Ellen White defines reformation as a “reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices.” 1 While we usually apply this to mean the spiritual reformation that must take place in us as individuals before the return of Jesus, we have also seen its fulfillment in the lives of people whose marriages were in trouble.
Rod and Sharon2 were very successful in their careers, had been married and divorced previously, and had three children. Rod served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War and, as he told me, had “broken every commandment that is written and some that should be written.” Among other things, he had left his wife for
other women more than a dozen times; but every time he came back home, Sharon took him back. “Now,” he said to me, “I feel totally empty. Can God possibly still love me?”
Several weeks later, after Bible studies, both Rod and Sharon were baptized and immediately immersed themselves in the life and ministry of the church. More than ten years later, they continue to serve the church as leaders of several ministries and conduct Bible studies with prospective members nearly every night of the week—resulting in many baptisms every year. Rod and
Sharon have experienced a personal reformation that changed their marriage and turned them into very effective ministers in their church and community.
—Claudio Consuegra, DMin, FaMily Ministries director, North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
References:
1 Ellen G. White, Christian Service (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Pub. Assn, 1947), 42.
2. Pseudonymn
