- How many Christian counselors does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one, but the light bulb has to WANT to change. - How many preachers does it take to change a light bulb?
One. He holds the bulb while the world revolves around him. - How many TV evangelists does it take to change a light bulb?
One. But for the light to continue, send in your donation now! - How many theologians does it take to change a light bulb?
Three, but they're really one…no, it's three. - How many elders does it take to change a light bulb?
CHANGE?? That bulb doesn’t need changing.
Personal change is even more unsettling. When it comes to things like doing a better job at controlling our temper, finally kicking the nicotine habit, doing better with diet or exercise or spending more time reading the Bible, we often want to hide behind excuse like “I can’t help it” or “Hey, that is just the way that I am.” Or if we try to sound more pious, we may say, “That’s just not my spiritual gift.” But changing and being changed is one of the fundamental truths of Christianity. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:3). He said, “Unless you are converted and become like children” (Matt 18:3, NAS). The idea behind “repent” and “convert” are the same-- change.
My reading this morning was from Jeremiah 35. Here God uses the example of the Recabites to spur and motivate unfaithful Judah. The Recabites were a nomadic clan that descended Jonadab, who charged his family to not drink wine or live in houses. They had followed that charge. The Recabites followed their ancestors command, but Judah would not follow God (Jer 35:13-14). Here is the part of the reading that stuck from this morning—“Each of you must stop doing evil. You must change and be good. Do not follow other gods to serve them. If you obey me, you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” (35:15, NCV). That is how God sums up the message of the prophets to Judah—“Stop doing evil… change and be good.”
Sounds pretty simple. The message of the prophets was “change.” We must forever remain clay that is soft and malleable; we must be wineskins that can expand and stretch. Change is rarely pleasant. But it is what God constantly calls us to do.
3 comments:
Who paid for said light bulb, how much will it cost, if we leave it on 24 hours a day will it last longer and how will it effect our glob that warming and will that poor poor polar bear ever find a place to rest or will he just have to keep swimming an swimming forever and ever?
So many believe that just because that is the way it has been in their lifetime, then it is the “rules” that God put into place and; therefore, any variation of what they are used to, is a violation of God’s order of things. Jesus asked the invalid in John 5, “Do you want to get well”. The man didn’t answer, but instead started making excuses. Do we resemble that man? We must ask ourselves, “do we really want to change?” Knowing Jesus means constant change in order to: “…participate in his divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 1:5-8
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The goal is to make every effort to posses these qualities in increasing measure, not just once and then declare ourselves righteous. For all of these are action steps that keep us malleable. These are actions that bring about the necessary changes in us to become more and more like our savior. For as it states in the very next verse: 2 Peter 1:9 But, if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. The tragedy with denial (excuse making) is the fantasy world it creates. We become like Judah and don’t recognize our evil and therefore, don’t see the need to change. Obedience by seeking the above qualities will help us grow in the knowledge of our Savior. Positive growth promotes positive change.
wow Clifford is like an old oak tree (full of acorns) reaching out with new growth, a little wordy perhaps but very rich in content, no dead wood, no excesses there. . . Ops I meant to say excuses but that to. . . (I’ve been watching to much Iron chef lately) me thinks maybe it time me cut back..
“Life isn’t easy, life is a struggle, nothing worthwhile is ever easy.” staying right were we are doing things the way we always have is a one way ticket to atrophy and stagnation, if you can move, move if you can change, change. Everyone will stay within the legal countrified boundaries of the new Jerusalem and not worship at the ‘alter of the bitch goddess of tolerance’. Let us not become a part of the phenomenon called “ontological individualism” Is it tomorrow already, I have been learning how to fly and if there is one thing I learned in the simulator it is that when you begin to make a change there is a delay before you see the results of your actions and your actions will continue to effect your craft for sometime after you have changed your actions. If you are flying a fighter worry about under compensating. Wow, there is so much to learn and so little at stake when you are in a virtual world but virtualality does have it’s uses and does serve a purpose in reality does it not? Give us a good excuse to exercise our skills and develop our senses, if we don’t lose a grip on the reality of the value of our time spent and resources spent there. . . yehaawww. . . . Some mothers instinctively know that changing a child’s environment moving things around in the nursery often etc. will help the child develop and cope with the ever changing environments most of us must face in the real world. Just don’t get to crazy with it, the security of the same old same old with all its familiarness can be comforting sometimes but don’t force it and bind it on us with the excuse that it is a requirement for our own good, just because you want too be in your old comfort zone. Comfort for comforts sake is very selfish if you are the only one being comforted and demanding it as others are in need of it. . . Did I just say that?
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