May 9 - Ephesians 2:5

I am gradually writing an introduction for visitors at Spirit of Joy. I’m letting you listen in. Any feedback would be welcomed!

 

 

Who is Spirit of Joy?

Three Words: LUTHERAN …

which means WORD and GRACE!

 

by grace you have been saved

Ephesians 2:5

 

Who are Lutherans?

 

Here’s the super-quick story … In an era when God was portrayed as an angry God, Martin LUTHER opened the WORD and discovered God’s GRACE.

 

In other words, at Spirit of Joy, we are LUTHERANS whose simple goal is to stand on those principles: God’s WORD is our timeless and unshakable foundation, and we minister with love and GRACE.

 

If you’re interested, here’s the slightly longer version of the story …

 

When Martin Luther grew up in the late 1400s, it was as if the rhetoric of that era had heated up the fires of hell a hundred times. People were scared to death of God – including Luther. Charlatans were even “selling” the forgiveness of sins, bilking terrified peasants out of what little money they had.

 

In the midst of that dark time, as Martin Luther walked home from college one day, a terrifying blast of lightning stuck. Knocking Luther to the ground, the young man cried out in fear, “Help me, and I’ll become a monk.”

 

Now, if most of us had made a hasty pledge to become a nun or a monk, we’d find a way to weasel out of that commitment. (Even if that pledge was to God, right?) But Martin Luther was too afraid to not fulfill his cry to heaven. Why? Because he was scared to death of God!

 

In fact, as a young monk, Martin Luther would spend hours every day in the confessional booth, confessing every piddly little sin. And then he’d lay awake for hours each night, worrying about what he’d forgotten to confess. He was taught – and he believed – that if he forgot to confess even one sin, he might be cast for a thousand more years into purgatory … if not an eternity in hell itself.

 

Finally Luther’s father confessor got tired of the young monks incessant despair and essentially said, “Martin, this contemplative life of a monk is not working out for you. You need to go out and do something practical!” And practical was result: He sent Luther out to teach the Scriptures.

 

Now, knowledge of the Scriptures, even for a monk, was somewhat limited in that era. With the printing press just being invented and Bibles still being copied by hand, access to the Scriptures was limited, even for monks. Yet Luther was given a great privilege: He was sent off to teach the Word of Life.

 

First, he taught from the book of Psalms – which surely helped his prayer life.

 

Second, he taught from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, and in Romans he discovered a concept he’d never comprehended before: GRACE!

 

Now, I’ll tell you more about how amazing God’s grace really is in another reflection … but for now, suffice it to say, that God’s unmerited love and forgiveness transformed a cowering monk into one of the boldest champions of the Gospel in history.

 

In fact, as they year 2000 dawned, a secular television network, I think it was A&E, did a show called something like “The Millennium in Review.” In it, Martin Luther was ranked the second or third most influential person in the last thousand years! And it was all because LUTHER opened the WORD and discovered God’s GRACE.

 

At Spirit of Joy, we are LUTHERANS whose simple goal is to stand on these principles: God’s WORD is our timeless and unshakable foundation, and we minister with love and GRACE.