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Hello my name is Jerral Campfield and this web site is dedicated to Moral Recognition Therapy using Biblical principles. Please come back often to join me in understanding Gods hands are outstretched still to forgive. |
Reformation October 29, 2017 |
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Contributed by Jerral Campfield
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Thursday, 26 October 2017 |
This is taken from Dr Kenyn Cureton who is Vice President for Church Ministries with Family Research Council I felt was very timely for we are celebrating "Reformation Sunday: 500 Years of Biblical
Faith" We all know something of our own family heritage, but when it comes to our
collective religious roots, well that's another story. For example, many know
dates like October 12, 1492, Columbus reached America and July 4, 1776, 1st
Independence Day and certainly September 11, 2001. ISIS Twin Towers But how many of us know the significance of
May 4, 1415 Jon Haus condemned as a
Heretic along with John Wycliffe then October 31, 1517. Martin Luther Posted 95
theses on a Church door at Council of Constance. We may know trivia tidbits
like the names of 3 ships that Columbus sailed to the new world: the Nina,
Pinta, and the Santa Maria. But many if not most have never even heard of John
Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, or John Knox. And yet, these
names are far more important to our Protestant faith. Well this is Reformation Sunday, commemorating
the day 500 years ago when a monk named Martin Luther nailed those 95 Theses to
the wooden doors of the Wittenberg Chapel, protesting the excesses of the
Church. It was a world-changing moment in history that ultimately impacts the
way we view and practice the Christian faith. So , I think we need to do more than just sing
theaobligatory verse or two out of Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our
God." Let’s spend some time considering our Reformation heritage and let’s
start with the Scripture that changed Luther’s life, Romans 1:16-17: Stand please for the reading of God’s word: “For
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The
righteous shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17 ESV). Prayer. A Bohemian Psalm Book dating from 1572 and
preserved in the Prague Library contains a hymn to a Martyr’s memory and three
medallions depicting three key figures of the Reformation. In the first, a man
is striking sparks from a stone. Below it in the second medallion is a man
kindling a fire from the sparks. In the third medallion, a man is holding high
a flaming torch. This old Psalter gives a visual survey of the Reformation. The
one who struck the spark was John Wycliffe in England. The one who kindled the
coals was Jan Hus in Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic. And the one who
picked up the blazing torch and lit up the world was Martin Luther in what is
now Germany.1 The historians refer to the time before the Reformation
as the “Dark Ages.” And surely that was so because of the shroud of spiritual
darkness and ignorance that hung over the world. The Church was in need of a
correction, a change, a reformation, a revival! The Christian religion of the
Church was a polluted mixture of legalistic piety, gross hypocrisy, material
greed, sexual immorality, and biblical illiteracy. In the Cathedrals and
churches across the land, the Scriptures were read in a dead language, known
only by the clergy and the elite, so precious few who heard the Scriptures
could understand them. Scandals among the priesthood, and even the papacy
abounded. Historian Stuart Garver describes the situation: “Sunday and Holy Day Masses drew large crowds
while priests and friars hawked their relics and indulgences as they mingled
with the multitudes in the streets - having no higher motive than to increase
the wealth of their already rich monasteries.”2 A Spaniard of that time wrote: ““I see that we
can scarcely get anything from Christ's ministers but for money; at baptism
money, at bishoping money, at marriage money, for confession money—no, not
extreme unction without money! They will ring no bells without money, no burial
in the church without money; so that it seemeth that Paradise is shut up from
them that have no money.”3 It was a dark time. And it was in this time
that God raised up a man called John from Wyclif in England to strike the
spark. I. JOHN WYCLIFFE: STRIKING THE SPARK You open your Bible today or pull out your smart
phone and open your Bible App and read a passage of Scripture in your language
(or any language) and probably never give it a second thought as to the
instrument God used to make that possible and even permissible. John Wycliffe
was the one God used to provide you with a Bible that is in your own language.
Because if you had lived 600-700 years ago, you would have had to have a
university education or be in the ministry to understand the language of the
official version of the Bible: The Latin Vulgate. John Wycliffe was one of the
first to protest this situation. He was the first of a long
line of protest-ants, Protestants, of which we are a part. The future reformer was born about 1324 near the
village of Wyclif, Yorkshire, in the diocese of Durham. He was educated at
Oxford, earning a doctor of divinity. He became a towering intellectual force
at Oxford, writing some 200 works during the course of his career. For most of
his life he was a staunch and orthodox Catholic, but the more he studied
Scripture, the more he was grieved at the corruption of the Catholic
Church. There was a papal schism, with rivals claiming
to be the legitimate Pope, that happened during Wycliffe’s career and had an
important bearing on his views of papal authority. Wycliffe discovered that Peter
in the New Testament was nothing like the medieval popes with their pomp and
worldly power, but a man of humility and true spiritual power. Peter wore no
tall hat, no expensive robes, carried no golden staff, and exercised no
political power. Wycliffe argued in his pamphlet De Potestate Papae, “that no
man should be pope unless he is the son of Christ and of Peter, imitating them
in deeds.”4 The Bible was a far more trustworthy authority
than papal pronouncements or church tradition. Wycliffe held that the Bible is
“one perfect word, proceeding from the mouth of God,” and is “the basis for
every Catholic opinion.” Wycliffe also claimed that “All law, all philosophy,
all logic and all ethics are in Holy Scripture.” Further, to “ignore Scripture
is to ignore Christ.” 5 Indeed, Christ as the foundation of all
salvation and sole redeemer of man is the subject of the Bible in all of its
parts.6 So Wycliffe's approach ran counter to medieval scholasticism,
which considered Church tradition as co-equal in authority with Scripture. In
fact, many saw the Church as the primary and ultimate authority. As Guido
Terreni put it, "the whole authority of Scripture depends upon the
Church." However, Wycliffe argued the opposite: "In Holy Scripture is
all truth." 7 He was grieved that the Bible and the true
Christian faith were so far removed from common people. What was worse is that
instead of instructing the people, the priests kept the people in spiritual
ignorance. Wycliffe seethed: "They run fast, over land and sea, in great
peril
of body and soul, to secure rich benefices, but they will not go a mile to
preach the Gospel, though men are running to hell for lack of the knowledge of
God" (cf. Hos. 4:6; Matt. 23:15).8 As he saw it, the priest's job was to
communicate God's Word in a way the people could understand but to make matters
worse, the Bible was written in the dead language of Latin and often chained to
the pulpit. Wycliffe saw the situation as unacceptable: “Would to God that
every parish church... had a good Bible and good expositions on the Gospel, and
that priests studied them well, and truly taught the Gospel and His
commandments to the people!.. God bring this end to his people.”9 Well the longer Wycliffe served the Lord, the
more it dawned on him that nothing would change until the people had God's word
in their own language. So Wycliffe decided to do something about it, and he
struck the spark of reformation by taking on the enormous task of translating
the Latin Vulgate into the English language during the late 1370's and early
80's. He not only worked alone, he was abused,
slandered, hated, and viewed as a heretic. He was stripped of his Professor of
Divinity he earned at Oxford University. He was branded: “An instrument of the
Devil, enemy of the Church...an Author of Schism.”10 But he persevered in
this task, fighting against time and death. This man who had a heart for God and a mind that
was exceedingly brilliant, was the first to translate the New Testament into
English in 1382. On the flyleaf, are written these immortal words: "The
Bible is translated, and shall make possible a government of the people, by the
people, and for the people."11 He didn't have the privilege of
knowing that some 500 years later on a blood drenched battlefield in a land yet
to be discovered, that an American president would use those very words in his
Gettysburg Address. These were first the words, not of Abraham Lincoln, but of
John Wycliffe, the man who struck the spark. Although he was discredited, he died a peaceful
death, but he was not allowed to rest in peace. Some 30 years after Wycliffe's
death, a decision was made at the Council of Constance on May 4, 1415 to
officially condemn him as a heretic. Wycliffe's remains were exhumed by Papal
command, and the bones of his skeleton were burned to ashes as a public act of
condemnation. This from a chronicler of that day: “They burned his bones to ashes, and cast them
into the Swift, a neighboring brook, running hard by. Thus, this brook hath
conveyed his ashes into the river Avon. And on into the Severn, and the Severn
into the narrow Seas, and they into the mighty ocean. And so the ashes of
Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrines which now are dispersed the world
over.”12 Yet the burning of his bones, nor the scattering
of his ashes in no way silenced his message. By that time the protest-ants were
growing in number. And instead of persecution discouraging their growth, it
only purified and accelerated it. So there was a growing number of men
and women who were determined to stand alone even if
it meant death, and indeed it did. Now the Bible was in the language of the people.
Now there was a cause to fight for that was readily understood. And there was a
need for someone to kindle the coals of Reformation. And God raised up John Hus
as his instrument. II. JOHN HUS: KINDLING THE COALS John Huss was born of Czech parents in 1369 at
Husinec in Southern Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). The word Hus means goose,
and its distinguished bearer often applied the literal meaning to himself. For
example, he wrote from the same Council of Constance that condemned Wycliffe,
expressing the hope that the Goose might be delivered from prison, and he
exhorted the Bohemians, "if they loved the Goose," to secure the
king’s aid in having him released. His parents were poor and, during his
studies in the University of Prague, he supported himself by singing and manual
labor jobs. He was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1393, of Divinity a
year later, a Masters in 1396, and in 1398 began delivering lectures in the
university. If Wycliffe was the mind of the reformation, Hus
was the heart. Hus was sharp but not the scholar Wycliffe was, yet God blessed
him with an unmatched authority and eloquence in the pulpit. Hus preached with
fiery passion. Hus kindled the coals. Now Hus was not only a professor at the
university, he was also a Roman Catholic priest, ordained in 1402 as Rector at
the Chapel of Bethlehem, which was Prague's national church sanctuary. That
ancient cathedral seated 3,000 people, and they packed it out every Sunday to
hear Hus preach. And he so in Czech, in their language, not in Latin, which was
the official language of the Church. And there are still those in our day who
insist that the "official" Bible is the King James Version, which
most Americans cannot read and understand. Strikingly similar situation. That's
why we need to know history, so we don't make the same mistakes that the
Catholic church made. But Hus got into trouble for preaching in the language of
the people. However, John Hus not only took the heat, he
turned up the heat. He spoke of the church being poisoned by greed and
materialism. He exposed the scandals and the arrogance of the papacy and the
priesthood. And when he was confronted, instead of retreating and recanting, he
simply became more determined and more dogmatic. Here's a sample: When Pope John
XXIII urged the sale of indulgences (paying to reduce punishment for sin in
purgatory and for better “standing” with God), the papal legate went so far as
to auction off diocese, deaconships, and parishes. "They were sold,"
Hus thundered from his Bethlehem pulpit, "to incompetent priests,
debauchers and gamblers guilty of scandal, but marvelously skilled in taxing
penitents from whom they extorted to enrich themselves quickly." When he was confronted by representatives from
the Pope sent to silence him, Hus said in their presence: "So far as the
commands of the Pope agree with the commands and doctrines of the apostles, and
are after the rule of the law of Christ, so far I am heartily prepared to
render them obedience. But if I see anything in them at variance with this, I
will not obey, even if you kindle the fire for the burning of my body before my
eyes.”13 Well Hus got what he asked for. God used John
Hus' message to cause a serious business slump for the Church in Bohemia. The
sale of indulgences fell off sharply. Ecclesiastical privileges were openly
mocked. And students began to riot on the university campus in protest against
the excesses of the Church. The coals were getting hot and were about to burst
into flame. Finally, John Hus was excommunicated, he was
“churched,” as some might put it. He was ordered to report to the Council of
Constance, but was jailed for months and his health was broken. Starved and
sick, Hus stood trial and he was given ample opportunity to recant. His crime?
Church inquisitors called it Wycliffism. He was guilty of preaching the Bible
as the ultimate authority. His defense. Simply this: "If you can show me
from the Scriptures my error, I will immediately recant. If you cannot, I will
not." They could not. And he did not. He was publicly declared a heretic, stripped of
his pulpit and priesthood, and condemned to die by being burned at the stake.
You’ve heard the saying: “His goose was cooked.” Well this is where it came
from. Given one last chance to repent, he declared: “God is my witness that the
things charged against me I never preached. In the same truth of the Gospel
which I have written, taught, and preached, drawing upon the sayings and
positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die today.”14 On July 6, 1415, at 5:00 in the afternoon, John
Huss was led to the stake to be burned alive, led by three trumpeters riding on
black horses, the procession wound its way thru the narrow streets of
Constance. Some cried, some mocked, others prayed for Hus, who bravely sang the
words of Psalm 31: “In Thee O God I put my trust, bow down Thine ear to me.”
The executioner tore his clothes from him and placed a shirt soaked with pitch
upon his back. Then with his hands tied firmly to the stake, the executioner
squeezed oil drenched wool between his legs and dumped so much oil on his head
that it dripped from his beard. As the fire was lit and the smoke began to
choke the dying martyr, the hushed mob heard him pray: “O Lord, Sabbaoth, take
this sin from them, Lord Jesus Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy
on me.” John Hus, the Goose, was burned alive at the
stake for preaching the word of God. Two hours later, his body was fully
cremated and his ashes dumped into the river Rhine. But John Hus kindled the
coals.
III. MARTIN LUTHER: BRANDISHING THE FLAME One hundred years later, we come to a cell in a monastery, where a monk wallows in misery. He prayed, he fasted, he piled penance on penance. He worked, studied, pleaded, wept, agonized, driving himself to somehow save his own soul, which he could not do. And he did this for 10 long excruciating years before God revealed the truth that changed his life and indeed changed the world. The monk's name was, of course, Martin Luther. Born at the eleventh hour on November 10, 1483, Martin was the eldest son in the eventual family of nine and named for the Saint on whose day he was baptized. His father, who was a successful miner, had great expectations for the brilliant young Martin. Indeed, he father paid dearly for Martin to go to school to become a lawyer, and he was doing well in his studies. However, two near death experiences, the latter of which was a violent thunderstorm with lightning strikes all around, prompted him to plead with St. Anne, which Catholic tradition names the mother of Mary and the patron saint of miners, and promise the saint that he would become a monk instead of a lawyer in 1507.15 Because of that, he and his father had a falling out. But even worse, Luther had a falling out with Father God. In the monastery at Erfurt and then at Wittenberg, in what is now Germany, he slavishly worked to achieve eternal life and got nowhere. Luther was utterly frustrated by the impossibility of pleasing a Holy God. Luther scholar Roland Bainton describes his miserable existence: “He fasted, sometimes for days on end without a crumb...He laid upon himself vigils and prayers in excess of those stipulated by the rule. He cast off blankets permitted him and well-nigh froze himself to death. At times he was proud of his sanctity and would say: “I have done nothing wrong today.” Then misgivings would arise. “Have you fasted enough? Are you poor enough?”16 Luther was a living example of monastic piety, much as Saul of Tarsus was an example of Pharisaic piety, yet it got him no closer to God. If anything, Luther felt he was even more distant and it led to severe depression. Martin’s superior and weary confessor, Fr. Johannes von Staupitz heard him one night rolling in his cell, crying out: "Oh my sin, my sin, my sin, my sin!" Staupitz tried to comfort him, urging him to seek truth from the Scriptures, to find hope from the writings of Paul. So Luther poured over his Latin Vulgate hoping for light, hoping for truth, hoping for hope. Ultimately, Luther’s dark cell was flooded with divine light. For when Luther read and pondered Romans 1:16-17, the Spirit of God gave him a durchbruch or “breakthrough,” as he called it. For God revealed the truth of His word to that miserable monk, and it set him free. Hear again the word of God: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17 ESV). It is not a righteousness that is by works or by penance or by indulgences or by absolutions or by prayers to the saints, but a righteous that comes only by faith. By faith! That was the truth that set him free. And that is the truth that sets us free. You've heard that your whole Christian life, but Luther had never heard it before in this way. And in his cell, God revealed it to him: “The righteous shall live by faith.” 17 It is by grace alone through faith alone in the person of Christ alone - in His sacrificial death on the cross - that God honors when he declares sinners “righteous.” Not by our sacrifices or offerings, our works or our goodness. But by our faith in Christ. So Luther, haunted by his sin and hounded by his guilt, stopped trying and started trusting. He raised the white flag of surrender and basically said: "Lord, I come as a repentant sinner, and by faith I throw myself on your mercy and receive your grace and trust in Jesus Christ alone.” Luther was gloriously saved, set free, and transformed. No more wallowing in guilt. No more rote rituals. No more white-knuckled anxiety about death or purgatory. No more unhealthy fear of a distant, vengeful God. Now he experienced forgiveness. Freedom. Yes, even joy! And once he had a taste of this Good News, it was too good to keep to himself. He had to share it! If Wycliffe was the brilliant mind of the Reformation and Hus was its passionate heart, then surely Luther was its iron will. And this intense, fearless, man of God took up the torch and brandished the flame. For this monk, no longer miserable, now became determined to be used of God to set others free. Through a biblical lens, Luther increasingly saw the Church in need of correction, and he began to protest. First in Luther’s sights for reform was this extra-biblical Church practice of indulgences. The whole idea behind indulgences, selling and buying the remission of punishment and release from purgatory for one’s self or loved ones but in reality it was a bait and switch to raise money for the Church, became revolting to Luther. Add to that, the Archbishop appointed a Dominican monk named Johann Tetzel to sell indulgences to help build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Tetsel traveled with great pomp and circumstance throughout Germany. He was quite the orator, painting people as hopelessly sinful, God as fearfully wrathful, and purgatory as absolutely unbearable, so you had better buy an indulgence from the Church or else! He played upon the common people’s fears of death and sympathies for departed relatives and friends whom they might release from their sufferings in purgatory. Slick salesman that he was, he promised: “As soon as the coin in the chest clings, the soul from purgatory springs.”18 Hearing about this latest con, Luther reached the boiling point. So at high noon on October 31, 1517, Luther took a mallet and nailed his list of 95 Theses or truth propositions to the wooden doors of the Schlosskirche or Castle Church at Wittenberg, a day before the crowds would fill the church in observance of All Saints Day. He titled of the Latin document: “Disputation to explain the Virtue of Indulgences.” He had invited debate, but no one accepted the challenge. No worries though because his Theses were copied, translated, printed, and “spread as on angels' wings throughout Germany and Europe in a few weeks.”19 Talk about the shot heard round the world, this was the hammer blow heard round the world. For in a matter of days, word of Luther’s protest against the Church spread, and the battle was engaged for the true essence of the Gospel and the Christian faith. At first, the Pope ignored the battle, he called it a contemptible monkish squabble. When the battle began to spread across Germany, he said: "It is a drunken German who wrote the theses, when sober he will change his mind."20 But Luther was neither drunk nor ready to change his mind. In fact, Luther offered to defend his beliefs in public debate with anyone. And debate he did. Philip Schaff, a careful historian and source for much of my information about Luther, described Luther's combative personality like this: "Luther is a man of war...[his] writings smell of powder; his words are battles; he overwhelms his opponents with a roaring cannonade of argument, eloquence, passion, and abuse."21 Schaff said he heaped such vulgarity on one man that he couldn't translate its meaning into descent and presentable English. Luther thrived on anger. He said: "I never work better than when I am inspired of anger, when I am angry, I can write well, pray well, and preach well. For then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding is sharpened, and my mundane vexations and temptations depart from me."22 One contemporary said of him: Some are interpreters, some are logicians, some are orators, but Luther--he is all. He was a man of passion and he caused quite a scandal when he, as a monk, took a wife. Martin Luther started a revolution he never planned or expected. On April 18, 1521, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Catholic Church demanded that he recant his heresies or face a fiery death. Luther famously replied: “"Unless I am refuted and convicted by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments (since I believe neither the Pope nor the Councils alone; it being evident that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures quoted by me, and my conscience is bound in the word of God: I can not and will not recant any thing, since it is unsafe and dangerous to do any thing against the conscience...” In the growing clamor, with his critics hurling accuasations of heresy, Luther declared in German: “Here I stand, I can not do otherwise. So help me God. Amen!”23 For this stand, Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, condemned as a heretic, and lived out much of his life in hiding. Yet his accomplishments are numerous. Foremost among them was his translation of the Latin Vulgate into the German language for his people. Finally, they would be able to read the Bible for themselves and not be completely dependent on or slavishly deceived by the Church. The German Bible was a game changer. Some people after reading it fomented revolt and revolution, which was not Luther’s intention, but it inspired the quest for freedom from tyranny in both Church and State that had a far- reaching impact. Regarding government, Luther taught that the civil magistrate’s job is to protect life and property and keep the civil peace. As to our responsibility as citizens, Luther stated: “We are to be subject to the governmental power to do what it bids, as long as it does not bind our conscience but legislates only concerning outward matters...But if it invades the spiritual domain and constrains the conscience, over which God only must preside and rule, we should not obey it at all...”18 His teaching opened the door to rebelling against civil or church authorities who are acting outside of God’s proscribed role as set forth in Romans 13. The Bible suddenly had renewed application to all of life, even to our role as citizens. Luther didn’t stop with the Bible. He knew the power of music to teach truths. Now singing was limited to the chanting of priests and choirs, but Luther wrote hymns for the people. It became his passion to have songs written in the language of his people so they could sing their faith. So Luther introduced congregational singing and contemporary Christian music to the church, himself writing some 37 hymns, including the most famous of all: “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” based on Psalm 46. It is the victory anthem of the Reformation, declaring God as an unassailable refuge. The fiery darts and arrows of demons and of men may fly without, doubts and discourgements may rage within, but God's strength is sure, and Christ is our champion: A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper He amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe- His craft and power are great, And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not His equal. Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right man on our side, The man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He- Lord Sabaoth His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.24 Eventually, the hymn, next to the Bible and the sermon became the most powerful missionary of the Reformation doctrines. These hymns were scattered far and wide, sung in the house and in the church and on the street. A contemporary said: "One cannot go into the fields without finding the plower at his hallelujahs and the mower at his hymns." So to Luther belongs the merit of giving his people a Bible and a hymnbook in their language. He was indeed a revolutionary. But the flame from Luther's torch passed from one to another until it impacted the world. First there was Ulrich Zwingli, who lit his torch off of Luther and carried the message over into Zurich, Switzerland. He, Balthazar Hubmaier, and others took things a step further and said that only believers ought to be baptized. Then Luther's torch touched young Philip Melanchthon, the scholar who helped articulate and spread Luther's message more effectively. And it was Melanchthon who lit the torch of John Calvin, who was arguably the chief theologian of the Reformation. Calvin took the message back to Geneva, Switzerland and then on to France. Then came John Knox of Scotland, who was as passionate and powerful a preacher as any of these men. Queen Mary once said: "I fear his pulpit more than I fear the armies of England." But this torch was passed from person to person, village to village, nation to nation in the Old World, and ultimately across the Atlantic to the New World, carried in the hearts of our Pilgrim and Puritan forefathers, and ultimately by Edwards and Whitefield in the Great Awakening, which was formative for our Founding Fathers in America. But it was Martin Luther who was used of God to brandish the flame of the Reformation and that flame touches our lives even to this day. A story has been passed down through the ages about Luther's conversion experience, whether fanciful or true, I don't know. But we're told that when God revealed this great truth to Luther that we're saved by grace through faith in Christ apart from works, he was literally staggered under the blow of it. He stepped out of his cell in the middle of the night, and made his way thru the cloistered halls of the monastery, his eyes blinded by darkness and by tears of joy. And all of the sudden, he nearly fell. Instinctively, he reached out and tried grab hold of something to support himself, and when he did, he grabbed a rope, and that rope led to the belfry, and he rang the bells in the middle of the night, as if to say to the world: "The righteous shall live by faith! The righteous shall live by faith!" And this Bible truth revealed in a dark monastery became a shining light to all the world. God used Wycliffe to strike the spark, Hus to kindle the coals, and Luther to brandish the flame! And it is within our hearts that the flame of the Reformation burns on. The righteous shall live by faith. That is the Gospel. Now it is our turn in our generation to nurture and guard this flame, to feed and brandish it, to lift it high and pass it on to the generations to come, for Jesus' sake. Bow: Are you struggling with a burden of guilt like Luther did? Why not leave it at the cross of Christ because He has already paid the debt for your sin, and you can experience the freedom Luther did by putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Many others have already experienced that freedom, and you need to be a torch bearer like Luther. Could it be that God has chosen you to be a part of continuation of this great story? To stand alone for Jesus Christ against the conventional wisdom or even the abuses of the modern church. Could it be that the torch is being passed to you? Will you take hold of it? Will you lift it high? With God as my helper, I am ready. Are you? In an old Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, there is a Reformation Day Prayer that I have updated...will you pray it with me? Prayer: ““Almighty God, who through the preaching of your servants, the courageous Reformers, has caused the light of the Gospel to shine forth: Grant us Father, that knowing its saving power, we may faithfully guard and defend it against all enemies, and joyfully proclaim it, to the salvation of souls and the glory of your Holy Name; through thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.”25 - END Dr. Kenyn Cureton, a former pastor and Vice President for Convention Relations for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, currently serves as Vice President for Church Ministries with Family Research Council. |
Copyright 2005 Jerral Campfield, All rights reserved.
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