When we read the Bible rightly, God speaks to us, and everything we read should also give us occasion to speak with God.

— Gerhard Tersteegen (1697–1769), Mystiker

Topics: The Bible & the Word of God, Prayer & Silence

Gerhard Tersteegen

Gerhard Tersteegen (1697–1769) war ein deutscher Laienprediger, Schriftsteller und Liederdichter des mystischen Pietismus, der den Großteil seines Lebens in Mülheim an der Ruhr verbrachte. Bekannt durch Kirchenlieder wie „Gott ist gegenwärtig“, betonte er die persönliche Hingabe und das Leben in der Gegenwart Gottes, stieß jedoch mit seinen privaten Erbauungsversammlungen und seiner Rezeption katholischer Mystiker auf zeitgenössische kirchliche Kritik. Heutigen Bibellesern begegnet sein Werk als traditionsübergreifend gesungenes Liedgut und als Anstoß zu meditativer Verinnerlichung des Glaubens.

All quotes by Gerhard Tersteegen (26)

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The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.
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The Bible is almost bursting with good news for bad people.
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I read the Bible the way I harvest my apple tree: I shake it, and what falls down and is ripe, I take. The rest I leave hanging for now.
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The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
Martin Luther

The law is divine and holy. Let the law have its glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbor; also to live in love, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell. Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teaches me, not what I ought to do but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.
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Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories.
Madeleine L'Engle

All quotes · lumen.bible