A friend shared this quote with me. Thought you would appreciate it.
“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).”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community)
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Wow. This is what I try to tell Christian Moms who want to homeschool their kids to "protect" them from worldly exposure (rather than for educational reasons), but much more eloquently put. It's so true…
Very affirming words. Our 16 year old is attending a secular school for the 1st time in his life this year. It was a bumpy road – but now a number of his friends, none of them believers, are coming to our home and asking questions. Not as "comfortable" as the friends he used to bring home from the Christian school he used to attend, but so much more exciting and rewarding – please keep us in prayer
Last night as I started discipleship with my M neighbor, the last call to prayer for the day, Maghrib, began. It went on through most of our discipleship time, and I was glad to be home. The story we looked at together, he will pass on to his oikos. This morning, I woke up to the first call to prayer, and went to a new Discovery Bible Study that I hadn't been to before. There are few things I enjoy as much as studying and applying God's Word with cousins as they discover the Straight Path, and become true disciples of Isa.
Ouch!