Day Eight - Lenten Devotionals 2010

Scripture Text: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:35

Inspiration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian in the first half of the twentieth century said in his The Cost of Discipleship: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die” These were not ivory tower academics for Bonhoeffer, who paid the personal cost of discipleship in execution at age 39 on April 9, 1945. He had bravely resisted Hitler and the Nazi State when most of Germany’s clergy supported the Third Reich. In 1943 he was part of a group that tried twice but failed to assassinate Hitler. The word “fuehrer” in German literally means “leader or guide.” Standing up as Christ’s disciple on a radio broadcast in Berlin he had bravely rebuked the German Church for having allied with the Nazi, “There can only be one Fuehrer for Christians, and it isn’t Adolf Hitler.’ The radio address was brought to an abrupt halt, a foreboding prologue to things to come” - Ron Walters

The Cost of Discipleship: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayer for today: Dear Lord! Help me to be a true discipleship of you and use me as your instrument for your Kingdom of Love. Let my eyes see what you see people and let my feet go where you have gone in Heavenly Father’s will. Amen.