Today's Scripture Reading (July 2, 2024): Hebrews 12
Once, there
was a church with a clear view of what was needed to inherit the Kingdom of
God. This plan was preached in the churches, and evangelists traveled the roads
from town to town, preaching this gospel and instructing the people on how to
find the road to heaven.
And the
people believed. They did as they were told, which meant attending church,
paying their tithes and tributes, and confessing to a priest. The more wealthy
and independent church members went on what were basically Work and Witness
teams to Jerusalem, which people of another faith had overrun. They believed in
what they had been told, that working your way into heaven was possible.
Can you
imagine being part of that church 800 years ago? But some men began to rise and
ask questions. Is this what God is really asking me to do? Could you imagine
being part of the church in the day of Martin Luther as he began to preach
about salvation by faith alone and as he condemned tributes, questioned the work
and witness teams that we now remember as the Crusades? It was one of the
darkest points in Christian history.
It must have
felt like the Christian map just kept changing. How many of us would have wondered
what God was asking of us? How scary would it have been to be one of the God-fearing
folk who faithfully gave of their tributes for the building of the great
Cathedrals, who regularly came to the priests to confess their sins, who did
good works in effort to earn heaven, only hear the words of Martin Luther,
speaking from a book that you had never been allowed to look in, read to you
the passage that had changed his life "For in the gospel a righteousness
from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just
as it is written 'The righteous will live by faith'" (Romans 1:17). What
would that do to your faith roadmap?
John Wesley
was raised in the High Anglican Church, and his father was a pastor. John had
chased Christian perfection and worked hard to understand the doctrine, but all
that fell apart one night on a ship coming back to England from the New World. Wesley
had gone to America to convert the indigenous residents living there but
wondered, as he left America disillusioned, who it was that would convert him. The
ship was caught in a storm, and the young, slightly built Anglican minister was
frozen in fear. He had preached the gospel of eternal salvation, but he was
afraid to die.
Wesley was
impressed by the other passengers on the boat. The Moravian Brethren on the
voyage sat quietly and sang hymns and psalms to God. He asked his shipmates if they
were afraid, and the men said, "No, of course not." They firmly
believed that their lives were in the hands of their God.
Wesley asked,
"What about the women and children?" The answer: "No, our women
and children are not afraid to die." Wesley would write in his journal, "This
was the most glorious day I had ever seen." It showed a vacuum in his life,
and he sought the answer to fill the emptiness.
Later, Wesley
would be challenged that "Justification by Faith" had to be more than
just a doctrine; it had to be a personal experience of God's forgiveness.
Later, at a reading of Luther's introduction to Romans 1, he would find his
personal answer. He finally found that he could trust God alone for salvation,
and he discovered that an assurance was given to him that God had taken away
his sins and saved him from eternal death. The Christian road was about to be
rocked one more time.
I'm not sure,
but it seems that every once in a while, God sends a cultural and spiritual
earthquake that rocks both heaven and earth. He does it for only one reason: so
that we would truly understand what he is asking of us, and the spiritual
earthquake would clarify our position of faith.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Hebrews
13
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