Transformed Changes and changing

Transformation is simple…for it is not about our effort. It is about surrender. How easy is it to let go? How easy is it to understand that “if we believe in our heart, and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved”? Flowing from this is “…He works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose”, and further that He “…will finish the good work He began in you…”

He does it…we submit to it…simple.

In a culture that is all about self-achievement, competition, status and materialism…it is also radical.

What would give us the courage to be radical? As far as I can see, only one thing: Jesus. He is either the Son of God, God incarnate…or crazy.No man claiming to be God would even rate as a good man…unless he was what He claimed in truth.

Without the evidence of God revealed in Jesus,  I could be a fool, for I can know that God exists, but not that He is interested in me, until I see Jesus. Without Jesus, I would be left with a  faith in God (some mysterious / mystical / possibly impersonal force) to transform me…without any knowledge that He even wants to. Crazy.

BUT, once I see Jesus, I am compelled. “For God SO LOVED the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that anyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have everasting life”. This is a way out radical act. An act of passion…one which reconciles our relationship, and estabished the foundation for transformation.

There is no other way to know specifically who God is. No wonder He states that “No one comes to the Father except through the Son”! I need to know the substance of my faith…for to step out in surrender is indeed radical…and completely foolish without knowing Jesus.

Now…I know Jesus. I have evidence. My faith is not blind. I know that the God of the universe, who keeps my heart beating and fills my lungs with air, is indeed interested in me! WHY WOULD I NOT SURRENDER  – I am already completely dependent!!

Only two possibilities: Arrogance, or fear. I’m not interested in arrogance. Fear of surrender is unnecessary, for His is a heart of Love..and knowing that love would eliminate our fear. (Perfect love casts out fear – 1 John 4:18)…so all that is left is to know Him, and His love for us more.

Yet again, I arrive at the same key verse…to “keep our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith.” This is the key to transformation.

Posted under Transformation

Psalm 51:17 (New International Version)
The sacrifices of God are [a] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

And again, in The Message translation:

16-17 Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.

For those of you who have been following this blog…a question:

Given the that God is the one who does the transforming, and that He moves among the broken…

Have you yet come to the place where you see Christ as your only hope?

Posted under Transformation

“While your behavior may have gotten you in trouble, damaged thoughts and emotions led you to act out. Deeper than the life of your mind, however, was a wounded or rebellious spirit that could not find its comfort in the Creator, and sought refuge in a life of fantasy and self-medicating behaviors. A renewed, transformed life does not simply seek to stop a behavior, as important as that is. The real recovery is one in which our lives—behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and relationship to God and others—is made new and restored to what He originally intended.” Daniel L Weiss, Pure Intimacy

While I have battled with the weakness of my flesh, I have received great amounts of varied advice from mostly well intentioned people. Some refer to the necessity for self discipline, stating that it is “simply” about choices (Christian and non-Christian perspectives). Some have advocated a ritualistic, regimented system of behaviors, as if the “law” had power to deliver rather than accuse. Some have suggested that if you have real transformation you don’t need to “run” from anything, and further argued that “I am who I am”, stating, “you can like it or get out”. Some feel we are already transformed, and all we have to do is to “claim” it. Round and round we go in debate, and with it I fear, little by way of transformation.

Born into sin and death, within a world at war, in a flesh body that seeks to destroy itself through indulgence, I find myself at a place of knowing that I cannot transform myself. The best of my efforts would still come up short. (Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”)

Whatever transformation is…it is something that only God can do.

Posted under Transformation

We all have to trust something or someone in our journey. The trick is to determine the trustworthy.

While traveling to reunion this year, a few of our relatives added over 5 hours to their journey. While they had a reliable map in hand, they decided to follow the new Technology instead: a GPS system. While telling the story to me, they laughed as they recalled a sign with the words “this road not maintained by the county”! They wound up on a logging road in the middle of nowhere, and had to backtrack several hours to get back on course.

We can ALL easily lose our coordinates / heading, and can quickly become lost on an uncharted / abandoned or dead end road…in a foreign land. While the resort areas of foreign lands can be appealing, there can be much hostility in the territory.

What is the most reliable source of information for our journey of transformation?

“The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body…”  Ecclesiastes 12:11-13 (NIV)

Wow…how many books have accumulated since the writing of this passage?!

Now – I am not saying that other authors / books can’t help us…why would i write then?

“If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:11 (NIV)

The word of God must be regarded as absolute truth for our journey. Other authors help us to understand this truth with perspectives.

I find myself wanting to take God at His word these days. He said it…it must be true. After all, I am His spoken word, as with all of creation. If I start arguing with Him, I just stand to get lost. If I listen to Him, and ask Him to help me understand what He is saying, then I believe that He will direct my steps (passage support for this: too numerous to mention)

I’m staking my life on it.

Posted under Transformation

Transformation can seem like a “nice to have” or an option…if we don’t have the environment right. Here’s a couple of passages for context:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” 1 Peter 5:8-9

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3: 17-19

Our environment (without trying to be completely morbid here) is one of pain, toil, death and battle…a world at war.

A good friend of mine is a police officer. She has invested countless hours in physical fitness, combat training, and weapons practice. As a police officer, these activities could be a matter of life and death. Imagine being a police office and going to work without bullets in your gun…or without your badge (authority) or without you condition / training…ouch!

So too it is with our spiritual life…

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

We are at war…there is a battle all around us…we will not survive without our armor / authority, training…

Ephesians 6:13

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

2 Cor 10:4

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

2 Tim 4:8

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

We can all justify being busy, tired, etc…and easily let our disciplines (”devotions”) slide…BUT what if it is less about “religious requirements” that God appears to be placing on us…What if it is truly that He loves us so much…and knows that we will not survive without the armor, training and weapons which are provided through grace in His presence?

Would that change our perspective? Would we become more desperate for His presence?

Posted under Transformation