Bonhoffer Chapter 5

In this chapter, Bonhoffer tackles the topic of confession and communion. He points out something that is really important, for us to understand about Jesus and the cross, and he words his point really well. He states, 

“He was not ashamed to be crucified for us as an evildoer. It was nothing else but our fellowship with Jesus Christ that leads us to ignominious dying that comes in confession, in order that we may in truth share in his Cross… We cannot find the cross of Jesus if we shrink from going to the place where it is to be found, namely, the public death of the sinner” (114).   

Following this statement, he talks about how as sinners, we are prone to running away from confessing when we do something sinful and keeping the sin to ourselves. Unfortunately, this leads to an uncontrollable spiral of sinning and pushing it away. Our hearts become hardened and our relationship with God gets less and less significant when we do this. I think as believers we all know that when our hearts are aligned with God’s and we confess when we participate in something sinful, it is so freeing! So why are we do prone to running away from this freeing confession? Bonhoffer states that when we can confess our sins to God as well as other believers it opens up doors for “true fellowship”. He says in a way, we are taking up our Cross that rescued us and following Him. How freeing is that? The sad thing is, God knows our sins. He knows when we have blatantly disobeyed Him, and we know that He knows, but it’s almost as though the enemy put’s in our minds that if we keep our mouths shut and push the sins away, that the issue will go away. Maybe others haven’t struggled with this so much, but I know I have.

I grew up as a pastor’s kid. My family always joked that being a pastor’s kid (or PK as we liked to call it) was like living in a fish bowl. Everyone is looking in on our family, watching our every move, judging when we did something bad, and talking (really it was gossiping) to those around them about the pastor’s family and all of our actions. Even outside of the church building, I felt like my every move was being watched because people from the church lived in my community. I’ll never forget, one Saturday I went to the grocery store with my mom, and she had just gotten out of the shower before we left. Typically, she would blow dry her hair, but this day she was in a hurry and decided to let it air dry. When we got to the grocery store, we ran into a member of the church. She stood there for a good 5 minutes and gave my mom a hard time for her hair not looking “presentable” with her wet hair when she was the pastor and should always look presentable… on a Saturday morning… at the grocery store… I’m sorry, what?

From that story, and as you can imagine, many more stories, you could probably imagine why confessing of my sins to other people has never proven easy for me. however, as stated before, when we chose to confess them, we can find fruit in that. I can feel chains being broken when I take that step (or leap!) of faith and talk to others and God about my wrongdoings. Often, I have found that the person I feel lead to talk to about it is someone who is either walking in the same thing currently or has walked in that path before and has insight as to how to push through it. I love the way God put’s people in our lives for that reason. To love on us, extend grace and mercy to us, and point us to our heavenly father through it all.

Bonhoffer Chapter 4

In the middle of this chapter, Bonhoffer states, 

“One who worries about the loss of the time such petty, outward acts of hopefulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly” (99). 

This point is really important to think about, as we live in such a time-oriented culture, it can be easy to forget that God already has a plan for each day, and his plan trumps our plans. Bonhoffer goes on to make a bold statement that really struck me while I was reading and forced me to think through if I allow God’s plans to trump my own. He says, 

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God” (99).

 Bonhoffer explains that there are often times That God sends us interruptions in order to fulfill His plan for that day, but we as Christians often get frustrated and work to push against that plan. I know that I have done this before. I may even know that things are changing because God wants a different outcome, but selfishly in the moment I feel like my plan is better, so I would do everything I can to stop God’s plan. There are times that God continues to push back, and I could see why once his plan is fulfilled. Other times I think God was providing an opportunity to further His kingdom, and because I did not follow his lead, the “plan” went on as I lead it. Unfortunately, those times were a missed opportunity to have conversations about the Lord with non-believers who were showing interest, and I was more afraid of saying the wrong thing than following God’s lead and trusting that He would put the words in my mouth. When Bonhoffer says,

 “we need to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God”, 

he is making a powerful and truthful statement. We are often so wrapped up in time and where we need to get to next, that we forget time doesn’t matter when God wants to interrupt us. Why is it that we think our work and our own plans are better than Gods plans? I wish I had a direct answer for that. however, I do believe that our desire to push against God’s interruptions has to do with the enemy speaking lies that we aren’t good enough to follow through with His plan, that we won’t say the right words, or simply that our plan is better than God’s. When it’s put into words, it sounds silly. In the moment though, the enemy has a way with words, and with lies. On a happy note, when we follow God’s lead when He interrupts us, I know it bears fruit. The times I’ve followed through with what may seem like difficult conversations about God with non-believers, and trust that God’s desire will be done in said conversation, these times have been the most fruitful and memorable.  I love to hear other people’s hearts and try to understand where their beliefs are coming from. When we build relationships with non-believers, it opens up doors for God to interrupt and do His work.

Bonhoffer Chapter 3

In the middle of this chapter, Bonhoffer states, 

“Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day” (86). 

He later explains that being in a state of intercession means that we bring ourselves or our brothers and sisters into the presence of God, bringing all that we are to the foot of the cross. Being in a state of intercession is so much more than just saying a simple prayer. It means being in a deeply spiritual state and in communion with God. It’s a feeling that is so refreshing and brings an overwhelming amount of joy.

When I am in a state of intercession, I can literally feel weights being lifted off of my shoulders and chains being broken. Being in an intercessional state means something different for everyone. Some people become very charismatic and express their state through walking around, raising their hands, crying, speaking in tongues, and various other ways. For myself, when I am in a deep intercessory state, I am often overwhelmed by God’s grace and the ways that he has provided for me and I often become very emotional.

I can always tell when I am about to have a really deep encounter with the Lord, because shortly before the encounter I will have a weird sense of others judging me. Usually when someone cries, it means there is something wrong. The enemy has a way of trying to destroy my encounter with the Lord by telling me lies that no one will believe me when they see me crying and I tell them it was a good thing. He will try to make me feel fear about having this encounter, that something bad is going to happen. As much as I hate to admit it, there are sometimes when I have that feeling, and I know it’s a lie from the enemy, but I’d rather listen to the lie of the enemy and avoid people looking at me for crying, than enter into an intercessional state and let God work on my heart. When it’s put into words, this sounds awful, but in the moment, it is so easy to take the bait and not listen to my heart.

When I choose not to take the “bait” that I mentioned previously, I never regret it. By the end of the intercessional time I was able to have with God, I could care less what people think about the fact that I became emotional. In fact, I am always excited to explain what God was doing in my heart at the time. I appreciate Bonhoffer's attempt to explain intercession throughout this chapter.