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God has reserved to Himself the right to determine the end of life, because He alone knows the goal to which it is His will to lead it. It is for Him alone to justify a life or to cast it away.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes that only God determines the ultimate purpose and value of life.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's quote reflects the belief that the end of life and its significance are under God's sovereign control. It delves into the idea that humans cannot fully understand the purpose of life, as it is divinely orchestrated, and suggests that God alone has the authority to judge the worth of a life based on His divine plan.

Themes

GodLifePurposeSovereigntyValue

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a sermon to emphasize faith in God's plan for our lives.

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Sometimes we just need a firm kick in the pants. An unsmiling expectation that if we mean all these wonderful things we talk about and sing about, then let’s see something to prove it.
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It is God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential being. Man's body is not his prison, his shell his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather he "is" body and soul. Man in the beginning is really his body. He is one. He is his body, as Christ is completely his body, as the Church is the body of Christ
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...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all.
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Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.
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