careful & never to disgrace my name, that is something that has always been on my mind, in whatever I do & surely has been a guidance to me.465
My first thought on reading this letter was that telling a loved one not to “disgrace his name” sounds like advice from a bygone era. Today it almost seems a quaint notion. What would a young person now consider disgraceful? For many in today’s culture, probably little short of being caught committing a felony. Yet, the biblical imperative stands, to “ Honor your father and mother.” We do this by giving them respect and by doing nothing to bring them embarrassment or shame. I think it reasonable to expand the scope of this injunction to the family as well, so that our actions honor them and bring credit to them in the larger community.
