We Need a Savior
No one is born a good person or innocent. If we were, we wouldn't need a savior, but we do. Clearly, just by witnessing the state of the world in 2019, we need a savior.
We could disagree on who or what will save the world, but on the current path, the world is in trouble.
I believe Jesus is the savior, not because I think He is going to change everyone else, but because He is literally changing me. The person I am in 2019 is very different than the person I was in 2009, and even more so, the person I was in 1999. I can say with clarity that Jesus has humbled me, taken me out of my self centeredness, focused me on learning to love others by drawing near to the source of love. He has taught me patience and self control. I still have a race to run, but I am on my way.
I wasn't born this way. You don't have to hang out with very many two-year-olds to see mankind doesn't come out selfless and humble. We come out demanding our own way, mostly self focused... Our own little gods....
You can teach a kid to control their behavior, but you can't change a kid's heart. Adults are the same. The rebellion that corrupted every person's heart was introduced at the fall of mankind. There is only one thing, in my experience, that washes that corruption clean: the power of Jesus' love and direction made possible by His sacrificial death and a person embracing their need for a savior.
I am not done, and God isn't done, with the renewal of my personality, but I know it works. If God could change me, He can change anyone.
The problem with modern Christianity is that we are almost completely convinced that God needs to change everyone else. That flies in the face of Christianity itself. Once you get in a relationship with Jesus, the resurrection program, Jesus' voluntary remediation program, begins:
Matthew 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Jesus isn't gathering the righteous from the earth...He's gathering the repentant, and, as they CONTINUE to repent, He is making them ready to live voluntarily loving, patient, kind, and faithful forever. He is making the broken, willing, honest, and humble into the righteous.
Last night I got to share a part of my testimony with some friends and strangers. Everyone's testimony of God changing them is different, because everyone is different. Your rebellion might not be as evident as mine is, but you still have it. Everyone comes with it. Meeting Jesus begins the process. It takes a lifetime to be changed.
If you don't have a testimony of God changing you from rebel into righteous, then He hasn't and isn't! For real. If Jesus didn't find you in need of a physician, and isn't actively prescribing you new remedies, He still hasn't found you.
Rebellion comes in a multitude of shapes and sizes. What is your testimony? What is your hope?
Today, I am looking forward to hearing more testimonies from friends that Jesus is changing. They aren't going to be talking about how everyone else needs to change, but how they are changing.
This is what following Jesus really is: Not pointing the finger at everyone you think should do the thing your signed up to do, but doing that thing yourself... Rending the heart so that anyone else who wants to be changed can see it's possible.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
Revelation 12:11“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
We could disagree on who or what will save the world, but on the current path, the world is in trouble.
I believe Jesus is the savior, not because I think He is going to change everyone else, but because He is literally changing me. The person I am in 2019 is very different than the person I was in 2009, and even more so, the person I was in 1999. I can say with clarity that Jesus has humbled me, taken me out of my self centeredness, focused me on learning to love others by drawing near to the source of love. He has taught me patience and self control. I still have a race to run, but I am on my way.
I wasn't born this way. You don't have to hang out with very many two-year-olds to see mankind doesn't come out selfless and humble. We come out demanding our own way, mostly self focused... Our own little gods....
You can teach a kid to control their behavior, but you can't change a kid's heart. Adults are the same. The rebellion that corrupted every person's heart was introduced at the fall of mankind. There is only one thing, in my experience, that washes that corruption clean: the power of Jesus' love and direction made possible by His sacrificial death and a person embracing their need for a savior.
I am not done, and God isn't done, with the renewal of my personality, but I know it works. If God could change me, He can change anyone.
The problem with modern Christianity is that we are almost completely convinced that God needs to change everyone else. That flies in the face of Christianity itself. Once you get in a relationship with Jesus, the resurrection program, Jesus' voluntary remediation program, begins:
Matthew 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Jesus isn't gathering the righteous from the earth...He's gathering the repentant, and, as they CONTINUE to repent, He is making them ready to live voluntarily loving, patient, kind, and faithful forever. He is making the broken, willing, honest, and humble into the righteous.
Last night I got to share a part of my testimony with some friends and strangers. Everyone's testimony of God changing them is different, because everyone is different. Your rebellion might not be as evident as mine is, but you still have it. Everyone comes with it. Meeting Jesus begins the process. It takes a lifetime to be changed.
If you don't have a testimony of God changing you from rebel into righteous, then He hasn't and isn't! For real. If Jesus didn't find you in need of a physician, and isn't actively prescribing you new remedies, He still hasn't found you.
Rebellion comes in a multitude of shapes and sizes. What is your testimony? What is your hope?
Today, I am looking forward to hearing more testimonies from friends that Jesus is changing. They aren't going to be talking about how everyone else needs to change, but how they are changing.
This is what following Jesus really is: Not pointing the finger at everyone you think should do the thing your signed up to do, but doing that thing yourself... Rending the heart so that anyone else who wants to be changed can see it's possible.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
Revelation 12:11“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
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