Change (Re-Post)
November 6th, 2009
There was once two brothers that had their own families, homes, and where partners in a fishing business. They were living the dream. Everything was fine until one Man changed it all. Everything they had worked so hard for, for so many years, had been diminished by one man and two words. That man’s name was Yahsuah (Jesus), and the two words were simply…FOLLOW ME. The two men were of course…Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew. These men’s lives had been so drastically changed in an instant, yet they had no idea just how much their lives would change in the journey that they were about to endure.
It is amazing to read about men like Peter and watch them as they grow. The Peter we read about in the gospels is, by far, not the same Peter we read about in Acts and the letters. This man is most defiantly not the same as he was the day Jesus first met him in that boat. He came from one who was constantly being rebuked by Jesus, he was called out as Satin at one point(Mark 8:33), completely denied Christ three times (Mark 14:66-72), to a man who was so full of God that his very shadow would fall upon the sick and they would be healed (Acts 5:16). He was transformed from little ol’ Simon the fisherman to a mighty man of God named Peter. When Peter writes in first Peter chapter four verse two “so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God”, he is not giving instruction about something that he learned about in seminary; he is testifying from a life of change that he himself had come to experience and understand.
Peter is just one of hundreds we find in scripture that had been completely flipped upside down when they encountered The Living God; in fact, I cannot recall one single person in the bible, there may be…I just can’t think of any, which continued living the same old life they once lived after being called out by our Lord. Abraham left everything to follow God, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David…the list goes on and on. Every one of them were taken from the lives they were used to and comfort of the familiar, to an adventure that completely and utterly transformed them unto faithful servants of The Most High. God is in the changing business my friends. This is what He does. He is holy, righteous, and just. He is so completely other, and he wants nothing more than to change us into His likeness.
I know it is popular to believe that the day we became believers God preformed this supernatural surgery on us, and that somehow made us like him, but that is not even remotely realistic. I am not talking about heaven or hell here. I am talking about no longer being the self righteous, self centered, angry, abusive, God hating, world loving, sons of Adam. No matter how hard we try within ourselves to be anything else, we will still have this vessel we call flesh, thus failing in our efforts. Sure, with a great effort, we can change some old habits we may have, but at the end of the day we will still be Simon the fisherman. We can become bible scholars and do our very best to live out our interpretation of what God says in the scriptures, but our best efforts will only fabricate us to become Scribes and Pharisees, and we all know what Christ thought about them. The world doesn’t call them Scribes and Pharisees today, they call them hypocrites and religious nuts. In fact, disciples in the New Testament never called themselves Christians as we do today; they were called that by the world who believed that they were “like Christ”.
God knew that we could never live up to his standards on our own. That is why he came to this earth and put on this flesh of man. He came to illuminate in man the very righteousness of God, so that we may have the example to follow. Jesus also knew that even His example alone would not be enough for us to be like the Father, so He died and went back to the Father, so the Holy Spirit could come and live IN us, thus empowering His disciples to walk even as He walked. Jesus did not say that He is going back to the Father so he can send His Holy Scriptures to us that it may lead us unto all truth. He said He was leaving so that the Holy Spirit can come, thus taking Their abode inside of us and leading us unto all Truth (Jhn 16:13)-I would encourage everyone to read John 14-16 where Jesus speaks a great deal on this matter-. God wants to come and Live inside of you and I so He can change us into His likeness. This is a process that can only happen when believers become living sacrifices and allow God to make us holy and expectable unto Himself (Rom 12:1). This is the only way that it is possible to be like Christ. This is what empowered Peter to become the mighty man of God he was. This is what will empower you and I to manifest our loving and all mighty King to a world which is in great need of such a King.
Are we calling ourselves Christian or is the world giving us such a name because of what they see in us? Are we true disciples, if so then all that we are and everything around us will continually be changing? Every day, month, and year we will be less of what we were and more like the indwelling Spirit of God. So, in conclusion, let us freely welcome the change from the God who does not want to leave us the way we are, and with a grateful hearts, give praise to a God who, He Himself, never changes.