From today’s reading...
From Miletus he sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus.” Acts 20:17
Paul was a leader in the early Church, and the “elders of the church of Ephesus” understood and accepted that fact.
Peter was Paul’s leader in the early Church, and Paul understood and accepted that fact.
You don’t have a problem with “organized religion.”
You have a problem with pride, i.e., your pride is so overflowing that you will not submit to the teachings and rulings of authority figures in the Church.
These prideful people celebrate the former Catholic monk, Martin Luther, and his #ReformationDay of October 31, 1517, but within just eight years, “Luther lamented how competing teachers of the faith fancied themselves the more authoritative than he, when he wrote: ‘There is not one of them that does not think himself more learned than Luther.’ Again, he bemoaned: ‘[T]here are almost as many sects and beliefs as there are heads.’ If we look at his 1525 letter to Antwerp, we see these regrets and more. He believed he had escaped devils in the Catholic Church, yet discovered that ‘a stronger’ devil had prevailed.” (Catholic Voyager)
Who are your elders?
Who are theirs?
If you’re struggling with your faith, be like the elders of the church of Ephesus, and adhere to the counseling and instruction of the early Church fathers, which is the only way to...
Stay the course.
Keep the faith.
Endure.
Market like you mean it. Now go sell something.
