(please read these Reformation articles in numbered order)<\/p>\n
REPEAT \/ SUMMARY<\/p>\n
God’s people, Israel, required reformation or revival over and over again.<\/p>\n
When Jesus came, he blasted the current religious leaders repeatedly.<\/p>\n
Paul’s letters to churches constantly addressed the problem of man-made rules added to the Gospel.<\/p>\n
And ever since, church leaders continue their relentless pursuit of adding man-worded doctrines to maintain control of the people in their part of God’s kingdom.<\/p>\n
It got so bad that it contributed to the darkness of the middle ages of history.<\/p>\n
And so the Reformation not only set Christianity back on track, but it opened civilization for the blessings of freedom to flourish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That was then, and it has carried us on a wave of enjoying the Bible and all it provides for life.<\/p>\n
So what about now?<\/p>\n
What is required for Reformation again?<\/p>\n
For the Catholic church, it has never given up the claim to add to the Bible—maintaining power and control—losing eternal effectiveness.<\/p>\n
For the Protestant church, each denomination, etc., gets excited about their doctrinal distinctives and defends them with Bible verses against those who disagree—maintaining power and control—losing eternal effectiveness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
God, I thank you that I am not like that church?<\/p>\n
God, I thank you that I am not like that publican ?<\/p>\n
God, I thank you that I am not like that pharisee ?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How do we get our salt and light back, to shake the world and turn it upside down again?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Search me, O God, and know my heart—try me, and know my thoughts—and see if there is any wicked way in me—and lead me in the way everlasting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(please read these Reformation articles in numbered order) REPEAT \/ SUMMARY God’s people, Israel, required reformation or revival over and over again. When Jesus came, he blasted the current religious leaders repeatedly. Paul’s letters to churches constantly addressed the problem of man-made rules added to the Gospel. And ever since, church leaders continue their relentless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3624"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3639,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions\/3639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}