“I am not the person I used to be. I have changed.” I don’t know if you have ever heard someone say that before, but I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that expression offered by someone that had been incarcerated down in the Butler County Jail. Typically, those I visit are grateful to see me and although I do not go there to judge them, my presence is often a reminder that things need to change; things need to be different. So they often volunteer these words or sentiments like them, “I am not the same person I used to be. I have changed.” These words are usually followed up with a verbal commitment to attend our services upon their release. Unfortunately, I rarely if ever see them again.
Does that surprise you? Most of us would probably say, “No it doesn’t”. In fact, many would say, “I am not that naïve or gullible. Haven’t you heard you can’t teach an old dog new tricks or a leopard can’t change his spots?” I suspect that most people are skeptical toward people who claimed they have experienced significant change in life. I have found that most people today struggle to believe that that anyone can authentically change. Ask anyone’s opinion and thoughts on politicians, celebrities, athletes, musicians, lawyers, reporters, co-workers and family members and see what people think about their predetermined vices. They all have them don’t they?
What are the chances that the antics of Congress will change? Would we ever expect a celebrity’s marriage to last? Is the womanizing by athletes ever going to end? Is the substance abuse of musicians going to cease? Will lawyers stop lying? Can we imagine a day that the media no longer has a liberal bias and agenda? Will those slackers at work ever develop a strong work ethic? Will my mom, my dad, my son, my daughter, my brother, my sister, aunt, uncle or cousin ever stop hurting me?
For many today, wisdom is seen as learning to accept those internal struggles and circumstances that battle within us. We are all familiar with those cravings rooted within our flesh. These are those unholy and unhealthy appetites which characterize the fallen nature of man. Often, the goal is adjust to them and adapt to them for tying to fundamentally change them is seen as an impossibility because the die is cast, the lot is fixed, our personality is assigned and there is nothing we can do that will alter who we really are. Our culture declares, “That’s just the way it is. We must come to terms that we are who we are and there is nothing we can do about it.”
However, with all of this uncertainty and suspicion about the possibility of changing, there is still such a deep longing desire that people have to change. There is a restlessness about life’s experiences and the circumstances people face. We desire more than a life filled with self indulgence and vanity. Often, we find ourselves discontent. Therefore, the temptation is to change the things on the outside; we rearrange the furniture, paint the hallway or buy new clothes. If that doesn’t do we think about changing where we live, our jobs or even consider changing our spouse. In our society today, some even try to take on those fixed boundaries of sexuality and gender. But as these things run their course, it is not the change that is ultimately needed which leads people to despair and trapped without hope.
So are the cynics right? Is any real substantive change impossible for man to encounter?
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:17
The Bible makes it clear; this life includes real, deep, personal change in life when we are found in Christ.
Change is both needed and possible. The change that we need is a change from living guilty lives riddled in sin to forgiven lives of trust in Christ. To do this, we must repent of our sins and trust in Christ. Relying fully upon Him can only happen by God’s grace through the preaching of His Word. Down through the ages men and woman have continued to experience this great change. An African man named Augustine heard a child’s voice while weeping under in the yard saying, “Take up and read, take up and read.” Augustine, who had been living a disillusioned life, eyes immediately fell upon the writings of Paul found in Romans.
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Romans 13:11 – 14
Having read these words, Augustine got up a changed man. In fact it would be Augustine that coined such expressions as “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” “Jesus Christ is Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all,” and “there is a God- shaped whole in every person that only He can fill.” God through the ages has changed many other people. The list goes on and on. God has used many ways to get His Word out in order for men and women to place their trust in faith in Christ. There is a great change that the world desperately needs.
It is high time, to awake out of sleep. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.Repent and believe in the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
Filed under: Art of Living
