#Reformed church

[andreaspadaccini-andrea]

SPANISH WINE

It has been a month since I started attending a Reformed confessional church. It has been a breath of fresh air to me. There is much rest in accepting my humanity—that I'm a sinner, falling short of God's standard, of God's holiness. I can genuinely feel the care of the people especially my friends who are helping me to transition.

We drink Spanish wine for the communion of the saints. The wine is bitter than other wines. As I heard if you are a wine enthusiast, you do not pick this one or you whined, wordplay intended. But as for me as long as I'm at the table of Cristo Rey, I know that any wine—no matter how bitter—is still a grace from God that I can enjoy the serving of His love through reminding myself of Jesus' sweet sacrifice for my salvation. I can enjoy God through thick and thin, in health and sickness, in better or worse, in smooth and rough roads of my pilgrimage.

Me, internally, as I'm typing those words above thinking of how grateful I am with my friends from the church where I'm transitioning to who encourages me and are willing to genuinely lend their ears to listen to me as I share my struggles in life, and me having the confidence that they will not use it to their advantage:

[nerdemic]

some of y'all brothers and sisters folks know already

it is a tremendous blessing to sit under Peter Leithart's teaching for any amount of time

but when I say that he demands your complete attention, I am not exaggerating

my hand was sweating trying to take notes at the pace with which he poured out oceans of blessed instruction and encouragement

[battleforgodstruth]

How to Truly Hear God's Word - Pastor Patrick Hines Sermon

James 1:21-25New American Standard Bible21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a…

[world-v-you-blog]

The Tapestry of History, 12 – The Rise of the West, 7 – The Reformation, 3

(Image credit – Wikipedia – St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Paris 1572 – by François Dubois) The Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century is one of the pivotal events of Western History, and thereby of World History. The geopolitical state of the world in the 21st Century is, in part, attributable to the consequences of the division of Europe into Roman Catholic and Protestant nation-states…

[thoughts-of-caly]

protestants the entire month of october:

[biowho]

You guys know how I keep ragging on BioWare for *gestures vaguely*? Guess who the Black Divine is

King you could be changing the system from the top down at the drop of a hat why are you starting at the bottom

[apilgrimpassingby]

Roman Catholics and Orthodox have got to knock it off with "Protestants have brutalist corporate churches". A particular modern strain of Protestantism has hideous modern churches. It's a depressingly common strain, and arguably the dominant one in America, but it's either ignorant or dishonest to pretend as though all Protestants have ugly churches.

Behold:

Clockwise from top left:

St. Peter's Church, Geneva, canton of Geneva, Switzerland (Swiss Reformed)

Barnes Methodist Church, London, England, UK (Methodist)

Dutch Reformed Church, Newbury, New York state, USA (Dutch Reformed)

St. Jude's Church, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (Presbyterian)

[famousinuniverse]

St. Paul's Church, Strasbourg, France: The St. Paul's Church of Strasbourg is a major Gothic Revival architecture building and one of the landmarks of the city of Strasbourg, in Alsace, France. Wikipedia

[secondarysefikura]

After his death Sephiroth’s fanclub eventually becomes a cult that worships him religiously. They are obsessed with finding a way to bring Sephiroth back to life, and they decide that a ritual sacrifice should be what they need to bring Sephiroth back to life. Their sacrifice ends up being Cloud who they managed to capture, not because Cloud killed Sephiroth(which they don’t know about), but because Cloud abruptly stopped all communications with them years ago, what makes it even worse is that it happened around the time Sephiroth died. So clearly not only had Cloud forsaken them, but he had forsaken Sephiroth, so as punishment for his sins he will be sacrifice to bring their god back to life. Cloud is strapped down to a table, and cult begins to get the ritual ready. But before they can even light the first candle Sephiroth appears. The cult is overjoyed seeing Sephiroth again, and they didn’t even have to sacrifice the traitor! But if Sephiroth wants to they still can. Sephiroth however is confused at first, but once the cult explains to him who they are he’s more pleased at first. These people are worshiping him like the god he is? If he can get them to also start worshiping Jenova then he might let them live when he inevitably destroys the planet. But he’s less then amused when the cult tells him about how they planned on sacrificing Cloud to bring him back, and how they can still do it now if he wants. He simply tells the cult that absolutely no harm is to happen to Cloud, as he is Sephiroth’s chosen mate. He also tells the cult that they are to worship Cloud almost if not just as much as they worship him.

I'm just imagining Cloud getting frustrated with the fanclub/cult (fancult, if you will) trying to kidnap him and--assuming that this is over him killing Sephiroth--he snaps at them.

Cloud: I get it, I killed your hero, but he was not a good person! He was going to destroy the planet.

Fancult: You what?

Cloud: I killed...wait, did you not know about that? Then why are you trying to kidnap me?

Fancult: We were only kidnaping you because you broke the sacred vow of attending at least one meeting per month! What the hell do you mean you killed Sephiroth?

When Sephiroth shows up, Cloud is pretty sure he's about to see some serious bloodshed. Yet much to his surprise, Sephiroth seems quite pleased by the development of having a cult. Of course he goes about making some changes to the cults structure, who they worship, how they worship, etc. but there is surprisingly little bloodshed.

Oh, and Sephiroth has decided that Cloud is now a minor god in his cult. Which of course means Cloud gets his own alter that goes next to Sephiroth's and receives offerings from their followers. Cloud is not amused; not amused at all.

Cloud really wishes the cult had just sacrificed him.

[secretariatess]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I think it's a dang shame that we'll put celebration of the day the church split over the day the church was formed.

It's not that I think what the Catholic Church was doing at the time that instigated the Reformation was good or in no need of correction, but rather that God's church was split and created factions upon factions where we now squabble with each other. We went from a united church to one with many denominations that fight with each other about which ones are the "true" ones, or which denominations are "wrong."

Don't get me wrong, I like being Nazarene. I like what the Nazarene church offers, and I agree with Nazarene theology. And it wouldn't be possible without the Reformation. I don't agree with Catholic theology. I think there are many things where they are off base. But there are still those in the Catholic church who are Christian, and I'm not going to write them off because of the Protestant/Catholic chasm.

The Reformation was necessary. I'm not sure it was necessary to celebrate. The Church split. It split. The Church, where Jesus said that the world would know us by the love we have for each other, split.

To put it another way: God's family split. How is that not heartbreaking? I am under no delusion that everyone was working in harmony previously, but still . . . .

When Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses up, his goal was not to split the church. It was to correct the church. But he had lobbed a hand grenade at a festering rot, gone too far deep to accept correction and instead desired to keep its corruption.

There's a lesson in the Reformation. There was good in the Reformation. I do believe God worked in the Reformation. But I feel like the lesson and warning of the Reformation is lost when we celebrate "no longer being Catholic!"

The Reformation should be sobering.

And if we are going to celebrate a formation of the church, why are we putting so much stock on the Reformation, and ignoring the Pentecost, where God came down again?

What is the purpose in celebrating the Reformation, and what is the excuse in forgetting Pentecost?

[battleforgodstruth]

Woe To You When All Men Speak Well Of You - Pastor Patrick Hines #shorts

Woe To You When All Men Speak Well Of You – Pastor Patrick Hines #shorts ▶️Pastor Patrick Hines has recently had a brand new book published, called, “Earth’s Foundational History – Part 1: Genesis Chapters 1 Through 5.” (Paperback – May 4, 2023) https://cutt.ly/16RCeZ0 These two books are also available on Amazon. All proceeds go directly to Pastor Hines: ▶️Am I Right With God?: The Gospel,…

[wronghands1]

[thoughts-of-caly]

5 guys, 5 nights at freddys, 5 seconds of summer, what about the 5 solas of the protestant reformation (sola fide, sola gratia, sola scriptura, solo christo, soli deo gloria)

[mirrorofliterature]

'you could just leave the jedi'

ah yes, because leaving all you've ever know with no external support network is so easy (heavy sarcasm on that one)

'the jedi weren't government agents, they were just peacekeepers uwu'

now (@padmestrilogy may want to help me out with this one) but the jedi is absolutely nothing like the UN (like. tf). carrying out the will of a government like being generals in that government's army? you're an agent of government.

anyway staunch pro jedi fans learn how to read stories within their broader societal context and between the lines and not take everything on screen or, god forbid, said by george lucas as absolute gospel, okay?

[iteh3xael]

Y’know, I hate The Church with my whole gay heart but they have something right when it comes to officials not being allowed to marry to avoid conflict of interest. Like, sure, repression of human sexuality is generally not a great idea but when you are in a place to WORSHIP GOD, maybe you should check your status and influence on people by not wielding sex as a leverage tool.

Anyway, Mangione’s judge is married to a healthcare exec and gets to play American God with a trial potentially entertaining the death penalty so uh… maybe we should apply this to judges too ;)

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Writers with a more historic Protestant perspective have generally translated the Greek word charis as "grace" and understood it to refer to the idea that there is a lack of human effort in salvation because God is the controlling factor. Proponents of the New Perspective argue that "favor" is a better translation, as the word refers normally to "doing a favor". In ancient societies there was the expectation that such favors be repaid, and this semi-formal system of favors acted like loans. Gift giving corresponded with the expectation of reciprocity. Therefore, it is argued that when Paul speaks of how God did us a "favor" by sending Jesus, he is saying that God took the initiative, but is not implying a lack of human effort in salvation, and is in fact implying that Christians have an obligation to repay the favor God has done for them. [...] "charis" as "favor" [does] not teach that Christians earn their way to heaven outside of the death of Christ. Forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ is still necessary to salvation. But, that forgiveness demands effort on the part of the individual (cf. Paul in Phil. 3:12–16).