Archive for October 26th, 2008

October 26, 2008

Jesus the Changer of Lives

1.    Do you remember a time before you were a Christian? 

2.     In John 3:3 Jesus says that no one can see God’s kingdom unless something happens to them.  What is it?

3.    According to II Corinthians 5:17, if a person is in Christ, what is he or she?

4. According to II Corinthians 3:18, what is happening to us who are beholding or reflecting the glory of the Lord with unveiled face?

Being saved means being changed! 

Suppose a lost person was rescued, but went right out and got lost again… ?

Suppose a slave was set free, and then sold his self into slavery again…?

Suppose a sick person was healed and then did something that made him sick again…?

Suppose a criminal was pardoned, and then went right out and committed another crime..?

People would not really be saved, if they did such things. To be saved, we must be changed on the inside.  Our ways of thinking and acting must be altered, so that we do not continue in the sins that Christ saved us from.

That’s exactly what Christ does when He saves us.  He starts changing us.  If a person is not being changed, he or she has not really been saved.

5.    5.     According to Ephesians 4:22-24, what should we put off, or get rid of? What should we put on?

The Bible says that all people are born with sin. It causes us to behave in ways that are selfish, dishonest and arrogant.  This behavior causes us to injure ourselves and other people.  It also exposes us to the control of Satan.  We can not get rid of this old nature by our own efforts.  We can try to cover it by our outward actions, but it is still there on the inside.  Even when we try to be good, sooner or later our old nature makes us do something wrong, and we end up in failure and defeat.  Without God’s help, there is no method that we as human beings can use to solve this problem.  It cannot be solved by the use of education, psychology, medicine, philosophy, political or economic or social changes, or anything else that human beings can imagine and do on their own.

6.    According to Romans 12:2, instead of conforming or adapting or modeling ourselves to this world, what should happen to us?

Whenever people accept Jesus Christ, by faith, as their savior and Lord, and ask Him to come into their heart, they are born again spiritually with a new nature that is from God.  The old nature begins to die.  It is crucified with Christ.  Parts of it may linger for a time, but they are pushed into the background.  The new nature takes control of your personality, filling us with God’s love and goodness.

 In order for this to take place, we have to cooperate with God.  We must reject our old nature, and accept the new nature.  This is what the Bible calls repentance. It means that you admit that you have a sinful nature; you surrender your life to God, and let Him change you. 

Do you want to get rid of your old, sinful nature, be changed by Christ, and have the new nature that He wants to give you?  If you do, tell God so.  And then help this change to take place, by opening up your heart completely to God, and trying to your best to obey Him.  The Holy Spirit will help you do this.

7.    Name some things in the world around us that are “born again” or changed into something different, either by a natural or man made process.

 8. Say a person is born-again and transformed by Christ, in what ways should he or she be different than before?

9.    In what was do you feel Christ has changed, or is changing you?

Bible Verse for November 2^nd Philippians 2:10-11 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”