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| For Men |  | |
| | | Castles, Reformers and Faith | | by Richard W. O'Ffill | Romans 1:17, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
I had the opportunity to go to Germany to spend a week-end conducting a men’s retreat for some service men who, with their families, are stationed in Southern Germany. Our hosts were kind enough to treat us as tourists for a few days and so we were able to enjoy the beauty and charm of that country One of the most impressing things was the age of the place! In the USA when something gets old we begin to think of tearing it down, not so in Europe. I was talking with a guy who lives in Vienna and he told me that the house that he lives in is 400 years old!
My wife was with me and so our friends took us to see some of the sites of the Protestant Reformation. We saw where John Hus was burned at the stake. We went to Eisenach, Not far from there is the castle of Wartburg. That was were Martin Luther was hidden for about 11 months after he was condemned as a heretic at the Diet( not a weight loss plan) at Worms(a place). We saw the room where tradition has it the devil came to harass him and he threw a bottle of ink at him which left a stain on the wall!
You might be thinking, “Great, Dick, but what does that have to do with my life?” The answer is, a whole lot. Martin Luther became the leader of a movement which liberated the human spirit that had been oppressed for more than 1k years. Our civilization today is largely the result of what that German monk, driven by the power of God, was able to set in motion. The text that was the key that ignited the fuse for the reformation that followed was “The just shall live by faith”.
A man these days may not consider himself particularly religious but he has a lot of reasons to thank God for that text and a German monk in the sixteenth century who wasn’t afraid to put his life on the line. When you take the Word of God and put it into the heart of a man of God you have something that can, has and will change the history of the world! My name is not Martin Luther and I don’t live in the sixteenth century. My name is Dick O’Ffill and you and I live in the 21st century. Did Martin Luther do all the reforming that needs to be done or is reformation an on-going thing; something for a man’s life, for his family and for the society in which he lives? You and I may not be a Martin Luther. Who wants to be? But I definitely know who I am and I want to be a reform type of guy who puts faith in God first and is not afraid to lay my life on the line for it. | | |
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