One of the worship songs we sing goes:
“You are Lord of creation and Lord of my life, Lord of the land and
the sea; You were Lord of the heavens before there was time, and Lord of all
Lords you will be. We bow down ...”
Some time ago I read the story
of Dietrich Offeldt, who was born in the land of Martin Luther and Deitrich
Bonhhoffer which occurred right after World War II and the separation of
East and West Berlin. It was that moment
in history when the division of East and West was becoming painfully
apparent. All his friends counseled
him: “Dietrich, flee to West
Berlin. It will be better for you,
better for your family, better for your freedom, a better place to be a
Christian. Don’t remain in East
Berlin. It is family suicide, spiritual
suicide.” But Dietrich was one of the
many thousands who chose to remain and live as a Christian under communism. In essence he said in one of his
letters: “Jesus Christ is my Lord and
Savior. He is the ruler of my life, and
he can dispose of my life in any way he chooses. I have found that every Christian finds
himself or herself in a particular
circumstance, a particular time, a
particular place in which they live out their discipleship. My circumstance is communism; my time is the Cold War; and my place is East Berlin. I chose to be a disciple here. To survive, I
found that I needed to make two decisions:
first, to accept the task that God had placed before me; that is, to live
as a Christian in a communist state. The
easy thing would have been to run away, to run someplace that was less
difficult. But an essential key to life
is to accept the God-given task that God has placed right in front of you and
not run away from it”. ... How about us?
Dietrich’s letter continued: “The second choice is to raise my flag and
show my colors, to let those around me know for sure that I am a Christian, that
Christ rules my life.” Dietrich went on
to tell about how some Christian parents in East Germany advised their children
to be cautious in revealing that they were Christians and that such children
became tense and not free but slaves to the fear of being found out. Dietrich found it much easier to be up front,
to show his colors, to let people know he was a Christian. For example, one day his school principal
confronted him, “Mr. Offeldt, communism teaches that there is no God, that God
is a figment of our imagination.” To
which Dietrich replied, “God is not the
figment of my imagination. God created
my imagination and yours.” His response was
up front, colors flying high.
Dietrich knew that he couldn’t teach his beliefs in God at school, but he
wanted his principal to know where he stood.
... How about us?
“You are Lord of creation and Lord
of my life; Lord of the land and the sea;
You were Lord of the heavens before there was time and Lord of all lords you will be. We bow down...”
You were Lord of the heavens before there was time and Lord of all lords you will be. We bow down...”
This past Sunday was Christ the King Sunday. On this special Sunday Church remember that
Christ is Lord over the whole creation, the entire universe and all the
galaxies. Christ is Lord over this
little earth, this lovely planet on which there is life. We remember that Christ rules over our lives
... during triumphs and tragedies, in all circumstances, all times, all places,
and during the complex moral decisions that we face day by day. Yes, Christ is... LORD!
In Him,
Brown
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