TRANSFORMING THURSDAY - become the living, breathing "BE-ATTITUDES"
- become LIGHT in a world of darkness
- become SALT to a world who needs to taste something GOOD
- become LOVE...even to our enemies
The definition of transFORMation is:
- a very noticeable change in form or shape or appearance
- measureable change
- a marked change in apppearance or character, usually for the better
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It sure seems that JESUS believes that for each of us transFORMation is possible! In fact, Matthew 5, 6, and 7 ends by telling us what the people who heard CHRIST'S sermon thought about it. Matthew 7:28-29 says, "The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority..." He was telling them that transFORMation was possible!
I love it when I hear that at the Pitman church of Christ "they really know how to love" OR "we love each other - warts and all!" I saw that played out this week when a local high school chose to give us over 60 bags of groceries to deliver to those in need because the Pitman church of Christ is known for it's love and good deeds!
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What are you individually known for? What form has your love been taking lately?
- Is it patient?
- Is it kind?
- Is it jealousy free?
- Does it brag on others instead of self?
- Does it act with grace?
- Does it seek the best for others?
- Is it irritation free?
- Does it turn wrongs suffered into more of a reason to love?
- Does it rejoice in righteousness?
- Does it rejoice with the truth?
- Does it bear all things?
- Does it believe all things?
- Does it hope all things?
- Does it endure all things?
Have you been feeling like a failure lately? 1 Corinthians 13 says that "Love never fails! But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. "
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How is it that when people TESTIFY TO LOVE that they bring up your name in the same sentence? How does this kind of noticeable transFORMation happen? I do not believe that it is by making a list and saying, "Okay, my goal is to love more!"
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Another of my very favorite scriptures is 2 Corinthians 3, 4, and 5. It speaks to the source of transFORMation:
"You are...known and read by all men...you are a letter of Christ,,,written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. 4 And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God...Having therefore such a hope...Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."
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Look in the mirror, sister...I see you transFORMing...little by little...letting GOD do His work...allowing Him to change you from the inside out...I see JESUS in my sisters more and more...look in the mirror, sister...you TESTIFY TO LOVE!
Today, Terry Rush has posted some thoughts along the same lines...a quick read that will be an added blessing: http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2008/12/alert-to-growing-in-christ.html
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1 comment:
Thank you, Patti! I needed this post. I woke up with the same thoughts of Love in my head this morning! I can feel God working and that is a joyous, scary thing. Thank you for the blessing of you!
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