Transformation to Proclamation

      I started reading a new book tonight.  It's about becoming free to be the people we were meant to be in terms of who God is making us.  Quite the process, as anyone who has known Him for more than a day or two can readily attest. After reading a chapter, I found myself talking to Jesus, admitting  to Him that I feel like a failure and a fraud often.  I told Him that, and He responded, surprisingly, "Do you believe that I Am and I have died for you?"  "Yes, Lord, I do." "Then," He replied, "It would seem that you would need to change your opinion to line up with fact, wouldn't it?"

     Jesus' words to me took me somewhat aback. We - in this country - have been raised in our culture of being told to "trust your gut"  and rely on one's feelings in every conceivable situation. And like it or not, growing up in this culture, Christians are not immune from this cultural mandate - growing up with it as we do.  And unfortunately not all churches teach Jesus' message that contradicts the "way of the world."  Particularly when we have had a history of being an "outsider," or abused, even though we may have known Jesus for some years on this earth, it's sometimes still difficult for us to get our feelings to line up with the facts.

      What Jesus was telling me, in his simple, yet somewhat jarring and straight-forward manner, was that how one feels about themselves, really has little relevance to the truth of the situation, particularly about how we are seen by Him and are accepted "into the beloved," having a place and a purpose among the called (which we are if we've taken Jesus at His word and accepted His death on the cross as payment which we couldn't make for our own sins).

      While feelings are good to acknowledge, they can, if we put our trust in them over Jesus' words, replace truth with a dangerous lie - a lie that can take away our potential as individual faithful Christ-followers or go so far as to send one - or an entire culture  (including entire "Christian" denominations!)  down to destruction as they listen to the culture's politically correct edicts while turning a deaf ear to the truth of our Lord's voice.

      The bottom line in all this is found in Scripture - the book of Romans, to be exact. It says this: 

      "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is  - His good, pleasing and perfect will."  (Rom. 12: 2). 

     Imagine the otherwise unimaginable that could happen when each individual follower of Jesus Christ sees him or herself, not as the world sees, but with the seed of Christ IN US -TRANSFORMED - by daily walking and talking with Jesus. Following our Shepherd's voice and ignoring the noisy voices from elsewhere in this world -  will speak to our self-doubts and false feelings that tell us we're not good enough, we're failures, frauds and more.  When we are listening to HIS directions and are ourselves set free (Jn. 8:32, 36) of the lies we have believed,   then we move from transformation to proclamation - when we proclaim the truth of this freedom through forgiveness of sin to those around us!

      What will that take? We all need to pray and decide that for ourselves - some may need to "unplug" from listening to other messages, or to the culture of the world around us;  even "good" music, talk, TV - anything listened to all the time may become the "noise" that keeps us from listening to the voice of our Savior!  I know I'm talking to myself as well as anyone, and it is not easy in this "plugged in" generation!  But the ultimate question is do we want what Jesus has for us more than what this world has to offer? And the next question: Are we willing to do what it will take to show the hopeless world around us the better way of life in and with Christ?  We will be when we let Christ transform us,  but remember - transformation is a process that will take our whole lives.  As with most good things in life, the "right time" will never happen if we wait for everything - or ourselves - to be perfect. God doesn't expect perfection because that will never happen this side of Heaven - but as we walk attentively and doing our best to be obedient to His directions - subtle and nudging or more overt - our lives and our lips will proclaim the truth of Jesus to an unsuspecting world.

     With transformed lives and words that proclaim life in Jesus, lead us, Lord!