Hoping and praying for changed lives has been a recent theme at our home. And at our church we have been praying specifically for the spouses of church members who are either unsaved or forsaking the “assembling together, as is the habit of some”. We do so, in part because we care, but also because we believe that God changes lives.
It has been said that the changed lives of Jesus’ disciples was one of the greatest evidences of His resurrection and fulfillment of His promise to send the Helper. On the night preceding His crucifixion, Jesus had prophesied to His apostles that they would all fall away from Him. We are most familiar with Peter’s protest to this statement, but when Peter had said, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not”; the scriptures tell us that the others “were all saying the same thing also”. Their heart’s desire was strong but their ability to follow through on their commitment was lacking. And so it was that each of them fell away as Jesus had said they would.
But as promised, the Helper (Holy Spirit) came into their lives on the day of Pentecost and each of them were changed. They were given new life in Christ. They now had the power to be witnesses for Christ. In Acts chapter five we find the apostles being arrested for teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus. There had been a previous arrest of Peter and John where upon their release they had been threatened to “not teach or preach at all in the name of Jesus”. On this second arrest, those who opposed their message of Christ had “laid hands on the apostles, and put them in a public jail”. You may recall the account; during the night an “angel of the Lord” had opened the prison doors and sent them back out to speak to the people of Jesus.
Having resumed their call to speak of Christ, the apostles were then re-arrested and brought back to answer to the Jewish Council for continuing to do that which they had been forbidden to do. While being questioned, the high priest is recorded as making the following statement to them. “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” Without a doubt, these men’s lives had been changed! These men who had all fallen away from Christ that dreadful night were now being accused of filling the city of Jerusalem with their teaching of Him!
Each one who has come to know Christ has been forever changed. For some the change has appeared more dramatic than others, although in each case it has been a miracle of grace. I so much appreciate the change that was made in Saul of Tarsus’ life. When the Church had suffered its first martyr, the stoning of Stephen, the scripture tells us that he “was in hearty agreement with putting him to death”. He was described as one who was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” when he took the initiative to go to the high priest and request written authority for him to go to Damascus and “if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem”.
But on the road to Damascus the Lord intervened in his life, revealing Himself as Jesus and Saul’s life was never the same again. His name was changed to Paul but his was clearly more than a name change. The man who described himself as someone who “used to persecute the church of God beyond measure” and who “tried to destroy it” became a man whose passion was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”. His hope was to one day depart this earth and be with Christ.
Each of us who has come to know the One who changes lives was traveling down our own road. I remember sharing my testimony one time and I commented that mine was not the road to Damascus but a road to a destructive lifestyle. A woman, who was much older than I, said that she had been on the same road I had described but had not seen me there. Years had separated our travel down this road but the One who rescued us from it was the same. As the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:3, we could each say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.
In 1914, a man by the name of Rufus McDaniel penned the following words to one of the great hymns of our faith. “What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, Since Jesus came into my heart! I have light in my soul for which long I had sought, Since Jesus came into my heart!” He is said to have written the hymn following the untimely death of his youngest son. He found solace and hope in the wonderful change that had previously occurred in his life “when Jesus came into” his heart. He was praising Jesus, the One who had “wrought” the change in his life.
I found that Mr. McDaniel had written a couple of verses to this great hymn that are not found in our hymnal. One of the verses goes as follows; “I’m possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure, Since Jesus came into my heart! And no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure, Since Jesus came into my heart!” I love that thought; “Possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure”. Part of our hope is in a God who changes lives. May we be mindful of this great truth as we pray for those in and outside the body of Christ.
Father, we thank you for the wonderful change you have wrought in the lives of so many since you began to build your Church. I thank you for the wonderful change in my life. I thank you for Jesus Christ, the great changer of lives; the giver of new life! We pray for those who do not know you and ask that you would so work in their hearts and minds that they might declare of your Son; “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” Along with Mr. McDaniel, may they one day sing, “What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart!”
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