It is an interesting thing to see God at work.
No, I’m not talking about the Earth spinning at over a 1000 miles per hour while traveling around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour inside a Solar System that’s blistering along at 558,000 miles per hour within the Milky Way; although that’s pretty impressive.
Pretty impressive? No….amazingly impressive? No….I having a problem coming up with the right adjective here. Astounding? Astonishing? Incredible? Miraculous?
Incredibly miraculous?
Sorry, I got sidetracked.
It is an interesting thing to see God at work.
What could that mean? Well, it could mean lots of different things. What would it mean to my neighbor across the street? The lady that cleans the office? The Eskimo that looks up at the Northern Lights? The homeless man starring at his last few quarters? The mother as she looks upon her newborn baby?
What does it mean to me to see God at work?
What does God look like when He is changing a person? How does that person reflect his Maker while God is changing him? If God was changing a person, how would that person react to the change? Would he fight it or would he embrace it? Would he struggle with the change or adapt to his new features?
If God were changing a person, how now would that person look to others who knew him before God started changing him? Would they see a change in that person? Would they talk among themselves about how this person, whom they thought they knew, was now radically different than he used to be? Would they have to ask the person what was going on or would that person be bursting with excitement from the change? Would they beg the person to tell them what’s different or would that person be so burdened with the change as to tell them before they asked?
Hmmm.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
A brother in Christ shared with me today those very words as if they were just profoundly spoken by the Lord Himself to him personally. This brother in Christ is actually fairly new to the faith although he has pretty much grown up in church. I’ve known this person for more than 17 years and had seen him baptized well more than a decade ago. But something happened. He realized a short while back that he was lost. He came to the realization that he was not born-again as Jesus said one must be to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He realized that Christ did not come 2000 years ago to condemn him, but rather, he was condemned already. He came to a very personal realization that his sins did more than just separate him from God, his sins condemned him to a real hell for the punishment of those sins. He recently repented of his sins and now has his trust in Christ to save him from God’s wrath on the Day of Judgment.
But, even more than that, he is working out his salvation until it will be made complete when he leaves this world for his home with the King of glory. It’s an incredibly miraculous change that is evident to all who know him.
Now those words of John 14:6 mean something very personal to him. In fact, they are more than just words; it’s a narrow path that leads to his Savior.
Yes, it is an interesting thing to see God at work.
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5 comments:
Some of the passages we are most used to take on a new profundity for us when we see the impact they have on others.
Yes, thats very true D.P.
Will he realize the same thing in another 10 years and need to do this again?
Or will he be equipped to know that Jesus loves him and he isn't viewed by his sins anymore, but by the way God sees him, as a saint?
Encouragement is a thing that is sometimes greatly missed in one's walk. And when we walk, sometimes we fall.
Hoping that he realizes how God sees him and not how he (or others) see him is the most important thing. Someone to be loved. Tough to believe that about yourself if the only thing you seem to hear is how you are a sinner and you sin.
But then again, I've seen the same type of thing and wonder where we as a body are not acting like a body, but a bunch of individuals.
A preacher called Sam Chadwick (1860-1932) once commented 'Every church needs a Lazarus'. By this he meant some one that God has been 'at work' on so much - that their life of crime, violence and aggression is transformed into a life that glorifies God. When this happens the whole neighbourhood will gather in church to find out what has happened.
I have seen a number of tough hardened drug addicts come to Christ and be healed of addiction. To me there is nothing more exciting than this absolute proof that God is at work.
I helped one such drug addict (Dave)to enter into a relationship with God, when he was on his death bed. The following morning a distraught colleague was sobbing because of the state of this man's body. He turned round to her and said 'I will pray for you that you may have peace.'
You see over night this hard (sometimes brutal man) had grown the fruit of the Spirit of supernatural love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. I would even go as far as saying that Dave was more alive on his death bed than ever he had been before!
I have no doubts that Dave is now in Glory!
You are right - there is nothing so wonderful as seeing God at work!!
God bless you Wayne
Yes I accidently missed out 'peace' in my listing of the fruit of the Spirit. Dave quite clearly had a supernatural peace about him as he died - and this is because he knew through giving his life to Jesus and repenting of his sin, that he was at peace with God.
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