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[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2013_11_27|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]]
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======The Reality Check ...======
Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013. Doctrine needs to face reality. It is not there for
itself. It is there to help us, to live. It is there to help us, when
we are in trouble. In particular when we are in serious trouble, we will
realize what the principles of our life are worth!
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**What if ...?**
Have you ever heard of Magda Hollander-Lafon? She survived the concentration
camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, as very few of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews
during the Nazi regime. What she reports is so terrible, that my brain stops
to work and my heart stops to beat. How can humans be so cruel and barbarous?
And yet, she kept her faith, she has discovered God, in the middle of blood
and death and tears.
Magda writes about him: She saw the Jews in her concentration camp, praying to
this Lord, which seemed to have forgotten them. The faith of these people
started to plant answers into her life - answers to questions she had not yet
asked. Later, she started to read the Gospels and discovered Jesus.
Doctrine needs to keep is purpose. It needs to reach our hearts. It needs to
be more than words, needs to become power and reality!
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**A hard fate ...**
**
Have you heard of Nick Vujicic, the guy born without arms and legs? He has become
a motivation trainer and evangelist. He talks to thousands of people around the
world - despite of or perhaps because of the strong limits which his life has. God
has given him open doors, where for many others of us doors are closed. His
motto is: "if no wonder happens, be one yourself!" Everyone can lead a life full
of meaning and purpose, because God loves him and God wants to be with him. God
is the God of wonder. This is doctrine, it is words, but in the life of Nick
it has become a strong reality, without ignoring the hardship and difficulties,
which he has.
A while ago, Samuel Koch was a strong athletic man, who jumped over cars with the
help of some mechanical legs. But then, an accident happend during a TV show
in German public television. Now, he is paralysed, cannot move anything downward
from his neck. His fate moves many, and he is talking about the heardship of it
in books and various evening events. He believes in the Lord, but he is fighting
his fate, the difficulties of being taken out completely. Lord, why? Lord, why?
If all our doctrine does not help us, it is pretty useless. If our words do not
connect us to the Lord, to the power which reigns the universe, they are vain.
If our faith does not fill us with peace, with joy, with truth, with wisdom,
what is it good for?
But Magda strongly reminds us, that it is not us, who could do that. The struggle
in the concentration camp makes it pretty clear: all our power is gone! The fate of
Samuel talks to us, that it is not our strength, which will lead us to victory.
It is our weakness, which is filled with his grace. It is him, who is the only
one who can hold us, who can fill us, who can save us, day by day!
(Roland Potthast)
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