Good morning! May you enter into community today knowing you’re loved and cared for. #MorningMug

A hand holds a dark mug with a star and wings logo in front of a lit fireplace in a cozy living room setting.

Good morning! May we care for one another today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A cozy living room setting features a lit fireplace, a sofa, an armchair, and a person holding a coffee mug labeled "PANAMA CITY BEACH."

Good morning! May you choose to be gracious to “those people.” #MorningMug #discipline2025

A cozy living room scene features a hand holding a star-patterned mug near a lit fireplace with an armchair to the right.

Good morning! May you experience the joy of extending grace to another. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A hand holds a white mug with the word "AROHA" printed on it, while a colorful blanket covers a person in front of a lit fireplace and a large TV screen.

Good morning! The sun shines as a reminder that there is hope. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A mug is held up in front of a window showcasing a snowy landscape and a sunrise.

Good morning! May you know that mercy is made new every day. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A person holds a coffee mug in a cozy living room with patterned chairs and a lit fireplace.

This Sunday at Peace Presbyterian Church in Flint at 10:45 am and at The Acts 13 Network in Ypsilanti at 530 pm we will begin a three week exploration of the prophet, Micah. His message of doom and hope is timely for us today.

If you’ve been looking for a faith community in Ypsilanti or Flint, I hope you will join us.

A single lit candle is centered on a black background with the text "Doom and Hope: Reflections on the Prophet Micah" above it.

Good morning! May your to-do list shrink today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

Good morning! May you press into that difficult thing you have been avoiding. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A cozy living room setting features a lit fireplace, a comfortable sofa, and a hand holding a mug of coffee with the words "And So Begins the Adventure."

#Wordle 1,333 X/6*

🟨⬛⬛🟨🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩

The #OldGal scored a 3. My streak broke at 528.

I am resonating deeply with Bonhoeffer these days. Here is another of his theses against the “Aryan Paragraph” from 1933.

The German Christians say: For the sake of the patriotic sentiments of German church people, a leader in the church must be Aryan.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotesWe answer: Church people must learn to pay attention not to the person of the pastor but rather to the pastor's proclamation. "What does it matter?&10;Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way.." [Phil. 1: 18). If Paul, a Jew, had not proclaimed Christ to the heathen world, without worrying about any patriotic sentiment, there would never have been a German church.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotesThis demand for the gospel to be preached by Aryans is a typical demand of those who are weak in the faith, so they want to set up legal restrictions in matters where, in truth, only faith and the Word of God has a say. This demand from the weaker members of the congregation might possibly be considered in exceptional individual cases, for pastoral reasons, to avoid giving serious offense. But in each such case the most earnest thought should be given to whether, for the sake of what church is about, the congregation should be asked to tolerate an offense to its sensibilities. It is totally impossible, however, to allow the demands of the weak in the faith to rule the church, because that means turning the freedom of the gospel into its opposite, a law.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotes

Good morning! May you know people care about you today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

Good morning! May you enjoy time in community today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A person holds a mug labeled "AROHA" in a cozy living room with a fireplace and patterned furniture.

Good morning! May you do something today that makes you smile. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A person is holding a mug with a "National Baseball Hall of Fame" design in a cozy living room setting.

During the 1933 Prussian Synod Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered multiple theses to challenge the “Aryan Paragraph.” The “German Christians” were those aligning with the Nazi party, “We,” was the nascent Confessing Church.

Currently reading: The Bonhoeffer Reader by Michael P. DeJonge 📚

The German Christians say: The German church people can no longer endure communion with Jews, who have done them so much harm politically. We answer: This is the very point where it must be made crystal clear: here is where we are tested as to whether we know what the church is. Here, where the Jewish Christian whom I don't like is sitting next to me among the faithful, this is precisely where the church is. If that is not understood, then those who think they cannot bear it should themselves go and form their own church, but never, ever, can they be allowed to exclude someone else. The continuity of the church is in the church where the Jewish Christians remain.&10;Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green&10;The Bonhoeffer Reader&10;#kindlequotes

Good morning! May you choose to respond with joy on whatever circumstance you find yourself in today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A hand holds a "Michigan" mug in a cozy living room with plush furniture and a fireplace in the background.

Another timely thought from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in response to the 1933 “Aryan Paragraph.”

Currently reading: The Bonhoeffer Reader by Michael P. DeJonge 📚

The German Christians say: We are not so much concerned with these thousand Jewish Christians as with the millions of our fellow citizens who are estranged from God. For their sake, these others might in certain cases have to be sacrificed. We answer: We too are concerned for those outside the church, but the church does not sacrifice a single one of its members. It may even be that the church, for the sake of a thousand believing Jewish Christians that it is not allowed to sacrifice, might fail to win over those millions. But what good would it do to gain millions of people at the price of the truth and of love for even a single one? This could represent not gain but only loss, for the church would no longer be the church. Michael P. DeJonge, Clifford J. Green The Bonhoeffer Reader #kindlequotes

Good morning! May you notice the small joys all around you today. #MorningMug #Discipline2025

A hand holds a mug in a cozy living room with a lit fireplace, armchairs, and a sofa.

Here’s the second of the theses that Bonhoeffer penned to challenge the Aryan Paragraph in 1933. Again, it reads as very timely for our moment in history.

Currently reading: The Bonhoeffer Reader by Michael P. DeJonge 📚

A quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The German Christians say:&10;We don't want to take away from Jewish Christians the right to be Christians, but they should organize their own churches. 6 It is only a matter of the outward form of the church.” M A quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “We answer: (1) The issue of belonging to the Christian community is never an outward, organizational matter, but is of the very substance of the church.&10;Church is the congregation that is called together by the Word.&10;Membership in a congregation is a question not of organization but of the essence of the church.”A quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “(2) To make such a basic distinction between Christianity and the church, or between Christ and the church, is wrong. There is no such thing as the idea of the church, on one hand, and its outward appearance, on the other, but rather the empirically experienced church is the church of Christ itself. Thus to exclude people forcibly from the church-community at the empirical level means excluding them from Christ's church itself. That part of the church that excludes another is, of course, the one that is truly shut out-that is the particular danger of the German Christians' undertaking.”A quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “(3) When the church's organizers exclude anyone, they are interfering with the authority of the sacraments. Here in our church, Jewish Christians have been accepted, by the will of God, through the sacrament of baptism. Through baptism they are joined together with our church, and our church with them, by indissoluble ties. If the church that has baptized Jewish Christians now throws them out, it makes baptism into a ceremony, which implies no obligation on its part.”

Good morning! May you notice the mercy that is new every morning. #Discipline2025 #MorningMug

A person holding a black tumbler in a cozy living room with patterned armchairs and a fireplace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer composed a number of talking points to refute what was known as the “Aryan Paragraph” in September of 1933. The paragraph excluded non-Aryans from civil service which was beginning to be adopted by German churches.

Currently reading: The Bonhoeffer Reader by Michael P. DeJonge 📚

The German Christians say: The church is not allowed to undo or to disregard God’s orders, and race is one of them, so the church must be racially constituted. We answer: The given order of race is misjudged just as little as that of gender, status in society, etc. . . . In the church, a Jew is still a Jew, a Gentile a Gentile, a man a man, a capitalist a capitalist, etc., etc. But God calls and gathers them all together into one people, the people of God, the church, and they all belong to it in the same way, one with another. The church is not a community of people who are all the same but precisely one of people foreign to one another who are called by God’s Word. The people of God is an order over and above all other orders. “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? . . . whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” [Matt. 12:48, 50]. Race and blood are one order among those who enter into the church, but it must never become a criterion for belonging to the church; the only criterion is the Word of God and faith. &10; &10;DeJonge, Michael P.; Green, Clifford J.. The Bonhoeffer Reader (Function). Kindle Edition.

Good morning! May you love well today. #Discipline2025 #MorningMug

Good morning! May you embrace whatever twist comes at you today. #Discipline2025 #MorningMug

A hand is holding a mug in a living room with a sofa, armchair, and curtains.

Good morning! May you find gratitude in the midst of community today. #Discipline2025

A cozy living room scene features a hand holding a mug in front of a lit fireplace.

Good morning! May you find your chill today. #Discipline2025

A hand holds a coffee mug in a cozy living room with a fireplace, chair, and sofas.