Transformed Changes and changing

Passports have been a big deal lately, with security “increasing” along the USA / Canada border.

We are permitted to stay in the adjoining country as a foreigner for a period of time…but must not take up residence without going through the proper channels, and attaining citizenship…if granted. I wish it were this difficult spiritually.

We are on a journey, for a period of time, in a foreign land.

“…but our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…” {Phil 3:20)

BUT…have we settled…have we become too comfortable here and taken up residence?

If I settled across the border, I would likely start to speak with an accent over time, as I became emersed in the culture…I doubt I would even notice it…just a gradual erosion….

Just thinking “out loud”…

Posted under Transformation

Why are so many so hungry & thirsty? I am not writing about world famine…

Bulimia, substance abuse, compulsive shopping, workaholism, sexual addictions…and I am not thinking of “the world”…I am speaking about the church directly. Our lives do not imply that we are drinking from the life-giving waters…but rather from broken cisterns that cannot satisfy.

I do not write this in judgment or condemnation. If you count yourself among the perpetually thirsty, then you will find me among your numbers.

I think we in the church today are long on doctrine and knowledge, and short on experience; short on reality.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Luke 9:25

Could it be that we have sought to gain this world, at the cost of our self?

“…let us throw off everything that hinders…”
Hebrews 12:1

What would “throwing aside” everything that hinders look like in our lives?

“…having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Cor 6:10)

Could we find the courage (no doubt a grace) to toss aside the “security” of this cultural normality in all its various forms, to abandon our self to God, simply because He Is,that He Is. (Exodus 3:14)

If we did this, would He meet us?

Isaiah 30: 18 “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.”

Jeremiah 2: 13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

If we abandoned our broken cisterns, would He connect us to life-giving water? Is the Creator and sustainer of our life and breath enough to trust?

Surely it is madness to believe that we don’t need Him, that He is passive or disinterested in us…especially given that our entire existence is His spoken word.

Posted under Transformation

I’ve said this before: it’s not that people don’t believe that love “could” change the world, we just don’t believe that it “will”…likely because we don’t believe that others will reciprocate. The kicker is that within this thought is the underlying assumption that we love better than others; that our love will be faithful, consistent, more attentive, and so on…

Now, I don’t know how you feel about this, but I am certain that my love is not the measuring standard for the world. I am selfish, irritable, impatient, and much more…I am not even sure who would / could purport to possess the world’s standard for love among humanity.

We can’t even be certain that God is love. We hear about this, we are taught about it in Sunday school…but how can we be certain? Many who read about war in the old testament of the Bible come to conclusions that God is not love. Some look at the injustice in the world, and assume that God is not love due to His apparent lack of action.

There is only one reliable standard for  love, and only one certainty that God is love: Jesus.Through Jesus we observe God doing the unthinkable: reaching out in sacrifice, subjecting himself to pain to redeem the unworthy object of His love.

What difference can this make in regards to transformation?

If we know that He is love…and that He is active in His love, subjecting Himself to pain to make connection with us, while we are unworthy…how trustworthy might He be?

Faith that He is + knowledge of His love for us = the foundation for trust. Trust that He is able and willing to complete what He began in us at creation for “now” and for eternity…

Posted under Transformation

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Matt 26: 41

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5: 8

“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen…” Luke 26:31

We desire healing for our brokenness. We desire a transformation that aligns our true self with behaviors that honor God and provide a sense of peace within us…replacing our false self; this selfish, self-medicating, weak vessel…

Would a soldier on the battlefield be preoccupied with their personal weakness, or watchful and prayerful (!) about the mission, and the attacks of the enemy?

It seems so late in the game for me to be reminded that it is not simply me choosing to be or not to be…but also that we were born into a world at war, and there is one who seeks our destruction.

Just now, a renewed awareness of this context is making a huge difference in my perspective…

To give up on transformation is akin to “quitting” in the middle of the battlefield…self-imposed defeat.

To hold out for transformation, is to believe that the victory is indeed at hand…that no power is greater than that held by our sovereign Lord…and that He is for us…

The Supremacy of Christ
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1: 15-17

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 38-39

Be encouraged…

Posted under Transformation

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither…” Psalm 1:1-2

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

Posted under Transformation

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). And the way He sets us free is by enabling us to embrace the Truth, rather than believe the lies of the evil one.

There goes that grace stuff again! All transformation happens through Jesus…it is His enabling, His grace. His is indeed the way the truth and the life…(John 14:6)

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13)

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jer 2:13)

“It’s like drinking from a stream of polluted water that leaves one thirstier than before. In order to overcome sin (be transformed), we must drink the living water, which quenches our thirst eternally.” (Mike Ceveland)

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “(Matt 4:4)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Posted under Transformation