This past weekend in church we celebrated one of the biggest Lutheran holidays of the church year--the Lutheran Reformation. Nearly 500 years ago, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, or statements about teachings of the Roman Catholic church that varied from the true Biblical teachings. This event, along with many other incidents in Luther's life, formed the start of the Reformation that led to the revival of a true teaching of God's Word. When we think of Reformation, we often think of the phrase "by grace alone."
And isn't that what our theme for this year is all about? Grace given is all about what has been given to us. Grace is the undeserved love that God demonstrated for us, lost sinners, when he sent Jesus to take our places on the cross of Calvary. Grace is the the forgiveness of all our sins, the covering of all iniquity, not because of how great we are, but because of how much God loves us. And this grace is new to us every day.
Each day when we rise, we have a new chance for a "reformation" of sorts. We have another chance to drown our old Adams and resist the devil's temptations. We have a new chance to change our ways, our thoughts, our attitudes to conform them more to the mind of Christ. We are Grace driven to live out our lives in his service because of what he did for us so long ago. And when we do fall prey to the devil's schemes, we know that we can throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus and ask his forgiveness. Then, the next day we have yet another chance at an everyday reformation.
We use our lives each day as witnesses to others, as messages of God's love and grace to the world. That is what we can do here and now. We can show the world a new reformation--every day--by Grace alone.
And isn't that what our theme for this year is all about? Grace given is all about what has been given to us. Grace is the undeserved love that God demonstrated for us, lost sinners, when he sent Jesus to take our places on the cross of Calvary. Grace is the the forgiveness of all our sins, the covering of all iniquity, not because of how great we are, but because of how much God loves us. And this grace is new to us every day.
Each day when we rise, we have a new chance for a "reformation" of sorts. We have another chance to drown our old Adams and resist the devil's temptations. We have a new chance to change our ways, our thoughts, our attitudes to conform them more to the mind of Christ. We are Grace driven to live out our lives in his service because of what he did for us so long ago. And when we do fall prey to the devil's schemes, we know that we can throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus and ask his forgiveness. Then, the next day we have yet another chance at an everyday reformation.
We use our lives each day as witnesses to others, as messages of God's love and grace to the world. That is what we can do here and now. We can show the world a new reformation--every day--by Grace alone.