Serving Jesus

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was known for standing on principle, regardless of popular opinions. Born in Germany on this day in 1906, he became one of the first to speak out against the persecution of the Jews. Because of his convictions, he faced continual harassment, even though he was a respected professor and pastor.

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, he was lecturing in the U.S. and could have remained far from the intensifying European conflicts. But he felt compelled to return home, knowing that persecution likely awaited him. Eventually arrested, he remained a source of inspiration. In prison, he wrote a remarkable series of letters that revealed his deepening faith. He believed that “nothing that happens to me is meaningless,” and recognized that he was in prison “for some purpose.” He realized how people “cannot find their essence out of themselves” but “only through Christ…and His Word.”

Bonhoeffer was martyred just days before the victory of the Allied forces. A prison doctor wrote, “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer still in his prison clothes, kneeling in fervent prayer to the Lord his God. The devotion a … moved me to the depths.” As he was being led to be hanged, he whispered to a fellow prisoner that, for him, this was “the beginning of life.”

In The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote, “The only man who has the right to say that he has been justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.”

Today, God looks for people with this dedication and faith. Commit your life to Him. Stay focused. In eternity, nothing else will matter.