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And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)\xa0

Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda \u2013 The Church Reformed & Always Reforming

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Well, today is election day in the States.\xa0 A day ripe for changes, and no can be sure just what changes will come.\xa0 We may fear that unknown, and yet today I remind you\u2014we belong to God.\xa0 \xa0

The church has often lived in the midst of political tumult, natural disasters, pandemics, and pestilence.\xa0 None of these things are new to the experience of the Christian Church if you look back far enough.

And through it all, the church has remained ever the same.\xa0 The Church of Jesus Christ\u2014founded upon the Good News of Salvation in His name, under the banner of one and the same Triune God.

At the same, the church has constantly been changing.\xa0 This too is a work of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit according to the will of the Father.\xa0 We are to keep faith with the same Triune God, but we are not to remain static in that faith.

That\u2019s what the motto of the Reformation, the commemoration of which passed this past weekend, was all about: \u201cThe Church Reformed and Always Reforming.\u201d\xa0

Even as God continues to do His work in us as individual Christians who, in Paul\u2019s words, \u201care being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory,\u201d so the church is also being conformed to the likeness of Christ.\xa0 It is His body, after all.\xa0

To say nothing of what God does or does not will (that\u2019s a whole different podcast!), it is safe to say that God works within the stresses and strains of our contemporary situations, whatever they may be\u2014elections, pandemics, or otherwise\u2014using them to continue this good work in us individually and corporately.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

Paul is careful to remind us that this work \u201ccomes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.\u201d\xa0 Not only is that so, but it\u2019s also good that it\u2019s God who prods along this good work in us.\xa0 Left to ourselves, we don\u2019t always like that idea of continuing to reform.\xa0 A single reformation is quite enough change for most of us to stomach at any given point in time.\xa0

But God presses on, not content until the image of Christ is formed in us and in the Church.\xa0 And so in strange and strained times like these, we see the forge fire up with heat that refines and pressure that molds.\xa0 Change inevitably comes.\xa0 But because we have a faithful God, we may trust that He will steward that change toward transformation and continual re-formation more deeply into the likeness of Christ.

In this time then, the \u201calways reforming\u201d invitation is to participate in that work as those with \u201cunveiled faces.\u201d\xa0 To look, seek, and find the face and glory of the Lord in our life and living.\xa0 To intercede and stand in the gap as those who live after the veil has been torn between us and the holy of holies.\xa0 To work with the God who works in us and in His Church all His purposes for the sake of His glory in the very real and tangible situations of this world.\xa0 \xa0

How might God be reforming His Church and our lives today?\xa0 Take time to ask Him.\xa0 Then pray for the openness of heart, mind, soul, and strength to participate!

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