Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” ~ Psalm 40:3

We often talk of change; some change is viewed as progress while some is viewed as something that should be avoided altogether. It is interesting how we believe others should change or need to change but we don’t need to. David Bowie sang about change and the lyrics from his song go; “time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” Do the lyrics mean I cannot find the time to change or time does not really change us or I cannot change because I cannot trace the source of change? Maybe Bowie was asking all of these questions or maybe he was just like the rest of us; looking for an excuse or a rationalization not to change. Many times we think others need to change first or that the world or our environment needs to change and once that happens we will make the necessary changes. There is no denying that we change over time. Some of the change is subtle and may go unnoticed, but some change is so radical that it cannot help but make people look twice.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines change as; to make different in some particular: alter; to make radically different; transform; to give a different position, course or direction to; to exchange for an equivalent; to undergo a modification of; to put fresh clothes or covering on. Each of these definitions are descriptions the Apostle Paul uses to describe the change that takes place in someone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. As an example Paul uses the description of changing our “spiritual clothing” to describe putting on the new man and putting off the old in both Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10. This putting on of the new man has a source; “after the image of it’s creator”. We are expected to change, but this change is not something that happens as a “one-time-deal” but it is change that is on-going and never stagnant or idle. It is a change that requires continual effort, action and focus. There is no “let go and let God” aspect of the change that God expects of us in our spiritual growth.

I have been reading the Oswald Chambers classic “My Utmost for His Highest” which is a daily devotional book with short, but thought provoking one page challenges. The March 21st entry is titled “Identified or Simply Interested?” Chambers quotes Galatians 2:20 and focuses on the portion that reads; “I have been crucified with Christ…” He states; “The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said I have been crucified with Christ….” He did not say, “I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,” or “I will really make an effort to follow Him”—but—“I have been identified with Him in His death.” Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the Cross is accomplished in me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.”

Chambers goes on to say; “…it is no longer I who live….” My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed. “…and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh—the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God…” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son of God have given him (see Ephesians 2:8).”

Apparently I needed to hear messages about change because as I was driving to Charleston this weekend I was tuned into “Walk in the Word” with James McDonald and he as speaking about “Convicted about Change” from Ephesians 4:17-24. He started out by saying; Call me naïve but I am convinced that when we hear God’s Word taught and recognize the gap between our conduct and what it says that we make changes.” He said our attitude towards being changed by the Gospel should not be; I hope so, I think so or I want to, but I have made up my mind and I have determined. He went on to say that we need to learn what God’s Word says and align ourselves with it so we are not making our decisions in the heat of the moment.

McDonald said he did not want to believe what some studies have said; that the average professing Christian is no different from his unsaved counterpart. He pointed out from Ephesians 4 that Paul contrasts our life before we accepted Jesus Christ to what it should be now, and that alone should be our motivation to change. Paul talks the downward spiral of an unchanged life and in verse 17 the contrast about how we used to think; in a trivial or futile manner. We tried to find happiness through career advancement, money, power and pleasure rather than in God. In verse 18 Paul mentions the godless outlook of rebellion we have apart from Christ. Or better stated; we had no unprompted thoughts about God. In verse 19 we had a moral callousness or we had no guilt or conviction over things that once bothered us. Finally Paul points out the final stage of this downward spiral; God gives us over to our consuming passion or an absence of moral restraint. The same type of idea he talks about in Romans 1 where the mindset is; “if it feels good then do it.”

Do we remember what our life was like before we accepted Jesus Christ? Do we remember the emptiness, unhappiness and futility of our lives? Do we want to be different and do we want to change? Do we think we are "all that and a bag of chips" and we do not need to make on-going changes or grow? When we really want to change we do not care if others know or what they think. All we care about is being teachable and making the changes that are prompted by God’s Word and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Time and faith can change us, and when we stand before God we will need to acknowledge that He can trace time. It’s time to make the change…

"All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” ~ Isaiah 66:2