Friday, August 19, 2011

Everywhere there is change

Let's explore today the notion of change as it applies to our salvation, our hope The Bible is extremely clear that God is unchangable. “I the LORD do not change," scriptures tell us in Malachi. Get that notion through your hard head. God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore, as it tells us.


But, and it's an extremely big but...we must change. God doesn't change. We must change. That's the idea of today as the sun climbs over the horizon.

God has, from time to time, looked upon us and decided things needed to be different. God's Message came to Haggai on the day the Temple rebuilding was launches: "I am about to shake up everything, to turn everything upside down and start over from top to bottom -- overthrow governments, destroy foreign powers, dismantle the world of weapons and armaments, throw armies into confusion so that they end up killing one another."

When Jesus came, bringing with him the idea of a new covenant, he walked into our lives saying we all needed to not only change but to be reborn at that. "He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Then in one of the most expressive of statements about change, we have this: 4"How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"
5-6Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit."

Decades after Jesus was resurrected and then ascended into heaven, Paul taught his followers, "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."

Change. Change. Change. Everywhere we look there is change. I-Pad comes out, everyone catches the way and produces their own tablets and Apple comes out with I-Pad 2. Change. Change. Change.

There's almost no way around the idea that we are afraid of change for the most part. This story illustrates that: When the railroads were first introduced to the U.S., some folks feared that they'd be the downfall of the nation! Here's an excerpt from a letter to then President Jackson dated January 31, 1829:  As you may know, Mr. President, 'railroad' carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by 'engines' which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed. Martin Van Buren Governor of New York.

What change are you afraid of? What change has kept you from reaching your true destiny, your true calling from God? What change has you excited? What change has you depressed?

Change can be terrifying, and it can be comforting.

A man from the back mountains of Tennessee found himself one day in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman marched smartly off. The father hollered to his youngest son, "Billy, go get mother." (Source unknown)

That's change you can find hope in, huh?
 

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