REFORMATION
Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 29-32

Five hundred years ago today the Reformation began.

Martin Luther chose to nail his ninety-five theses (a long statement you can prove with evidence)  to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Those theses began to undo chains of ritual, tradition and pomp surrounding religion. These ideas took the glamour and glory off the papal positions and back onto God.

It took religion back to its basics: God's glory alone, Jesus as our only mediator, the Bible as our basis, grace unmerited and faith in response to a Holy God.

Appropriate that on this auspicious day, I read about Hezekiah.

Hezekiah began his own reformation of sorts.

Here's what happens in chapter twenty-nine alone...

Hezekiah is named king at a young age.

Hezekiah chose to please God--not man, not political parties, not the people.

Heziekah re-opened the doors of the church.

Hezekiah made these statements: Our ancestors were...Our fathers have...But now I will...

He took a personal stand in serving God the way God should be served. He, too, was willing to buck tradition and push aside religious-ness for a personal relationship with God.

It's going to take a personal reformation of our own to do the same thing. We're going to have to stop some things, start some things, re-think some things, abandon some things, change some things, drop some things in order to have time for more important things, evaluate some things...on our own before we can ever change anything/or anyone else. Before we know it, we may have our own list numbering close to ninety-five!

Happy Reformation Day. May you make your own changes starting right now!

No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes. - Martin Luther