Into the Pray

What Does it Mean to Build Relationship? (feat. Seamus Bannon)

February 05, 2021 Nick & Mairi Franks Season 3 Episode 4
Into the Pray
What Does it Mean to Build Relationship? (feat. Seamus Bannon)
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Show Notes

This week on Into the Pray, we zoom in on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic work, Life Together, in order to start the ball rolling as we examine more closely what Christian community is supposed to look like.

Last week we talked about when we would draw a line and actually break fellowship so we hope this will be a natural tonic for the difficulty in even thinking about this reality.

We continue to be encouraged from the Word of God that, at times, division is required for very good reason and this episode of the podcast emphasises one of the critical points: we will never realise the glory - and safety - of Christian fellowship (revolving around truth) unless we are intentional about doing so.

Kindredness isn't enough; we have to work to build relationships; we have to be gracious and willing to be inconvenienced.

Most of us will have experienced bad relationships that might have made us "shy" from perusing the real deal. We think this has been a major tactic of the enemy in the instituted monoliths currently understood to be "church", where the glory - and safety - of covenant has been replaced with duty and arm's length shallowness.

Like for Bonhoeffer's seminarians, the Lord is preparing His people for a time to come where we will need both the contagion of these kinds of kingdom relationship but also their deep rootedness to stabilise our sanity during the enemy blitzkrieg {German: “lightning war”} that's approaching. As though in the 1940s, we would do well to ask ourselves, "What if (so and so) isn't here with us next Sunday?"

The exact quote from Bonhoeffer's book that we were discussing today is as follows:

"But God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek him and find his living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, a Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure."

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Finally, here is a song that we have been comforted by in recent stormy days. 

Until next week, 

Come, Lord Jesus!

Love, N&M x

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