Tag Archives: transformed

GOD STILL SPEAKS…TRANSFORMED -2

Christian life, ,

Sunday, 1st 1956…the day God spoke…the day that changed me forever…but let me go back a few weeks. 

My dad has decided to sell our home but this entailed my family living in a hotel for three months while our new house was being built. 

My room in the hotel was at the back of the building, a small room with a window facing north. 

I was fifteen years old, a lonely teenager with few friends but… I had a deep emptiness inside that not even a friend could fill. 

One morning before school, in my desperation, I knelt at my bedside, with the warmth of the sun on my back, and I prayed. I had no idea how to pray so I prayed the only words I knew…the Lord’s Prayer. 

God was listening. He heard my heart, not my words. 

A few months later, the answer came…not in neon lights or a booming voice. It came at an Easter camp, organised for the young people in our area by the leaders of my church denomination…at a seaside resort, under canvas…rough and rustic. 

Our meeting place was a marquee tent…the floor, the field grass…our seating, rows of hard, uncomfortable chairs. Our preacher was a short man of Scandinavian origin, his subject taken from Isaiah 53. The title of his message was,”I wore my oldest shirt”!

It was Sunday, April 1…April Fools’ Day on the secular calendar but…not for me. I have no recollection of his sermon…not the words…not the content… not the point of what he said but… the Holy Spirit was drawing me. After the message, at the preacher’s invitation, I knelt on the rough field grass at my chair and allowed the Spirit to finish what He started. 

I don’t know what the Holy Spirit said. I don’t know what He did but…I stood up in that marquee tent a changed person. The deep inner loneliness was gone. In its place was a peace, a certainty that I was new inside, a joy that made no sense except that I knew I was a different person. 

The Bible tells me what had happened in those moments on my knees. 

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was “in Christ”.  I belonged to Jesus. I was a new person. My old life had gone. 

“Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” …Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬, ‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was born again…of the Holy Spirit. I was born into God’s kingdom. 

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬, ‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was alive. God raised me to new life from sin and death because of His mercy. He didn’t snuff me out because of my sin. Instead, He answered my prayer and made me His own beloved daughter. He gave me His love, His joy, and His peace…a lasting legacy that has never left me…not even in the darkest moments of my life…

Wow! Did I know it! I was so filled with joy that I could not stop talking about what God had done. 

Seventy years have come and gone since that day…seventy years of learning to follow Jesus…of failing, falling, and getting up again, wiping the dust off my knees, the guilt of my soul, and going on. 

In those seventy years, my story has many episodes, many times that God has spoken…in clear words…in my spirit, words that rebuked…explained…redirected…even forgave, comforted and reassured me after I  had fallen…hard…!

There are two promises I hold dear, promises that have steadied me in dark times…times of failure, loss, rejection, betrayal, deep hurt, and despair. 

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬-‭29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Nothing happens without God’s purpose…

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God always finishes what He started. 

And so, the journey into my new life began. Was I an “April Fool” on that day? A thousand times “No!”

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

“This famous quote comes from the American missionary Jim Elliot. He penned it in his journal in October 1949, years before he was martyred while attempting to share the gospel in Ecuador.” (Source: Google AI)

To be continued

MOLLY AND ME – GAZING

Christian Life, , ,

How many times does Molly lie on my lap and gaze intently at me, her little brown eyes fastened on my face with pure adoration shining from them!

Molly is now almost two years old, reckoned to be an adult in dog years. She still does naughty things sometimes.

I have been training her to come to me when I whistle for her. She has a habit of barking at the front gate when I take her out at night to carry out her inspection of the boundary walls for any stray geckoes that might still be around. She only responds to my whistle when she knows there’s a treat waiting for her when she presents herself to me inside the house.

She has learned that if she barks incessantly to annoy me, she’ll get a treat if she responds to my whistle! Now she has to un-learn that her naughtiness produces pleasant results.

However, no matter how naughty she is and how annoyed I get with her, I cannot resist that look of adoration in her eyes when she gazes at me.

In Psalm 27:4, 8, David expresses his desire to seek the face of God and to gaze at His beauty in His tabernacle.

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life , to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.

My heart says of you, “Seek His face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek.

Unlike me, whose face bears the marks of age and decay, the face of God (His nature in all its beauty) will never suffer the ravages of aging. Unlike Molly who will never look like me, when I gaze at (contemplate) the glory of the Lord, I am told in 2 Cor.4:18, I am being transformed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

Saul Moves To Centre Stage

Christian Life, ,

SAUL MOVES TO CENTRE STAGE

“All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master’s disciples, out for the kill. He went to the Chief Priest and got arrest warrants to take to the meeting places in Damascus so that if he found anyone there belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem.

“He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?’

“He said, ‘Who are you, Master?’

“‘I am Jesus, the One you are hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.'” Acts 9:1-6 (The Message).

Poor Saul! He had no chance against Jesus. All his intentions to do as much damage to the church as he could, went up in a puff of smoke when he came face to face with his opponent.

Saul’s passage into the kingdom was a stormy one. Unlike the other apostles, he was not given an opportunity to spend time with the Master, size Him up and reach his own conclusion about Him. Only a once-off, terrifying encounter with the glorified Lord would be enough to change his mind and his direction for the rest of his life.

Saul was a religious fanatic, a Pharisee and a rabbi trained under the best rabbis of his day. He was of the same persuasion as those who crucified Jesus and stoned Stephen. He was not the sort of material for a humble and obedient disciple in that state of mind. When Jesus chose His disciples to understudy Him and to continue His mission, He studiously avoided the religious types because they were the ones most difficult to convince.

But Jesus needed Saul. He had the qualities of a great champion. His superior mind and knowledge of the Scriptures had great potential for being a leader, even of those who lived with and followed Him. Only a personal meeting would convince the man that He was the Son of God.

Jesus waited until Saul had reached his destination.

By this time Saul had built up such a head of steam that he was ready to take on every person who dared admit to being part of this new “Way”. A blinding flash of light, a voice like thunder, and Saul finally got the message! Jesus was in charge, not Saul. He thought he had enough authority and power to stamp out what offended him, in the name of God, but he had taken on more than he had bargained for. He had pitted his puny strength against the Lord of glory and lost! It was time to lay down his arms.

Jesus always deals with people as unique individuals. He knows just what stands between us and Him and how to expose the core of our hearts. For the rich young ruler it was his money, for Peter it was his self-sufficiency and for Saul it was his religion.

What is in the centre of your being that takes the place of Jesus? He wants nothing less than all of you. From a self-righteous, over-zealous religious bigot, in one blinding flash of revelation, Saul became Paul, the love-slave of Jesus.

“But whatever was for my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own…” Philippians 3:-9a (NIV).