Tag: faith

  • Reformation Day: A Day to Celebrate!

    A Holy-Day to Celebrate

    You probably know that today is Halloween. But did you realize that it is also Reformation Day?

    reformation day

    And did you know that Reformation Day is a fantastic thing to celebrate?

    Reformation Day
    from the movie “Luther”

    On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the wooden door of the cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany. This was the spark which fueled the Protestant Reformation and some remarkable changes for the world.

    Posthumous Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustine Monk
    Posthumous Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustine Monk

    God used Martin Luther in a dramatic way to restore freedom and truth to His people. Luther had some significant flaws in both his doctrine and character. However, God gifted Luther with many profound spiritual insights, as well as the courage and conviction to defend those Biblical truths.

    As he studied the Scriptures, Luther re-discovered this glorious truth:

    We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a free gift. It cannot be earned, bought, or sold.

    This wonderful news, like a precious jewel, had been buried under thick layers of distortion and corruption within the Church. Luther retrieved this valuable gem, dusted off the deception, and held it up so that others could experience its beauty again.

    Luther also re-discovered the key doctrines of the priesthood of all believers and the authority of the Scriptures. He taught that Church leadership was not infallible. For his refusal to recant some of his convictions, Luther suffered excommunication from the Church and threats to his life.

    Luther Before the Diet of Worms, by Anton von Werner (1843–1915)
    Luther Before the Diet of Worms, by Anton von Werner (1843–1915)

    Reformation Day reminds us to thank God for the free gift of salvation, for the Scriptures that we hold in our hands, and for the direct access that we have into the Presence of God Almighty.

    Ways to Celebrate

    Here are several ways you may want to celebrate Reformation Day at your house:

    1. Watch the movie Luther. (The entire movie, in two parts, is posted on youtube. The movie is rated PG-13 and is not appropriate for children. )
    2.  If you have young children, they will enjoy coloring pictures of Luther’s shield and learning about its interesting symbols. You can find fun activities for children at these sites:
      *http://www.blessedbeyondadoubt.com/reformation-day-activities/
      *http://theroadto31.com/2013/10/celebrating-reformation-day-like-christian.html
      *http://www.sojournkids.com/blog/2010/10/reformation-day-party-plan
    3. Sing or read the lyrics to A Mighty Fortress is Our God, written by Luther in 1529.
    4. Prepare a German supper. (I think German-chocolate cake qualifies, don’t you?)
    5. You can read more about Luther through many resources, but this website is unique in giving an easy-to-understand translation of the Ninety-Five Theses: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-reformation/the-95-theses-a-modern-translation/
    6. Enjoy some great Luther quotes (below).

    Quotes by Luther

    Prayer

    To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

    Pray, and let God worry.

    Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.

    All teachers of Scripture conclude that the essence of prayer is simply the lifting up of the heart to God. But if this is so, it follows that everything else that doesn’t lift up the heart to God is not prayer. Therefore, singing, talking, and whistling without this lifting up of your heart to God are as much like prayer as scarecrows in the garden are like people.

    I have often learned much more in one prayer than I have been able to glean from much reading and reflection.

    Scripture

    The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.

    Faith

    This is true faith, a living confidence in the goodness of God.

    The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.

    Faith is the “yes” of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one’s life.

    We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.

    Therefore, when some say good works are forbidden when we preach faith alone, it is as if I said to a sick man: “If you had health, you would have the use of your limbs; but without health the works of your limbs are nothing” and he wanted to infer that I had forbidden the works of all his limbs.

    The two chief things are faith and love. Faith receives the good; love gives the good. Faith offers us God as our own; love gives us to our neighbor as his own.

    Marriage

    Katharina von Bora, Luther's wife, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526
    Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526

    Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.

    One learns more of Christ in being married and rearing children than in several lifetimes spent in study in a monastery.

    Other

    You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

    Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

    Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.

    Happy Reformation Day!

  • Faith is Like a Fish

    Do trials increase our faith?

    Have you heard that trials increase our faith? “Trials and troubles … are treadmills for the soul.”[i]

    faith

    That certainly may be true. But if trials increase faith, then we should be muscle-bulging spiritual giants and we should be surrounded by people of massive faith. We have no lack of trials, but we often have a lack of faith.

    Clearly, it is not trials themselves which develop our faith.

    In fact, our problems present as much opportunity to weaken faith as they do to strengthen it. Satan wants to use our trials for his destructive purposes, just as God wants to use our trials for His life-giving purposes. What makes the difference, then?

    How can we go through tough times so that we are strengthened instead of shredded?

    We can ask ourselves two important questions:

    • Who has our ear?
    • Who has caught our eye?

    We always have the choice to listen either to our circumstances or to our God. We always have the choice to focus our gaze either on our circumstances or on our God. One will be a misty fog to us, and the other will be a solid rock.

    faith

    If we listen to the enemy speaking to us through our circumstances, we will hear faith-crumbling lies about God. We will hear that He doesn’t care, doesn’t know, or doesn’t have enough power. If we put our eyes on our circumstances, God will seem to be an unreliable vapor to us.

    If, however, we listen to God’s voice as we go through trials, we will hear faith-building truth. Not only will we hear about God’s love, wisdom, and power, but we will witness them firsthand.

    What does increase our faith?

    If faith does not come from trials, from where does it come? The Scriptures explain that faith comes from hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). As we experience problems in life, we must open the Scriptures and listen to the promises of God. We can then take those promises, throw them down like planks over a ditch, and walk on them.

    faith

    Robert Morgan says that we will “never encounter any situation for which God has not provided a precious promise to bear us through it.”[ii]

    How is faith like a fish?

    Thomas Watson, a Puritan from the seventeenth century, had another great word-picture for this same concept. He said, “Faith lives in a promise, as the fish lives in the water.”[iii]

    blue-tang-1288727_640

    If you are going through a trial without living in a promise, then your faith will struggle like a fish out of water!

    Ask God for His specific promise for you in the trial you are facing now. Plant your feet in it. Cling to it. Swim in it!

    Who has your ear? Your problems, or your God?
    Who has caught your eye? Your troubles, or the beauty of Christ?
    Let your circumstances be the temporary mist. Let God be your immovable, eternal Rock.

    When you focus on God, your trials will serve you. They will strengthen your faith, expand your capacity for joy, and maximize your delight in the glories of Jesus Christ.

     

     

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    [i] Robert Morgan. The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-given Strategies for Difficult Times. Nelson. 2001. 96.
    [ii] ibid. 102-103.
    [iii] ibid. 103.

  • Love: Just the Basics, Please

    I often need to recall the basics. Here are the basics of love, as spoken to us by Love Himself, paraphrased by Eugene Peterson. My favorite line is near the end:

    Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.

    From “the love chapter” (1 Corinthians 13):

    Love never gives up.
    Love cares more for others than for self.
    Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
    Love doesn’t strut, …
    Isn’t always “me first,”
    Doesn’t fly off the handle,
    Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, …
    Trusts God always,
    Always looks for the best,
    Never looks back,

    But keeps going to the end.

    Love never dies. …

    love

    We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

    love

    But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

    Here’s one more reminder:   No prayer call this week. But be sure to join us for next week’s call on Thursday, April 30.

    Until then, I want to keep focusing on the basics:  “Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.”

    Blessings to you,
    Tami

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    Scripture taken from The Message (MSG).Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.
    Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
    Image courtesy of nuttakit at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.