I've been reading a book titled "You Can Change" by Tim Chester. My reading has been slow. I was drawn to this book as its title sounds like a self-help book which one can find in a good bookshop. Though I knew that this was a Christian book about God's transforming power as the sub-title is quick to qualify, I wanted to know how different this book is from the books I've read on similar topics like this. I was skeptical... "Can the leopard change its spots?" "Do we have the ability to change?" "How come Christians claim to be changed by having Christ in their lives but there seems to be little changed for the better?"....
This book is relatively easy on the eye and easy to read. However, with many real life experiences and encounters the author brings to mind the realities of sin in each one of us. He drives home the seriousness of sin starting from how mankind has broken and distorted the image of God by his rebellion against God. He then builds up the glory and power of God in restoring man's relationship with him through his son Jesus Christ, the goodness and sufficiency of God that we need not fear or look else where apart from God for sufficiency. Tim Chester also puts forth the importance of community in helping one another live in obedience to God. There are many other points in the book which I recommend you to read.
Even as I read this book these past few months, I am constantly faced with the struggles in my life just as before. I still sinned, I still trudged and stumbled, I still questioned why I can't seem to change. It was very frustrating!! But just as the book isn't a self-help book where it is guaranteed that our lives will be changed dramatically, it was a constant reminder of how much we need Christ, why we can't run away from sin or God, why we can't hide sin, why it is God whom we ought to fear and find sufficiency in, and why God has given us a community of believers to support and encourage each other as we run this rugged trail run of a race! It was comforting to be reminded that just as Christ has set us free from the clutches of death, he has the power to make us more like him.
The recent chapters which are more vivid to my mind now since I've just read them, focused on how we can support one another in changing. Here are two exerpts which sorta stuck in my mind today.
"You are guilty, but Christ has borne your guilt. You deserve God's judgment, but Christ has borne your judgment" - An accountability with a fellow brother or sister who can speak the truth in love and yet not judge or despise you but points you in the direction of Christ for the restoration of your relationship with God.
"The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We are not allowed to be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners." - How true. How often do we build a barrier around ourselves as we try to put on a front especially to fellow christians for fear of the judging eyes and wagging tongues? But how are we then to change if we pretend that there's nothing wrong with us? How are we therefore recognizing our sinfulness and how truly we must repent of our sin? Can we reach out to people in our community, love them just as Christ loved us, recognizing the sin, struggle with them as they struggle with sin, and point them to the healing grace of Christ's death on the cross? Just as Tim puts it aptly in his blog, I would rather be part of a church that is "messy" with all the problems to struggle with on the up front with nothing to hide, than with a church that seems to be neat and clean on the surface but messy inside (I think it's may not just be messy... but barren coz there is just no life!)
Will you run this race with me as we go through the ups and downs of this rugged real life trail run? Will you point out the faults in me with love? Will you remind me of God's grace and love magnified in the life, death and resurrection of Christ? I want to change - because I know that I have died and my life is hidden with Christ in God. I want to be a true Christian changed by the power God. Not one who spouts meaningless/worthless words and lives a life of hypocrisy.
Help me dear God...
No comments:
Post a Comment