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10/30/11

REFORMED - RESTORED

Reformation: [ref-er-mey-shuhn] improvement, betterment, correction, the state of being reformed.

Our church body celebrates the Reformation of the church with great fanfare. Martin Luther, a Catholic monk, simply wanted a theological discussion of certain teachings and practices in the Catholic Church. As a result, there was the reformation of the church and the Protestant Churches were born. It was never Martin Luther's intention to form a whole new branch of Christianity, but even the Catholic church now believes some of those changes were good.


What about our lives? We often struggle with doing what is God-pleasing. We may have addictions with which we struggle. Lying may be much easier than telling the truth, even a "little white lie" now and then. Helping our neighbor may be foreign to us if we never even see them. We don't put God first in everything we do. While we may not outright murder someone, we probably all have cut someone down at some point, or passed on a rumor, etc. When things are going well we forget to thank God first, or when things go wrong it takes us a while to turn to him. Perhaps we need a "reformation" of ourselves - correction, improvement, betterment of our thoughts, words and actions.

But if people are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction, he tells them what they have done— that they have sinned arrogantly. He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil. If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. Job 36:8-11 NIV

Obey and serve him - that's what we are required to do. We obey by having faith in Christ Jesus as our savior and then following him, and we serve out of thankfulness for his grace and mercy. We pray that we may be able to remain forever faithful.

written by Jan Andersen, (reformed for His glory, restored by His grace!)
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1 comment:

  1. CorinneOctober 30, 2011 at 10:24 AM

    Hi Jan

    There is so much to embrace in this. I have a 30 something son who has been outside of church and wants to go back. Going back to him is to go to Catholicism. I dont for the most part have any issue as I grew up Catholic. One day I tried to tell him about the word of God and not man made rules that we need to follow. I got a long email from him a few days ago saying he would go back to Catholicism. He likes the uniforminity of the ritual. I am at least glad that he is embracing something. Good write, Jan!

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