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Love Is Work Working together with others is the best way to test our faith, to find out whether or not we are ready to live a life of Christian fellowship. Work is the crucial test of faith because such a life can come into being only where people work for love. Love demands action, and the only really valid action is work. Christian fellowship means fellowship in work... Talk, May 1934 By Eberhard Arnold Eberhard Arnold, right, with fellow members of the first
Bruderhof community in Sannerz, Germany (1920s). [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/community/church-community/from-property-to-community] https://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/EberhardArnold.pdf https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/07/140th-birthday-for-eberhard-arnold-july.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/eberhard-arnold-on-simple-living.html |
Every year on July 26, I remember Eberhard Arnold on his birthday, he was the German theologian who founded the Bruderhof. He had inspired me to encourage a Christian community and to stick with your Christian friends and families.
Eberhard Arnold was a neo-Hutterite, and through his writings and sermons, he followed the Four Core Values: Faith, Family, Community and Simple Living. People who live a simple life, live as though there is no tomorrow. In this blog post, I will post an article from him about simple living and also post photos of the Anabaptist Trio (Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites) and photos of the Bruderhof in the 1920s.
At the end, I will post a sermon about II Corinthians 8 vs 9, on how Jesus Christ live simply when he was on this earth.
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4 Types of Amish Gardens
~ For the Amish, gardens provide food, beauty, remedies, and even memorials. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1129571015871740&set=a.613847060777474] https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-1-meet-titus.html |
Living Naturally
Eberhard Arnold writes about what it means to live simply and to be genuine. These are topics of importance anywhere, but perhaps especially in communal life.
By Eberhard Arnold
To be simple, to be genuine, to have nothing to do with anything forced, unnatural, or artificial – these things have been of consuming importance to us from the very beginning of our life together. We wanted to live close to creation and nature. We longed to be so natural in our belief in God and in our understanding of his creation that no religious influence of any kind would be able to divert us from a childlike and simple way of living.
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And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. – Matthew 3:4 (KJV) |
We realized that life in church community is not possible unless it is completely natural. We knew that the common life would be lost if it were lulled into some form of artificial piety, if we were to adopt a language full of pious words that did not spring from deep roots, did not come genuinely from our hearts.
As with language, so it is with everything else. One legacy of the Youth Movement is our attitude to nature. It was not just romanticism that made us rejoice in meadows and flowers, woods and mountains. To experience nature helped us to come closer to the beginnings, to creation itself. We would have nothing to do with anything that did not spring straight from the inmost source.
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Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. - Matthew 6:34 (KJV) [PHOTO SOURCE: https://dailyverses.net/matthew/6/34/kjv] |
Now it is my sincere longing that our common life spring directly from the ground of the heart, just as it is given to each one of us; that all false piety, all hypocrisy, be ruled out and what is natural be allowed to grow. We ask God to grant us a life full of this inner vitality, as alive as the plants, the stars, and the animals; as full of vitality as the birth and development of a child. May this be given in the life of each one of us. Then we shall know true faithfulness.
We should appreciate work on the land, especially in farm and garden, because of its closeness to nature, its intrinsic genuineness. It provides us with our daily food from God’s hand, which gives us strength to cope with all that the heart and mind are called to do.
Adapted from God’s Revolution (Walden, NY: Plough, 2021). Read the original meeting transcript from March 24, 1935, in our digital archive.
Article edited for length and clarity.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.eberhardarnold.com/explore/all-articles/2019/12/12/living-naturally
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"And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." - Matthew 8:20 KJV [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.2tim215truth.com/2021/01/verse-of-day-matthew-820-kjv.html] |
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A happy home is more than a roof over your head, it’s a foundation under your feet. – Amish proverb A view of an Amish farmstead from a hilltop alongside Copperhead Rd. near Sugarceek Ohio. JD [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1323743505981309&set=a.258613655827638] |
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A Day in the Life on an
Amish Farm. BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/eberhard-arnold-on-simple-living.html |
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I would choose country life over city life any day. [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1305143778281261&set=a.475059227956391] |
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24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. – Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) Bruderhof members in outdoor gathering. https://www.eberhardarnold.com/about https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/07/140th-birthday-for-eberhard-arnold-july.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/eberhard-arnold-on-simple-living.html |
Grace: Rich, Poor, Rich --Norman Kauffman 1/3/21
Jan 4, 2021
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrVx70NE2Wg
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For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. – II Corinthians 8 vs 9 (ESV) [PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1431115593692136&id=727493754054327&set=a.736544786482557] |
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"Certainly the government is from God and should be acknowledged with respect insofar as it fights against evil and protects the good. But the government is not only from God; it is also from men and conducted in a purely human manner and must be treated with extreme caution. Thirdly, the government is also from the devil, for it is the beast of prey out of the abyss. Unless we see these aspects together, as they are clearly shown in the New Testament, we will not have the right conception of government." - Eberhard Arnold PHOTO CAPTION: Synodal elections 1933: German Christians and Confessing Church campaigners in Berlin https://www.anabaptistwiki.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Eberhard_Arnold& |
EBERHARD ARNOLD WEBSITE:
“We must live in community because we are stimulated by the same creative Spirit of unity who calls nature to unity and through whom work and culture shall become community in God.” — Eberhard Arnold
PLAIN PEOPLE AND MUTUAL AID - WHY WE LIVE IN COMMUNITY BY EBERHARD ARNOLD
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/11/plain-people-and-mutual-aid-why-we-live.html
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/07/140th-birthday-for-eberhard-arnold-july.html
https://www.eberhardarnold.com/
https://www.eberhardarnold.com/biography
https://www.facebook.com/EberhardArnold
https://twitter.com/eberhard_arnold
https://www.anabaptistwiki.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Eberhard_Arnold
https://www.bookey.app/quote-author/eberhard-arnold
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/reading-romans-13-under-fascism
A Day in the Life on an
Amish Farm. BLOG:
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2025/07/eberhard-arnold-on-simple-living.html
Ever wondered what life on an Amish farm is like?
It’s a world where the rhythm
of the day follows the rising and setting of the sun, and each moment is filled
with purpose, family, and tradition.
At dawn, the farm comes alive as the Amish family gathers for morning chores.
Horses are hitched to plows, fields are tilled by hand, and cows are milked
before breakfast. 
No electricity or modern
machinery—just simple tools, the strength of their hands, and a deep commitment
to the land.
Life here is quiet yet full, where time is measured by seasons, not clocks.
Fields of golden corn sway in the breeze, barns are built with an entire
community helping (many hands make light work) , and handmade quilts dry on
clotheslines under the open sky. 
Sundays are sacred, set aside for worship and family gatherings. Every meal is
homemade, from the bread baked in wood-fired ovens to the butter churned by
hand. 
On an Amish farm, life is about living in harmony with nature, embracing
simplicity, and working together as a community. It’s a slower pace, but one
filled with meaning and connection.
What aspect of Amish farm
life fascinates you the most? Let us know in the comments!
#AmishLife
#FarmLiving
#SimpleLiving
#AmishFarmTradition
#BackToBasics
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=839076545739053&set=a.106746392305409]
OTHER EBERHARD ARNOLD LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Arnold
https://www.anotherlifeispossible.com/themes/what-money-cant-buy/eberhard-arnold
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/from-mutual-aid-to-global-action
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/our-garden-must-be-gods-garden
ARTICLE BY EBERHARD ARNOLD LINKS:
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/community/church-community/from-property-to-community
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/reading-romans-13-under-fascism
https://www.eberhardarnold.com/archive/2020/02/25/2012598714s
https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/our-garden-must-be-gods-garden
THE HUTTERITES LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/TheBruderhof
https://www.anotherlifeispossible.com/
https://koorong.com/search?q=plain%20spoken
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2023/11/community-living-quotes.html
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| But he is the now proud owner of a variety of Amish buggies, after ditching his car in 2003 |
SIMPLE LIVING LINKS:
“A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.” ― Albert Einstein
Mark Curtis, now 71, was baptized into an Amish church in Belle Center, Ohio, in 2003, after their care for his cancer-stricken mother convinced him to join
https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-2-mark-curtis.html
The simple good life as Titus Morris lives it - Sergey Dmitriev
https://sergeydmitriev.medium.com/the-simple-good-life-as-titus-morris-lives-it-ddbd770e2a66
BLOG: https://blackforestproject421.blogspot.com/2024/02/simple-living-quotes-part-1-meet-titus.html
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