So I’ve got some friends whose lives were a real mess before they met Jesus, turned from their sinful past, and trusted Him to “save” them (i.e. to transform their lives)… Alcoholics, drug pushers and addicts, adulterers, homosexuals, murderers, thieves, spouse and child abusers… I could go on…
What changed their lives? Turning from their sin and trusting Jesus Christ to transform their lives… The power of the “gospel” (The message of Jesus Christ dying on the cross for their sin, His burial, His resurrection (to give them new life), and His ascension back into heaven as their Divine, heavenly advocate! A message that many mock and ridicule as “foolish” – but a message that has a wonderful track record of “deliverance” and transformed lives!
Apostle Paul wasn’t ashamed of it… neither am I – nor are those who have experienced the “power of the Gospel!” Apostle Paul declared: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes!” (Romans 1:16)
To those in Corinth, a city known its sin and debauchery, Paul expressed it this way (I read it just this morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord): “For the word [i.e. the message] of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God! … Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jew and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men!” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ESV)
Transformed lives through Jesus Christ – embracing the message that He died for our sin, was buried, and rose from the dead to impart transformation and eternal life to those who believe on Him! Hey, it works when social programs, therapies, reform programs and prisons fail! The message of the gospel – the power of the cross – trumps the wisdom of this world! I’m not ashamed!… I can give you the names of lives transformed…
Coffee With The Lord 