Jul | 20 | "This is the end. For me the beginning of life."

Key Word:-LOVE

Title:- "This is the end. For me the beginning of life."

John 15:12
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

The Allied breakout from the Normandy landings inspired an assassination attempt today in 1944 when Count Von Stauffenberg placed a briefcase with a bomb inside Hitler's command post for the Eastern Front in Rastenburg, otherwise known as his 'Wolf's Lair'. The bomb was one of many British bombs confiscated by German intelligence. Stauffenberg placed the primed bomb under the conference table and left.

After the explosion, both Stauffenberg and the other plotters believed Hitler was dead and so prepared to seize Berlin with ‘Home Army’ troops. Hitler however, though seriously injured, survived the bombing. Stauffenburg and thousands of others died in the purging that took place after this failed assassination.

Remarkably, this assassination attempt had been in the planning for more than 6 years and a German Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, had been involved in this plot from the beginning. Nazi officials would shortly discover the diary of another co-conspirator, Admiral Canaris. Hitler, in his rage, ordered the annihilation of the Admiral and his entire resistance group, which included Deitrich, who was already in prison for aiding the escape of Jews to Switzerland and keeping his underground Pastors out of the military.

There are three things of note here.

Firstly,  that it is difficult for people of peace time to understand the desperate necessities forced on others in times of war, especially then they are facing such overwhelming horror. Pastor Bonhoeffer's conscience was clearly rooted in his theology, which demanded he respond to such evil whatever the cost.

Secondly, Pastor Bonhoeffer knew and had bravely counted the cost to himself, his family (three other close family members were executed shortly after him) and to many other people. Not only would he have to take responsibility for his life before His Lord, but he would be accountable for the lives of many others before His Lord as well.

Thirdly, Pastor Bonhoeffer knew he was ultimately safe in the hands of Jesus and that death, though it may be very tortuous and very horrible, would never the less be the portal to his eternal home and eternal life. Never the less, this side of heaven, he was bound in his inmost being to fight evil. Be sure friends that this brave Pastor knew and lived out all three of my pitiful observations from a peacetime Pastor.

On April 9 1945, Bonhoeffer stripped naked before his gallows and faced the consequences of his love for Jesus and his fellow man. It is reported that before he walked out of Flossenburg Concentration Camp barracks for the last time, he had whispered to a fellow prisoner, “This is the end. For me, the beginning of life.”

Listen:- Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. John 15:13 NKJV

Pray:- Lord, You call us to a life of love and sacrifice for others. Give us courage here, and wisdom. Let us not be ardent for some desperate glory, but no matter what the cost to us, let us be faithful and true to our deep love for You, amen.