STEPS TO GOD 7: TRANSFORMED!

 

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Hello Friends: 

     We have today pictures and examples of transformation. You’ll see pictures of people and things that look normal at first. But after a life-changing alteration by an outside force, they were completely transformed into superheroes to save the world. Most of you will readily recognize Clark Kent transformed into Superman. 

     The second is a picture of the Transformer toy and comic book/movie character, Optimus Prime. Instead of explaining what a Transformer toy is, for those of you who don’t know, I put the link of a very humorous YouTube video about an automatic transformation of the Optimus Prime Transformer. I hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0SEYM9jHVg

     The title of my Soulwinnersr.us post is obvious. It’s "Steps to God 7: Transformed!" You will likely say to me that in no way can the transformation of a person be as dramatic as the transformation of Clark Kent into Superman, or a non-descript semi-truck into Optimus Prime. I’m here to say, however, that it’s exponentially greater than both!
     Many of us have the false notion that to become a Christian is to accede to becoming a boring person, or even a “bore”. I think that many churches have made becoming a Christian non-attractive by their rules and traditions. The church’s, I’ll call, “four-wall mentality” of being “God’s House” is archaic and quite frankly untrue. The church is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit living inside of us individually and collectively, not inside the four walls of a church building. Another truth is that God is just waiting to unlock creativity, passion, friendship, and love within us that we never thought possible.
     I’m not talking about manufactured excitement that many of us think about when we think of a church that is “alive”. I’m talking about deep and profound mental insight that we never had before. Paul encouraged in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed by this age, but transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
     What happens when you and I are transformed by the renewing of our minds. I’ll list some examples:

1. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.” Imagine us being transformed to becoming a light on a hill, that can’t be hidden, that others are able to follow, and navigate by!
2. Paul said in Ephesians 2:7, “He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” We aren’t subject to just a little bit of grace and love, but grace and love that is so huge that it can’t even be measured.
3. Jesus said in John 15:15, “I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.” Jesus isn’t withholding any blessing or insight from us. He’s making known “everything” He heard directly from God.
4. Lastly, Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:16-21 about the great transformative power and love God gives us through Jesus, “I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

     All I can say is, “WOW!" Does that sound like a dull and limiting existence, or an exciting and limitless experience? Also, the transformative power we have as Christians is not only for our own benefit, but also to transform us into superheroes to save our world!
     This is my final Steps to God post. I pray that you found them meaningful. I keep joking with my wife that I’m going downstairs to make my “un-viral video”. That’s OK. My goal in the first place for my Soulwinnersr.us website wasn’t for my videos to become viral. I make the videos to motivate myself first, and perhaps encourage a few others along the way, to join me in the exciting adventure of soulwinning.

See you next time,
Arlen