Ken

God’s there, listening for all who pray, for all who pray and mean it. He does what’s best for those who fear him— hears them call out, and saves them. http://bible.us/Ps145.18.MSG Posted from WordPress for Android

The world's first fire-proof theater, the Iroquois Theater, opened in Chicago on December 1, 1903.  It was a big deal because nearly all of Chicago burned to the ground in 1871. On December 30 it was standing room only - 1,900 people packed the new theater.  As the audience listened to "A Pale Moonlight", a blue stage light popped and caught a piece of the scenery on fire.  "Please remain seated as we lower the asbestos curtain."  The secure feeling of being in a fire-proof theater was quickly lost when the curtain jammed half-way down.  The titanic claims of indestructibility turned the first fire-proof theater into the deadliest fire in Chicago's history. What you put your trust in really does matter. Old hymn says, "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling."

Here's a great quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. 'The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared' (Luther)."

I recently finished reading "Bonhoeffer", a biography of Dietrick Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas.  For those who may not know, Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who was part of the conspiracy to overthrow Adolf Hitler.  Unfortunately, he was executed in a concentration camp only two weeks before the camp was liberated by the Allies. Bonhoeffer emphasized personal devotions as the means to connecting with God.  He didn't want to know about God; he wanted to know God.  He would begin and end each day with thirty minutes of meditating on a single passage of scripture. Bonhoeffer knew that we could be busy with "religious" activities and still not know God:  "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction." What gave Bonhoeffer the strength to act in public were the things he practiced in private.