Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 Reformation Sunday:  “The Church that has to be Reformed”

2 Kings 23: 1-7

 v.3: "The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant."

Here we can see Josiah renews the covenant.  When we see King Josiah’s life, some things we can understand from him is that God constantly responds to those with repentant and humble hearts and it's very important to check within ourselves in our spiritual journey and see how we can rely entirely on God being the focus of our lives and our worship. When the book of the law was read to Josiah, he was shocked, frightened, and humbled. Josiah wanted everything he did to please the Lord and bring the people closer to God. In the temple worship, he made sure ungodly practices were removed. Josiah’s heart of repentance led to reformation.  When Josiah realized the young godly and terrible state of Judah’s religious life, he decided to act upon it.
 
likewise, as we understand our own Christian life, we must continue to look within our own selves, our family, and our church. We must have a high expectation of ourselves in our faith journey before we look into the church. We must check if our own personal journey with our Lord is a genuine faithful journey. From there that family together needs to grow to look after God's own heart. Each one of us and our family is the building block of the church. A broken home makes a broken church. Healing and reformations start from the home itself.  If we find the importance of togetherness, there can be accountability.  Josiah was able to find faults by humbling himself.  Likewise, we must humble ourselves to see ourselves reform towards godly living. It is indeed a breaking experience to remove the idols of selfishness, pride, and ego and put on a lifestyle that points towards the glory of God.
 

Prayer
Gracious Lord, Guide us to humble ourselves so that we can fully surrender our lives according to Your will.  Amen.

 Thought for the Day
"The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us."
- Billy Graham



      Dr. Justeena Jess George
W/o Rev. Jess M. George, New York Region Youth Ministry

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