My Favorite Time of Year

 Ahhh . . . Fall.  Autumn.  Harvest time.  Spiced pumpkin flavored everything, hot apple cider, pumpkin pie . . . you get the idea.  This is always the most reflective and thankful time of year for me, not merely because of Thanksgiving festivities, but because I was born in this month when the witches come out for their annual flight, but more importantly, because of something that happened this month over 500 years ago, and that event began the work of my spiritual birth-my rebirth in Christ.  You can read a very short synopsis of that event (which was only the beginning of a world wide movement that changed the course of history, and has repercussions today, even for those who know little of Jesus or the Bible.  If you are interested, there are many good books on Martin Luther and the Reformation.)  Anyhow, this post will be more personal, about how the ideas of a man who lived centuries ago were used by God to make me who I am.  It all started in 10th grade.  I was attending a Catholic school, and in my history class, the teacher was teaching on Martin Luther, that guy who was causing so much trouble for the Catholic church, that rabble-rouser who was spreading such revolutionary-and blasphemous!-ideas like that everyone, even peasants, should be allowed to own a copy of the Bible-in their own language-as opposed to only the Catholic clergy owning Bibles in Latin.  Being of a rather serious turn of mind, I agreed with Mr. Luther, and I wanted to know more about this forbidden book that might still be off-limits to me if it were not for all of Luther's work.  I told my mom about this, and she started taking me to a church that taught exclusively out of the Bible.  That was when God began to open my eyes and change my heart.  I was learning who I really was (a sinner) and what I needed (forgiveness) and what I could become (a child of God with the privilege of knowing Him and talking to Him.)  I started to read the Bible daily.  It was fascinating, and I couldn't get enough!!  The Bible is perfect, and it has all the answers to life.  It is my sincere hope and prayer that you will find yourself a Bible and start reading ASAP.  You never know what will happen, but I can promise you this:  you will be glad you did it.  So pour yourself a mug of hot cider and dig in!  You'll be glad you did.