Martin Luther challenged the church teachings on relationships for priests and got married. Protestant churches today often view this as a minor detail. A natural, easy thing to accept. However, we must realize the uniqueness of this action. Now, it may be that historically some priests had secret wives in Luther’s day, but there is […]
Category: Reformation 500
On Values
For Christ-followers, we may like to think our faith is the sole influence on our values, but other factors (such as modernity, history, culture, and nationality, to mention a few) influence our values as well. Some of this is okay (right and good), since we are meant to live in the present while working for the Eternal […]
On Culture
We are called to live in our present time and yet, at the same time, we are called to be workers of Christ’s Eternal Kingdom as well. We have reflected on how this applies to our attitude towards history, modernity, and nationalism. Now, consider how this applies to our posture toward our culture. In contemporary […]
On Nationalism
As workers of the Eternal Kingdom, Christ-followers must be wary of unfettered nationalism. For the Christ-follower, it is impossible to have full commitment to both God and country. Only to God. This indeed is a hard pill to swallow. We want to follow what is most tangible and present, and we find this often in […]
On The Spirit
Those that follow the teachings of Christ believe in a spiritual advocate, a helper, a guide—a form of God within us, often called the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us courage, optimism, and hope, while also challenging, nudging, and correcting us. The Spirit develops our rooted faith, more than our conscience can on its own, illuminating for […]
On History and Modernity
History can be a hard subject for the Christ-follower to reflect on and consider. So many dark, dangerous, and truly evil things were done (and are still done) in the name of Jesus. As those that follow the Light of the World, we have a duty to learn from history and absorb it in its entirety, […]
On Aspirations
For many of us, faith is such a part of our identity that we cannot imagine life otherwise. For some, faith is a foreign concept. For all of us, there is value in considering our faith aspirations. The process of writing these blog posts has challenged me to define and re-define my faith aspirations using […]
On Conscience
One of Martin Luther’s most well-known quotes comes from when he was asked to retract his statements (which, at the time, were considered heretical and wrong). Standing before the authorities of his day, Luther said “…my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant, since it is neither safe nor […]
On Temptation and Evil
Earliest manuscripts of the Lord’s Prayer end with “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (In fact, Luke ends with just “and lead us not into temptation”.) When I recite this portion of the prayer, my mind often goes straight towards thinking about temptations and evil, often forgetting to meditate on the underlying inquiry. That […]
On Confession
As we meditate on the Lord’s Prayer and think about “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive our trespassers”, we must also think about confession. There are stories of young Martin Luther confessing his sins for hours on end, then leaving his confessor, and then immediately returning, realizing he left out something and fearing the consequences. […]
Relevant Reformation 