All tagged Change
Our lives are ever changing, and no matter how hard we try to control them they will always be set upon by outside forces beyond our control. Not even the sweetest times of faith go without looking up to find a looming challenge on the horizon, because as we experience life we lean on God in various new ways, and through this we come to a fresh understanding of Him in the process. How well we know God seems to depend on how fully we have lived our life.
When we wait upon God to answer our prayers do we think He is idly biding His time while we suffer and fret needlessly? Do we think that God suddenly responds when He is good and ready by doing this thing in one sweeping gesture? Well God’s ways are not ours, and His plans for us are intricate. To answer our one simple prayer causes Him to realign the stars that shine around the world... the ripple of His changed plan is felt far and wide. Yet He loves us this much.
People argue that our faith is evolving, and God is changing to accommodate mankind’s changing nature, but is that true? When we look at God, and view our history with Him, have we ever seen Him change, or evolve? Some use the coming of Jesus to argue their point, but if we look at the Bible we see that Messianic Prophecy begins from almost the moment of Adam’s fall, and invalidates this as an argument for change. We change, but God remains the same... truth is always truth, good always good, light is always light, and so forth.
Have you heard people say that our faith is dynamic and is ever changing with the world? Do you watch as the very tenets of our faith are confronted, and churches adjust them to suit the ebb and flow of society’s whims? Well that reasoning is not truth, and places our will, and the world’s views above God’s will, and the teaching of Jesus Christ.
We live in a changing world, and the temptation is to think that the Word of God can be changed to accommodate our social changes, but that is a fallacy. We might change the means by which we exhibit our Christian faith, but the faith itself is founded on the Word of God, and that is unchanging. as an example we might change the order of worship, but what we worship must remain unyielding; we can change the dress code that is acceptable for worship services, but the content of that worship is nonnegotiable. Do we understand the difference between the truths of our faith. and those things that are just customs? I might use a silver chalice for communion at one church, and a wooden one at another, but communion remains the same. God tells us that He does not change.
How much time do we spend in God’s Word each day? Are we guilty of trivializing the process of study and meditation, neglecting it for the simple process of reading? Although reading God’s Word is important, it is only the beginning, it is the deeper process of mulling it over, and absorbing it that benefits us most.
Once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, and know God as our Lord, then we begin a transformation into a different person, but as we change we realize that who we once were is never who we were intended to be. As we lose our old self, we strip away the facade, and reveal who God knew us to be all along. The new self we are becoming is God’s perfect creation.
Are you afraid to leave home and travel with Jesus? When He calls out to you how do you react? If you were standing on the street corner and Jesus walked by saying “Follow me!” What would you do? Would you pretend you didn’t know Him? What if He only wanted you to go downtown, and serve a meal at the local soup kitchen? Answering the call of Christ means leaving our comfort zone... it also means changing something about ourselves so that we become more like Him.
So we have recognized that we were wrong in a practice or belief; perhaps we find that we have practiced something in faith that was of man, and not of God. What should we do? How should we face this, our failure, our material heresy? Are we doomed to a life of suffering, or to exist in a fallen state? No, we must pray for forgiveness, and then listen to Paul as he writes to the Philippians about himself.
We hear the story of Peter denying Jesus three times before the cock crowed, and we think to ourselves that this man was weak of character, but do we ever look at our own lives and count our own denials? Denying can be blatant like in the case of Peter, or it can be subtle. Do you speak up when the subject of faith comes up in a group, or do you deny Him in your silence? When you are at a social event and someone belittles Jesus do you defend Him or walk away... denying Him? How about the witness you didn’t give someone when the opportunity arose, and you were afraid? Denial comes in many forms, can we overcome it?
More likely than not, if you are reading this, you know Jesus; who He is, and about His life. If you are reading this you may have asked Him to come into your life, confessed Him to be your Savior, and gone down in the waters of baptism. My question to you this morning is two fold today... how deep has your relationship with Him become, and, have you asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
When we come to know Jesus Christ, and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, something amazing begins to happen in, and to us. We are most certainly relieved of the sin which began in Adam, but the knowledge of good and evil remains... so what is God to do with that?