This year marks the 500th anniversary of Luther’s Reformation in Germany, which makes this coming Reformation Day (October 31) a special one. But as many are celebrating the life of Luther and looking back on an important era of the Christian Church in the West, it is very clear we are in need of another reformation in the church. Indeed, the need for reformation is at least as great as it was 500 years ago.

If we are to see the spiritual transformation of our post-Christian society, the church must return to a faithful proclamation of the Word of God and the Gospel of the Cross of Jesus. And those who preach faithfully, need to be sure they are also living faithfully.

I believe society is in the mess it’s in, in large part, because 1) many churches are not preaching the Gospel, and 2) many of those who are preaching the Gospel are not living it. That is to say, they are not diligent in Bible study and application (hearing / doing), in evangelism, in prayer and fasting, in serving, in giving, etc.

I have been challenged by our study of the spiritual disciplines on Thursday nights (at Home Group). I personally need to get back to the basics of Christian Practice, which means I am going to have to make a real effort . . . which means I am going to have to make time . . . which means I am going to have to learn personal discipline.

Luther would remind us the just shall live by faith. And it is true. But it is also true that faith is our response to God’s grace. A faith-full practice of the disciplines listed above is the means by which we place ourselves anew in the path of God’s life-changing grace. And as our own hearts and minds are changed and transformed by God’s grace, we become the salt and light that our world so desperately needs. In other words, if we would bear the fruit of the Kingdom, we must abide in the Vine, and the spiritual disciplines are the means by which we abide.

I urge you to join me in revitalizing our exercise of abiding in the Vine, the fruit of which, perhaps, will be a new Reformation in Germany. May the Lord be pleased to allow us to see such fruit in the coming years!