PCPrays

Today marks the 491st anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door at Wittenberg.  This event in history is generally considered the birth of the protestant rebellion.  It was a rebellion against the greed and corruption of the Roman church.

And so in honor of Reformation day I will take some time out to spot light some of his 95 theses.  All of them in some way deal with either the Pope or indulgences and so that makes it a little hard to relate to them.  But 500 years ago these were all revolutionary.

1. When our Lord and master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent’, he called the entire life of believers to be of one repentance.

2. The word cannot be properly understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, i.e. confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.

3. Yet its meaning is not restricted to repentance in one’s heart; for such repentance is null unless it produces outward signs in various mortifications of the flesh.

13. Death puts an end to all the claims of the Church; even the dying are already dead to the canon laws, and are no longer bound by them

32. All those who believe themselves certain of their own salvation by means of letters of indulgence, will be eternally damned, together with their teachers

36. Any Christian whatsoever, who is truly repentant, enjoys plenary remission from penalty and guilt, and this is given him without letters of indulgence.

37. Any true Christian whatsoever, living or dead, participates in all the benefits of Christ and the Church; and this participation is granted to him by God without letters of indulgence.

43. Christians should be taught that one who gives to the poor, or lends to the needy, does a better action than if he purchases indulgences.

45. Christians should be taught that he who sees a needy person, but passes him by although he gives money for indulgences, gains no benefit from the pope’s pardon, but only incures the wrath of God.

62. The true treasure of the church is the Holy gospel of the glory of the grace of God.

68. Nevertheless, they [indulgences] are not to be compared with the grace of God and the compassion shown in the Cross.

79. It is blasphemy to say that the insignia of the cross with the papal arms are of equal value to the cross on which Christ died.

94. Christians should be exhorted to be zealous to follow Christ, their Head, though pearles, death, and hells.

95. And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace.

Wow, what passion Luther had (I love #62).  May we live for God with that same passion, may we stand up against the corruption in the church today and stand firm in the gospel of the glory of the grace of God. For there is no other gospel, no other glory and no other grace.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV)

Happy Reformation Day!

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How do you select who to vote for?  It seems like most people I know don’t like either McCain or Obama and are just select which one they dislike the least.  Is this a good way to vote?  Lets be honest no one believes that a third party will get voted in.  Personally I like Allan Keyes the best (I call him the other black guy) but I know he’s not going to win..  So as a Christian do I vote for the guy who I think will do the least harm or do I vote for a guy that I know is not going to win but shares my views?  To the few people who read this check Alan out and let me know what you think.  The more I read about him the more I like him.

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My family is looking at renting a cabin this winter.  Don’t know for sure yet if we will or if we do how many people are going to go.  But one that my sister and my self really likes is this one.  It’s in North Georgia and it even allows pets!  How cool is that would save Nyssa and my self about $100 for pet sitting and that’s a good thing  :)

So please pray that every thing will go well for this.  Nyssa said we could just take a late anniversary this year (I call it “Honey Moon 4.0″) and do this.  As of right now we are looking at a week in February.

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This is really cool.  It will turn any vehicle in to a hybird vehicle.  Check it out

If you like it and would like to vote for it on ideablob you can do that here

I think this could be huge.  Guess I will have to get a trailer hitch on Nyssa’s car now..

You can learn more at www.pushhogg.com

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So on the very front top of my notes for the weekend I have “This is a heart thing – Not a brain thing!” and to be honest that’s hard for me.  I’m way more at home with “brain things” then I am with “heart things”.  Over all I had a great time.  All the guys there were awesome.  So just getting to hang out with my good friend Richard and the others made the whole trip worth it for me.  The teaching followed the “Wild at Heart” book, which is ok.  The only problem that I have with it is that it could undermine the Gospel.  Wild at heart teaches that all men have been wounded by their father (or another father figure) and that this wound causes us to create a false self that we present to the world in order to avoid being hurt again.  There is a lot of truth in that (for some men more so then others) but here is a major problem with this teaching.  My main problem is not that I have been wounded by my father but rather that I am a sinner.  I don’t need Jesus to primary heal my wounded heart but to pay the price for my sins.

It’s not that they teach anything against that but with were the focus is it could be taken that way to some one who does not know the Gospel of Christ.  So I believe that R3Warriors is best for men who know and believe the Gospel already.  And that’s not a bad thing.  They do a great job at bring a passion to men for Christ and teach that heaven is more then just sitting on a could singing.  Made me think back to John Piper’s “God is the Gospel”.

Ok, enough about all the “brain things” like I said it was a “heart thing” anyways.  The food was great.  I ate way to much.  Got to go swimming and we had two bonfires.  I also got to watch Brave Heart, I know an old movie, but I have never seen it before.  And I even got to do some writing and that was very good.

So thanks R3Warriors, I had a great time and look forward to going again.

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