I have wanted to go to Berlin since I moved here. What is it about history, WWII, Nazi Germany, the wall, communism, and all that stuff that is so intriguing to me? Not sure. I have watched documentaries, you tube videos, read articles, analyzed, and pondered everything surrounding that terrible time in history. I have driven by railroad tracks and wondered, did Jews crammed into a train car, ride these rails at one time in history? I have seen run down cornered off buildings and wondered if at one time it was used to temporarily house Jews before they were sent off to their dreary fate. Why? Where? Who? What?
Never before had I asked myself this question....could it happen again? Lots of similarities pre-Nazi Germany coincide with reality right now. Verge of economic collapse, humanism, godlessness, desperation, not to mention the actual police state like laws being passed. Would God use something like this to refine His church, as He promised He would do? I don't know, though it does seem logical.
I've been thinking about death. The abruptness of it, to those not ready. I've been thinking about all the other Christians around the world suffering for Christ's name. Am I unwilling to suffer for the name of Christ? What will I compromise to avoid it? Will I give up EVERYTHING, or will I cave like Peter (I have, several times)? Will Jesus go with me? Of course He will. I just hope I follow Him where ever that might lead.
I took Keane and Zeke to Bergen/Belsen. That's a nice little family outing for ya. It's the place where Anne Frank died. I didn't expose them to horrifying footage, we just went over the basics. Sin leads to death (I was not talking about the sin of the Jews and their deaths in these camps). I was talking about the sin that was started in Eden. Keane was really quiet as I told him about the graves we were passing. We read a couple of markers, and eventually Keane forgot the somberness, but while we were in the museum I took him to see the faces in the mugshots. "Look Keane, look at her, and her, and him," and I read some names.
Gumballs. I could have a huge jar in front of me of gumballs, uncountable, unless I had time to waste and I liked estimation math. It isn't until I take one out and crunch it between my teeth that it reveals it's flavor, it's smooth outer coating, and the chewiness of it's center. One at a time, this sort of revelation happens.
It's easy to say "6,000,000 Jews killed in the holocaust." Try calling them, one at a time, by name. "Anne Frank killed in the holocaust. Gideon Kline killed in the holocaust..." Sisters, mothers, daughters, sons. One at a time they were killed in God's eyes. Oh they might have been "gassed" at once, but they died as individuals, one at a time. Not rats, not vermin, not sub-humans, humans beings created in God's very own image.
Minimize it, theorize it, categorize, sing a Bob Dylan song about it, we are individuals with a purpose. That purpose is to glorify God. As a human race, we are doing a shoddy job. I hope we can be motivated though, to be a spark of light in our corners of the world. We aren't promised tomorrow. Yesterday is vague. Today is the day.
Never before had I asked myself this question....could it happen again? Lots of similarities pre-Nazi Germany coincide with reality right now. Verge of economic collapse, humanism, godlessness, desperation, not to mention the actual police state like laws being passed. Would God use something like this to refine His church, as He promised He would do? I don't know, though it does seem logical.
I've been thinking about death. The abruptness of it, to those not ready. I've been thinking about all the other Christians around the world suffering for Christ's name. Am I unwilling to suffer for the name of Christ? What will I compromise to avoid it? Will I give up EVERYTHING, or will I cave like Peter (I have, several times)? Will Jesus go with me? Of course He will. I just hope I follow Him where ever that might lead.
I took Keane and Zeke to Bergen/Belsen. That's a nice little family outing for ya. It's the place where Anne Frank died. I didn't expose them to horrifying footage, we just went over the basics. Sin leads to death (I was not talking about the sin of the Jews and their deaths in these camps). I was talking about the sin that was started in Eden. Keane was really quiet as I told him about the graves we were passing. We read a couple of markers, and eventually Keane forgot the somberness, but while we were in the museum I took him to see the faces in the mugshots. "Look Keane, look at her, and her, and him," and I read some names.
Gumballs. I could have a huge jar in front of me of gumballs, uncountable, unless I had time to waste and I liked estimation math. It isn't until I take one out and crunch it between my teeth that it reveals it's flavor, it's smooth outer coating, and the chewiness of it's center. One at a time, this sort of revelation happens.
It's easy to say "6,000,000 Jews killed in the holocaust." Try calling them, one at a time, by name. "Anne Frank killed in the holocaust. Gideon Kline killed in the holocaust..." Sisters, mothers, daughters, sons. One at a time they were killed in God's eyes. Oh they might have been "gassed" at once, but they died as individuals, one at a time. Not rats, not vermin, not sub-humans, humans beings created in God's very own image.
Minimize it, theorize it, categorize, sing a Bob Dylan song about it, we are individuals with a purpose. That purpose is to glorify God. As a human race, we are doing a shoddy job. I hope we can be motivated though, to be a spark of light in our corners of the world. We aren't promised tomorrow. Yesterday is vague. Today is the day.
Wittenberg (Martin Luther)
Yep...that's the place, but that's not the original door.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. Ps. 91:15
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