A Vote for Change....

Well, millions of people showed up at the poles on Tuesday to "vote for change" and a change in our government, there will be. No matter what your personal political views are, it doesn't matter to me, I don't want to talk about politics but I would just like to share an observation and then a conviction that I experienced this week, because of the "vote for change."

As I woke up on Wednesday morning to the overwhelming "vote for change", I was hit like a ton of bricks...Americans have voted, they have spoken and this American culture says, "Status quo will not do, we want change." My sisters, we live in a culture that is crying out and voting for...CHANGE.

Here's a thing, you and I know but we tend to forget. True Change can only happen when the human heart is changed by a personal relationship with Jesus. HE is the True Agent for lasting change. Presidents can't give true change (any of them), Politics can't, Government can't, Churches can't, and programs,with or without Jesus' name attached, can't change people. Only Jesus can, though His finished work on the Cross and the Power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He changes people. Does the Church in America look like that?

What hit me and convicted me to the core is...People are desperately looking and seeking change and many, if not most (many church-goers included), don't have a clue that Christ is the answer. Do you see what kind of opportunity that this is? The fields are ripe for the harvest...this is a huge opportunity for the Church (not for the buildings and the programs), but for the Body of Believers to answer the call for change. Christ is the answer. The world is not satisfied with status quo, and the church is responsible for what they have been "selling"...the status quo brand of Christianity that looks like just another option, like another brand of another religion. Please hear my heart, I'm not talking about the words we use, I'm talking about the results in our lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ works, it changes people from the inside out! The real question is; does it look like it, in your life and mine?

This is a strategic time and place in history, and I don't want to be a part of the status quo...I want to display the grace and power of True Change. "Christ in me, the hope of Glory", pointing the many who are seeking temporary change, in my little sphere, to the Real Source of the change they seek. I believe this is a wake up call to the Body of Christ. A call for our lives to display the change that the Gospel makes in a life.

Can we look back and see that the Lord has and is changing us? Is the Gospel not only proclaimed in our words but in our lives? Not perfectly but progressively...is Jesus changing us? Americans want change. I believe we need to confess and repent, personally for the lack of change in our lives, the lack of love and power...not lack of love for the issues but lack of love for Christ. Not point the finger at who and what...but in humility, raising our empty hands up, asking the Lord to change us, so that the world...those who seek change will see it, in us and as they see us...they would see Change-which is Jesus.