Words have power. They build and destroy, heal and hurt. Words transform.
Listen to what God says through Isaiah (43) to those that are his:
I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name.
You are mine.
I will be with you.
You are precious to me.
You are honored.
I love you.
For those who are in Christ, every last syllable is true.
For those who are in Christ and live believing what God said through Isaiah, transformation is occurring.
Dana got married.
I’ve learned so much at the Promise House. And, most of it has to do with hair. For example, I’ve learned that in a matter of 45 minutes big hair can become little hair. Look.
That’s one of our brand new girls. I wish I could show you her huge smile. She’s a cool kid. She’s due mid-September, so we’ll have her all summer. I’m excited to see what Jesus is going to do in her life. Who knows . . . Jesus might do to her life, what she did to her hair. Total transformation.
I pursue you, Jesus, so that I may be caught by you.
I press in so that I may know your heart.
I stay close so that I may be like you.
Loving Lord, grant me:
purity of heart,
humility of soul,
integrity of life,
charity for all.
Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart
The Christian gospel insists that the transformation of the human personality really is possible. Never easy. Rarely quick. But possible. I see it happening in people sometimes . . . occasionally even in myself. It begins to happen anytime people become intensely serious about learning from Jesus how to arrange their lives.
-John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted. p. II
Bruce talked about 2 Corinthians 5 this morning. It wasn’t the focal point of his message, but he talked about how we are compelled by the love of Christ. Verse 14 says Christ’s love compels us . . .
Geez. Why am I not compelled by Christ’s love? I’m compelled by lots of stuff: hunger, tiredness, pride, fear, approval, disappointment, frustration, etc.
John Ortberg writes:
I am disappointed with myself. I am disappointed not so much with particular things I have done as with aspects of who I have become. I have a nagging sense that all is not as it should be.
Some of the disappointment is trivial, but some of it runs deeper. When I look on my children as they sleep at night, I think of the kind of father I want to be. I want to create moments of magic, I want them to remember laughing until the tears flow, I wan tot read to them and make the books come alive so they love to read, I wan to have slow sweet talks with them as they’re getting ready to close their eyes, I was to sing them awake in the morning. I want to chase fireflies with them, teach them to play tennis, have food fights, and hold them and pray for them in a way that makes them feel cherished.
I look in on them as they sleep at night, and I remember how the day really went: I remember how they were trapped in a fight over checkers and I walked out of the room because I didn’t want to spend the energy needed to teach them how to resolve conflict. I remember how my daughter spilled cherry punch at dinner and I yelled at her about being careful as if she’d revealed some deep character flaw; I yelled at her even though I spill things all the time and no one yells at me; I yelled at her — to tell the truth — simply because I’m big and she’s little and I can get away with it. And then I saw that look of hurt and confusion in her eyes, and I knew there was a tiny wound on her heart that I had put there, and I wished I could have taken those sixty seconds back. I remember how at night I didn’t have slow, sweet talks, but merely rushed the children to bed so I could have more time to myself. I’m disappointed. (John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted. p. 13. )
I often feel that way. But, thanks to Jesus, I am changing. I am becoming, more and more, the kind of person I was meant to be.
“The Life You’ve Always Wanted” by John Ortberg is another one of those life-changing books for me. I’m reading parts of it again and God is using it again re-center me.
He says that his life changed completely when he realized that it wasn’t about ‘trying’ to be a good person or ‘trying’ to do the right thing. We can never do it on our own, by our own will-power. We’re not ‘trying’ . . . we’re ‘training’. We’re doing things to put ourselves in a position to be more and more the person Jesus is shaping us to be.
We can do this! It’s not as daunting as we’ve made it out to be! Are we becoming the person God created us to be? That’s what matters. Are we being transformed by Jesus? That’s the important thing. NOT “Was I a good Christian today?”