Bonhoffer

While reading the biography of "Bonhoffer" I came across one of his teachings that opened up, for me, a whole new way of looking at the Bible. He said: "When you read the Bible, you must think that here and now God is speaking to me. We must understand that God has directed this at us. Not somethng generally applicable but rather with a personl relationship to us."

I think that my understanding, from way back in grade school, was just as he was saying, I read it as as something generally applicable. I am very used to practical prose and tend in my reading to read and discard what is not immediately useful to me. I now think I have been carrying those reading habits over to Bible reading, which I now see as allowing the full message elude me.

This book is also giving me a history lesson about how German citizens reacted to their public events from 1919 to 1945. I was amazed to learn that the National Socialists used Luther's own words to turn the German people against the Jews.