Yes, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and drunkards and outcasts.
Here’s the thing, though – by the time Jesus was finished with these people, they weren’t prostitutes or drunkards or outcasts anymore.
Jesus came to transform people, not indulge them. Christianity is about surrender, not comfort. We are to align ourselves with his standard, not the other way around.
He is intangible and invisible. But His work is more powerful than the most ferocious wind. The Spirit brings order out of chaos and beauty out of ugliness. He can transform a sin-blistered man into a paragon of virtue. The Spirit changes people. The Author of life is also the Transformer of life.
There’s a part of all of us that longs to know that even what’s weakest about us is still redeemable and can ultimately count for something good.
When we’re filled with the Spirit, He leaves no room for anything else. No anger, no fear, no competition. If it doesn’t belong to Him we won’t find it in us. Sometimes people try to get rid of everything else before they let Him in, but if we let ourselves be filled first, He’ll raise those things to the surface and make it a lot easier to get them out.
March 21, 2020
My grandmother came to know Christ in her seventies. A decade after her death, I was given her bible. I was blessed to discover the following note she wrote concerning 1 John 1:9 – “But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” My grandmother gave herself some sage advice. “Self, Jesus forgives you. And I forgive you too.” Perhaps, you need to follow my grandmother’s advice as well. Forgive yourself and remind yourself daily that you are a new creation through Christ Jesus. The old man is dead, long live the new creature.
February 4, 2020
Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.
We stand at the water’s edge of society, yelling at the objects of our Kingdom mission to clean themselves before we can come any closer. This is not Christian love, and as such it is neither winsome nor effective. Sadly, Christians who engage in this deficient love are often puzzled as to why their witness, which is defined by avoidance and contempt, is proving insufficient.
Christianity is a power religion. Christ has the power to recreate men from the inside out, as every man who has ever met Him knows.
When we choose to forgive the victory is attainable. When bad things happen, good CAN come out of it! Romans 8:28 declares it is so! My life declares it is so and I am not alone in that statement. So many people have looked evil in the face and said, “I will find good in this.” Sometimes the evil and bad things are changed or converted or whatever and sometimes it is us that is changed. But ALL things work for good and can bring about change for the good.
One night alone in prayer might make us new men, changed from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to triumphing.