Kisstheson - Words from my Heart

[kisstheson]

Dear ones,

My only burden for this blog is to simply share with everyone those things that have really touched me, including special words I have read or heard and special experiences I have experienced.

As of the present moment, I am finding a great deal of encouragement in the ministries of two precious brothers whom I greatly admire - Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). To my rational mind, both died too young. Both could have really given our brother Witness Lee a run for his money in the latter part of the twentieth century! Our dear heavenly Father, however, knows best, and He does all things well. He knows why He took them home early.

Here is a very touching excerpt from dear brother Bonhoeffer's book Life Together, in a section entitled "Intercession":

"A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is the happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others . . .

How does this happen? Intercession means no more than to bring our brother into the presence of God, to see him under the Cross of Jesus as a poor human being and sinner in need of grace. Then everything in him that repels us falls away; we see him in all his destitution and need. His need and his sin become so heavy and oppressive that we feel them as our own, and we can do nothing else but pray: 'Lord, do Thou, Thou alone, deal with him according to Thy severity and Thy goodness.' To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Chirst and share in His mercy."