God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Moravians, because of their having a well-documented history, are a little more complex to write about.
They, like Jan Hus, centered on the reality that Christ lived within you and started and centered His work there.
These, like those before them, had the strong desire to return to the simple ways of the early church. They had grown weary of the excesses of the institutional church and clergy.
One of the unique features and developments of the Moravians was their living together. In a number of different times and places throughout their history they had started Christian communities from scratch.
Like many people today that are hearing the call to move into neighborhoods together, they, 100s of years ago, saw and responded to the same things.
Many times when you read of their history you read about houses for brothers, sisters and families. There was this wonderful, spontaneous way of living and life in Christ that is recorded for us.
While they are not the only ones to do this, they probably have more records of it than any other group of people from that time and before. Their writings and history survived the attempt at destroying it that had obliterated the history of other groups from earlier times.
Another unique aspect of their lives that was recorded later on was that of starting to bring the gospel to others in a way that hadn’t been attempted before. They eventually reached out to the world in ways that were amazing for the small numbers that they existed in.
Many of those who went to share the gospel died from disease. This didn’t deter these tremendous believers. With continuous union with Christ that is reputed to not have stopped for over a hundred years, day and night, they did what nobody before them had done.
One of the amazing testimonies that they had was that many of those involved with the protestant reformation made the comment that they wished that those they had the experience which could even come close to their depth and devotion to Christ.
Those of the reformation, in many areas, would have done much better to follow the example of the lives of these simple believers, than the example of those that followed.
Labels:
Influence,
Moravians,
Reformation,
Union with Christ
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