TRANSFORMATION
How does God's Word give power to the Christian life?
God's Response:
The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with My Word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
Isaiah 55:10-11
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you fist heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace.
Colossians 1:6
I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.
Romans 1:16
Our Takeaway:
God's Word is not just for our information; it's for our transformation! Becoming a Christian means beginning a whole new relationship with God, not just turning over a new leaf or making up our minds to try to do what is right. New believers have changed purposes, directions, attitudes, and behaviors. They are no longer seeking to serve themselves; they are seeking to bear fruit for God.
God's Challenge:
Get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the work God has planted in you hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
James 1:21
Big T's Thought To Ponder:
I once read a great analogy of God's transformation - Living the Christian life should become as natural to us as changing clothes.
We take off the old and we put on the new. The old may have been comfortable, but they are dirty and horribly out of fashion in our new Kingdom. The new is the permanent style of the Kingdom of Heaven, and it will cause us to resemble God increasingly. Our responsibility is to continually shed what is not longer appropriate and put on the new clothes we have been given.
The struggle I experienced with this transformation was, I claimed to be a Christian in new closes, but I didn't want to shed the old clothes that I was comfortable wearing. My hesitance was the fear of rejection in my new clothes and new identity, and none of us like rejection.
What God eventually revealed to me is that we have all experienced rejection at some point in our life because we live in a fallen, performance based, judgemental world; our acceptance can only be found in Christ. Dressing for both the world and the Kingdom wasn't a viable option and a choice had to me made.
1 John 2:15-17
God's transformation in our life is so powerful when we come to understand our true identity in Christ. God gives us life altering instructions through His Divine Word, specific truths about how we are transformed though Christ into His likeness. These are some of the truths that helped me to grow comfortable in my new clothes:
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no long I who live, but Christ who lives in me"
Galatians 2:20
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away and behold, all thing have become new"
Corinthians: 5:17
"and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are no your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's"
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
Romans 12:2
