Time for a Change!
By Beyond Today Magazine managing editor,
Scott Ashley
Here in America the presidential nomination
process is in full swing as voters choose
which candidates will lead their parties in
the November elections.
As with most political campaigns, a common
refrain is “It’s time for a change!”
And it certainly is.
Clearly many citizens are fed up and want
and demand change.
We couldn’t agree more.
Yet the change people need most is one that
few really contemplate—and that’s the
need to change themselves as God desires.
Most people don’t really think a lot about
God.
And those who do generally think they’re
okay in His eyes.
But is that really the case?
When Jesus of Nazareth began His ministry,
He came to a people who believed in God and
generally thought they lived in a way pleasing
to Him.
But it clearly wasn’t enough.
What did He tell them?
Notice in Mark 1:14-15: “Jesus came to Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (emphasis
added throughout).
Likewise, on the day of Pentecost when the
Church was miraculously founded, notice what
Peter told the assembled crowd: “Repent,
and let every one of you be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins; and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
The account continues, “And with many other
words he testified and exhorted them, saying,
‘Be saved from this perverse generation’”
(verse 40).
The messages of Jesus Christ and Peter echo
God’s urging through the prophet Isaiah
seven centuries earlier: “Seek the LORD
while He may be found, call upon Him while
He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD,
and He will have mercy on him; and to our
God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah
55:6-7).
Notice the many commands in these few verses:
Repent—believe in the gospel—be baptized—be
saved from this perverse generation—seek
the LORD—call upon Him—let the wicked
forsake his way—return to the LORD.
Do you get the picture?
In all three of these passages the listeners
thought they were okay in God’s sight.
But they clearly weren’t.
God told them they had to do something.
And that something was change.
Change is a major theme of the Bible.
It’s at the heart of the meaning of the
words “repent” and “repentance,” mentioned
more than 60 times in the Bible.
These words mean to change direction, to turn,
to stop going in one direction and go in another,
to change our thinking, to change our actions—in
short, to change our lives.
This is what it means to forsake our own way
and seek God.
The apostle Paul described this change in
Colossians 3:9-10 as nothing more than a total
makeover of our lives: “You have put off
the old man with his deeds, and have put on
the new man who is renewed in knowledge according
to the image of Him who created him.”
He echoes those thoughts in Ephesians 4:22-24:
“Put off . . . the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, and . . . put
on the new man which was created according
to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
How about you?
Are you telling yourself that everything is
okay in your relationship with God and that
you’re all He expects you to be?
Or maybe you need to realize, as explained
in this issue, it’s time for a change!
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UCG.org.
