“In life with Jesus Christ, death as a general fate approaching us from without is confronted by death from within, one’s own death, the free death of daily dying with Jesus Christ. Those who live with Christ die daily to their own will. Christ in us gives us over to death so that he can live within us. Thus our inner dying grows to meet that death from without. Christians receive their own death in this way and in this way our physical death very truly becomes not the end but rather the fulfillment of our life with Jesus Christ. Here we enter into community with the One who at his own death was able to say, ‘It is finished.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Here I never saw myself but in disguises; there, then, I shall see myself, but I shall see God too…. Here I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness; mine understanding sometimes cleared, my will at the same time perverted. There I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory.” John Donne

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
2 Corinthians 2:10

Moving From Head to Heart

• “Christ in us gives us over to death (crucifixion) so that he can live (resurrection) within us.” What has this meant in your life?
• These mini-deaths are “free” in that we choose them or submit to them. Have you been able choose to receive these kinds of difficult losses and trials as Christ’s “gift?”
• “Our inner dying grows to meet that death from without.” How do these words affect your feelings about your own death?
• Take a few moments to think about your physical death becoming “not the end but rather the fulfillment of [your] life with Jesus Christ.” Sit with that in quietness. What emotions arise from that?

Abba, the experience of death from within is both painful and frightening. Even so, I want to embrace the “deaths” you send my way so that Jesus will live more fully in me. Please help me “die to my own will” as I submit to your will for me when it comes to this “daily dying with Jesus Christ.”

__________

For More: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

_________________________________________________

“Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.” Augustine   My prayer is that these Daily Riches will always be offered and received in this irenic, unpresumptous spirit. Thank you for reading and sharing my daily posts. Bill (Psalm 90:14)