REAL 44 - THE CALL TO CHANGE By Graham Jones

THE CALL TO CHANGE

By Graham Jones 

Visit his website at www.gjm.org

Jesus is all about change! From the very outset Jesus came preaching repentance, which means change. Repentance is to turn from one thing to another, to stop looking at things from a human perspective and begin to look from above, to look from God’s viewpoint. In the sermon on the Mount Jesus said five times:

“You have heard it say this………But I say to you this…..”

Jesus does not call us to reformation, he calls us to transformation. He calls us on a journey to “follow me,” he calls us out of one life into another. We can only communicate God’s transformational power to others when we have experienced it ourselves. We can only communicate God’s transformative power to others to the measure that we have experienced it ourselves.

I believe that the most important key to our experiencing change, is for us to understand that God never changes. In an ever-changing world, it is hard for us to grasp to reality of an eternal God who is constant, consistent and unchanging. The church world has portrayed a God who never seems to be sure what he thinks and feels about us. When we are uncertain of who God is and how he sees us, we quickly reach a ceiling in our capacity to embrace transformation. Religion says that God’s relationship with us depends on our performance. The bible says that God’s relationship with us depends on his faithfulness and his unchanging character.

2 Timothy 2:13

If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

We need to embed this glorious truth in our hearts that God is our rock, he never wavers in his love and commitment to us. Jesus does not love us based on our performance or growth. God loves us based on his character and faithfulness.

THE OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE

There is both an objective and subjective part to our walk with Jesus. To walk by faith is to walk in the objective word of God which never changes. When we walk by faith we walk on something that is more solid than the ground on which we stand;

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

There is also a subjective part to our relationship with God. We do not have a relationship with a God who lives by impersonal principles like the laws of physics. We walk with the bridegroom God who wants to woo and romance us with his passionate love. We have a warm Father who delights to know us and like any good father loves spending time with his children.

GLORIOUS CERTAINTY

The key to walking out these two realities is to recognize that both are true. God is unchanging in his character, his faithfulness, his values and his word; and yet his is capable of applying all of those unchanging realities to each individual person and in each individual circumstance in a way that is personal, precious and unique.

He invites you today to know him, to rest in absolute certainly about who he is and how he feels about you. He invites you to explore his glorious personality, to place a demand on the truth you know and see it blossom into experience. He invites you to climb aboard the glorious rollercoaster ride that is life in the Spirit, to lean not on your own understanding and dance on the water with him.

Respond, enjoy, explore, delight.